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

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[Music] [Music] missing per jelik rainwalker on Friday November 2nd 2007 12-year-old jelik rainwalker was
reported missing from his grandparents residence in green witch Washington County New
York jelik is biracial with light brown hair and green eyes at the time of his disappearance jelik was 5' 6 in tall 105
lb he is believed to have been 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 at
518783 3211 or email NYS vicap troopers.ny.gov y.gov that's nysv IAP at troopers.ny.gov
[Music] [Music] [Music] J Rain Walker was born on August 2nd 1995 in Albany New York to a mother
addicted to crack and alcohol jelik 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 jal's
parents' names jelik was a goodl looking kid with green eyes and a big smile there are a few photos of jelik
available online and if you look him up you'll see a face beaming with personality but unfortunately due to
jal'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 and all before Steven Kerr and Joselyn McDonald adopted him in 2003 per the
Albany Times Union jelik lived with the couple and their children for 5 years including three years as their adopted
son Steven and Joselyn had four other children three biological sons and one adopted daughter the kids ranged in age
from 8 years old up to 14 jelik also had two biological half brothers who lived in Albany New York about 35 miles from
the town of green witch where jelik lived with his adoptive family in Royal upstate newor New York as described by
our friends over at the Charlie project on J's case profile page his adoptive family lived a non-traditional lifestyle
when they first took in jelik the family lived about 15 minutes from the village
of greenwitch 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 J's parents were the hippie types they sold eggs at local
farmers markets and preferred to leave little to no environmental impact jelik was homeschooled by his adoptive parents
and and some other local kids were schooled at jal's home as well now jelik had some behavioral problems according
to the Cambridge green witch 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 in his only 12
years of life his life was not easy of course misbehavior and lack of understanding of approp inter
interaction was to be 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 Outburst
could last up to an hour jelik was very intelligent he was an Avid Reader before
jelik was adopted he lived with the showen family and they did plan to adopt him but after after he attacked their
daughters when he was 7 years old they decided he could no longer stay in their home this is when he went to live with
Steven and Joselyn several of the other Foster families who had taken in jelik 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 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 jelik well let's go over this house really quick cuz I mean that's a very odd situation to oh I
didn't get into it cuz 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 you're we're going to go up there yeah there's no electricity but we
have a generator we're going to spend some time Outdoors that doesn't seem that bad it seems like a far
removed 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 kid you're trying to adopt it 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 jelik had a few rough days according to stepen and Joselyn jelik threatened another young boy who
was in his homeschool class at their house it's reported the boy was only about 5 years old
according to Joselyn and Steven jelik 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 secondhand he's just a kid himself so where is he hearing
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 jelik 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 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 Joselyn had become afraid of the boy she says according to the Charlie project on October 23rd
stepen called a crisis hotline and reported jalik to be unmanageable around the same time
Joselyn and Steven began inquiring of child services Personnel how to reverse the adoption they were were informed
that a legal adoption is binding and cannot be undone jelik was theirs to keep they were recommended respit care
services respit care services is temporary institutional care of a sick elderly or disabled person providing
relief for their usual caregiver in other words shortterm relief with a little separation time between in this
situation parents and jelik 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 jelik at their home for a few days after that he would be sent to
another respit home the persons who had housed jelik in the past kept him at their home until November 1st on the
evening of Thursday November 1st Steven picked jelik up from the person 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 green witch Steven and jelik headed to Steven's parents house at 11 Hill Street in a different part of Greenwich
this house was unoccupied at the time as Steven's father was a state department Diplomat stationed in Romania and
Steven's mother was there with him as well at the house Steven later told police the two spent the night but in
the morning he went into the room jelik slept in and found that the bed was stuffed with pillows the way that kids
do when they want it to look like someone was sleeping in that bed jelik was not there at 7:30 a.m. Steven found
a note and then he called the Cambridge green witch police at 8:57 a.m. all right just side note here make sure
you're paying attention at 7:30 a.m. Steven found a note he calls the police at 8:57
a.m. this note was handed over to the police it was in jal's handwriting and it said dear everybody I am sorry for
everything I won't bother you anymore goodbye Del leque 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 Joselyn and stepen they were saying hey jelik clearly ran away he had gotten in big
trouble with them and clearly felt horrible about it the adopted 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 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 keep doing
this so gives a very plausible reason of why he would want to just leave the situation stepen and Joselyn 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 jal's condition
