Jaliek Rainwalker /// Part 1 /// 418 | Forensic Files

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[Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] missing person jalik rainwalker
on Friday November 2nd 2007. 12 year old jalik rainwalker was reported missing from his grandparents
residence in Greenwich Washington County New York is biracial with light brown hair and
green eyes at the time of his disappearance jaleek was five foot six inches tall
105 pounds he is believed to have been wearing blue jeans a black high-top sneakers
Foul Play is suspected anyone with any information is asked to contact the New York State
Major Crimes unit at 518 -783-3211 or email NYS vicap troopers.ny.gov that's NYS v i c a p
at troopers.ny.gov [Music] [Music] jalique rainwalker was born on August 2nd 1995 in Albany New York to a mother
addicted to crack and alcohol jaleek was diagnosed with fetal alcohol syndrome meaning he was exposed to addictive
toxic substances in utero that impacted his development despite all of our digging we have never located jaleek's
parents names jalique was a good looking kid with green eyes and a big smile there are a few photos of jaleek
available online and if you look him up you'll see a face beaming with personality but unfortunately due to
jalik's parental situation he was put up for adoption shortly after entering this
world from there he was shuttled around from foster home to foster home six in all
before Stephen Kerr and Jocelyn McDonald adopted him in 2003 per the Albany Times
Union jalik lived with the couple and their children for five years including three years as their adopted son
Stephen and Jocelyn had four other children three biological sons and one adopted
daughter the kids ranged in age from eight years old up to 14. jalique also had two biological half-brothers who
lived in Albany New York about 35 miles from the town of Greenwich where jalique
lived with his adoptive family and Rural upstate New York as described by our friends over at the
Charlie project angelique's case profile page his adoptive family lived a non-traditional
lifestyle when they first took Angelique the family lived about 15 minutes from the village of Greenwich in Washington
County now this house was really the current house was really a Back to Nature type structure there's no indoor
plumbing and the electricity the only electricity that the house has comes from a generator and oh it's just a one
bedroom house so the family that sleeps together weeps together I guess it's easy to say that Julie's parents were
the hippie types they sold eggs at local farmers markets and prefer to leave little to no environmental impact jalik
was homeschooled by his adoptive parents and some other local kids were schooled
Edge Lake's home as well now jaleek had some behavioral problems according to the Cambridge Greenwich Police Chief the
boy was diagnosed with a number of emotional and psychiatric problems because of his fetal alcohol syndrome
and being shuffled around from seven different families and his only 12 years of life his life was not easy of course
misbehavior and lack of understanding of appropriate inner interaction was to be
he expected but his issues resulted in emotional Outburst that could be violent his adoptive parents stated later that
he had rage-filled temper tantrums and that his siblings were afraid of him his outbursts could last up to an hour
jaleek was very intelligent he was an Avid Reader before jalique was adopted he lived with the showin family and they
did plan to adopt him but after he attacked their daughters when he was seven years old they decided he could no
longer stay in their home this is when he went to live with Stephen and Jocelyn several of the other Foster families who
had taken Angelique temporarily over the years said that he was a loving child but his outbursts were too disruptive
for them to feel comfortable offering him a permanent home this is just a difficult situation
and it's a sad reality that we have this kid who is brought into this world and he's brought into
this world a victim immediately yeah and he's given up for adoption and and to be honest with you
Captain I thank God that those parents the woman was at least smart enough to give him up for adoption as rough as
that sounds it doesn't sound like she had the skill set or resources to raise a child well I'm like you said I mean you
have trauma happening to you since birth right and then you're being shuffled around and
then you have this situation where people good people are attempting to do a good thing bring this child into their
home try to raise them as their own but because of his issues it becomes an unbearable situation where
now your children might be afraid of of this kid who who seems to be a great kid
smart kid loving child but at times he's got these outbursts that are violent and
at times scary yeah you want to help the kid but you don't want to put your kid in danger as well so that's a little
background on the events that were leading up to The Disappearance of Julie well let's go over this house really
quick because I mean that's a very odd situation oh I didn't get into it because I just assumed everybody lived
that way it's almost like they lived in like a hunting cabin like something that
would be okay for the weekend we're going to go up there yeah there's no electricity but we have a generator
we're gonna spend some time Outdoors that doesn't seem that bad it seems like a far removed a reality compared to how
people are living currently seven people sleeping in one room too I don't know how ethical that is
especially when you have a kid you're trying to adopt it just seems a little funny to me that's the thing it's
it's difficult to talk about it here imagine living in that situation yeah and the younger kids probably don't know
much different now at the end of October 2007 12 year old jaleek had a few rough
days according to Stephen and Jocelyn jalik threatened another young boy who was in his home school class at their
