True Crime with Kendall Rae - Jaliek Rainwalker is Still Missing: Are Foster Parents Involved?

Episode Date: October 25, 2022

This episode covers the 2007 disappearance of Jaliek Rainwalker, a child who bounced around in the foster care system and suffered the abuse and neglect that tends to go along with that life. No one knew how to handle his temper, and it seemed that no one was willing to try. Charity merch! All profits from this charity merch will be donated to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children: https://www.missingkids.org/  This episode is sponsored by: Function of Beauty Check out Kendall's other podcasts: The Sesh & Mile Higher Follow Kendall! YouTube Twitter Instagram Facebook Mile Higher Zoo REQUESTS: General case suggestion form: https://bit.ly/32kwPly Form for people directly related/ close to the victim: https://bit.ly/3KqMZLj Discord: https://discord.com/invite/an4stY9BCN CONTACT: For Business Inquiries - [e-mail]

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to keep your notes, ideas, and memories. And with their undated planners, you can organize and track life at your own pace. Make each day noteworthy for yourself or someone you love with Papier. Visit Papier.com for 10% off your first order. That's 10% off at papir.com. Hi guys, welcome back to my channel. I'm so happy to have you here with me today. So today we are going to be covering a very frustrating and difficult case. We're going to be talking about Jalik Rainwalker who has been missing since November 1st of 2007 and still has not been found. Like I said, it's a very frustrating case, but it is one that really needs attention. It's also fairly complicated. There is a lot of people involved

and Jelik's life changed a lot. Up until his disappearance, Jelik had a very, very tough life that no child should have to have. And that's why I wanted to share his story today because people should know what he and so many other children in foster care go through. But before we get into the case today, I wanted to take some time to let you know about the current fun

raising efforts that I'm doing for National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. If you missed it, I recently announced that we have crossed the $50,000 mark for the total amount raised. And I'm just so grateful to all of you who have participated in this campaign. We started this campaign for NeckMek over the summer with this merchandise collection and I'm so happy with how it turned out. I love this sweatshirt. I wear it all the time and I'm so happy that clearly a lot of you liked it as well and thank you to everyone who has purchased something from the collection and made a difference in our campaign. This is still available at MyelhireMerch.com.

I will have links to it below and 100% of the proceeds from that goes directly to Nickmick. It is limited edition, we have limited stock, so if you want one, get your hands on it because we will be putting something else out eventually that will replace it. Okay, let's go ahead and get into this case. Like I said, it's a bit complicated, so definitely do your best to pay attention to all the details here.

So, Jelik Rainwalker was born on August 2nd, 1995, and he faced challenges right from birth, because his mother was an alcoholic and addicted to cocaine, and so he was born with drugs in his system. And because of this, his birth mother lost custody of him and he was put into the foster care system before he was even one years old. And it only got more and more difficult from there. And he didn't go into regular foster homes. He was placed into therapeutic foster homes.

And this is supposed to mean that when a child has extra physical, psychological, and emotional needs that they're placed with a foster parent or parents who is specifically trained to deal with those needs. But as most of us know, the foster system can be very, very grueling on children. And Jalik was no exception to that. He was put through six different foster homes

until he eventually ended up with the curse, with Stephen Kerr and Jocelyn McDonald in 2003. So, Wenzhelik moved in with Jocelyn and Stephen. He wasn't their only child. They had three biological children and then another child, also from therapeutic foster care. So, Wenzhelik ended up in their care. They were living in Salem, New York, and after about a year of staying with them, they decided to formally adopt him. And it turns out the family before them was also planning to adopt him,

but they ended up deciding not to, because they were having issues with Jelique's behavior. And Steven and Jocelyn were also experiencing these difficulties. Because of his very troubled past, Jalik was prone to having violent outbursts and it's clear that this was a huge challenge for Steven and Jocelyn.

They have discussed how difficult it was dealing with his behavior over and over again. It seems like it was getting harder to deal with him and they were starting to question whether or not they actually wanted to adopt him. Obviously, after going through so much as a child being bounced from home to home to home, it's only natural for a child to experience this type of behavioral issue. But not everyone that spent time with Jelik said that he was a really difficult child.

