Crime Junkie - MISSING: Jaliek Rainwalker

Episode Date: February 1, 2021

A child's mysterious disappearance sparks tough questions about his adoptive family and the system that placed him there.If you know anything about the disappearance of Jaliek Rainwalker, please contact the Cambridge-Greenwich police at 518-677-3044.For more information on how you can support the nonprofit Child Advocates, check out their website www.childadvocates.net For current Fan Club membership options and policies, please visit https://crimejunkieapp.com/library/. Source materials for this episode cannot be listed here due to character limitations. For a full list of sources, please visit https://crimejunkiepodcast.com/missing-jaliek-rainwalker/ 

Hi, Crime Junkies. I'm your host, Ashley Flowers. And I'm Brett. And today, I want to tell you a story that highlights just how broken the American foster care system is. A young boy with a tragic past seemed to get a happy ending when he was adopted by parents who appeared to understand the unique work of raising a child with severe emotional problems. But his mysterious disappearance raised a ton of questions about those same parents and the system that put him in their care to begin with. This is the story of Jaleek Rainwalker. In the fall of 2007, a boy in New York state named Jaleek Rainwalker is going through a difficult time. Jaleek is 12 years old and he's one of these kids where, I mean, you can't help but feel like they've gotten just a really rough lot in life, pretty much from day one.

You see, when Jaleek was born, his mother had substance use problems with alcohol and crack cocaine. And so as a result, Jaleek was born addicted to crack. He was sexually abused as an infant and entered the state foster care system at a very young age. And so by the time he was seven years old, he had been in not one, not two, but six different foster homes. Oh my God, and that much change at such a young age, not to mention, you know, whatever damage he may have suffered in utero from the drugs, that's going to cause a lot of trauma. It did. I mean, Jaleek's got some pretty severe behavioral issues that have manifested in violence and both suicidal and homicidal tendencies, even at a young age. And he's also been diagnosed with reactive attachment disorder, which according to the Mayo Clinic's website means that he has a hard time kind of like building emotional connections with other people like his adoptive parents.

So he's been adopted. Yeah. So in 2002, when Jaleek was seven years old, he went to live with a couple named Jocelyn McDonald and her husband, Stephen Kerr. And they live in East Greenwich in Washington County, which is near like Eastern New York. And they adopted him in May of 2004 officially. So he'd been with them like about two years before the adoption was official. Now, the couple also had three biological sons and an adopted daughter. But Jaleek's emotional and mental health issues are never far away. And in late October of 2007, after he allegedly threatened to sexually assault a younger boy in his homeschooling group, Jocelyn and Stephen feel like they've kind of reached the end of their rope.

According to the Charlie Project, Stephen calls a crisis hotline on October 23rd and tells them that he and Jocelyn can't deal with Jaleek anymore. And they're afraid that he's going to hurt their other kids. And what they basically ask for is they want to undo the adoption, but that's not an option. Right. Like an adoption literally fuses a child into a family. Like legit in our adoptions, at least the judge asked us explicitly if we understood that by adopting these kids, we were bringing them into our family with all of the same rights and expectations given to biological kids. Whether it's care, responsibility, love, even things like inheritances. So since Jaleek has already been adopted, the process would be honestly a lot like making an adoption plan for a biological child. Yeah, this isn't something you can just reverse.

Yeah, you don't just hit undo. Right. So when they call this hotline, the operators suggest putting Jaleek into respite care instead. And again, like you're talking about this because you've been through this. Like you have fostered kids, you've provided respite care. So do you want to give the lowdown on what respite care exactly is? Yeah, this wasn't planned, but we're actually doing respite care this weekend for another family. You know, sometimes it's just approved childcare for times when, you know, maybe you have to leave the state for an emergency or funeral and your placement isn't approved to travel with you yet. But in cases like this, it's more like a break for not just the foster parents, but the kids as well.

So a child will go to another licensed family for a couple of days just so everyone can kind of cool off, take a break, get their heads together and kind of figure out what the next steps are. So it's not a placement change. No one's moving permanently. It's honestly designed to prevent that from happening. And I don't know about other states, but at least here in Indiana, they're usually pretty short, like less than a week or five days even. Right. So in this case, what happens is Jaleek goes to respite care on October 26 and he is placed with a couple named Elaine and Tom Person. Now, I didn't see this verified anywhere else, but according to the Fine Jaleek Task Force website, Stephen actually asked the persons if they can keep Jaleek for two weeks while he's out of the country, because Jocelyn, even though she's going to stay in the country, she doesn't want Jaleek in the house. Again, there seem to be afraid of him or how he's reacting with the kids.