house it's reported the boy was only about five years old according to Jocelyn and Stephen jaleek
said some pretty horrible things to this kid along the lines of a violent sexual
assault he intended to perpetrate on him now it's important to bear in mind that
we are hearing all of this information about this incident second hand he's just a kid himself so where is he here
in this stuff in order to be able to make those type of threats to somebody else if in fact this went down the way
they said it went down correct because jaleek was homeschooled and the family was somewhat isolated from society there
is not really any way to verify whether their depiction of this incident is accurate at all yeah and sometimes it's
just a like you said A Simple Choice this is a family that wants to live this way and sometimes it's a choice to be
isolated because you don't want people to know what's going on behind closed doors regardless of what went down
they're going to say this is what went down and according to them this incident was the last straw Jocelyn had become
afraid of the boy she says according to the Charlie project on October 23rd Stephen called a crisis hotline and
reported jalique to be unmanageable around the same time Jocelyn and Steven began inquiring of child services
Personnel how to reverse the adoption they were informed that a legal adoption is binding and cannot be undone
jalik was theirs to keep they were recommended respite care services respite care services is
temporary institutional care of a sick elderly or disabled person providing relief for their usual caregiver in
other words short-term relief with a little separation time between in this situation parents Angelique they decided
to make use of this resource this was not the first time that they did though right the plan was for Elaine and Tom
person to keep jalique at their home for a few days after that he would be sent to another Respite Home the persons who
had housed jaleek in the past kept him at their home until November 1st on the evening of Thursday November 1st
Stephen picked jalique up from the person's home near Albany Father and Son went to a Red Robin
restaurant to get some dinner then instead of returning to the family home in Greenwich
Steven Angelique headed to Stephen's parents house at 11 Hill Street in a different part of Greenwich this house
was unoccupied at the time as Stephen's father was a state department Diplomat stationed in Romania and Steven's mother
was there with him as well at the house Stephen later told police the two spent the night but in the
morning he went into the room jaleek slept in and found that the bed was stuffed with pillows the way the kids do
when they want it to look like someone was sleeping in that bed jalique was not there
at 7 30 a.m Stephen found a note and then he called the Cambridge Greenwich Police at 8 57 a.m all right
just side note here make sure you're paying attention at 7 30 a.m Stephen found a note he calls the police at 8 57
am this note was handed over to the police it was angelique's handwriting and it
said dear everybody I am sorry for everything I won't bother you anymore goodbye jalik
now not on the same note but on a separate sheet of paper there was a word Albany
later people suspect that this could be important now the story of the parents of Jocelyn and Stephen
they were saying hey Julie clearly ran away he had gotten in big trouble with them
and clearly felt horrible about it the adoptive family sat down with police to discuss their child well and when this
family is supposed to be your forever home and now they're trying to give you back after seven houses you've already
lived in this could be cause of well they don't even want me they don't want to try to
work with me on any of the issues that I have and now they're bouncing me back around I I don't want to keep doing this
so it gives a very plausible reason of why he would want to just leave the situation Stephen
and Jocelyn told Chief Bell and his officers that their son was very troubled and he was both suicidal and
homicidal at the time of his disappearance but they said they had not attempted to
provide him with any counseling or medications for this it's unclear whether they just did not believe in
medical intervention or if they were exaggerating jalik's condition Stephen and Jocelyn tried to come up with some
possible destinations where jalique might have run off to they informed the Cambridge Greenwich PD about jalik's
brothers his half-brothers in Albany that makes sense he's been there before maybe he wanted to seek them out or
take up residence with them if possible right he's 12 years old you know it's it
when you're 12 especially when you've been bounced around from a few different houses you might feel that it's not that
difficult to just pick up roots and start elsewhere Jocelyn said perhaps jalique hitched a
ride somewhere maybe like New York City because that was somewhere that jalik had always wanted to go
now according to Stephen jaleek had befriended some older teen boys while at the Parsons home and he
said well maybe they he ran off with them or they suggested that jaleek was interested in his Heritage and maybe he
wanted to live with an African-American family well we have a missing 12 year old boy and thus the search Begins the
police took this case very seriously from the beginning and that is obvious police chief Bell sent out officers to
Canvas the area quote if he got out onto a main road somebody would have seen something Chief Bell said and working on
the assumption that the child had gotten lost or God forbid harmed himself they pulled out all of the stops
police and other agencies searched a five-mile radius of the Kerr's home where jalique was last seen by his
adoptive father they used infrared cameras helicopters canines divers and even drained a pond
in their aerial land and water searches for the missing boy forest rangers joined in to help scour
the dense wooded areas tips were called in from around the Nation about supposed sightings
these were checked and run down police investigated more than 200 leads in the first few days
