Attorney Ben Crump calls for an FBI investigation into the death of 25-year-old graduate student Jelani Day
Civil rights attorney Ben Crump is now advocating the FBI to take over the investigation into the death of Illinois State University graduate student Jelani Day.
“As we approach 100 days without any answers, we are demanding that the FBI investigate this matter as a hate crime,” Crump said at a press conference, NPR reports. “The family is losing confidence in the local authorities — they want answers.” Since his death several state and local agencies as well as the FBI have been investigating the case. The Bloomington Police Department says the 25-year-old aspiring doctor was last seen on the morning of Aug. 24, PEOPLE reported. The family reported him missing the next day after their unsuccessful attempts to reach him. Day missed multiple days of classes, according to the missing persons report.
On Aug. 26, his white 2010 Chrysler 300 was reportedly found abandoned in a wooded area near the Illinois Valley YMCA. Officers with the Peru Police Department looked at the vehicle and found the clothing Day was wearing when he was last seen. The body was found floating in the nearby Illinois River Sept. 4, but remains his weren’t identified until late September.
Day’s official cause of death was said to be drowning, but how he got in the water remains a mystery. Coroner Richard Ploch noted in a September report that, “the manner in which Mr. Day went into the Illinois River is currently unknown,” CNN reported.
“None of it adds up,” Crump said.
LaSalle County Coroner said, the forensic exam of Day’s remains found “there was no evidence of any (pre-death) injury, such as manual strangulation, an assault or altercation, sharp, blunt, or gunshot injury, infection, tumor, natural disease, congenital abnormality, or significant drug intoxication,” Ploch wrote.
Day’s family disagrees with the findings and suspects foul play.
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