His maternal grandmother, Barbara, and him spent a lot of time time together and she said that the two of them got along great. She describes him as a vivacious child that he loved to go apple picking, eat ice cream and pizza. He liked to play with tarot cards and listen to music and read. For his 10th birthday, Barbara said that he could pick one place that the two of them would go and he picked SeaWorld in Orlando and the two of them went and had a great time. She's great memories of that day and she said Jelique was just overjoyed to be there. When they flew back to New York,

she remembers how he sat in the window seat and stared out at the Statue of Liberty as they flew above it. Jelique went on to tell her that when he grew up, he didn't care where he lived. He said he wanted to live where his future wife wanted to be because he would love her and their kids so much that it wouldn't matter where he lived. He said he wanted to live where his future wife wanted to be because he would love her and their kids so much that it wouldn't matter where they were,

which is such an adorable thing to say and shows how deep and emotional he was. [♪ Music playing in background, in background, in background, in background, in background, in background, in background, in background, in background, in background, in background, in background, in background, in background, in background, in background, in background, in background, in background, in background, in background, in background, in background, in background, in background, in background, in background, in background, in background, in background, in background, in background, in background, in background, in background, in background, in background, in background, in background, in background, in background, in background, in background, in background, in background, in background, in background, in background, in background, in background, in background, in background, in background, in background, in background, in background, in background, in background, in background, in background, in background, in background, in background, in background, in background, in background, in background, in background, in background, in background, in background, in background, in background, in background, in background, in background, in background, in background, in background, in background, in background, in background, in background, in background, in background, in background, in background, in background, in background, in background, in background, in background, in background, in background, in background, in background, in background, in background, in background, in background, in background, in background, in background, in background, in background, in background, in background, in background, in background, in background, in background, in background, in background, in background, in background, in background, in background, in background, in background, in background, in background, in background, in background, in background, be 2. Function of Beauty makes products that are 100% customizable with ingredients designed and formulated to meet your specific hair care goals. And Function of Beauty is actually the world's first, fully customizable hair care that creates individually filled shampoos, conditioners, styling and treatment formulas based on your hair type, which is so important because we are also different. It's founded by a team of engineers and cosmetic scientists and each function of beauty product is individually designed to be as unique as you are. And get this, you guys.

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outbursts mostly came up when someone mentioned his past and that it wasn't how he acted all the time. She didn't see him as difficult or unworthy of redemption, but it was clear that he did struggle somewhat with his behavior. By 2007, Steven and Jocelyn said that Jelik's behavior was starting to get a lot worse. They had him in a homeschooling program, and one of the younger kids in it, I guess, was taunting him, teasing him, messing with his shoelaces, and he threatened to hurt this kid. And this threat specifically was sexual in nature, which obviously he wasn't going to act on this, but it was enough to get him in a lot of trouble.

I feel uncomfortable sharing exactly what he said. He's a child, you know, doesn't understand the power of his words yet, so I felt like it was inappropriate to include it. But Steven and Jocelyn were so upset about this that they started looking into the steps that they would need to take to reverse his adoption. On October 23rd, they actually called

the Department of Family Services to see what they could do about removing him from their care, reversing the adoption. But that is not a thing. There is no way to reverse an adoption. The child is now legally your responsibility period. Now, you think this would just be a given, especially for people that are interested in adopting, you think they would understand this better than anyone, right? When you adopt a child, you are entering a legal agreement that

you are now the responsible party for that child. It's not like the foster care system, or you can just move them to a new home if you change your mind. So they found out that they would have to go through a much more intensive process if they truly wanted to remove Jelique from their home. And from all accounts, it sounds like this is exactly what they planned to do, or at least they were highly considering this at the end of October. And what is most frustrating about this whole situation is at the time that they were looking into doing this and seemed to be heading in that direction, Jelique was not in any sort of therapy or treatment for his behavior. It seems to me and many other people out there that they just wanted to give up and that, you know, multiple things that they could have done just were not done.