because this was not Chief Bell's first rodeo both the family's house and the where
they actually lived and Steven's Father's House were both searched immediately when they didn't find jalique in the
first couple of days things began to look worrisome November in Upstate New York has very
cold nights Jocelyn and Steven were able to describe what they believed jaleek to
be wearing at the time that he went missing a yellow fleece jacket a t-shirt with a dragon on it jeans and black high
tops police could not totally rule out suicide or running away but since not a trace of jalique turned up in any of the
searches things were looking dire Chief Bell told reporters on November 12th if he ran away he would have turned up by
now and we just don't have a runaway kid here yeah I mean it's 12 years old so it's not like he has the resources to
just go start a new life even though maybe he wanted to because of all the problems I think he was
having but he's also 12 years old so we can assume he's a little as far as Street smarts go a little
naive and becomes a likely victim yeah I mean he could have taken off he's he's a child that children are impulsive
and he is making irrational decisions or choices or or the ability to not make good choices when he is throwing fits
so he may just be reacting to stuff going on and may have made some bad choices now the adoptive parents in the
family they tried to pull the community together as one would expect immediately
after the kid went missing they spent weeks putting up flyers and Jocelyn implored residents to post jaleek's
missing flyer and keep an eye out for the boy they held prayer vigils they hired a psychic they offered a cash
reward but pretty quickly it became apparent that their public facade was not the
same as their private Behavior something's wrong here police chief George Bell said to the newspapers he
said in 30 years of experience a kid of 12 years old and he says I don't care what his mindset is he doesn't fall off
the face of the world and chief Bell came right out and stated that Stephen and Jocelyn were not acting the way
other concerned distraught parents acted in his experience they didn't set up shop at the police
station demanding action and answers now Stephen claims to have called the police
station 78 times but Chief Bell disputes this right he pointed out that Stephen and his wife
agreed to be interviewed only with an attorney and Stephen did not agree to be polygraphed on the advice of his
attorney yeah which we we see that happen often but you'd think they'd do a thorough search of the the house yeah
there's some debate on how thorough the search of the houses were because what's
going to happen is that's really you're doing like a cursory search at that point in your investigation you're
really just going in there and looking for the boy himself right A lot of times kids are just hiding somewhere there's
there's an amazing amount of calls where it's a missing person's case little kid
especially the younger they are they're often found in the home right so you're just looking through these
houses for this young boy himself and that makes you move from room to room rather quickly
you're not really there looking for evidence of what could have happened to the boy unless things are obvious any
obvious side so later you're going to have the parents say hey we submitted to these searches
on both of these properties very early on later the police are going to have a different version of that saying these
were just cursory searches we didn't really get into any detailed searches of the home and when we tried to go back
they said no no no we don't want you here now Jocelyn on the other hand did agree to be polygraphed and I couldn't
find the results of that but my guess is what there's just a lot of things with these individuals that don't make a lot
of sense like the one the lawyer told the husband not to take a polygraph test but it's okay for the
wife to take one it's just seems very strange I don't know could not find the results
of that test but uh I'm thinking that they didn't gain anything to further fuel their suspicions from
that polygraph test right the husband's refusal to cooperate and it goes beyond forever you know there
are people out there going right now well who cares he didn't agree to the polygraph test it wasn't just that it
was other forms of not cooperating not answering basic questions not being willing to sit down without an attorney
present and not setting up uh information center at the police department setting up shop I mean some people will
hunker down at the police station to keep an eye on what's going on and and be fully aware and be the first to know
what's going on with their child that didn't happen here so these things are setting off some alarm bells to to some
people out there and as there were hints there were also hints that Stephen Kerr
had a problem with his own temper and had flown off the handle at jaleek in the past
one story Chief Bell learned from Jocelyn's mother Julie's grandmother Barbara really
who heard it straight from her daughter was of a situation when jaleek was nine years old and he was continually making
some noise by like drumming his fingers or hands on the table even though Stephen repeatedly asked him to stop at
some point as The Story Goes Stephen lost it and grabbed the boy dragged him down to a creek to the creek near the
home and was holding his head under water this until the wife intervened right that's that's called attempted
murder Stephen and Jocelyn hired an attorney right from Jump Street they got a bulldog at a big local firm named
Jeffrey McMorris this lawyer said publicly that the Cambridge Greenwich Police and state police were treating
Stephen as a suspect and clearly embraced the idea that he had done something to jaleek rather than
investigating if the boy ran away McMorris requested that the FBI take over the investigation
articles show that the FBI became involved in the case of missing jalik Graham Walker by the end of November
