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

[bombardier]

can someone please clarify for me; did he miss a scheduled meeting prior to showing up at the cannabis dispensary? or was the meeting scheduled for after his last known sighting?

 

[rainyday412]

What I would like to know is if there was life insurance involved that would not cover suicide. That’s the only way I could lean toward suicide…is if life insurance wouldn’t cover suicide therefore all these strange clues were left by him (license plate…odd placement of car).

 

[LeahBee]

Was his car found unlocked? The missing items could have been stolen.
Moo

This is what I'm wondering also. if he abandoned his car and left everything in it (this is going with the self-harm theory), a passerby could have stolen his possessions - might explain why some things are scattered/some things missing - and then possibly stole his plates and moved the car, if JJ left the keys in it. Moo

Do we know if JJ knew how to swim?

In the past during my own bouts of depression I would have some wine (relaxes me), fill the bathtub, plus turn the shower head on, and sink myself under to "drown out" my thoughts... I could see someone doing that on a larger, more final scale.. JMO. This whole situation is just strange and sad. I really hope the family can get some answers soon, they already had to wait too long for his body to be ID

 

[Seattle1]

can someone please clarify for me; did he miss a scheduled meeting prior to showing up at the cannabis dispensary? or was the meeting scheduled for after his last known sighting?

Some reports state that JD had missed his classes days earlier but I believe only one "scheduled meeting" with the advisor (after missed class and clinician appointment with a patient) reported.

 

[MntnHiker]

So if there was clothing on the river bank (and I thought I read his lanyard nearby too?), I wonder if this IS foul play, if the initial contact point was where his body was found/by the river. And then the assailant jumped in his car and drove it somewhere else to dump it.

Of course, why would Jelani want to be by the river? I don't know that he normally would go there, in a town about an hour away. Unless he was meeting up with someone from Peru? And it went sour? I agree that his phone/text/online records leading up to this could be very important IMO.

 

[BeckyF]

I think there are several missing or conflicting details in this investigation. Some reports say clothing was found in his vehicle, others say clothing was found on the riverbank. Maybe it's both.

 

[MimosaMornings]

Was this JJ’s first time to that dispensary?

 

[Seattle1]

I think there are several missing or conflicting details in this investigation. Some reports say clothing was found in his vehicle, others say clothing was found on the riverbank. Maybe it's both.

I’m inclined to think clothes found in both his vehicle and river bank. I think perhaps his dress clothes (slacks, button down) found in the vehicle and his mom ID’d the t-shirt seen in dispensary video that came out later. We first saw the campus video.

 

[SimplyCass]

I think there are several missing or conflicting details in this investigation. Some reports say clothing was found in his vehicle, others say clothing was found on the riverbank. Maybe it's both.

Probably both. It's known that the shirt and hat seen in the dispensary were found in his car. mother said that all she knows is that JJ was wearing a pair of shorts and tennis shoes. There has been nothing reported about the location of the dress shirt/pants that he was wearing at the student union.

There's definitely a lot of details that are either confusing or outright conflict, and some of them have come up here, with no real resolution. Like whether JJ was supposed to meet the advisor on Tuesday or Wednesday. The director saying that he missed a class at 1 p.m. doesn't narrow it down unfortunately because classes on all four days started at 1 p.m.

What is meant by missing class for "several days." Earlier I said that Tuesday would have been his third class, but that's probably wrong; based on the class schedule, it seems likely he had classes Mon-Thurs, so Tuesday 8/24 would have been day six of classes in the fall session. Does several days mean three days? Or more? It's something that should be relatively easy to verify.

With all due respect to the family, JJ "making plans" or "not being depressed" does not rule out or make self-harm impossible. There was similar disbelief and accusations of coverup/mishandling when authorities announced their findings that Kori Gauthier had jumped from a Mississippi River bridge or that Saniyya Dennis had done the same at Niagara Falls.

That said, I'm not taking any definitive side here. I just hope that LE can retrace JJ's steps and complete an investigation and the results are accepted by the family/friends.

 

[BeckyF]

Probably both. It's known that the shirt and hat seen in the dispensary were found in his car. mother said that all she knows is that JJ was wearing a pair of shorts and tennis shoes. There has been nothing reported about the location of the dress shirt/pants that he was wearing at the student union.

There's definitely a lot of details that are either confusing or outright conflict, and some of them have come up here, with no real resolution. Like whether JJ was supposed to meet the advisor on Tuesday or Wednesday. The director saying that he missed a class at 1 p.m. doesn't narrow it down unfortunately because classes on all four days started at 1 p.m.

