NE NE - Jason Jolkowski, 19, Omaha, 13 Jun 2001 - #3

[MatthewTyler]

Regarding the neighbor's house being searched: this was a comment made by a user on here who supposedly had talked to Kelly. Kelly herself (as far as I can see) has never actually posted directly on here confirming that it happened. I can't seem to find the post by this user that mentions speaking to Kelly and her supposedly telling him that a neighbor's house was searched. I'm pretty sure this post came long after Kelly stopped checking into WS.

 

[MatthewTyler]

Also someone pointed out in a previous thread just because LE says someone is cleared that isn’t always the truth.
Fazoli’s has been investigated and cleared per Kelly but what if LE is just keeping it to themselves? They may have a suspect but they don’t even have to tell the family.
I bounce around between thinking it was a neighbor, someone at Fazoli’s or else Jason got lost and died by misadventure (accident, a fall, random foul play) and just has never been found.

I agree with this in regards to a suspect being cleared not meaning much. How many cases have there been where an initally cleared suspect later turned out to be guilty? Plenty I'm sure. The only problem with Fazoli's being involved is why make it so obvious that you were possibly in on it? Call him out of the blue and then make him disappear? Unless they had a rock solid story planned in advance, and knew that everything would go off without a hitch. And then methodically called throughout the day to check to see where he was in an effort to appear innocent? Seems like a lot of trouble when they could have probably had easier access to him at any other time.
I also really don't believe that the police have a suspect in mind and are withholding information from the public. They and Kelly have both said that this case is one of the most baffling in the area. They've probably exhausted their leads and resources, and just simply don't know where to go from here.

There are 3 ways that this case will ever be solved:
1) Perp confesses (or anyone the perp might have told)
2) Jason's body is discovered on a property that new homeowners bought (if applicable)
3) It is discovered if/ where Jason was making a pit stop to before meeting at the school (If applicable)



Occam's Razor probably balances between Fazoli's and a neighbor

 

[ekardh]

I'm still thinking that he dropped by someone's house on the way to the school. Possibly to tell them there was a change of plan.

Earlier, I asked why the perpetrator chose that particular day, instead of waiting until Jason wasn't expected elsewhere.
It could be a practical matter. Perhaps they only had access to certain resources that particular day or someone else would be home?
I don't necessarily think this need be an individual with no other commitments. It could be a family man who was a closeted gay.

 

[MatthewTyler]

I'm still thinking that he dropped by someone's house on the way to the school. Possibly to tell them there was a change of plan.

Earlier, I asked why the perpetrator chose that particular day, instead of waiting until Jason wasn't expected elsewhere.
It could be a practical matter. Perhaps they only had access to certain resources that particular day or someone else would be home?
I don't necessarily think this need be an individual with no other commitments. It could be a family man who was a closeted gay.

Maybe a family man whose wife was at work and kids were... at camp? Has the house to himself, plans to spend the whole day with Jason. Jason bails because he really needs the money, guy gets mad, kills him. I know it's far-fetched but it's the only thing I could think of with seeing a married guy. Or hey, maybe he was seeing a married woman and the husband found out and lured him over. Less likely, but still worth considering. It's weird to speculate these things, but seeing as 19 year old nose-clean, wholesome males don't just go missing, I can't help but feel that there's SOME kind of dark secret or vice that was unknown to others. It could potentially blow the case back open.
Also, IF Jason was gay, I wonder if his dad maybe suspected that and that's why he was pushing him to go into the priesthood.

ETA: Seeing a married person could also explain why Jason would have to stop over to say the plans changed. Can't have the phone records show you communicating with someone you shouldn't be talking to

 

[MysteryMaven]

I listened to the Unfound podcast with Kelly. I think I had listened to it before but I listened again with fresh ears.
She talked a little more in detail about Jason’s cognitive issues. If he had a lot of sensory input at one time he would have trouble understanding.
If there were a lot of noises and things going on he would have trouble processing speech.
He would need the person talking to repeat themselves. I could see him needing to get closer to someone flagging him down for something, leaning in to a car window, even getting into a car so he could hear and understand better.
Kelly reiterated that no one along the walking route was questioned for 10 days. If he got into a car it could have been seen and forgotten about. She said that people in Jason’s sphere have been interviewed by LE 3 times in total. But does that mean neighbors too, I don’t know.

I still hold on to the idea that he got lost or distracted and wound up in a different area of Omaha altogether and either met with foul play or died by misadventure and hasn’t been found.

 

[MatthewTyler]

I still hold on to the idea that he got lost or distracted and wound up in a different area of Omaha altogether and either met with foul play or died by misadventure and hasn’t been found.