and while Stephen and Jocelyn stopped cooperating with police and refused to participate in searches for their son in
early December they appeared in an exclusive interview with Anya Tucker of tv10 Albany in which they refused to
answer most of the questions instead declaring how much they were doing to find jalik and were preparing for when
he returns to their home and then there was this on December 20th an article in the
Albany Times Union states Stephen Kerr the last person to see jaleek rainwalker his adopted son before the boy
disappeared November 1st has been seen around Greenwich and Cambridge tearing down Flyers advertising a vigil for the
missing boy police chief Bell says he receives several calls a day from people who are angered and perplexed by Kerr's
Behavior police sources and multiple eyewitnesses told the newspaper they saw Stephen
removing the signs apparently Steven said that he wanted the Flyers gone because the event they were promoting
was organized by people who were slandering [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music]
[Music] we're back cheers to you Captain cheers to all the people out there especially the people
in the back I want to make sure that I point out that the cheap seats hey those are the best seats those are the people
that fought to get in what did John Lennon used to say he'd say that people in the cheap seats clap your hands and
the people up front just jiggle your jewelry [Laughter] captain that we relied on the excellent
coverage of this case for our coverage of this case by The Post Star newspaper articles
by Don Lehman as well as the excellent coverage by the Albany Times Union I want to put that in there before we got
too far right let's try to make sense of this so it's it's the adopted father so
Stephen yeah yeah but to go around and to pull down Flyers it makes zero sense to me I don't care what they're saying
about you by having that flyer up there it's bringing attention to the fact that
your adopted son is missing the whole point of anything is to find him safe or find out what happened to him and by
ripping down these flyers and not talking to police and not doing certain things it's almost like you're stepping
away and and we know with a lot of these missing person cases you you need the story to
be as loud as possible so you can get as much of a spotlight on the case right and there are people out there that will
argue hey this was not technically missing persons Flyers these were Flyers advertising the the prayer vigil or the
candlelight vigil for this missing boy but you're spot on Captain any any publicity is good publicity at this
point right and you would also think that your headspace would be so or gone from
other than finding the boy right like wouldn't that just be consuming you at the time like you don't need that sweet
taste of vindication of ripping down Flyers to get even with these people that you think are bad-mouthing you
you'd be too concerned about finding your son but if this is true then maybe this is a
check mark there is verification of this dude not being able to control his behavior and
reaction to things yeah I mean this guy's [ __ ] stain but I also like we go back to that house
you have a adopted son and you were saying an adopted daughter correct correct and then biological kids
and they're all sharing one room they're all sleeping in one room I just and this has happened several
times where we have these sick individuals that will adopt children and they abuse them
and I think there's some kind of law against some of these things I know in certain States
that if you let's say you get remarried your step daughter can't share a room with your biological son
certain things like that that they have to if they're not blood relative that they can't share a room
I know that's a law in several States you'd think that would apply also to people that are going through adoptions
but it seems like they got these adoptions to go through and then they just said well we'll do whatever we want
we'll live however we want um this just seems like a very dark situation that should have been
investigated before the kid even went missing if anybody knew to investigate it so I I mean I don't to me it's really
pretty cut and dry right it's either a situation of this is a family making do the best they can
I mean look some people are forced to live in their cars for months at a time right but either this is a situation
where families just trying to make do and squeak by or you're right maybe maybe there's
something something weird going on here or or it's just somebody milking the system
yeah or a little bit of both I mean but I think the thing is is most people that
can't help themselves or can't help their family they don't look into the idea of adopting
more children that's more mouths to feed that's more bodies to house what's the advantage I get what you're saying but
we got to keep in mind he was with them for five years so their situation could have changed when he was 12 could be
much different than when he was seven yeah okay so what we have here now is the boy still missing jaleek's still
missing and now we got this added threat of the cold weather and possibly snowy winter weather is on
the way volunteers continue to go out looking and looking for jaleek but nothing was found
and then Steve and Kerr looks like he was feeling the heat a little bit he told the Times Union
claiming to be completely Cooperative by the way he said he opened his bank and phone records to police and let them
search the two homes that he had access to we touched on this a little bit before he said quote I've done
everything all they want to do is string me up and hang me but they don't have any evidence
but Chief Bell said Stephen wouldn't even put his fingerprints on the door of the police
station he said he used his elbows to open the door at the police station in Cambridge
when he came in to bring in some information Bell is on record stating I mean this