What is meant by missing class for "several days." Earlier I said that Tuesday would have been his third class, but that's probably wrong; based on the class schedule, it seems likely he had classes Mon-Thurs, so Tuesday 8/24 would have been day six of classes in the fall session. Does several days mean three days? Or more? It's something that should be relatively easy to verify.

With all due respect to the family, JJ "making plans" or "not being depressed" does not rule out or make self-harm impossible. There was similar disbelief and accusations of coverup/mishandling when authorities announced their findings that Kori Gauthier had jumped from a Mississippi River bridge or that Saniyya Dennis had done the same at Niagara Falls.

That said, I'm not taking any definitive side here. I just hope that LE can retrace JJ's steps and complete an investigation and the results are accepted by the family/friends.

I agree with everything you've said. I wish LE would give a statement clearing up the missing or inaccurate details.

One minute I think suicide is most likely and the next minute I think foul play is most likely.

I can't get past the 2 mile distance between where the car was found and the Illinois river. Would someone walk 2 miles to commit suicide?

I guess we wait for digital trails and toxicology results.

 

[rkendmar]

FBI's Behavioral Analyst Unit to help in Jelani Day case
According to officials, behavioral analysts will try to get a better understanding of Day to figure out why he was doing certain things.

Right now, there is no suspect, but if and when there is, the unit can also profile that person.

Officials say they still don’t know if a crime has been committed.
FBI's Behavioral Analyst Unit to help in Jelani Day case

 

[rainyday412]

Hmmm,…that makes me think they r leaning toward suicide.

 

[LeeJay55]

Hmmm,…that makes me think they r leaning toward suicide.

Or a.psychosis of some kind !
The tox screen may reveal a lot!
Esp with the dispensary as the last place he was!
Suicide sadly may be the answer!

Jmo

 

[rainyday412]

Yes the dispensary that morning always seemed odd to me. I keep thinking about how his last conversation with his mom was regarding the money they owed the aunt. I thought that seemed odd.

 

[Vanguardian]

So the theory of suicide looms. Sigh! But why? He seemed like one of the finest that this world would eventually get to know. What would've been going on for him to want to end all of his promise? I'm longing to know ALL of the intricate details of his life.

 

[BeckyF]

Yes the dispensary that morning always seemed odd to me. I keep thinking about how his last conversation with his mom was regarding the money they owed the aunt. I thought that seemed odd.

I agree. It is very odd.

 

[Kittybunny]

This is what I'm wondering also. if he abandoned his car and left everything in it (this is going with the self-harm theory), a passerby could have stolen his possessions - might explain why some things are scattered/some things missing - and then possibly stole his plates and moved the car, if JJ left the keys in it. Moo

Do we know if JJ knew how to swim?

In the past during my own bouts of depression I would have some wine (relaxes me), fill the bathtub, plus turn the shower head on, and sink myself under to "drown out" my thoughts... I could see someone doing that on a larger, more final scale.. JMO. This whole situation is just strange and sad. I really hope the family can get some answers soon, they already had to wait too long for his body to be ID

I agree with you that there may have been two separate events here. The first being the self harm event, where as you surmise, his car and his possessions were left by wherever he actually jumped. Then the second event where a passerby with bad intentions found an unlocked car and took off with it, and then when the story surfaced in the media decided to ditch the car closer to where they lived.

As an aside, in my area it is very common for thieves to break in and steal things from unlocked vehicles at parks, trails, nature preserves.

I've been in the self harm camp from the beginning, but the details of this or confusing and I definitely am open to foul play as well.

 

[Charlot123]

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.

Poor mom. To talk to her son, and the next time, this…

 

[rkendmar]

There are two things which have puzzled me:

1) After showing up in the student center dressed in professional clothes at 7:30am, Jelani is next seen at 9:17am at the cannabis dispensary dressed in casual shorts and T-shirt. He did not show up for a meeting with the clinical directer that morning which was arranged the evening before.
2) Jelani's phone no longer 'pinged' after 9:20am that morning. The phone had to have been turned off to stop the phone 'pinging.'

Something changed that morning between 7:30 and 9:17am.

 

[cnmccarthy]

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.

The other thing that doesn’t make sense if he removed the plates is the car is apparently very recognizable as his, especially to his family and especially in a small town. So if he was trying to hide it to commit suicide, wouldn’t he have done something more than just remove the license plate? Removing the license plate seems more like something a car jacker/robber/etc would do.