And she's probably, you know, a little bit concerned about being able to control him or, you know, control the situations around him. Yeah. Now, the respite care family, they can't keep him the like the full two weeks because they themselves are due to leave town, but they do agree to keep Jaleek for a few days with them. And the plan is that on November 1, which is a Thursday, Stephen is going to come back and pick up Jaleek. Wait, so he isn't going to take this trip then? No. So on the Fine Jaleek site, which again, I haven't seen this verified anywhere else, but Elaine and Tom claim that Stephen was supposed to go to Romania for like two weeks, but he eventually had to cancel the trip because he couldn't find additional care for Jaleek.

So I think the trip got canceled or he decided not to go or whatever. Okay. So this whole thing goes down exactly as planned. According to Elaine and Tom on the finejaleek.org website, he's really polite when he's with them. He's well behaved. He spends a lot of his time reading and they do some pretty normal things. Like they go to church on Sunday. They go to a high school football game one night.

And since it's near Halloween, they go to a haunted house on another night. Like everything seems normal. He's playing video games with their adult kids. And by the end of the visit, Elaine writes that they quote, could not have asked for a better behaved, polite and grateful child. End quote. Okay, but that's a complete difference than what Stephen and Jocelyn are describing. Yeah.

And I don't know, we don't know what causes this, right? Like I don't know if this is the situation that he's in. Did Jaleek actually have problems with the family and that's what was causing his behavior? Well, and as a devil's advocate, like there often is like a honeymoon period with new placements where the first couple of days or the first couple of weeks are really easy because they're a little bit afraid or scared or unsure about the situation. So they're on their best behavior in those opening days. That's really interesting.

Because I think a lot of people, even like myself who aren't familiar with this, look at this immediately and say, oh, like Stephen must have been like lying about how out of control Jaleek was or how scared they were of him. But you're saying it's totally possible that he did have completely different behavior with two different families. I think so, especially you're looking at like experienced foster care workers as well, assuming that they have adult kids they've parented before. Yeah.

I mean, he could just be in finally a safe place and feeling better and more confident and comfortable, but it also could just be him making sure he doesn't have to move one more time in his very short life already. That's true. So this weekend goes well. It goes as planned or not weekend, but this like period of time. And so Stephen picks up Jaleek on November 1st as planned. Now, here's the thing.

Instead of going home, they stop off at Stephen's parents' house in Greenwich, which is about 10 minutes away from East Greenwich, so they can spend the night there. And nowhere could I find why this happens. From what my understanding is, is Stephen's parents weren't there anymore. So it would have been just him and Jaleek there. Again, this is just 10 minutes away from where they live. I have no idea why he would stop there instead of going home. Yeah.

It seems kind of weird to stop 10 minutes away from your final destination. Yeah. And especially when it's not like you're going to see your parents. They're not there in the house. Yeah. Now, according to Allison Martin's reporting in the post star, Stephen tells Jaleek to go to bed around 9 p.m. that night. So he does with no problems.

Stephen comes in to check on him the next morning at about 7 a.m. This is November 2nd. And since everything looks okay, like Jaleek looks like he's still in bed sleeping, Stephen doesn't worry. But when Stephen goes back later to get Jaleek up, he finds every parent's worst nightmare. Because instead of Jaleek being there, he's gone. So Stephen says that it looked like the bed had been like padded

with pillows and blankets and stuff to make it look like he was still in bed. And he thinks Jaleek ran away because on the kitchen table, Stephen finds two things. There's a sheet of paper that just says the word Albany on it. He says that it looks like the kind of thing that you might see hitchhikers have, you know. And there's also a note. And here, Brett, I want to have you read this for us. So the note says, quote, dear everybody, I'm sorry for everything.

I won't be a bother anymore. Goodbye, Jaleek, end quote. So that does sound like a runaway note to me. But I guess my question is like with the sheet of paper that says Albany, does he have any connection to Albany? Well, he does have two half brothers in the area. And he actually hasn't met them before during supervised visits. And so Stephen's first terrified thought is that Jaleek has run away to Albany.

And so he calls 911 at around 9 a.m. Once police arrive, they're just as worried as Stephen is. And the search efforts start right away. Remember, it's November in New York state. So it's cold outside and only going to get colder. And plus, Jaleek doesn't have any food, any supplies, or really any even like clothing that's going to make people think that he's going to do well out there.

Like he is as vulnerable as a kid can be. And even more concerning, his adoptive mom, Jocelyn, doesn't think the note that they found was a runaway note. According to that same post star piece I mentioned earlier, she's afraid that it could be a suicide note because of Jaleek's mental state. Jocelyn says Jaleek hadn't ever attempted to die by suicide, but he'd talked about it. And that coupled with the note, you know,

this is more than enough to send her worry into overdrive. Yeah, I can totally see that. So since Jaleek is thought to be a runaway, there's no amber alert issued or anything. There's not a huge amount of information out there about the searches on the first couple of days. But I did read that the searches keep happening all through the week. And the police are following all of their standard runaway protocols.