whole thing is weird end quote yeah I mean look you just get that feeling and especially as police
officers or law law enforcement officers they're they're around this stuff often I mean
to me it feels a lot um pedo-like and child abuse that's that's my gut feeling so what did the investigators uncover
about Steve and kerr that clearly convinced them that he knew more than what he was saying well on the morning
that he reported jaleek missing he told them that he found the goodbye note as I'm calling it from his son at 7 30 a.m
when he woke up but as we pointed out earlier he didn't call the police until 8 57 a.m what did he do during the hour
and a half between finding the note and calling the police he took a shower and he returned some
rented movies Be Kind Rewind he did admit this to Chief Bell in all fairness he wasn't like hiding this information
well in all fairness you get charged for the late fee that's important yeah but I think I think I do think it's
important to point out he wasn't hiding they didn't have to dig this up right right you know but it does seem weird
an hour and a half goes by before you report him missing and there's more what no the reporting the kid missing like an
hour and a half later not a big deal to me if you're looking for the kid if you're
calling around if you're doing some work you know they're not necessarily you got
a 12 year old boy right this is of age where you could go to the store and let him stay behind and maybe babysit some
of the kids so when you see this note that your 12 year old adopted son is missing you go
well let me look around real quick let me go to some spot that I know he hangs out at let me take a shower and return
some movies right but let me let me call some of his friends if you told me he did all those things and then he called
the cops I go okay that makes sense but taking a shower and returning some movies
it's ridiculous well I I in full disclosure Captain I'm with you the note by itself doesn't doesn't alarm me to
the point of immediate panic but when you compound that with oh I found his bed stuffed with pillows to make it look
like somebody was sleeping in it and I'm trying to reverse you know I'm a week away from trying to have reversed this
adoption yeah that's weird you know what I mean there's a lot there's a lot of stuff going on so the other thing too is
that the police did they did have to uncover this the uncovered video surveillance camera
footage of a Chrysler Town and Country van that Chief Bell stated on the record was
exactly like the gold one owned by Stephen's father remember the night that jalik went missing or the morning
however you want to look at it that he went missing he and Stephen were at Stephen's parents
home just the two of them and this van that they found on the surveillance camera footage
it was seen driving by the Glenn's Falls National Bank branch on Main Street and Greenwich at
12 16 a.m on November 2nd that's the night that jalique vanished Stephen told investigators that he was asleep at his
father's house at that time of night liar well I mean they've never been able to confirm that it was in fact the same
van but it looks identical according to the police chief right investigators stated that Stephen refused to allow
them to inspect the minivan to compare it to the one seen on the video of course he did of course he did further
Chief Bell subpoenaed Steven's cell phone records and they showed some inconsistencies with what Stephen Kerr
told police about that night his cell phone history showed that on the night of November 1st after he and
jaleek left the Red Robin Stephen took a different route to the Hill Street house
then he had claimed Chief Bell said we know for a fact he has lied to us about that route because
the cell phone records State he was nowhere near the route he told us he took home
there was also very little cell phone activity that has been reported for Stephen for that night in question
he had one call at 8 15 the night before and then there was no other call until he called the police at 8 57 a.m the
morning when Stephen said he found the note I'd like to know if his phone was even on
or in service because with cell phone ping technology maybe we would know where he went
so what we have here Captain is about roughly 12 hours you know what was Stephen doing
either he was doing exactly what he told the police he was doing but it doesn't seem that way you know he's at his
parents home with jaleek and they went to bed and Stephen slept for the night or or was it more of what we have
evidence of that's just not true the story might just not be true if that's the case then
we have ours oh we know he could have been covering something up or getting rid of something well but right but
we're pretty clear on the fact that this guy's a liar and if we think he's a liar
then law enforcement thinks he's a liar and it's like what else is he lying about well let's get into that 8 15 PM
call this was very shortly after Stephen Angelique finished eating dinner at the
Red Robin according to the Post-Star this call was from a friend of Stevens who later spoke to police
this is some weird stuff he told them that on the phone Stephen was agitated and angry and Stephen made
several rude comments about jalique the caller's impression was that jalique was in the
vehicle and could hear the insulting and derogatory things that Stephen was saying about the child
in January of 2008 it came out in the media that Stephen and Jocelyn were continuing to receive monthly stipend
checks for fifteen hundred dollars of course they were these were funds paid to adoptive families of challenged
children by the Department of Social Services to help pay for their care of course jalique had been gone for
months by this point all of this was enough to tip the scales let's say in a news conference on
January 14 2008 police named Stephen Kerr as a person of interest in jaleek's disappearance this was based all on the
information we just went through and the fact that he was the last person to see
the child before jaleek vanished meanwhile at the other end of January 2008 there