Steven and Joselyn tried to come up with some possible destinations where jelik might have run off to they informed the
Cambridge green witch PD about gel'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 Joselyn said perhaps jelik
hitch a ride somewhere maybe like New York City because that was somewhere that jelik had always wanted to go now
according to Stephen jelik had befriended some older teen boys while at the Parson home and he said well maybe
they he ran off with them or they suggested that jelik was interested in his Heritage and maybe he wanted to live
with an africanamerican 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 fem radius of the kurr's home where jelik was last seen by his adopted father they used infrared
cameras helicopters canines divers and even drained a pawn in their aial 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 jelik
in the first couple of days things began to look worrisome November and Upstate New York has very cold nights Joselyn
and Steven were able to describe what they believed jelik 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 jelik 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 he'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 the children are impulsive and he is making irrational
decisions or choices or 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 Joselyn implored residents to post gel's missing flyer and keep an eye
out for the boy they held prayer vigils they hired psychic they offered a cash reward but pretty quickly it became
apparent that their public facade was not the same as their private Behavior mhm 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 Steven
and Joselyn 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 stepen claims to have called
the police station 78 times but Chief Bell disputes this right he pointed out that step and his wife agreed to be
interviewed only with an attorney and Steven 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 cursor 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 signs 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
ciary 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 Joselyn 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 for 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 Steph
Kerr had a problem with his own temper and had flown off the handle at jelik in the past one story Chief Bell learned
from joselyn's mother J's grandmother Barbara reallyy who heard it straight from her
daughter was of a situation when jelik was 9 years old and he was continually making some noise by like drumming his
fingers or hands on the table even though Steven repeatedly asked him to stop as some point as The Story Goes
Steven lost it and grabbed the boy dragged him down to a creek to the creek near the home and was holding his head
underwater this until the wife intervene right that's that's called attempted murder step and Joselyn 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 green witch police and state police were treating Steven as a suspect and clearly embraced
the idea that he had done something to jelik rather than investigating if the boy ran away MCM Morris requested that
the FBI take over the investigation articles show that the FBI became involved in the case of missing
jelik rainwalker by the end of November and while Stephen and Joselyn stopped cooperating with police and
refused to participate in searches for their son in early December they appeared in an exclusive interview with
Ana Tucker of tv10 Albany in which they refused to answer most of the questions instead declaring how much they were
doing to find jelik 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 Steven Kerr the last person to see jelik
rainwalker his adopted son before the boy disappeared November 1st has been seen around green witch in Cambridge
tearing in 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 Steven 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] this show is sponsored by better help do
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all right 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 we the cheap seats we hey those are the best seats those
are the people that fought to get in what did John London used to say he'd say that people in the cheap seats clap
your hands and the people up front just jiggle your jewelry well I want to point out 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 Leman as well as the excellent coverage by the Albany Times Union wanted 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 them 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 person's 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 at this point right and you would also think that your head space would be so far
gone from worrying about anything 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 that is verification of this dude not being able to control his behavior
and reaction to things yeah I mean this guy's a [ __ ] stain but I also like we go
back to that house you have a an 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 Abus 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 um 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 a family's 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 mouth
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 jalik 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 jelik but nothing was found and then Stephen
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 and Cambridge when he
came in to bring in some information Belle is on record stating I mean this whole thing is weird end quote
Yeah they 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 and child abuse that's that's my gut feeling so what did the investigators uncover about
Sten Kerr that clearly convinced them that he knew more than what he was saying well on the morning that he
reported jelik 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 well no the reporting the kid missing like an hour and a half later not 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 there 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 if you told me he did all those things and then he called the cops I'd