So his description is entered into a national database of kids and law enforcement check out any local leads in case he's still in the area. Now, the FBI describes Jaleek as being five foot six, a biracial male with light brown skin, curly hair, green eyes, and a slight speech impediment. And they say that he was last seen wearing jeans, a gray t-shirt with a dragon on the front, black high top shoes, and a yellow fleece pullover jacket.

On Monday, November 5th, this is three days after Jaleek went missing, a big search takes place out in the woods around Greenwich, looking for any signs of where he might be. Now this is a pretty intense operation with over 75 searchers. There's volunteers. We've got officials from the New York State Criminal Investigation Bureau, the Washington County Sheriff's Office, Forest Rangers, and State Police Major Crimes.

I'm sorry, what is Major Crimes doing out here for this kid that we think is just a runaway? Yeah, so here's the thing. According to Don Lehmann's reporting in the post star, the chief of police, this guy named George Bell, is starting to get, I don't want to say a little skeptical, but if you read his quotes from the piece on November 6th, this is the day after this big search,

you can see the wheels in his head turning, because the chief of police is starting to ask questions about this whole thing. It's not feeling right, and he's not the only one asking questions. In that same article, the Washington County District Attorney goes on record with the chief of police, saying that police have to treat Jaleek's disappearance as a possible homicide to preserve all the evidence

in case they find out that foul play was involved, or this is a case of foul play later on. They don't want to tamper anything or not collect anything. Collect as much as possible, just in case you need it, but best case scenario, you don't. You don't, right. Chief George also announces that while the police haven't found any evidence that Jaleek's been the victim of a crime,

he makes it very clear that law enforcement aren't ruling out that possibility. So they're being super careful with their words, of course, but something about the whole situation feels off to them, because the closer they look at how he was cared for, it's just not feeling right. According to the Charlie Project, at the time of his disappearance,

Jaleek wasn't in therapy or under any kind of psychiatric care for his mental health conditions, and he wasn't on any type of medications either. So for me, at least, that's super problematic, like as a foster parent and an adoptive parent. You know, it's a huge priority to make sure that these kids in care and post-adoptive have access to the treatment that they need

in order to help them cope with the trauma that they've been through, again, as children. Yeah, and Jocelyn does say that they were trying to find help for Jaleek before he disappeared, but she points to the difficulty of finding services in the area, which to be fair, when I looked up East Greenwich, where they live, it's not so much a town or a city on its own.

Rather, it's a part of Greenwich as a whole, and Greenwich as a whole has less than 5,000 people. Oh, so it's like a really small community. Yeah, so there could be some real validity in Jocelyn saying that it was hard to find mental health services in their area. As the searches continue and concerns about his welfare are mounting by the minute, all the reported potential sightings

of Jaleek turn out to be false leads. Police bring in divers to search this river that's about 10 minutes away from where Jaleek was last seen while forest rangers keep combing the woods around Greenwich. But despite all their efforts, no one can find any sign that Jaleek was ever there. With hope dwindling in the first week, law enforcement's tone keeps getting darker and darker.

Neil Goswami reported for the Bennington Banner that the police have followed up on over 150 leads by November 8th, but have come up empty on every single one. And as a result, the Greenwich chief of police believes that Jaleek has been harmed by quote, someone or something. But the searches keep going, and since hunting season is getting ready to start,

police actually ask local hunters just to keep an eye out in the woods. I absolutely love this idea. My brother and most of his friends are all hunters, and they usually hunt in the same area as every single season. So they already know the land, the terrain. They're familiar with tracking techniques even. And I mean, let's be honest,

they're just going to be out there anyway. Yeah, I mean, I think it's a great idea. And I can't tell you how many cases if we covered where it is a hunter that finds something. So letting them know preemptively to like be on the lookout and keep their eyes open, I think is even better. Totally. Now, so one of the things that I noticed is that

in all of the articles about the early searches for Jaleek, there's not a lot of mention of his adoptive parents being out there with volunteers. In some of the other missing persons cases we've talked about, like when we did our story on Leochi, like the parents or family members are out there every single day doing everything they can to try and bring their loved one home.

But we don't really see that here. Now, that doesn't mean that they weren't there. It just means that I couldn't find it, and it's something that stood out to me. Now, in fact, as time goes on, more and more of the things that Steven and Jocelyn do or don't do stand out to me and start attracting attention from other people. Now, we've said on the show that pretty much since day one,

like everyone expresses their grief differently and never know how you're going to react, like when the worst happens until the worst happens. Yeah, I mean, grief also isn't a performance and something that's very personal and internal. Right. And you express it individually. Absolutely.