But this was a very straight shoot path that he has walked several times before. Just can't see him getting lost. Foul play seems most likely for sure.

 

[ekardh]

Yeah, I just can't see some random predator driving down the street and deciding to abduct Jason. Like @MatthewTyler said, predators of this nature normally target runaways, hitchhikers, male escorts etc. They don't grab grown men off the sidewalk. Maybe Jason was the one in a million shot, but I doubt it. No, I think there has to be more to this case than meets the eye.

 

[MysteryMaven]

With this case I feel like almost anything is possible. There is no evidence at all. All we know is that Jason was supposed to walk to the high school. We don’t know if he even made it 10 feet from his house before whatever happened to him happened. I would think the police went through his phone records?
It’s possible he had an acquaintance/friend/romantic interest somewhere in the vicinity that his family didn’t know about.
Popping in on that person that day could have led to foul play I suppose.
But some people really are on the straight and narrow, nose clean, wholesome etc. I guess I would be surprised if he had some double life. I wouldn’t rule out any theory but I believe that he really was/is a responsible shy person who was close to his family, not known to do drugs or alcohol or be involved with people who were, etc.

 

[MysteryMaven]

I was reading some comments from another site that had some posts about Jason. Someone he knew from his radio job (sounds like a friend) said that the police called him/her because Jason had their phone number in his phone records. So LE was calling phone numbers. Another person said they knew him from his radio school program and the FBI called him or her after Jason went missing.
Also the person who knew Jason in college said he was extremely shy and had trouble making eye contact with people.
They said he was naive but not sneaky as in hiding things from people.
I think he would have a hard time hiding a secret relationship, burner phone etc. from family. But I also think these traits could make him vulnerable and perhaps talked into things by someone with bad intentions.

 

[MatthewTyler]

I was reading some comments from another site that had some posts about Jason. Someone he knew from his radio job (sounds like a friend) said that the police called him/her because Jason had their phone number in his phone records. So LE was calling phone numbers. Another person said they knew him from his radio school program and the FBI called him or her after Jason went missing.
Also the person who knew Jason in college said he was extremely shy and had trouble making eye contact with people.
They said he was naive but not sneaky as in hiding things from people.
I think he would have a hard time hiding a secret relationship, burner phone etc. from family. But I also think these traits could make him vulnerable and perhaps talked into things by someone with bad intentions.

This is why I'm curious to know what his online history looked like. People who are socially akward in real life tend to thrive online because it's easier to communicate through a screen. 2001 was the era of chatrooms. Maybe Jason met a local on one of them and decided to meet them? I don't know how thoroughly chats could have been searched through back then.

 

[MysteryMaven]

This is why I'm curious to know what his online history looked like. People who are socially akward in real life tend to thrive online because it's easier to communicate through a screen. 2001 was the era of chatrooms. Maybe Jason met a local on one of them and decided to meet them? I don't know how thoroughly chats could have been searched through back then.

Yes I agree, I wonder what type of forensic search was done. Someone with Jason’s personality could have been very active online, absolutely.

 

[rkendmar]

I've been reading through Thread #3 and have a question which may or may not be relevant.
It appears that Kelly, Jason's mother, is no longer checking in on WSs and has closed down the website she ran for years.
Is it possible that she has solved the mystery of Jason's disappearance but that it cannot be proven, and she has been able to 'move on' because of this?

 

[rkendmar]

Yes I agree, I wonder what type of forensic search was done. Someone with Jason’s personality could have been very active online, absolutely.

I am assuming that Jason's computer was still in the family home.
Do we know if any family members attempted to follow his 'trail' on the internet?

 

[dotr]

June 2009
Missing Child: Nightmare That Never Ends
''For Kelly Jolkowski, who has waited for her son Jason's return for eight years, activism has helped her cope.

Jason disappeared at the age of 19 on June 13, 2001 -- an anniversary that will hit the family hard on Saturday. He left home to meet a co-worker who was supposed to drive him to work.

He was last seen by his younger brother Michael taking the trash out in their Omaha, Neb., driveway.

"He had no enemies. He was a nice kid. No one hated him, and there is no evidence of mental health issues or family problems," she told ABCNews.com. "He doesn't look like a runaway and there is no evidence someone took him."

She said she replays that day forever in her mind.

"Parents always wonder if they could have done something to prevent this," said Jolkowski. "They always play back the last day or the last week."

Parents of a missing teen might worry that things may have been different had they not yelled at the child about picking up his clothes.

The Jolkoski's marriage has remained intact, despite the pressures, and a close network of friends and extended family have softened the pain.