I mean, being part of the therapeutic childcare program clearly means that the child may need medical attention or therapy. Steven and Jocelyn were supposedly trained to be therapeutic foster care parents, meaning they should have been prepared to offer their new son help if they knew he needed it. So we know that Jelique wasn't in therapy. However, Jocelyn has stated that they were trying to find him a therapist at the time. But one of the main reasons that they say he hadn't received help is because they lived in a remote area without access to this kind of care.

And when I say remote, I mean remote. In 2007, they were living in a rural area in Washington County, New York. It wasn't like the big city where they would have, you know, a lot of different options when it came to outside help, but that does not mean that his need should have taken it back seat and because these needs were not being met,

obviously his violent outbursts kept happening. So it was around the same time that Jelike had gotten in trouble at the homeschooling program that Steven and Jocelyn decided that they didn't want him around their other children. So not only did they not want to be his guardians anymore, they also didn't even want him in their home during the time that it took to rehome him.

Around this time, Steven was supposed to take a two week trip to Romania. And that's when Jocelyn decided to put him in respite care with her husband being potentially out of town. She didn't want to have to deal with Jolique around her other children. And for those of you who don't know, respite care is for caretakers to get temporary relief

by putting the person who needs care in the hands of a qualified care taker, just temporarily. And respite care was actually suggested to Steven and Jocelyn as an alternative to giving up completely. They thought maybe, you know, it would be good to have some space and they can try again later. But from what I can tell, it seems like they were still set on no longer being his caretaker at all. And resppet Care was just in place while they were trying to find a new home for him. So in the last few days of October, Jelique was placed with a caretaker named Elaine Person.

Jocelyn originally asked Elaine to take care of Jelique for two weeks. The whole time that Stephen would be out of town, but she was only able to do it for a few days. The good news about this Respet Care is Jelique was already familiar with Elaine and her husband, Tom. He had stayed in their care previously, and it was a good experience. It was a good experience for them as well, and they were excited to see him. But because of their prior commitments, they were only able to have Jelique from October 27th to November 1st and then they would pick up again on November 6th. So because they weren't able to have Jelique the entire two weeks, Steven ends up

canceling his trip to Romania. And even though he was going to be home, they still decided to have Elaine take Jelique for a few days. So when Jelique first got to Elaine's house in Ultima New York, he seemed to open up right away and he even began to recall the time that he had spent with them in the past. He remembered their dogs and their cats and even some of the activities that they used to do together. They said by all accounts, he was a very respectful guest in their home. So on the second day that he was in their care, Jelique and Elaine ended up going to this Halloween themed local fair and Jelique loved it ended up going to this Halloween themed local fair.

And Jelique loved it. They had a great time. He said he couldn't wait to return next year, and he even said he wanted to work at the haunted house one day. So that was probably the highlight of his time with Elaine, and she said that a lot of the rest of the time he spent reading. Jelique loved to read, and she had a large bookshelfshelf and he was working his way through the books that they had. She said that he even finished one of the Harry Potter books in just one day and she said if he wasn't reading, he was great to have around. He was helpful, he would help walk the dogs,

he would help bring in the groceries, going errands, play with the other kids, everything was going great. And she also said that during this time she learned quite a bit about his life back at home with Stephen and Jocelyn. Jelique described the house that he was living in as a small, two bedroom property that had no indoor plumbing or running water. He said that he and his four siblings and his adoptive parents all slept in one room.

And the only privacy available was a small corner sectioned off for his adoptive sister. To get to this room, you had to climb up a ladder. And Jalik explained that every morning the kids would have to take turns getting water from a nearby well, and their only bathroom was an outhouse outside in their yard. Also protein was scarce, and they were only given meat once a week, and they were only allowed to bathe every other week. The only heat that they got in their home came from a wood burning stove, and even that

wasn't strong enough to keep them warm during the cold winters in New York. Jelik also told Elaine a lot about Stephen and Jocelyn themselves. He said that he would often yell at him and throw things at him, and that there was one instance where he didn't properly close the lid on the toilet paper holder, and he was forbidden from using the outhouse after that. So instead, he had to go to the bathroom outside in the open. Elaine said it also became clear to her that the abuse was pretty much exclusive to Jelique. It seemed to her that he was being singled out, and that his siblings received much better care than him. For instance, Jelique was in a homeschooling program while his brother was in a private school that cost $17,000 a year. So it was pretty obvious that

