NE NE - Jason Jolkowski, 19, Omaha, 13 June 2001 - #2

[neverletgo]

Thinking of Jason and his loved ones today on this 13th anniversary of his disappearance. :cry:

 

[MagnoliaMountain]

It's been so long...I think he most likely fell victim to a sexual predator/predators. He might be still alive somewhere out there.

 

[Kristin83]

It's been so long...I think he most likely fell victim to a sexual predator/predators. He might be still alive somewhere out there.

Honestly with all the stories in the last couple of years like Jaycee Dugard, the 3 women from Ohio, Shawn Hornbeck, etc....it's not outside the realm of possibilities.

 

[TroyinTX]

This case is just so baffling. He literally seems to have vanished into thin air. Strange and eerie that it was broad daylight and nobody saw anything. What is stranger is that he doesn't really fit the typical profile of someone to be abducted from the street. Usually we associate that with a younger child, so it seems this was a very particular type of perp. Maybe Jason was familiar with the person?

I just don't know. So little to go on. What are some of the more common and/or accepted theories about what happened to him?

 

[EdinburghLass]

This case is just so baffling. He literally seems to have vanished into thin air. Strange and eerie that it was broad daylight and nobody saw anything. What is stranger is that he doesn't really fit the typical profile of someone to be abducted from the street. Usually we associate that with a younger child, so it seems this was a very particular type of perp. Maybe Jason was familiar with the person?

I just don't know. So little to go on. What are some of the more common and/or accepted theories about what happened to him?

A theory I've read once or twice is that perhaps he was hit by a car and the driver moved/disposed of his body.

 

[TroyinTX]

A theory I've read once or twice is that perhaps he was hit by a car and the driver moved/disposed of his body.

I did read that theory. And while I understand everything must be considered, I just do not see it as very logical.

First, this was during mid-morning in a fairly residential neighborhood. I don't see how nobody would notice someone hitting a person, stopping, and dragging the person into their vehicle. More than likely, the driver would have just continued on instead of risking being seen.

Secondly, I am not sure a panicked person would have been able to dispose of the body well enough so that it still has not been discovered all these years later. Move it and dump it somewhere else? I suppose, but I feel it would have been found.

I guess I could be wrong and it did happen, but I suspect someone Jason was familiar with-even vaguely--stopped and picked him up. I just don't know. Such a baffling case.

 

[JeannaT]

It seems to me the most likely scenario is he was waiting for his ride and a car pulled up - purely coincidentally - and said hey you looking for a ride? and he got in. Perfect storm, and a complete misunderstanding on his part.

I think about Jason all the time, and wonder if his dear mother will ever learn what happened to him.

 

[OkieGranny]

http://www.kansascity.com/news/local/article679209.html

For some families, the vigils, balloon launches, posters and billboards are about hoping that one tip will come. But often it’s also about “feeling in control of a control-less situation,” Murphy said...

When a child disappears, she said, “it’s trauma that does not end. It’s like you have this gaping wound that never heals”...

“We never forget. And can’t, won’t, give up,” said Murphy, who has found herself staring into crowds or circling a block thinking that this time the familiar face she has seen is going to be her missing son. “There is always that glimmer of hope.”

 

[leilarose68]

i noticed on the charleyproject site that jason had some learning disabilities related to speech? was he bullied at all? i know he was shy so maybe he wouldn't have opened up about potential bullying to his family, but i would be interested to hear what classmates have to say.

the only other thing i think is even remotely possible, is suicide. i mean, this was a 6'1 guy... i really can't fathom some psycho pulling up in a car and trying to drag him in. either some bullies killed jason or he killed himself. it had to be someone he knew. and in the day and age jason went missing, why would he hitchhike? did people even hitchhike in that area?

what were his friends like? could they have known stuff about him that his family didn't? his coworkers? did someone want the job that he was about to start? were any girls in the picture? did they have ex-boyfriends?

 

[MagnoliaMountain]

I'm pretty quick to think "suicide", especially with young males but in this case I could really see a pretty naive boy, looking younger his age, maybe kind of lonely (I can picture the type of teenage boy he was described to be being a convenient victim of the cool kids at school etc.) being picked up by someone and either being killed or getting into a pedophile/human trafficking situation.