go okay that makes sense but taking a shower and returning some movies it's ridiculous 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 reverse 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 they 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 own by Steven's father remember the night that jelik went
missing or the morning however you want to look at it that he went missing he and Stephen were at Steven'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 in green witch at 12:16 a.m.
on November 2nd that's the night that jalik vanished Steven 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 Steven 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 subpoena Steven's cell phone records and they showed some
inconsistencies with what step Kerr told police about that night his cell phone history showed that on the night of
November 1st after he and jelik left the Red Robin Steven 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 Steven said he found the note I like to know if his phone was even on or in service because
with cell phone pink 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 had his parents home with jalik 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 hours oh we know he's when 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 p.m. call this was very shortly after Steven
and jelik finished eating 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 Steph made several rude comments about jelik the caller's impression was that jelik was in the
vehicle and could hear the insulting and derogatory things that Steven was saying
about the child in January of 2008 it came out in the media that step and Joselyn were continuing to receive
monthly stien checks for $1,500 of course they were these were funds paid to adopted families of
challenged children by the Department of Social Services to help pay for their care of course jelik 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 14th 2008 police named Steven Kerr as a person of interest in jelik 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 jelik vanished meanwhile at the 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 jelik
rainwalker was alive and was picked up on Route 40 this was being investigated by police
the postar says they received the typewritten letter on Wednesday as did at least two Albany television
stations but the contents of the letter are a lot more indepth 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 frany 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 jelik was alive and
maybe even weet 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 jelik write it did somebody write it on his behalf is somebody holding him
somewhere against his will is he living there happily it it's a confusing letter well
this I would really like to know if if the initial letter that was supposedly written by jelik was actually written by
jelik 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 the 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 now Stephen and joselyn'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 jelik would have known so that's got to be proof that he's still alive somewhere
right and his clients Steven Kerr and Joselyn McDonald were excited and they said that it was a sign that Rain Walker
was still alive and again they're just they're doing everything they can this is what they're saying right and not
only are we doing everything we can but we're also preparing for the boy to return now this letter arrived yeah wait
we were're 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 stepen felt that he was being persecuted by the police in the meantime as they prepared to leave the family was
staying at the Hill Street home of Steven's parents where Steven and jelik spent the night that last night that
jelik was seeing yeah well you got to stay there so you can monitor it so you can monitor if the police are search in
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 and which one's not on
February 7th the Cambridge green witch 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 uhoh they freezed 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 jelik 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 postar newspaper the letters were typed in a font in style that bore a quote strong
resemblance to those used by Joselyn and other corresponden to the media unfortunately forensic examination of
the letters themselves did not provide really any any indication as to the source of the letter 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 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 don't bully don't do your job
that's what he was trying to say don't do your job MCM Morris was dramatically indignant about all of these unwarranted
infringements on his client's rights he was constantly making statements like the police conduct was outrageous and
calling Chief Bell the ring leader of the Witch Hunt against his clients he continued to declare that the police
were focusing on the wrong person that jelik was out there somewhere and that 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 jik 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 respit caregiver she was an advocate
for jelik from the beginning she was of course aware of his behavioral issues but as a respit caregiver she was
trained to deal with them and look past them to the person that the child truly was she says quote jelik was a beautiful
sweet intelligent generous and loving child with some behavior issues according to Elaine she and her husband
and jelik had a nice five days together and when jelik left her home with stepen
on that day November 1st she said he seemed happy it certainly did not seem to her that jelik 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 jelik Elaine had some important information
for the investigators she told them that during jelik stay with them she and her
husband Tom observed jelik doing some homework assigned to him by his father remember the home the kids were
homeschooled right and this homework assignment was to write a letter of apology to the other kids in his
homeschool 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 cerr is holding up this same
note as evidence saying that jelik had left on his own volition she's shocked you know she yelled at the
TV that's not a goodbye note 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 jelik to write the note in the first place and really Suspicious Mind might even make the leap that Stephen
