Found Deceased IL - Jelani 'JJ' Day, 25, ISU grad student, missed class, Bloomington, 23 Aug 2021

DNA Solves
DNA Solves
DNA Solves

New Posts

Status
Not open for further replies.
rainyday412 said:
As a local, I will say that police don’t seem to put a ton of effort into missing person cases around this area. I see it over and over again where victim’s families say that have to do most of the work themselves. The only case I ever saw a ton of effort was the missing boy, Timothy pitzen, whose mother committed suicide in rockford. I even wonder, how the heck does gabby’s case receive constant headlines every single day…while everyone else gets nothing. It’s very frustrating.

with this case, I could see suicide being a possibility based on some of the weird clues…but I certainly hope police don’t just say ‘suicide’ to make it easier on themselves.
Click to expand...

Surely toxicology tests will provide answers.
 
Does anyone have a (good) source where the wallet and other items were found in LaSalle? Same with the lanyard, has it been reported where it was found?

It seems a bit...off? If his lanyard was found near the river and LE had this evidence early on. Still would want to do testing to make sure, but it would have made the circumstantial case quite strong (car, wallet, lanyard all in the same area).

i vaguely recall hearing that the car keys were missing. Has his phone been located? Even if he turned it off, it would still be possible to track location to some extent.
 
Apparently, the FBI has been involved in this case "for weeks."

Law enforcement agencies on timeline of Jelani Day body ID
September 24, 2021 5:48 pm
"...a spokesperson for the FBI's Springfield office says they've been helping local investigators for weeks"

"Our deepest sympathies to the family," FBI spokesperson Becky Cramblit said. "No parent should have to go through this, and the death of a child is just the worst thing."
Law enforcement agencies on timeline of Jelani Day body ID

Edited to add highlighting.
 
Last edited:
SimplyCass said:
Does anyone have a (good) source where the wallet and other items were found in LaSalle? Same with the lanyard, has it been reported where it was found?

It seems a bit...off? If his lanyard was found near the river and LE had this evidence early on. Still would want to do testing to make sure, but it would have made the circumstantial case quite strong (car, wallet, lanyard all in the same area).

i vaguely recall hearing that the car keys were missing. Has his phone been located? Even if he turned it off, it would still be possible to track location to some extent.
Click to expand...

IIRC, Jelani Day's car keys and phone were not found.
The located ISU lanyard was Jelani's.
JMO but I've always assumed the car keys, phone (Apple pro max 12) and wallet were taken after Jelani's death. The wallet was discarded after its contents were examined and cash (if any) removed.
JMO.

"Day was last seen on August 24th. His car was found two days later in Peru, in a wooded area near the YMCA.

Now, Peru Police confirm that sometime around September 2nd, his wallet was also found. This time, it's in LaSalle, but only a few blocks in a straight line, east of the car.

And then, September 4th, an unidentified body and Peru Police now saying an ISU lanyard was found too, along the Illinois river. This was south of the other discoveries."
Jelani Day's mother pleads for more resources, Peru Police confirm his wallet was found
 
SimplyCass said:
Does anyone have a (good) source where the wallet and other items were found in LaSalle? Same with the lanyard, has it been reported where it was found?

It seems a bit...off? If his lanyard was found near the river and LE had this evidence early on. Still would want to do testing to make sure, but it would have made the circumstantial case quite strong (car, wallet, lanyard all in the same area).

i vaguely recall hearing that the car keys were missing. Has his phone been located? Even if he turned it off, it would still be possible to track location to some extent.
Click to expand...
I’ve been searching for the same. I’ll keep looking.
 
Vanguardian said:
I'm sorry, but did I miss an explanation as to why JJ's body was found in the nude? That's bizarre to me and it makes my mind wander in a very bad way.
Click to expand...

I don't know whether his body was in fact found nude, but it's not uncommon for bodies in moving water like a river, or surf, to have the clothing pulled off. Like when a swimsuit bottom can get sucked off when you fall in the waves.
 
Is this move a precursor to a lawsuit against the Bloomington Police Department?

"They [Jelani Day's Omega Psi Phi Fraternity brothers] started a petition for federal and state authorities to lead the investigation. They say the Bloomington Police Department has shown they can’t properly handle a case like Days.

The police department admitted to failing in several ways and the brothers agree. Here are the ways they say they made mistakes.
1. Inability to assign multiple investigators to Jelani’s case
2. Failed to utilize current investigative and analytical tools
3. Failed to secure critical surveillance video
4. Failed to secure and process crime scene after Jelani’s body was found
5. Failed to request federal assistance"
Alabama A&M to host memorial for Jelani Day
 
StacyMarie83 said:
Peru is my current town (and I've lived in this town and the next one over my entire life) ...if you were from Peru, you wouldn't ditch a car in that spot, unless you wanted someone to find it or didn't know the area IMO there are woods within a mile or two in every direction and a state park with a lot of parking and woods the next town over (Starved Rock in Utica) which would make a more ideal dumping spot than in the literal middle of town.

We used to leave the high school and walk that way, then cut through the woods to get to the YMCA....and you wouldn't park there to do that, since you can park on side streets, at the Y itself, etc. You can pretty much park anywhere all over Lasalle and Peru.