 

[Simply Caustic]

i noticed on the charleyproject site that jason had some learning disabilities related to speech? was he bullied at all? i know he was shy so maybe he wouldn't have opened up about potential bullying to his family, but i would be interested to hear what classmates have to say.

the only other thing i think is even remotely possible, is suicide. i mean, this was a 6'1 guy... i really can't fathom some psycho pulling up in a car and trying to drag him in. either some bullies killed jason or he killed himself. it had to be someone he knew. and in the day and age jason went missing, why would he hitchhike? did people even hitchhike in that area?

what were his friends like? could they have known stuff about him that his family didn't? his coworkers? did someone want the job that he was about to start? were any girls in the picture? did they have ex-boyfriends?

Regarding bullying: I really think that this is a very real possibility, in this case. Kids are so cruel; especially when they're showing off for their clique. I'm two years older than Jason, and I remember my late teens/early twenties, as a time of excessive cruelty from the neighborhood kids (who were bullies) - they'd recently graduated high school, and without the involvement of the school in keeping them in line, they went overboard. They didn't have anything to fear but their parents and the potential for LE to get involved.
I wonder if it's possible that a bully/pseudo-friend saw him walking, picked him up, and a prank went haywire? I can think of dozens of ways it could occur "accidentally".
I know this is speculation, but I just find it more likely in this case, than in most.
Maybe the bullies got frightened of getting in trouble, and buried his body/dropped him into a body of water/etc. in the hopes of not being detected.
Of course, it's been years: You would think any teenage bully would grow up and confess, not being able to live with the guilt.

I hope this isn't the case, but I can't fathom suicide/walking away. Not with his morning tasks completed, setting up a ride for work, etc. - it doesn't make sense. JMO Then again, nothing in this case does.

 

[leilarose68]

I'm pretty quick to think "suicide", especially with young males but in this case I could really see a pretty naive boy, looking younger his age, maybe kind of lonely (I can picture the type of teenage boy he was described to be being a convenient victim of the cool kids at school etc.) being picked up by someone and either being killed or getting into a pedophile/human trafficking situation.

people always bring up trafficking for a lot of these kinds of cases... but fact of the matter is, this was a 6'1" dude we're talking about here. way too old to have been realistically picked up by a pedophile (he wasn't a child, so...) or trafficked. very very unlikely imo. he would not have been a target for this kind of thing.

a 19 year old isn't a boy... certainly not in pedophile or trafficking terms. perhaps some crazy gay psychopath picked him up but it wouldn't have been a pedophile as jason was technically and physically a man and didn't look that young

 

[leilarose68]

Regarding bullying: I really think that this is a very real possibility, in this case. Kids are so cruel; especially when they're showing off for their clique. I'm two years older than Jason, and I remember my late teens/early twenties, as a time of excessive cruelty from the neighborhood kids (who were bullies) - they'd recently graduated high school, and without the involvement of the school in keeping them in line, they went overboard. They didn't have anything to fear but their parents and the potential for LE to get involved.
I wonder if it's possible that a bully/pseudo-friend saw him walking, picked him up, and a prank went haywire? I can think of dozens of ways it could occur "accidentally".
I know this is speculation, but I just find it more likely in this case, than in most.
Maybe the bullies got frightened of getting in trouble, and buried his body/dropped him into a body of water/etc. in the hopes of not being detected.
Of course, it's been years: You would think any teenage bully would grow up and confess, not being able to live with the guilt.

I hope this isn't the case, but I can't fathom suicide/walking away. Not with his morning tasks completed, setting up a ride for work, etc. - it doesn't make sense. JMO Then again, nothing in this case does.

a lot of suicide victims go about their day as normal, so jason going about his chores means nothing necessarily. often they act really happy and content before their suicide because they know the suffering is about to end for them. parents say things like 'but he was fine! he was acting totally normal! things were looking up for him!"
there's a reason the saying 'april is the cruelest month' exists. the weather gets a little warmer and people get the energy to do what they've wanted to do for a long time. the dissonance between the beauty around them or the objectively good things in their life (in jason's case)+ inner turmoil gets stronger. they think 'all of these good things have happened but i'm not happy. i don't think i will ever be.'

it's possible that he REALLY diudn't want his parents to think he took his own life---maybe he felt that them not knowing was better than them knowing he was dead? thus the setting up of the ride, etc.

suicide is certainly a viable possibility in this case, IMO. i think bullying is the only other option. i havenm't heard anything from his friends/people who knew him besides his parents. parents can be pretty out of the loop with things like this so i wonder how much they might not have known/have missed.

i feel like i have no sense of his social life and private life. has anyone who knew him as a peer spoken up??? had he ever had a girlfriend??? all of this information is crucial + it's crucial that this info is brought forward by people other than the parents. often the parents don't know even a fraction of what was going on.