But we've also seen time and time again how appearance behavior can impact the public's perception of them. And that is exactly what starts to happen with Steven Kerr. You see, two candlelight vigils are held for Jolique during the first couple of weeks in November. And according to WTEN News, Steven's there at the second vigil selling eggs?

Oh, like chicken eggs? Like, I have what? I guess. The broadcast didn't clarify. I just said he's selling eggs. Okay. I mean, the only way that even seems remotely appropriate to me is if it's like a fundraiser for a reward,

for information about Jolique, or bringing home safely. Nothing in my research says that it is. Because yeah, I could understand that. If this is designed to help get their son home to your point, like raising money. I don't know how much you're going to raise with eggs. But if that's all they had, like, I get that. But I don't see anything to verify that that's what this is.

The egg selling seemed to be a way just for them to make money based on all the reporting that's out there. According to WTEN News, police take note of this and find it as unusual as we do. Now, it goes on to say that when Steven speaks at the vigil, his speech isn't really focused on Jolique. Instead, he's, quote, going on and on about Martin Luther King Jr., end quote. And then, when the WTEN interviewer asks him about it later,

this is how Steven responds. I know that you're very passionate about Martin Luther King. No, I'm very passionate about my son. And you know what? If you can't rely on people you call your heroes when the time is tough, who do you rely on? News media? Jerry Springer? Okay, well, that was at least a bit combative.

Strange, right? But also, it's a totally valid question. This is his son's vigil, and he's not even really talking about him at all? Now, the day after this vigil, Nick Reisman and Don Lieman reported for the post-star that Steven and Jocelyn have hired a lawyer who's advised Steven not to speak to the police without his legal counsel present. Beyond that, Steven walked out in the middle of a polygraph test. And so, needless to say, the relationship between Jolique's adoptive parents

and the police is getting seriously strained. Okay, but what about Jocelyn? Did she take a polygraph as well? Well, according to Andy McKeever's reporting in the Bennington Banner, within less than three weeks of Jolique's disappearance, Jocelyn did take a polygraph, but police won't comment on the results. Oh. For their part, Steven and Jocelyn maintain that they had nothing to do with Jolique's disappearance, and they take to the media to air their grievances

about how the police have treated them. In particular, they're mad about how police have treated Steven. And here, I'm going to play you some more of that audio interview that they gave to WTEN News. When Steven still refused to take the polygraph and refused to confess to something that they were trying to get him to confess to, they were asking him questions which are totally inappropriate. So, what kind of questions are they asking that she thinks are so inappropriate?

So, later on in that same interview, Jocelyn clarifies what kind of questions they were asking, and she may have said a little more than she meant to. This is what Jocelyn McDonald says police were asking her husband. Just listen. They were asking him questions which are totally inappropriate, like, oh, so you watched a porn movie with your son and you had sex with him, and then you hit him on the head and dropped him in a ditch.

Just tell us where the ditch is. Okay, so my very first immediate gut reaction is those aren't questions that law enforcement or anyone in child care or child welfare just tosses around. They don't ask those things without, you know, a reason. Yeah, so, I mean, Britt, you know this, but we've actually got a former Indiana Department of Child Services worker who is now on our team at Audiochuck, and that's pretty much exactly what she said, too.

Now, it's important to remember that Stephen Kerr's never been charged with abusing any of the children in his care, but we can see from this interview that these are the things law enforcement are looking into at this point in time in their investigation. Now, the whole news segment is super interesting, because in addition to Stephen and Jocelyn speaking out, WTEN News also reports that Stephen won't provide his DNA to law enforcement. Now, Stephen's not considered a suspect in Jolique's disappearance,

and without a warrant, he's under absolutely no legal obligation to give police a sample. As part of their investigation, police issue subpoenas to news outlets to get, basically, they want the full footage of this interview and other interviews that Stephen has given to media. They won't comment on what they're looking for, but they do confirm that Stephen stopped cooperating with police, and they say that Stephen and Jocelyn were discussing returning Jolique to foster care, meaning that police are now telling the public that they were

coming up with potentially a plan to put him back into foster care. Right, and going back to what I said earlier, adoption is a legal child. Like, once you adopt, it's a legal child. So, they would essentially be terminating their parental rights at that point, correct? Right, exactly. And again, these conversations were happening like when Jolique went missing, so like right before. As November fades into December, though, Stephen and Jocelyn do put up a $25,000 reward for any information that leads to getting Jolique home safe.

But what I find very interesting about this is that they do it on their own, without coordinating with the police. While the family is putting together this reward, the FBI is assisting with the ongoing search, using an infrared-equipped aircraft to scan the Hudson River, starting in New York City, and moving upwards. The search doesn't yield any new clues, so police expand their search outside of New York and into Vermont, where the family had previously spent time at a campground about 20 minutes away from their home.