there was an uneven distribution of care. And this is incredibly frustrating because Stephen and Jocelyn were actually receiving the $3,000 a month for the adoption of Jelique and his sister. And with this money, they were supposed to make sure that Jelique and his sister got proper psychological care, but like I said earlier, neither of them were getting any type of therapy. So although Jelig was removed from his homeschool program, Steven still had him doing the homework from the program

while he was in respite care. So Steven gave him a clipboard with all this work and he had to do all this homework while he was in care and he also had to write letters of apology to people that he hurt. And by the end of his stay in respite care with Elaine and Tom, he did complete all the work that he had to do and he wrote these apology letters. Now one of these letters becomes important later on in this case. So November 1st came and Jelique stay with Tom and Elaine came to an end. So Steven drove from their home in Washington County to Altima to pick him up.

But instead of going back home, Steven took Jelique to Greenwich, New York. Steven's parents had a house in Greenwich that was unoccupied at the time. Now, there's mixed reporting on why he decided to take Jelique here instead of going straight home, but this is what he did. Some sources say that he was planning to bring Jelique here

until Steven could figure out how he wanted to proceed with his problematic son. So basically in this version of the story, Steven was keeping Jelie at this property while he figured out what to do with him next. Other sources say that Steven just took him here because it was a shorter distance from the respite care home. However, if you look at a map,

Greenwich is less than 20 minutes from their two bedroom home in Washington County. But whatever the reason was, we know that this vacant house was their destination on the night of November 1st. But before they settled in at the house for the night, Steven and Jelique went to Red Robin. And this is actually the last sighting of Jelique.

They were spotted at a Red Robin in Latham around 8 p.m. Steven says that after they had dinner, he and Jelique. They were spotted at a red robin in Latham around 8 p.m. Steven says that after they had dinner he and Jelique went back to the house and he told his son to go to bed. He says that he went to bed shortly after that and everything seemed normal, but the next morning everything changed. At 7 a.m. on November 2nd, Steven says he went into the room that Jelique was sleeping in and it looked like he was laying there asleep. He says he then left him to sleep a little bit longer, but then eventually he went back into the room and realized that Jelique was not in there and hadn't been there at all. He said that Jelique pulled the classic move of putting pillows and clothing underneath the covers to make it

look like he was sleeping there when he actually wasn't. After this, Steven said he went into the kitchen and found two things that made him think that his son, Julie, had run away. The first thing he said he found was a piece of paper that said Albany on it. I'm imagining a large piece of paper or a piece of cardboard and he said that this would be used to hitchhike possibly. The second thing that Steven found was a goodbye letter, which read, Do you or everybody, I'm sorry for everything, I won't bother you anymore, goodbye, Jelique. Now you would think that the first thing

that Stephen would do is call 911, but sadly that is not the case. There are many reports that say he waited more than an hour before calling 911 to report his son missing. He first noticed that Jelique was missing at about 730, and he didn't call 911 until 857. And it has been reported that he actually took a shower and returned some rental movies before calling 911.

And when police did arrive, Steven actually mentioned to them that it's possible that his son joined a gang. He and Jocelyn also told the police that he had homicidal and suicidal tendencies which made the idea of him running away seem more plausible. Jocelyn in particular said that she was worried that he had run away to end his life. And with everything the police had been hearing about him it definitely seemed plausible. And because of that unfortunately no amber alert was ever issued for Jelique

Rainwalker. So the news of Jelique's disappearance did spread quickly. A newspaper article was published on November 5th, 2007, and it identified the missing boy as 12-year-old Jelique Rainwalker. They described him as having golden skin, lime green eyes, and maybe wearing black sneakers, blue jeans, a t-shirt with a dragon on it, and a yellow fleece. At the time of his disappearance, he was 5' 6 inches, approximately 105 pounds, and he spoke with a slight speech impediment. His Rs sounded like W's.

Jelik was 12 years old when he was last seen at a Latham restaurant. He had been adopted by Stephen Kerr and his wife, Jocelyn. But when problems developed, Jelik was sent to live with what is called a respite family. The way Stephen Kerr told the story in 2007, the two spent the night in the Greenwich home of Kerr's parents and the following morning, Jelique was gone. So the Cambridge Greenwich Police Department searched the entire weekend for any signs of him.

