Jelani Day.Photo: Bloomington Police Department
A body discovered earlier this month near the south bank of the Illinois River has been identified asJelani Day, who has been missing for nearly a month.
Day, a 25-year-old graduate student at Illinois State University, was last seen on campus Aug. 24. His family reported him missing the next day, and search efforts began.
Now, nearly a month to the day later, his body has been identified, according to anews releasefrom the agencies involved in the search.
The LaSalle County Coroner’s office discovered a body on Sept. 4 during search efforts in the LaSalle Peru area. The coroner identified the body as Day “through forensic dental identification and DNA testing and comparison,” and his “cause of death is unknown, pending further investigation, and toxicology testing.”
Jelani Day.Bloomington Police Department
The aspiring doctor’s car was found in Peru, Illinois, about 60 miles away from his university, on Aug. 26. The Peru Police Department set up a command post there, and an “extensive K9 search was conducted” in addition to drone aerial searches and a ground search.
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Day’s mother, Carmen Bolden Day, told Newsy on Monday that she didn’t “feel like [she was] getting the help that [she needed].”
“I’m imploring, pleading and asking that the police still pay attention and look for my son,” she said, adding that during their last conversation, Day told her he was going to class and that he’d call her later. “He said, ‘Okay mama, I just wanted to hear your voice.’ And that was our last conversation on August 23.”
source: people.com