But once again, there's nothing that they can find. They also keep searching that river that was near where Jolique went missing, and with every search that goes by without a trace of Jolique, the gnawing feeling in their gut that something terrible might have happened, just continues to grow. And so with nothing to go on, police decide to look a little closer to home. On December 6, 2007, one month and five days after Jolique was last seen alive, police announced they've subpoenaed phone records for the cell towers in Washington

County to try and pinpoint Stephen Kerr's whereabouts on the night Jolique went missing. According to another one of Don Lehmann's post-star articles, Stephen isn't all that bothered about this, rather he claims to welcome it as he believes the results will quote, continue to exonerate him, end quote. But while Stephen's confident he's being, you know, proven innocent, I guess, other people start going very, very public with their doubts, including Elaine and Tom Person, who remember was the respite family Jolique was staying with right before he disappeared.

Yeah. And another person that comes forward is Jolique's maternal, adoptive grandparents, Dennis Smith and Barbara, really. So that would be Jocelyn's parents. Correct. Okay. Elaine and Tom, together with Barbara and Dennis, organize another vigil for Jolique two days before Christmas.

And not only were Stephen and Jocelyn not there, but Tom claims in the post-star that Stephen actually goes around town taking down posters advertising the event. Why? Well, they allege that Stephen feels like they're pointing the finger at him and that both Stephen and Jocelyn, who mind you, is like their daughter, have completely stopped communicating with them. I mean, on one hand, I want to think, you know, this family has been through a lot already. And now these quote outsiders, the persons, essentially are doing something to honor their

child. I can see that being something maybe you don't want to participate in. But you don't take it down. It's weird. Yeah. It's like, it's one thing to feel like Tom and Elaine are against you. But you know, Jocelyn's parents are there. I don't.

Yeah. Well, and even though like, again, even though this is causing like a weird family dynamic and people clearly aren't getting along, like both Jocelyn's parents and the persons, they don't stop. Like they keep talking to the media. And their claims throw serious doubt into some of the basic facts about this case. Like, let me give you an example. So you remember that note that Jolique supposedly left on the kitchen table?

Yeah. So according to Elaine, that's not a runaway note at all. Okay. Then what is it? Well, she says that it's an apology note. She tells the post star that Jolique actually wrote that note at her house the night before Stephen came to pick him up, because she says that it was actually a homework assignment to apologize to his home school group.

For his part, though, Stephen maintains that Jolique did run away and that he's out hiding somewhere. And unfortunately, there's nothing to prove or disprove his theory. Right, right. The harsh New York winter is hindering any additional ground searches, but police do get into a hydroelectric dam on the river that's just downstream from where Jolique was last seen in the hopes that maybe something of Jolique's like clothing or something may have gotten lodged in there.

And so in what's becoming an all too familiar event, though, the search of the dam just turns up nothing. I mean, I think maybe they were thinking like, this is a place he either went to or if he was in the river, some of his stuff might have gotten caught in there. But like, they find nothing. I mean, it's almost as if Jolique just vanished into thin air. All the while now, though, Stephen and Jocelyn maintain that he's alive. And they offer the theory that maybe he ran away to join a gang, but police are saying

like, we have no evidence to support this idea that Jolique would ever join a gang. All right, and like, this is also a kid who's living a pretty sheltered life being homeschooled. Like, I was homeschooled my entire life. Going to find a gang, that doesn't really compute well for me in my experience at least. As police keep exploring every possible avenue that they can think of, another group emerges with a similar mission to find Jolique and bring him home. According to another one of Don Lehman's post star pieces, the fine Jolique task force is announced on December 29th, 2007.

This is one month and 28 days after he first went missing. Now, this isn't like an official task force like we normally talk about with like law enforcement agencies. It's not affiliated with police at all. But the Cambridge Greenwich Police Chief publicly does give this group his endorsement. Oh, wow. Elaine Person is heading up the task force along with her husband, Tom, and some of Jolique's former foster parents. And according to their website, findjolique.org,

his maternal grandparents Barbara and Dennis are involved as well, though Stephen and Jocelyn are not involved. Along with this task force announcement, the media for the first time really starts to shine some light into what Jolique's life was like at home with Stephen and Jocelyn. Enbridge, the conditions that they describe, like the house that they were all living in, in East Greenwich, I can't even like wrap my head around it. So it didn't have running water. It didn't have indoor plumbing. So they all had to use outhouses in the yard for toilets.

And it only had a limited amount of electricity. And we actually have some pictures of this house and the outhouse up on our website. Okay. I'm sorry. I have so many questions. I have been through so many home studies in two different homes. There's no way that this placement should have ever been approved, not for fostering, not for adoption, running water, stable electricity. Those are like very basic requirements. Requirements.

