(25News Now) - It’s been three years since Illinois State University master’s student Jelani Day went missing and was found dead weeks later, and yet his family is still trying to find out what happened to him.
Day was reported missing Aug. 25, 2021. The last place he was seen was at Beyond Hello recreational marijuana dispensary on Veterans Parkway in Bloomington. A day later, his car was found more than 60 miles north in a wooded area near Peru.
Weeks went by until law enforcement found Day dead along the Illinois River by Peru on Sept. 4, and it took even longer for the coroner to confirm his identity and the cause of his death, which was drowning.
While police said no evidence suggested anyone was with Day at the time of his death, his mother Carmen Bolden Day still believes a crime was committed.
“There are so many questions that I did not ask, and so many things that I did not do that initial day, when I was looking for him,” Bolden Day said. “Now that I’m trying to retrace those things and go through those things, I don’t get those answers.”
Bolden Day said the Jelani Day Joint Task Force charged with investigating his disappearance and death failed her. She said the task force lacked urgency and treated her rudely.
“[They] did not take the proper steps or procedures on the first initial day when we knew Jelani was missing,” Bolden Day said. “Then the next day [they] find his car with no license plates on it, parked in the middle of the woods in a residential town, 63 miles away, predominantly white, and [they] still do not act as if this is of urgency.”
She also said investigators dismissed information for months that could have assisted in the case, like a video of a car leaving a parking lot as Jelani was leaving.
“For a whole year-and-a-half, they missed a video of him punching in his code in his phone. I saw that video a year-and-a-half later,” Bolden Day said. “I figured out the code in 10 days.”
ISU Police Chief Aaron Woodruff said he remembers students and faculty were unnerved by the tragedy. He said the community has not forgotten Day.
“Those do live on in memories, not just in the staff and faculty that work here that are here for many years, but those students and those particular cohorts during that time period will always remember that as well,” Woodruff said.
Bolden Day is now trying to change the way cases like her son’s are investigated. The family created the Jelani Day Foundation to fight for equity and justice for missing people of color. They’ve held the annual Jelani Day Dinner at ISU for the past two years.
“Law enforcement needs a revamp of how they do things concerning missing individuals, especially missing Black males,” Bolden Day said. “Do not always look at them as criminals, do not always look at them as gang members. My son was none of those things. He was an intelligent, ambitious, young black man that had goals, dreams, and he was headed towards something in life.”
A bill was also passed in Illinois in March 2022 that requires county coroners or medical examiners to notify the FBI when human remains are not identified within 72 hours.
Day’s mother said she will never give up on finding out what happened to her son.
“Jelani had purpose, and I need them to know, you can’t just disregard life the way you disregarded his,” Bolden Day said. “In order for me to find those answers about what happened to him, I have to keep his name alive.”