was a big development in this case an anonymous letter sent to Media around the region that claimed missing
12-year-old Julie grainwalker was alive and was picked up on route 40. this was being investigated by police
the Post-Star says they received the type Written Letter on Wednesday as did at least two Albany
television stations but the contents of the letter are a lot more in-depth than that
the letter which contained no return address and was postmarked and was postmarked Westchester New York
reads jelik still alive needed a foot soldier for this War on Drugs picked him up Route 40 post 30. he's
okay no fake he says ask his mama and papa who are the macaroni family my cat name Diamond yes
why does Franti yell fire and then it says rapper question mark I don't know what that means don't try to
look we are not there clearly this letter was designed to make it look like jalik was alive and maybe
even well and living somewhere else with a crazy person yeah I don't know I mean or
who knows or was it supposed to be some code for something there's no indication
of who wrote it I mean your guess is as good as mine or anybody else's I mean did you like write it did somebody write
it on his behalf as somebody holding him somewhere against his will is he living
there happily it's a confusing letter well this I'd really like to know if if the
initial letter that was supposedly written by jalik was actually written by jalik and if this and if that wasn't
then I would guess that this one isn't as well and this is just to throw law enforcement off this well this was a
typed letter so it again it's it's the person no return address it's kind of cryptic it's typed there's whoever
whoever gave this to the media they're clearly constructing the thing with without the intention of you
determining who authored this letter right right now Stephen and Jocelyn's lawyer Jeffrey McMorris jumped on this
opportunity to say hey I Told You So Right their lawyer said that the letter contained information that only jalik
would have known so that's got to be proof that he's still alive somewhere right and his clients Stephen Kerr and
Jocelyn McDonald were excited and they said that it was a sign that rainwalker was still alive and again they're just
they're doing everything they can this is what they're saying and not only are we doing everything we can but we're
also preparing for the boy to return now this letter arrived hey we were preparing for the boy to return when
we're going to try to get rid of him anyways and we we keep taking the money we keep taking money for him even though
he's not around even though we're probably the cause of him not being around but we're going to
keep taking money so what shows you what kind of people these are well this letter arrived it came about
as the Kerr McDonald Clan was in the process of packing everything up to move to Vermont
because Stephen felt that he was being persecuted by the police in the meantime as they prepare to leave
the family was staying at the Hill Street home of Stephen's parents where Stephen Angelique spent the night that
last night that julieq was seen yeah well you got to stay there so you can monitor it so you can monitor if the
police are searching that area but but then you're also leaving the other place abandoned to not keep an eye on it so
yeah but you but if if you're the one responsible for him going missing you know which property is important
which one's not on February 7th the Cambridge Greenwich Police visited the family there it seems as though this
impromptu visit was deliberately intended to allow the police you know to look around scout out what was going on
in the house they saw a computer when they were there and this this is when they're like uh oh
they freeze the scene and they sent someone out immediately to get a search warrant so they could confiscate the
computer yeah Chief Bell would not comment on whether they planned on searching the computer to see whether it
had produced the anonymous letters about jalique being alive but they want to search it for something so we can assume
that's probably what they're looking at amongst other things but according to the Post-Star newspaper the letters were
typed in a font and style that bore a quote strong resemblance to those used by Jocelyn and other correspondents to
the media unfortunately forensic examination of the letters themselves did not provide really any indication as
to the source of the latter as a result of this search though Jeffrey McMorris filed a notice of claim against the
police department naming Chief Bell specifically alleging trespassing and fall false imprisonment no lawsuit was
ever filed and nothing was ever settled it really looks like this Captain was kind of a warning shot you know from the
attorney to the police department telling them to back off right don't bully my clients
so bully don't do your job that's what he was trying to say don't do your job McMorris was dramatically
indignant about all of these unwarranted infringements on his clients rights he was constantly making statements like
the police conduct was outrageous and calling Chief Bell the ringleader of The Witch Hunt against his clients he
continued to declare that the police were focusing on the wrong person that jalique was out there somewhere and the
investigators were suffering from tunnel vision I do want to get into a couple of people
that well they seem to really truly care about jalique let's talk about two women
involved in this case who have principles and stood up for this unwanted child despite the personal cost
of doing so one is Elaine person she's the respite caregiver she was an advocate for jalik from the beginning
she was of course aware of his behavioral issues but as a respite caregiver she was trained to deal with
them and look past them to the person that the child truly was she says quote jalik was a beautiful
sweet intelligent generous and loving child with some behavior issues according to Elaine she and her husband