Exactly. And I mean, even beyond that, so the post star also reported on December 29th that Stephen and Jocelyn's other kids were actually quote, out of their care for a few days early on in the investigation. Because as it turns out, again, when police like are looking into this, this kid goes missing, they obviously go look and see where he was like living in his home. They find out that the house that they were living in didn't even have a certificate of occupancy saying that it was safe and like up to building codes. Not only can you not have a foster kid in like a dot, but like people shouldn't be living in there.

Right at all. And I mean, police had to have known about this before it showed up in the news, right? I'm not 100% certain, but I don't see how they wouldn't have. So all that stuff is what was reported in the media. But on the Find Jaleek Task Force website, a lame person goes into a lot more detail. Now, like I said before, this is just on the site. It wasn't re-reported anywhere else. But since we already know a little bit about how he was living and since the police chief is on board with this task force, I think it's worth considering what they're putting out there. So according to this website, what they say, like, you know, your biggest question is like,

how does this even get approved? Like there's so many like things set in place, so many home studies or whatever. What the website says is that the family actually moved into this house after Jaleek was adopted. So I think you kind of alluded to it before. But like what I've learned just from watching you is like, there's a lot that's done while you're a foster parent. I mean, there's home studies, they're coming and doing drop eyes, like their visits, there's all these different things. But once it's official, the state steps out, it's done. Like they don't check in, they don't see how it's going a year later. There's like nothing like that. So it seems from the website, like they were in a home where a home

study would have gotten approved. And when the adoption was final, they moved into this shack or whatever this thing was. Yeah. And I mean, basically what you said earlier, and like I said earlier, once the adoption's final, it's like, they're your kids, they are your kids. And there's really no reason for any other agency to come in and make sure that you're being a parent, just like they wouldn't do that for a biological family, you know? Right. And so it's frustrating because this shouldn't have ever happened. But there's really no oversight in that situation. Right. To your point, it is as if you birthed that child yourself. And so unless there's like new claims of child neglect or child abuse, there's no reason for any other interference.

Exactly. Now, the more we learn about this house, we learn that it was pretty small. It only had two rooms and I don't mean two bedrooms. It had two rooms. That's why I called it a shack earlier. Two rooms in total with all five kids and their parents sleeping in the room upstairs. So you're talking two adults, four boys between eight and 14 years old, and Jaleek's adoptive sister all together with no privacy except for a curtain that partitioned off an area for Jaleek's sister. In addition, before Jaleek came to live with them, Stephen was allegedly overheard by another foster parent describing how the family practiced something called naked time where everyone ran around naked. I mean, nudity isn't inherently sexual, but

you have to consider Jaleek's history with sexual abuse, being a survivor. And Jocelyn saying that, you know, please question Stephen about inappropriate sexual behavior. It definitely raises more than one red flag for me. And I mean, you have to be so careful and so considerate, I think is maybe a better word around kids who have been subjected to any sort of trauma, let alone physical or sexual trauma. Right. So as far as their house itself, they have a generator and sometimes ran it. That's when I said it had like sometimes or a little bit of electricity. But the house was primarily heated by a wood burning stove, which didn't provide enough heat in the harsh New York winters. The family only ate meat once a week

and only bathed once every two weeks. For discipline, FindJaleek.org alleges that back when the family lived in a different house, one with, you know, doors, Jaleek would actually be locked in his unheated bedroom without a portable heater as punishment. At their other home, the one with the outhouse, Jaleek allegedly forgot to put a lid on the toilet paper container one time. So as a result, Jocelyn banned him from using the outhouse for a couple of days. And so his only options to relieve himself were to either go out in the woods near the house or to hold it and try and find a public bathroom when the family went to run errands. And to continue on like the punishment, like when the kids got caught swearing, they allegedly had to put soap in their mouths,

10 seconds at first, like the first time they did it, and then 20 seconds if they did it again. And like the more and more you did it, the longer and longer you would have to do that. I mean, this does not sound like a safe and secure environment or home for any kid. No. And again, let alone a kid who's already experienced so much trauma and upheaval in his life, like unheated bedrooms being banned from using their only option to go to the bathroom, the outside bathroom. Yeah. It all sounds like a pretty solid case for neglect at the very least. But this is what's so scary, right? Because again, we talked about, okay, the state would

come back in if there was neglect or if there was abuse, but they're like so sheltered, right? They're kind of in the middle of nowhere. They're being homeschooled. Like who's going to notice? They've completely isolated themselves. And like as a foster parent, I am a mandatory reporter, much like social workers or teachers. If I see something like this, I'm mandatory required to report it. But they had no contact with anybody like that. Honestly. Who would? Right. Other than like Tom and Elaine. Right. Now, interestingly too, it wasn't necessarily all of the kids. Like obviously they all lived together. They were all experiencing some of