There are 2 popular bars up the street (Jake's and 9th street pub) ...young crowd, good food, and live music a lot of the time. I hope they asked the owners, who are usually there, and patrons if they saw anything. Those are 2 of the most popular food and drink spots in this tiny area. They both have Lasalle addresses, but are only a few blocks away. 9th street Lasalle turns into 12th street Peru, so heading west towards Peru from that street (and those bars I mentioned), there is a small field and wooded area on the south side, other than that, it's mainly all residential and not heavily wooded, except around the YMCA.

I can't see him buying dispensary Marijuana and selling it in this area, unless it was to minors...the dispensary prices are super high and any adult would pay that before paying a surcharge to a dealer as well. We have one located in Ottawa, which is not that far away (same county).

Did he have ties to high schoolers here? (Cousins, friends, etc). There is very minor crime in the area, but a few months back there was an incident were a man from peoria threw a girl into a car in the middle of the night, turns out they were from Peoria and it was domestic, but very odd for this town.
Click to expand...
 
Quick question..the small field and wooded area on the south side, is this considered a hangout spot? Are you familiar with a hangout spot within this area that is called/referred to as the L spot or some variation of that?



StacyMarie83 said:
Peru is my current town (and I've lived in this town and the next one over my entire life) ...if you were from Peru, you wouldn't ditch a car in that spot, unless you wanted someone to find it or didn't know the area IMO there are woods within a mile or two in every direction and a state park with a lot of parking and woods the next town over (Starved Rock in Utica) which would make a more ideal dumping spot than in the literal middle of town.

We used to leave the high school and walk that way, then cut through the woods to get to the YMCA....and you wouldn't park there to do that, since you can park on side streets, at the Y itself, etc. You can pretty much park anywhere all over Lasalle and Peru.

There are 2 popular bars up the street (Jake's and 9th street pub) ...young crowd, good food, and live music a lot of the time. I hope they asked the owners, who are usually there, and patrons if they saw anything. Those are 2 of the most popular food and drink spots in this tiny area. They both have Lasalle addresses, but are only a few blocks away. 9th street Lasalle turns into 12th street Peru, so heading west towards Peru from that street (and those bars I mentioned), there is a small field and wooded area on the south side, other than that, it's mainly all residential and not heavily wooded, except around the YMCA.

I can't see him buying dispensary Marijuana and selling it in this area, unless it was to minors...the dispensary prices are super high and any adult would pay that before paying a surcharge to a dealer as well. We have one located in Ottawa, which is not that far away (same county).

Did he have ties to high schoolers here? (Cousins, friends, etc). There is very minor crime in the area, but a few months back there was an incident were a man from peoria threw a girl into a car in the middle of the night, turns out they were from Peoria and it was domestic, but very odd for this town.
Click to expand...
 
The mystery of the death of a son of Danville, Jelani Day

John Fountain, a Chicago Sun-Times columnist, has another story about JJ.

The LaSalle County Coroner’s Office press release at the time did not identify the “decedent” as male or female, black or white, and gave no hint whether the corpse found floating even remotely matched Jelani’s 6-foot-one-inch frame.

[...]

That car was found with its license plates removed, and with no sign of the keys, or Jelani.

[...]

Standing at the wooded area beneath the YMCA, two things are clear to me: That this secluded spot is likely one that only a local might know. And that with the Illinois River, about two miles away, it seems unlikely that a young Black man parked his car here, then walked through a nearly all-white town without being seen, to jump in those rippling river waters almost naked.

It's not 100% clear, but from what I quoted, it seems that the body was found with less clothing. JJ's mother has been quoted as saying that all she knew was that her son had his shorts and tennis shoes. (source)
 
I think it's reasonable for this death to be investigated as suspicious, and it's certainly possible that JD did complete suicide. However, it also seems possible that foul play was involved and without any other evidence it would be IMO premature to declare with any certainty that no other parties were involved- The strangest and most pressing issue for me is why is the license plate missing? If we go with the idea that JD removed it in order to hinder identification it points to a level of premeditation unusual not only for suicides but also in regard to JD's own movements and decisions leading up to the act. Where are his things? Were they left in the car and then stolen? It's also very likely that if they entered the river with him they will never be found.

The idea that JD was selling dispensary marijuana is extremely absurd to me, especially as an Illinois resident. Dispensary marijuana is at least double the price of product that you can buy from a street dealer, and the taxes are outrageous. Even minors who regularly purchase would know this. It would be a huge risk to buy it at that markup and then assume you could convince some naif to buy it for enough money that you would make any kind of profit unless it's the driest town in the state (which it isn't simply for the fact of the dispensary). Honestly it's unreasonable speculation to the point of being damaging IMO- it just does not make sense any way you paint it. Robbery for the product, as unlikely as *that* is, seems like a more likely scenario IMO.
 
I think an electronic trail will prove extremely helpful in understanding what was happening prior to going into the river. I hope the records of emails, chats, etc will be found and examined. If the local LE cannot do this, then they should seek help on this angle, MOO.
 

9/24/21 --Body finally identified as missing grad student Jelani Day

JD's mom states that clothes were located on the river bank and she identified the clothes as belonging to her son. However, there's no confirmation that JD was nude. The body was decomposed when recovered and JD's identity was confirmed by both dental records & DNA.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

DNASolves

Who is DeKalb County John Doe (2022)?

Members online

... and 125 more.
Total: 2,163 (members: 126, guests: 2,037)

Online statistics

Members online
126
Guests online
2,037
Total visitors
2,163
Totals may include hidden visitors.

Forum statistics

Threads
602,466
Messages
18,140,899
Members
231,403
Latest member
enthusiastic
Back
Top