Six months ago Jelani Day, 25, went missing and his body was discovered in the Illinois River. Although Day’s body has been found, his family still has a lot of questions surrounding his disappearance and death. 

“Sometimes my chest just hurts so bad, and it’s in this spot where my heart is, and I know I just miss Jelani something terrible,” Carmen Day, Jelani Day’s mother said according to Atlanta Black Star.  

Jelani Day’s body was discovered on Sept. 4, 2021, floating in the Illinois River in Peru, Illinois, a city about 60 miles south of Bloomington, Illinois. The city was close to where Day attended Illinois State University as a graduate student in speech pathology. The scholar was reported missing by his mom on Aug. 24. Day’s body was identified on Sept. 24, and his family was notified at that time.

“I don’t even understand it, because it’s like my son was a ghost and he disappeared, and nobody saw him anywhere until he was discovered in this river,” Carmen said.

One of the reasons Carmen is outraged from the police handling of her son’s death investigation criticizing investigators for being dismissive and not moving quickly enough with the investigation.  

“You didn’t do what you were supposed to do in those hours, and I’m angry about that and I’m hurt about that,” she said.

During a December news conference, attorneys for the family questioned the sequence of events as they knew them leading up to his disappearance.

“As we understand it, his car was found, three and a half miles from the river where he allegedly committed suicide in, but his clothes were found another place, his wallet was found in another place, his cellphone was found in another place, by different people and it’s just not adding up,” Ben Crump, one of the family’s attorneys said. 

According to the autopsy obtained by WGLT, the coroner determined, “there was no evidence of pre-death injury or assault, altercation, sharp, blunt or gunshot injury,” the report also added, “abundant insect larvae” were found throughout the body and clothing and Jelani’s “organs appear intact, complete and within their usual anatomic positions.”

On Feb. 24, Jelani’s family met with several law enforcement agencies working together to investigate the case because many of his belongings were found in different locations spanning different police jurisdictions.

“We were able to sit down with the police to gain some insight on what they’ve done, and I told them, I really left out of that meeting with so many more thoughts and unclear things and the whys and what you should have done before I walked in there,” Day said.

Police Chief of Peru, Illinois, Bob Pyszka told Atlanta Black Star, “Peru Police Department and the Jelani Day Joint Task Force are exhaustively pursuing every lead and employing every available tool to ensure that no stone remains unturned”.

He added if anyone has any information to call 1-800-CALL-FBI.

While the investigation continues, Senate Bill 3932, known as the Jelani Day Bill passed the Senate in the Illinois General Assembly on Feb. 24. The bill now moves on to the house. The bill will require the FBI to get involved if the medical examiner or coroner cannot identify human remains within 72 hours after they were found.

“Just think if I had that same opportunity, I wouldn’t have had to wait 30 days to find out they had a body that was sitting there that belonged to me,” Carmen said referring to the bill.

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