NE NE - Jason Jolkowski -19 - Omaha - 13 Jun 2001 - #4

[ekardh]

There is a certain amount of latitude needed to theorize how Jason upped and vanished into thin air. There is no evidence of foul play, no evidence of misadventure, no evidence of suicide. Nothing.

I don't believe that he was randomly targeted. At 6'1 and 160lbs, Jason would not have looked like easy prey. Most predators target someone they can physically overpower, and killers who target men pick up sex-trade victims or use alcohol/drugs to lower resistance. It's possible someone lured Jason into their home under false pretenses and got him when his guard was down, but it would be awfully opportunistic seeing as no one knew Jason was headed that way.

The problem is that we don't know a lot about Jason. Everything we know about him comes from his family, and family can often be unreliable narrators. Does it tell the whole story? I personally believe gaps in knowledge like this hold the answer to his disappearance. Like I've said before, if Jason was thinking of joining the seminary, was there someone in his life guiding him? Such as an older male within the catholic community?

 

[ErinC]

i'm newish here and just wanna say this case puzzles me to no end. it's like brian shaeffer and a few others in the way it defies explanation.

with most mysteries, you can imagine lots of possibilities and the challenge is figuring out which one is true. with a few, it's hard to even imagine possibilities. this is one of the latter.

I call it my "I have no bleeping clue what happened" list. Brian Shaffer and Jason here are two of the (not all that many- I think having no clues at all is fairly uncommon) cases on the list.

 

[Andreee]

There is a certain amount of latitude needed to theorize how Jason upped and vanished into thin air. There is no evidence of foul play, no evidence of misadventure, no evidence of suicide. Nothing.

I don't believe that he was randomly targeted. At 6'1 and 160lbs, Jason would not have looked like easy prey. Most predators target someone they can physically overpower, and killers who target men pick up sex-trade victims or use alcohol/drugs to lower resistance. It's possible someone lured Jason into their home under false pretenses and got him when his guard was down, but it would be awfully opportunistic seeing as no one knew Jason was headed that way.

The problem is that we don't know a lot about Jason. Everything we know about him comes from his family, and family can often be unreliable narrators. Does it tell the whole story? I personally believe gaps in knowledge like this hold the answer to his disappearance. Like I've said before, if Jason was thinking of joining the seminary, was there someone in his life guiding him? Such as an older male within the catholic community?

I don't think just his family are giving us everything that we know about Jason. I've also read comments about Jason from neighbours, school friends, and college colleagues over the years in various bits of interviews and online comments on forums about their interactions with him. It has all been positive, and generally it gave me the impression Jason was shy, naive but friendly and helpful with others. And of course he had that slight learning or comprehension issue. All in all, he may've gotten taken advantage of by someone.

 

[CaliforniaScheminPod]

It almost seems like it would be a good idea for investigators to start over from the very beginning (and sadly, I'm sure they've done this before!) to go through every lead and tip they've received. The answer could be so simple and just have been overlooked. This was definitely an opportunist murder. It was a deviation from Jason’s typical schedule for him to cover this shift. I also believe that Omaha police and the FBI aren't sharing everything - and with probably good reason. Other than that, we are kind of left to grasp at straws and what may be totally outlandish ideas.

 

[Andreee]

It almost seems like it would be a good idea for investigators to start over from the very beginning (and sadly, I'm sure they've done this before!) to go through every lead and tip they've received. The answer could be so simple and just have been overlooked. This was definitely an opportunist murder. It was a deviation from Jason’s typical schedule for him to cover this shift. I also believe that Omaha police and the FBI aren't sharing everything - and with probably good reason. Other than that, we are kind of left to grasp at straws and what may be totally outlandish ideas.

Unfortunately, the local LE delayed by about 10 days their investigation into Jason's disappearance. Maybe they thought he was a runaway or something at first. At any rate, I really think they came up with zero to go on, after interviewing his coworkers, neighbours and local SO's. The last cold case investigator has since moved on (I wrote to find out). I honestly don't think they have come up with anything whatsoever and one LE officer said it was one of the most frustrating disappearance he has ever investigated. (can't recall who exactly, all we can do is bring back old info repeatedly lol).

 

[Lebowski]

There is a certain amount of latitude needed to theorize how Jason upped and vanished into thin air. There is no evidence of foul play, no evidence of misadventure, no evidence of suicide. Nothing.

...

that's the thing. any theory of what happened to him has to make unsupported assumptions, because there's nothing to go on. and no simple, ordinary theory fits this fact pattern. you either need a far-fetched assumption, or multiple ordinary assumptions. either one is inherently unlikely. but SOMETHING happened to him, so one of the unlikely things has to be true.

...

I don't believe that he was randomly targeted. At 6'1 and 160lbs, Jason would not have looked like easy prey. Most predators target someone they can physically overpower, and killers who target men pick up sex-trade victims or use alcohol/drugs to lower resistance. It's possible someone lured Jason into their home under false pretenses and got him when his guard was down, but it would be awfully opportunistic seeing as no one knew Jason was headed that way.

...

(snipped by me)

well, i'm not sure i'd dismiss the random targetting possibility. as you say in the second point, no one knew jason was headed that way, and that's a problem for planned abduction / murder. (though of course not a show-stopper...) and if we stick with the foul play assumption, that leaves unplanned. ... i agree he wouldn't look like easy prey, but size and strength are easily negated by a gun. and if a SK likes young men, he likes young men.

one possibility here is a SK offered him a ride. that might look unremarkable and forgettable to people in the neighborhood, and not be terribly high risk behavior for a SK. believe this is actually a common MO for them. jason was trying to get to work / the high school, so he might have shrugged and accepted. especially if he was trusting.

JMO and sorry if this one has already been discussed to death.

 

[ekardh]

I don't think just his family are giving us everything that we know about Jason. I've also read comments about Jason from neighbours, school friends, and college colleagues over the years in various bits of interviews and online comments on forums about their interactions with him. It has all been positive, and generally it gave me the impression Jason was shy, naive but friendly and helpful with others. And of course he had that slight learning or comprehension issue. All in all, he may've gotten taken advantage of by someone.

Did Jason have many (any?) close friends? Most of the anecdotes I've read from his 'friends' have been sparse and sounded more like casual acquaintances.

If Jason's disappearance wasn't random or accidental, there had to be more to Jason's personal life than what we know. I'm not necessarily suggesting that Jason was up to anything nefarious, but there was clearly a reason someone wanted him gone.

 

[Andreee]

Did Jason have many (any?) close friends? Most of the anecdotes I've read from his 'friends' have been sparse and sounded more like casual acquaintances.

If Jason's disappearance wasn't random or accidental, there had to be more to Jason's personal life than what we know. I'm not necessarily suggesting that Jason was up to anything nefarious, but there was clearly a reason someone wanted him gone.

Whether he had close pals or not, he did go to school with and grew up around people who knew him quite well. Jason's disappearance could have been random, accidental or yes, he could've got involved with someone who meant him harm. Not much more to be said at this point, sadly enough.