In 2003, the family formed a nonprofit organization, Project Jason, which is dedicated to helping families find their missing children. "We support them. We listen to them and find out what their needs," she said.

They work with hundreds of families across the United States, offering free online counseling. The group also distributes posters through the trucking industry and homeless shelters and keeps an address on the online game Second Life.



Waiting Eight Years for Son to Come Home
Jason's Law was passed in 2005, establishing a state clearinghouse that collects information on missing persons and makes it available to the public.

For the first time this weekend, they will hold a retreat for families with missing children.

Both the DuBois and Drexel families have also found solace in organizations dedicated to their missing children -- the Brittanee Drexel Foundation and Bring Amber Home.

"What we have found is the ability for them to connect with others who are going through the same thing is helpful," said CEMC's Gilmer-Tullis.

Jolkowski agrees.

"When you become active in the solutions, it helps a great deal in healing," said "You always have the feeling that you have momentum moving forward, accomplishing things that might find Jason or another child."

In her gut, Jolkowski really doesn't know if her son, who would be 27 this weekend, is alive or dead.

"We have our right to hope until we find our truth," she said. "Jason could be sitting somewhere wanting to come home."

"When someone dies through health or an accident they are dead and there is an answer," she said. "You can go through the steps of grief, denial, anger and progress.

"We are stuck and we don't know what we are grieving for."

If you have any information regarding the disappearance of Jason Jolkowski, contact the Omaha Police Department at (402) 444-5600.''

 

[MatthewTyler]

Is it possible that she has solved the mystery of Jason's disappearance but that it cannot be proven, and she has been able to 'move on' because of this?

I don't think so. Both Kelly and Jim posted on FB last month for the anniversary; both said something along the lines of "someone knows something, we need answers". They never really had any leads from the start. Kelly most likely retired the organization because she doesn't have the time to devote to it anymore. She remarried, has a new family, moved to Washington State and now recently got a new kitten. She's got enough going on without worrying about this.

 

[retrometro]

Yeah, I don't know Kelly personally and I don't want to speak for her, but I think it's normal for people to process grief in different ways and that emotions about traumatic/sad life events can evolve over time. I also imagine that it would be uncomfortable to know that strangers on the internet are speculating about her family, even if that speculation is meant to be helpful. This is not meant to "call out" anyone in this thread; I'm of course participating in the discussion myself. My point is that I believe the family deserves wide leeway about whether they want to discuss the case publicly.

 

[CountSnap]

Also I imagine after having gone through what she has she wouldn't want people spending time looking for Jason when they could be looking for other missing people.

 

[?unknown?]

If he was shy and socially awkward, introverted, what was he doing working as a radio DJ? I don’t know. That seems a bit strange to me. My wife suffers from social anxiety and can barely even leave the house sometimes. If he had problems making eye contact and I’ve also read somewhere he was on the autism spectrum, being a radio presenter is one of the last jobs I would associate with his personality and what we know of his character. But apparently he excelled in the job and was hoping to do it more full time. Seems like he would have been engaged with the community and have at least a few friends/contacts while he was involved with radio. I wonder if anything to do with that job was ever looked into rather than the Fazoli’s one

 

[retrometro]

If he was shy and socially awkward, introverted, what was he doing working as a radio DJ? I don’t know. That seems a bit strange to me. My wife suffers from social anxiety and can barely even leave the house sometimes. If he had problems making eye contact and I’ve also read somewhere he was on the autism spectrum, being a radio presenter is one of the last jobs I would associate with his personality and what we know of his character. But apparently he excelled in the job and was hoping to do it more full time. Seems like he would have been engaged with the community and have at least a few friends/contacts while he was involved with radio. I wonder if anything to do with that job was ever looked into rather than the Fazoli’s one

Certainly anything is possible given the lack of evidence. My understanding is that Jason was attending college only part-time, and I seem to recall someone else saying that he hadn’t been on the air recently around the time of his disappearance. There’s a common misconception that he was going to be a DJ at the new job he had lined up, but according to another poster who knew the family, that’s not the case.

As for why he was a DJ in the first place, I don’t find it all that remarkable. People are sometimes attracted to certain jobs as coping mechanisms (e.g., some people are drawn to psychology because they want to better understand their own personal problems, some people become doctors/nurses because they grew up with a chronically ill family member, etc.). It’s possible that Jason felt like radio broadcasting was a “safe” opportunity to overcome his shyness.

 

[MysteryMaven]

People that knew him through the radio program at college and also through his DJ job have commented elsewhere on the internet. Those that have commented said that they were called by LE after Jason disappeared. One person said they were pretty sure everyone in his program at school was called.