Angelique had a nice five days together and when jaleek left her home with Stephen on that day November 1st she
said he seemed happy it certainly did not seem to her that jaleek was planning to run away or harm himself and remember
she said she did not believe that the boy knew that his adoptive parents were trying to give him back right
besides just offering insight into jaleek Elaine had some important information for the investigators she
told them that during julieq's stay with them she and her husband Tom observed jaleek doing some homework assigned to
him by his father remember the whole the kids were homeschooled right and this homework
assignment was to write a letter of apology to the other kids in his home school classroom who he had hurt by this
recent outburst Elaine said that she did not read the note written by jalik out of respect for
his privacy but she knew what it was and what purpose it was intended for when she saw the news that Stephen Kerr
was you know she sees this on the news Kerr is holding up this same note as evidence saying that
jalik had left on his own volition she's shocked you know she yelled at the TV that's not a goodbye no that is a
homework assignment now we could give Stephen the benefit of the doubt and assume that he simply mistook this
letter of apology for a departure note but remember Stephen was the one who assigned jaleek to write the note in the
first place a really Suspicious Mind might even make the leap that Stephen had done so
deliberately planning to possibly later use the note to explain why jalik had vanished but it's
almost like he put him in a situation you go here for a couple days one write this note for me I'm going to use that
against you but I'm also going to use this time to figure out how I'm going to get rid of you
I find the whole thing a little weird and I question a lot of it I understand Elaine's suspicions but the way that the
letters written the the way it's constructed does seem a little more goodbyish to me
than apology right it says goodbye it says I won't bother you anymore um I guess you could take that
really one of two ways or maybe even both Now Elaine made it her mission to find
jalik she took a leave of absence from her job and started a task force comprising of her herself her husband
Barbara really who's Julie's grandmother and some of jalik's other Foster families they were calling themselves
the fine jalique task force they started a website publicizing jalik's disappearance it became a
bulletin board of sorts listing all sorts of suspect Behavior and past transgressions on the part of Jocelyn
and Steven the website has been taken down since then but we were able to find some
excerpts from it the website did not pull any punches for example Elaine wrote she believed
Stephen harmed jalique and caused his disappearance from a section titled what the police
know it's alleged that the family applied to adopt julique and another child basically in a bid to have access to the
state provided funds that accompanied such adoptions and then after these adoptions went through they moved to
that inadequate housing situation with no Plumbing or electricity right it was said that Stephen and Jocelyn
sent their own children to private school but made jaleek and the others make do with hand-me-downs and they were
homeschooled other posts on the website provided Snippets showing what life was like there for jalique
one says one time after a series of ignored reminders jalik's mother banned him from using the outhouses for several
days jaleek's only option was to either use the woods this around the house or try to wait it
out until the family went on some errands so he could use you know restrooms at these different businesses
both jaleek and Jocelyn told jaleek's former foster parent that jalique was locked in his room at
night they saw the locks on the doors when they visited jalik jalik's grandmother also confirmed that the
locks were there and used Julie's room also had no heat according to this post so the small
portable heater was I guess they put a small portable heater in the room at times but would remove it this to
believe believed to be a form of punishment now of course we should make sure that we don't believe everything
that we see on websites especially websites like this others on social media have posted that
Jocelyn had the kids best interest at heart and she was trying to protect jalik from her husband
Barbara really is Jocelyn McDonald's mother angelique's adoptive grandmother Barbara told the media that in the five
years jaleek lived with her daughter's family he exhibited instances of uncontrollable rages that were
frightening to other family members she also said that very quickly very early on she began to question the story
that jalique ran away because she did not like the answers she was getting from the parents to her
questions this comes to light and gets into some good detail from a 2016 post by Barbara on the Facebook page she
started for jalique and chime in at any time here Captain if you need clarification on anything
because there are some names in this post that we have not yet introduced to the audience
she posted nine years ago today jalique was last seen by the waitress and manager at Red Robin restaurant in
Latham New York just after 8 pm jaleek and Stephen left Red Robin and Steven's parents gold van
12 hours later my daughter Jocelyn McDonald called me saying jaleek had run away in the night and she wanted me to
drive to Greenwich she says this was a hurried 45 miles to Stephen's parents house where she found
Stephen Jocelyn and Robin Robin's one of the uh is her grandson in the family room of the house Robin had just
showered Jocelyn was heading into the shower and Stephen was talking rapidly about finding a note and that he had
gotten up early and looked in and seen what he thought was jalique in bed and then he had gone to shower and have
breakfast Stephen was rambling and talking faster and faster about the Respite Home and
the other foster children and then returned to talk about his meal that he had the night before