 

[Kristin83]

suicide is certainly a viable possibility in this case, IMO. i think bullying is the only other option

I have also often wondered about a hit and run.

 

[leilarose68]

I have also often wondered about a hit and run.

the hit and run theory doesn't make too much sense tho... why wouldn't the driver have left the body there? so he hit jason in broad daylight, proceeded to put jason's body in his trunk and then had to figure out how to dispose of it? if it were a hit and run the driver would have just sped off as quickly as possible while jason lay on the road, don't you think? trying to put the body in the trunk in broad daylight would have created way more problems for the driver than just speeding off

i mean, jason was 6'1... it's not like he was a child that the driver could have just slung over his shoulder... and this was in broad daylight! the abductor would have had to be a bodybuilder or something. i SUPPOSE it's possible that it was a team of two or three... this would be related to a bully abduction theory i think
and yeah... i just don't think the hit and run theory is very plausible. if jason were hit there would have been blood and stuff on the road too, right?

was the area pretty deserted at that time? were cars/people going by?

 

[leilarose68]

just want to remind everyone that jason is 6'1.
i know i've mentioned it a lot but i think it's a VERY important detail--- a guy that big is an unlikely target for a random abduction by a sexual predator or something.

no. if jason were abducted it was by someone he knew, a bully perhaps. or he committed suicide somewhere.

 

[leilarose68]

It seems to me the most likely scenario is he was waiting for his ride and a car pulled up - purely coincidentally - and said hey you looking for a ride? and he got in. Perfect storm, and a complete misunderstanding on his part.

I think about Jason all the time, and wonder if his dear mother will ever learn what happened to him.

i don't think he would have hitched a ride with a random person unless he was unfamiliar with the car of the person who was supposed to pick him up.

 

[leilarose68]

sorry for my incessant posting, but in scouring the previous thread on jason, i found that his mother wrote this:

“Jason has learning disabilities in the areas of speech and language. His brain does not process things the way most do. People who didn’t know him would often make fun of him. School bullies would pick on him. Some thought he is mildly mentally retarded, but the truth is, he is of above average intelligence. What was truly amazing to me was that he chose a career that flew right into the face of the very thing that was hardest for him. He decided to be a radio D.J.. Sure, he had some glitches along the way, but people grew to respect him and to love him. Who wouldn’t? I am so proud of him.”

so he WAS bullied. my mind goes to this as the most viable scenario of what happened.
it's frustrating how little info there is about the case. on the past thread it seemed to consist of very little speculation and mainly jason's mother publicizing various walks and fundraisers in jason's name. i wish i knew more about his day-to-day life and his specific interactions with peers. i wish i knew if the road jason was walking along was busy or quiet... were neighbors bustling about or was jason pretty much the only person in sight? i think that this case MIGHT be solved, and if it will, it will because someone engages a few of his classmates and has them speak up.

 

[TroyinTX]

I don't think Jason committed suicide. His body would have more than likely been found by now and the time/situation at hand before he went missing doesn't equate to suicide in my opinion: he was called in to work early; by all accounts, he gladly agreed to go in early, got ready, and left. I find it hard to believe that along the way he decided "well, now is a good of a time as any to kill myself," even if he had been thinking about it (which from what know about the case, I do not think he was).

Also, I don't think his height would necessarily be a deterrent for a random abductor, particular one who stopped and maybe talked to him and realized his disability. Besides, hundreds of young, athletic guys have vanished in the last 15 or so years, so it does happen.

BUT, I do not think it was a random abductor (though I do not rule it out so easily). I have always believed that for Jason to vanish so completely without a trace, it had to be someone he knew or was at least familiar with; possibly even someone in the neighborhood/along the route he was walking. And this case is extremely frustrating because there is so little evidence to go on, so all we can do is speculate.

 

[Kristin83]

I would like to know more about the area. I know it was residential, but like what? How quiet was it during the day? Was it a neighborhood full of working people who wouldn't be home during that time? Was it a neighborhood full of retired people and stay at home moms? (That is how my street is....people are always home and someone is always outside especially the summer months.) Were the houses spread really apart, or were they on top of each other? Was it close to any major highways for someone to make a fast get away? Are there woods nearby? Is it a high crime area, or safe? I wish I had a better "visual" of the area.

Also, I'm guessing school was out for the summer...so I am wondering more about the bullying aspect and kids having nothing to do, more apt to make trouble. It reminds me of the Tara Calico case, of which one of the suspicions is some kids were goofing around following her with their car and accidentally hit her. (Nothing has been proven.)