They followed up on any potential sightings, including one of a boy matching his description walking on Route 29 with a backpack, but all the leads came up empty. But search parties continued and flyers were hung up around town, and the idea that he ran away really was holding strong the first couple days that he was missing people thought that really seemed like the most likely scenario. That is until Steven refused to take a polygraph test. And what was most surprising about this is Steven and Jocelyn had actually offered to take a polygraph test to help with the investigation to clear their name, and Jocelyn did take one, but Steven ended up refusing and walking out of the police station. So obviously that triggers some concern that maybe Steven knows more than

he is saying. So the search continued and weeks into the case a lot of people in law enforcement were torn about what exactly was going on. Some people thought he was a runaway. Some people thought maybe he really did commit suicide and some people thought that he was met with foul play. And several agencies got involved in the search, even the FBI. However, their most extensive efforts were just coming up short. If Jelique had left on his own, it didn't make sense of how he, a young boy, traveling and freezing temperatures could survive,

let alone go anywhere without a trace. It just seemed impossible. Police asked the public to keep an eye out, especially if they lived on a large property. One of their searches in particular took place on November 13th at the Baton Kill Country Club. There were several canine dogs brought out to be used as part of the search, and although they seemed to be interested in one area, police were once again baffled when they found absolutely nothing. And practically every day there was a news story about another search, but every story

was followed up with the same sad realization that Jelique was nowhere to be found. And to make matters more difficult for the police, Stevens' participation in cooperation continued to dwindle, so much so that they actually announced the public that he wasn't cooperating. They announced that he had walked out of the police station during his polygraph test, and refused to talk to them unless he had a lawyer present. Now, Steven has come out and said that he acted this way because he felt like he was being treated unfairly by the police.

But these actions have been highly scrutinized by the public. I mean, why would you not want to cooperate fully if you have a missing child no matter how difficult and frustrating the process was? And just four days after the police had announced that Steven wasn't cooperating anymore, it was also announced that they were going to be issuing subpoenas to anyone who had interviewed Stephen and Jocelyn to help determine if they were involved. They stated that any tapes of Stephen, in particular, may help them generate the leads that they've been looking for.

One of the first tapes that the police could look at was the footage from the first vigil that was held in Jelik's honor. It was held in November and during it, Steven made one of his final public statements. And not only does he state that he believes his son is still alive, he also talks about the fact that police are looking into him, but he said it was just standard procedure. I believe deep in my soul that my son, Jelique, is alive and safe somewhere. Unfortunately, after November 2007, the search efforts and information going out related to Jelique really started to die down. That doesn't mean that the police stopped entirely, but the daily searches really slowed down. The department chief actually said, realistically,

I can't tear this county apart, shake it upside down, and hope that Jelique falls out. But he did say, however, that they were going to take some time and fall up on the leaves that they still had to investigate. But at this time, there was still one more scheduled search that had yet to take place. But on November 21st, search parties began looking around a campsite in Vermont. And this wasn't just any old campsite. This was an area that Steven and Jocelyn were known to go to, quite a bit. But just like all of their other searches, it appeared that with this one, nothing was found once again. And after this, the focus on their family really intensified. On December 6th, 2007, the police and the FBI

decided that they were going to subpoena Stephen's phone records. They were hoping that they could analyze the data and either confirm or deny his alibi. And obviously, Stephen and Jocelyn were not happy about this and not happy that the police were looking into them and they actually put out a statement that said,

I always thought that good police work was gathering evidence and making theories based on that evidence. They continue to look for a grave to them and they actually put out a statement that said, I always thought that good police work was gathering evidence and making theories based on that evidence. They continue to look for a grave that doesn't exist. The more they look, the more it shows they should be looking for a live child. But regardless of their opinion of the investigation, the police continue to do everything they could

to find Jolique as that was their main goal. There was another search in early December that took place at a hydroelectric plant. And they were hopeful that maybe in this search, something of Jelix would just show up in the water system. But once again, this search yielded no results. And it really just seemed to the police and FBI at this point that something happened to Jelix.