this. But there was some alleged favoritism, at least according to this website, towards one of Jalee's older brothers, which is one of Stephen and Jocelyn's biological kids. Mm-hmm. According to the website, again, we know Jalee at least is part of this homeschool group, but this brother was going to a private school that cost $17,000 per year. I'm sorry. You have $17,000 a year for tuition and choose to not have a toilet? And this is the thing. Like I couldn't get my handle around like what the family's finances were. Obviously, Stephen was talking about going away. He had some kind of job. He worked. I'm not sure about Jocelyn. I had read somewhere that between Jalee and his adoptive sister,

they were getting something like $30,000 a year from the state to take care of them, at least when they were in the foster system. And so $17,000 for this tuition seems like half of at least that money. And granted, they may not have used that. They may have used other income. But you have money for this tuition. It seems like there are some other basic needs you could be meeting for your other kids. Like maybe actual electricity, not a generator. Again, a toilet seems pretty general. Yeah. And remember when they put up the $25,000 reward, my first question was like, where did that money come from? Yeah. Now, like I said, the only place that I could find all of this information was on that website.

But there was one thing I found on this website that I did find elsewhere, one very specific and very disturbing allegation. According to Nick Reisman's article for the post star, Jocelyn confided in her mother that once about three years before Jalee went missing, Stephen held Jalee's head underwater as punishment. And for his part, in the same article, Stephen claims he can't remember this instant ever happening and that he wants the task force to quote, stop focusing on things I may or may not have done. End quote. Okay. Personally, I am only one mother to two kids and I've not been doing this that long. But I feel like even if you're just like an okay parent, you can probably say with confidence, no, I've never held

my kids head underwater on purpose. Thank you as a punishment. Thank you. I truly vividly remember every single time I've accidentally stepped on May's toes when she's like in the kitchen while I'm trying to make dinner and gets kind of like in my way. And I feel terrible about it every single time it happens and can remember them. Yeah. Stop focusing on things I may or may not have done. You don't remember if you held yourself done your kid underwater and held them there. That is wild to me 100%. Now, shortly after New Year's Day of 2008, the FBI requests that Stephen Kerr take a polygraph test. He never responds. And on Monday, January 14, he is officially named a person of interest in Jaleek's disappearance. According to more of Don Lehman's post star

reporting, police have apparently surveillance footage of Stephen on the night of November 1 when Jaleek disappeared with timestamps that don't match Stephen's version of what he told police happened that night. So just to call back to this, Stephen always said that he was there at his parents house with Jaleek all night. But I guess what did the phone records show? Well, at the time, police were still working on the phone records. So they didn't have those quite yet. Allegedly, though, the surveillance footage shows Stephen out driving his gold Chrysler Town and Country minivan in Greenwich, which was contradicting his alibi. And so police want to search the van again, but Stephen won't let them. Now, along with naming him a person of interest

for the first time, police also go into more detail about what they perceive as Stephen's unwillingness to help them. So we know he refuses polygraphs from both local law enforcement and the FBI, but he also didn't fill out an FBI questionnaire that would give them more insight into Jaleek's mental state and mindset before his disappearance. And here's the kicker, we find out that the morning he called 911, when he has supposedly discovered Jaleek is missing, he waited almost an hour and a half to call 911. What? Yeah, like apparently he'd already found the note at like 7 30 in the morning, but he waited until 8 57 before he called police. Right, you said it was like almost nine. Yeah. Oh my God. According to findjaleek.org, Stephen

allegedly spent that time taking a shower and then going to the video store to return some movies. Like again, I didn't see what he was doing confirmed, but he for sure did not call police for that long. So like everything else in this case, it just doesn't make sense. Like I think we can all agree at this point that Stephen's behavior is bound to raise some eyebrows. But just a couple of weeks later, the focus of the investigation gets turned on its head. On January 30 2008, the post star newspaper and a group of local TV news outlets gets an anonymous letter in the mail claiming that Jaleek Rainwalker is alive. The post star published it. And here I want you to read it for me. So the anonymous letter says quote, Jaleek 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 named diamond. Why does Franti yell fire? Don't try to look, we are not there. End quote. Okay, Ashley, can you even attempt to decode this for me like macaroni family cat named diamond? Who is Franti? So the whole thing is super weird, right? According to the Cambridge Greenwich Chief of Police, Jaleek did have a cat named diamond at one point. And Franti seems to be a musical reference. Question mark where there's an artist named Michael Franti who put out a record called yell fire with his band spearhead in 2006. But everything else is pretty cryptic. I mean, even if that's what it is, I don't understand why this is part of the