had done so deliberately planning to possibly later use the note to explain why jelik had vanished but it's almost
like he put him in a situation 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
goodbye is 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 or maybe even both mhm Now Elaine made it her mission to find jelik she took a leave of
absence from her job and started a task force comprising of her herself her husband
Barbara reallyy who's gel's grandmother and some of gel's other Foster families they were calling themselves the fine
jelik task force they started a website publicizing jal's disappearance it became a bulletin board of sorts listing
all sorts of suspect Behavior and past transgressions on the part of Joselyn 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 Steven harmed jelik and caused his
disappearance from a section titled what the police know it's alleged that the family
applied to adopt jelik 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 Steven and Joselyn sent their
own children to private school but made jelik and the others uh make do with hand-me-downs and they were homeschooled
other posts on the website provided Snippets showing what life was like there for
jelik one says one time after a series of ignored reminders jal's mother banned him from using the out houses for
several days chik'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 jelik and Joselyn told jal's former foster parent that jelik was locked in his room at night they saw
the locks on the doors when they visited jelik gel's grandmother also confirmed that the locks were there and used J'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 believe 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 Joselyn had the kids best interest at heart and she was
trying to protect jelik from her husband Barbara really is Joselyn McDonald's mother and jal's adoptive
grandmother Barbara told the media that in the 5 years jelik 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 jelik 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 20 2016 post by Barbara on the
Facebook page she started for jelik 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 M she posted
n years ago today jelik was last seen by the waitress and manager at Red Robin restaurant in laam New York just after
8:00 p.m. jelik and stepen left Red Robin and Steven's parents gold van 12 hours later my daughter Joselyn McDonald
called me saying jelik had run away in the night and she wanted me to drive to Greenwich she says this was a hurried 45
miles to Steven's parents house where she found step Joselyn and Robin Robin's one of the uh is her grandson in the
family room of the house Robin had just showered Joselyn was heading into the shower and Steven was talking rapidly
about finding a note and that he had gotten up early and looked in and seen what he thought was jelik in bed and
then he had gone to shower and have breakfast Steven was rambling and talking faster and faster about the
respit home and the other foster children and then returned to talk about his meal that he had the night before
mhm she says I asked questions about whether they'd reported jelik missing to the police and whether they'd gone to
the neighborhood houses searched the streets whether the house in the garage and the van had been thoroughly searched
how jalie 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 jalie 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 yeah 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 jelik had supposedly slept in the previous night there was no overwhelming sense of urgency or danger
for jelik she says indeed she says John was concerned because Bon and cayana 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 step and Joselyn 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 Joselyn 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 and walking in circles now once Joselyn 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 jelik which is how she spent November 2nd 2017 9 years ago
today was the last time anyone other than Steven Kerr saw jelik 9 years of searching and investigating still no
definitive answer jelik 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 jelik and there
will be Justice our search for jelik Will Go On until there are answers we love you jelik 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 seemed to be concerned that the boy was missing
neither of them seemed 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 mhm 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 jelik [Music]
rainow 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 L [Music] it Angie's List is now Angie and we've heard a lot of theories about why I
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must be a tech thing but those aren't quite right it's because now you can compare up front prices book a service
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Jaliek Rainwalker /// Part 1 /// 418

Part 1 of 2

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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 (http://missingkids.org/)

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Brief Summary

The episode examines the mysterious disappearance of 12-year-old Jelik Rainwalker and the troubling circumstances surrounding his adoptive family.

Key points

The Disappearance of Jelik Rainwalker. 12-year-old Jelik Rainwalker goes missing under troubling circumstances, raising concerns about his home life.
Jelik's Troubled Background. Jelik was diagnosed with fetal alcohol syndrome and faced numerous challenges in his early life.
The Note Left Behind. Jelik leaves a note before disappearing, raising questions about his state of mind.
The Search Begins. The police launch a massive search for Jelik, fearing for his safety.
Parents' Behavior Raises Suspicion. The adoptive parents' actions during the search for Jelik raise red flags for investigators.
Attempted Murder Revealed. A shocking past incident involving Steven and Jelik raises serious concerns about his behavior.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

this is just a difficult situation.

10:22WatchNov 16, 2023

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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