How could a 12-year-old boy just disappear without a trace? So there were several groups outside of the police who got involved with the search, and one of those groups is called the Adam Group, and they are a group of former police officers who work with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. So there were a lot of people that wanted to see Jelique be found or to find out what happened to him. So around Christmas time of 2007, a task force was actually put together called the Find Jelique Task Force. And this was put together by a lane person

and many of his former foster families got involved with this. And the police, even though it wasn't directly associated with them, did publicly support them. The task force helped plan fundraisers, opened up a hotline and a website and they even put together educational events about foster care and adoption.

And they were all adamant. At Jelique did not run away and that he definitely did not go join a gang. And probably one of the most interesting things to come out during this time was a statement from a lane person. If you remember earlier, I talked about a letter that was left behind by Jelique when he went missing.

So as a reminder, this note said, earlier, I talked about a letter that was left behind by Jelique when he went missing. So as a reminder, this note said, dear everybody, I'm sorry for everything, I won't bother you anymore. Goodbye, Jelique. Now, Elaine Person says that this was actually written at her house during his respite care stay. According to her, this was not a runaway note. This was written while he was in her care

when Steven and Jocelyn had him write apology letters after he was kicked out of his homeschool program. Many people believe that when he said, I won't bother you anymore. He meant that he would not be returning to the homeschool program. And if you remember, this was a huge piece of evidence that led police to believe that he was possibly a runaway in the beginning.

So now that there was doubt being cast on this letter, the police had to consider that he really was met with foul play, which is something that they were considering for a while. But this really kind of pushed everyone in that direction. Also around this time in late December of 2007, a second vigil was held in Jelik's honor. And I bring this up because two very important people did not attend. I'm sure you can guess who they are. Steven and Jocelyn.

Even his adoptive grandparents were there. And they were sad that his adoptive parents weren't there. Jelik's grandfather, Dennis Smith, actually said, we miss him so much. The holidays, I think, make it harder. There's a sense of joy and peace that is missing. And what's even more shocking is Steven was seen in the community taking down flyers leading up to this event. And Steven said that his reasoning for doing this was because he felt that Elaine and her husband were working against them. But Steven also publicly said that he found it to be wonderful

that the task force was making efforts to find Jelik. So which is it? Very mixed statements coming from Steven at this point. And these kind of contradictions are what make people so wary about Steven. I'm not privy to much of the investigation because the police are still working on the assumption partially that I did something wrong.

Jocelyn was pretty much forthright with us all the time. Stephen was hit or missed, but you know, then stopped communicating higher in attorney. This is your kid is missing. Now, Stephen and Jocelyn did put up a $25,000 reward for any information

that could lead them to leak. However, this was strange because they also said that the reward amount would go down by $5,000 every month that went by without any answers. I mean, I can see how this would possibly incentivize someone to come forward sooner, but at the same time, something feels off about it. It's really strange.

I haven't heard of anyone else doing that and I know a lot of people thought that this was just odd. So eventually New Year's came and went. And at that point, many people on the task force, including his maternal adoptive grandparents, said that they believed he was no longer alive. Barbara, his grandmother, even shared a story with the public that backed up why she felt like Jalik was no longer alive. Barbara, his grandmother, even shared a story with the public that backed up why she felt like Jelique was no longer alive and why Stephen may be responsible. She said that there was an incident three years ago in which Stephen punished Jelique

by holding his head underwater. Now this one incident obviously doesn't prove anything and we can't even prove that it for sure happened but it definitely brings the type of father he was into question. So that brings us to January 14, 2008, when Stephen was officially named as a person of interest in his son's disappearance. An investigator said that they came to this conclusion because of several inconsistencies in his story. One of these inconsistencies was his whereabouts on November 1st and November 2nd.

Turns out, there's surveillance footage of a gold Chrysler minivan matching the description of Stephen's car driving at 12.16 a.m. on November 2nd. Now, if you remember, Stephen said he and Jelieke both went to bed and stayed at his parents' vacant home on the night of November 1st. And at no point did he ever say that he left the house. So if this was Steven's car driving at 12.16am, what was he doing? To be clear, the police couldn't 100% say that this was Steven because the driver was unclear

in the surveillance footage. In order to actually determine that he was a driver, they had to look at his cell phone records and they were still waiting for his cell phone data to come back. To try and speed up the process, they asked the public if anyone owned a gold Chrysler Minivan and was possibly out driving at this time to come forward and no one ever did.