note. And I mean, what stood out to me right away is the use of quote, war on drugs, because either they're trying to insiduate that Jaleek is out there dealing drugs for someone, or he's part of the US government's effort to reduce the sale of illegal drugs. But neither of them really makes sense to me. I mean, does anything about this letter make sense? That's a very good point. So this letter is postmarked from Westchester, New York. There isn't a town called Westchester, but there is a Westchester County three hours south of East Greenwich that borders the Bronx in New York City. And as police are waiting for forensic analysis of this letter, like, you know, they're looking for fingerprints, possible DNA, they put out a call the next day asking for

more information from the sender to prove that the letter is real. Within just days of this letter, though, the police turn their focus right back on Stephen and Jocelyn. On February 7th, 2008, state and local police officers searched the home of Stephen Kerr's parents. Remember, this is the last place where Jaleek was allegedly seen. And according to a source in the post star, they're looking for computers, typewriters and printers to see if any of the equipment can be tied to that, you know, quote, anonymous letter that they received. Okay. So do they find anything? I don't know. So the letter's kind of like a dangler. Like, I couldn't find anything about the results of the analysis on Stephen and Jocelyn's computers or typewriters or whatever. And

I couldn't find anything to confirm or deny that the letter was a hoax. So I have no idea how this ended. Like, again, they put out this call for people. We know they did this search, but they never really like tied it up in a bow for the public. But that doesn't mean that the police don't know one way or the other. Right. Through their lawyers, Stephen and Jocelyn say the letters prove that Jaleek is alive. But police rebut that and say there's no evidence that Jaleek is in fact still living. So the truth is, we have no idea about this letter at all. We have no idea what it means. We have no idea if it really has any connection to this case. It's just one of the many, many things that makes this case so frustrating. Because every time it feels like police might

finally catch a break, it seems to disappear almost as soon as it shows up. But police do get their next break in March of 2008, because they finally get Stephen's phone records back. The results show what they believe is more inconsistency in Stephen's story. Because according to more of Don Lehman's post-ar reporting, Stephen's cell phone pinged on towers that don't match the route that he told police he took that night. According to the Chief of Police, Stephen claimed to be in Melrose, New York at about 8.15 p.m. on November 1, 2007. But his phone records actually put him about 30 miles south in South Troy. So even with this, Stephen's still not considered a suspect. But once again, police are left to examine his behavior and the discrepancies in his stories

and wonder, I mean, he's got to be hiding something, right? And if so, how do they get to the bottom of what that is and why his story is not adding up? Searches for Jaleek resume as the ground starts to thaw, but the renewed search efforts don't bring any new leads. And formal searches are stopped over the springtime. Stephen and Jocelyn eventually leave New York to move to Vermont, which sounds like a bigger move than it is. Basically, they just move across state lines about 20 minutes away. And then in July of 2008, Jaleek's grandmother, Barbara, who remembers on that task force, she actually, in a weird turn of events, gets charged with burglary. I'm sorry, what? Yeah. So here's what happened. According to Neil Goswami's reporting in the

Bennington Banner, Barbara went to Stephen and Jocelyn's old house to look for clues. She says she found the door unlocked and went inside and get this. She found something. She found a piece of clothing that Jaleek was allegedly wearing at the time of his disappearance. So wait, like, like the dragon shirt, the yellow pullover? Well, news reports from the time didn't say what it is. But I read on the Charlie Project site that what she found was Jaleek's yellow fleece jacket. Oh my God. And when police go back to the house with a warrant, there it is. So this burglary is totally connected to this case. And even though she seemed to have gotten charged, it to me seems to be totally worth it. So this feels like the breakthrough police might have

been waiting for. But yet again, the investigation hits a wall. And with the one year anniversary of Jaleek's disappearance coming up, no new leads and no suspects. The investigation does cool off and eventually go cold. There are some flares over the next few years and law enforcement never gives up completely. But there's only so much that they can really do. Jaleek Rainwalker's disappearance is officially labeled a homicide in 2012. And to this day, police have kept up on following leads like reported sightings and video footage and identifying remains in hopes that potentially they could belong to him. But no one has ever been charged. And the case still remains open. I wish so much that I could give a positive update or at least say that the truth has been

found. But that hasn't happened yet as of 2021. Jaleek fell through the cracks of a system in dire need of reform. So this month, we're donating to child advocates, which is a nonprofit here in Indianapolis to try and patch up at least some of those cracks here where we live. So kids like Jaleek have a safer, healthier future. You can learn more about their work at childadvocates.net. And if you know anything about the disappearance of Jaleek Rainwalker, please contact the Cambridge Greenwich Police at 518-677-3044. You can find all our source material for this episode on our website crimejunkiepodcast.com. And be sure to follow us on Instagram at crimejunkiepodcast. We'll be back next week with a brand new episode.

Crimejunkie is an audio chuck production. So what do you think Chuck? Do you approve?