she says I asked questions about whether they'd reported jalique missing to the police and whether they'd gone to the
neighborhood houses searched the streets whether the house and the garage and the
van had been thoroughly searched how Jolie could have left the house through which door you know she's asking all the
normal questions whether there was any clothing or a jacket that might be missing the answers were that there was
only one way Julie could have left the house through the back door into the garage
and then out the automatic door of the garage she says I asked about the noise of the
garage opening and that there were extremely close neighbors that may have heard something
but the response was they didn't want to bother the neighbors with any questions
the front door was locked from the inside with a key that was still in the hall cupboard
there was no missing jacket or clothing that they remembered being in the house they hadn't gone to any neighbors or
searched the streets they hadn't searched the house except the bedroom jaleek had supposedly slept in the
previous night there was no overwhelming sense of urgency or danger for jaleek she says
indeed she says Jocelyn was concerned because Bevin and Kiana these are the the other
children were in the home school and she needed to get them and take robin to his
doctor's appointment she said that Stephen said he had an office birthday party to go to
after a half an hour Stephen and Jocelyn decided we all needed to go to their house on Raven way and then she would
get the kids together and then go to the son's doctor's appointment she says that
they all drove but they took separate vehicles to the home she said when she got into their house Jocelyn was on the
phone on her cell phone calling The Homeschool family and Steven started circling around her asking if she wanted
breakfast and listing all of the things that he could cook for her he was speaking rapidly she says in
walking in circles now once Jocelyn finished her phone call she got Robin into his coat and was
going to go pick up the other children then go on to the doctor's appointment Stephen said he was going to his work to
his boss's birthday party she says she was stunned and said that she would drive around and
look for jaleek which is how she spent November 2nd 2007. nine years ago today was the last time anyone other than
Stephen Kerr saw jaleek nine years of searching and investigating still no definitive answer jaleek was a wonderful
and loving child and deserves to be cared for and kept safe she says I feel we are in a holding
pattern but one day the final piece will be found and we'll know what happened to
jaleek and there will be Justice our search for jalique Will Go On until there are answers we love you jalik we
miss you look I wanted to go through that whole post there because it's important to
note that she's pointing out that as soon as she was alerted to this missing child as soon as she got involved as
soon as she's face to face with both mother and father neither of them seem to be concerned that the boy was missing
neither of them seem to be looking for how the boy would have left the home checking with the neighbors looking on
the streets they didn't want to bother the neighbors she's the one saying hey this is what we
should be doing this is what we should be investigating we should be calling this in we should be doing that
meanwhile adopted mom is worried about getting the other kid to the doctor's appointment getting kids to school
the dad is worried about oh hey sit down I can cook you some some breakfast this
is what I had for dinner last night I have to go to my boss's birthday party so a whole lot of
I mean there's no sense of urgency there's no there's no effort being made at that time when she walks into the
situation on behalf of the parents of Julie graemon [Music] all right thanks for joining us so much
more to get into tomorrow and we're going to be back here so we want to see you in the garage
tomorrow until then be good be kind and don't live foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music]

Jaliek Rainwalker /// Part 1 /// 418

Part 1 of 2 www.TrueCrimeGarage.com

November 2007 - Twelve year old Jaliek Rainwalker was reported missing from his grandparents’ residence in Greenwich, New York. Jaliek is biracial with light brown hair and green eyes. At the time of his disappearance Jaliek was 5 foot 6 inches tall and 105lbs. He reportedly was wearing blue jeans and black high top sneakers. FOUL PLAY is suspected. Anyone with any information is asked to contact the New York State Major Crimes unit @ 518-783-3211 or email nysvicap@troopers.ny.gov You can also visit and submit information with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Missingkids.org

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Brief Summary

The episode covers the mysterious disappearance of Jalique Rainwalker and the troubling behavior of his adoptive parents during the investigation.

Key points

The Disappearance of Jalique Rainwalker. 12-year-old Jalique Rainwalker goes missing under troubling circumstances, raising concerns about his adoptive family.
A Troubled Childhood. Jalique's early life was marked by instability and emotional challenges due to his background.
The Search Begins. Police launch a massive search for Jalique, fearing the worst as days pass without a trace.
Suspicion on the Adoptive Parents. The behavior of Jalique's adoptive parents raises red flags for investigators.
Stephen's Violent Outburst. Stephen Kerr's temper issues come to light when he violently reacts to Jaleek's behavior.
Police Suspicions Rise. Stephen Kerr becomes a suspect as police investigate his involvement in Jaleek's disappearance.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

It's easy to say that Julie's parents were the hippie types.

Describing Jalique's adoptive family's lifestyle.

7:44WatchNov 12, 2022

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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