So after this, a little less than two weeks go by with no updates. That is until January 23rd, when an anonymous letter comes into the police that says, Jelique is still alive. And before I read you this letter, I just wanna preface that this letter is super, super weird.

It says, Jelique still alive, needed a foot soldier for this war on drugs, picked him up at 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 frantey yell? Don't try to look. We are not there. Now. I'm sure you are very confused about this So am I and so were the police immediately began investigating this, trying to see if there was any real significance to it. They actually brought Stephen and Jocelyn into the police station to see if maybe they could make

sense of some of it, but the two of them actually left when they realized that the news media was there reporting. So the Finder League Task Force also made a public statement, asking anyone who sent this letter to send a follow-up with some sort of proof that Jelique was actually still alive. And they even put together three questions that they knew Jelique would be the only one who was able to answer them if he was still alive. The questions were, one, what did Jelique do on Halloween night, two, who won the Fuzball tournament at the Persons, three, what did Jelique and Brenny do in the afternoon of the day they were together? And they even provided an email

that the letter writer could respond to. So while everyone is waiting for any more information to come from this letter, the house of Stephen and Jocelyn, which is now vacant, was searched. This was in early February and they seized several different items. And one of the items was the family computer. And the police were hoping to find any signs

that Steven possibly could have written the Jelique is a live letter. So shortly after this, the cell phone data was analyzed. And I'm sure it's not a big shocker to hear that Steven had lied about where he was on November 1st. And investigators learned that Steven had lied about the route that he took to his parents vacant home that night.

Steven had said that around 815, he was on Route 40, Melrose, New York. But his phone data showed that he was 25 miles south in South Troy. So why lie about the route you took home, Steven? Now, obviously with an open case, the police have information that they don't share with the public.

And I was not able to find whether or not they confirmed with cell phone data that Stephen lied about going out that night in his mini band at 12, 16 a.m. But it definitely seems that police were convinced that he was not telling the truth about that night. And to top it off, as this new information is coming out, Stephen and Jocelyn pack up

their lives and their kids and moved to Vermont. If you had a missing child, why would you move away from the home that they were used to that they knew you would be in case they came back? Julie can live to this adoptive

parents in this home on Ravenway and Greenwich just three months after chief Bell says the parents stopped being cooperative. They sold this home and moved to Rupert Vermont. Luckily, during this time, there were still many people who were highly focused on finding Jelique or finding out what happened to him. And one of those people was his maternal grandmother, Barbara.

And she was actually trying to get custody of him just in case he did return. She felt like even if Stephen and Jocelyn had nothing to do with Julie's disappearance that they still were not fit to take care of him, that they were not treating him properly. Now, it's kind of strange, but she was denied custody by a judge, but that's probably just because he's a missing person, and I'm assuming that makes it all much more complicated when it comes to custody. Barbara was growing more and more frustrated by the day, more determined than ever to find out what actually happened, and that led her to do something kind of crazy. But in my opinion, it's very understandable. And this was about five days after she was denied custody, so it's possible that kind

of led her to do this, but she ended up breaking in to Stephen and Jossam's house and they had left the house vacant when they moved to Vermont and luckily this wasn't for nothing because Barbara found something and something important. She actually found a piece of Jelice clothing that he was believed to be wearing when he went missing. Now she didn't get charged with burglary, but the police were able to get a major piece of evidence. And they were able to get a search warrant because of this piece of evidence. They did say they weren't a fan of what she did, but at the same time it was useful. So in the following weeks and months after this, there were more ground searches for a Jolie, however, nothing ever turned up. And eventually a year went by without any updates.

But then in October of 2009, a skull was found and people thought there was a possibility it could belong to Jelie, it might give everyone answers. However, it turns out it did not belong to him. Sadly, after this, years went by, without any major updates. In 2010, the police had the opportunity

to search another body of water in the baton kill known as the hellhole. They weren't able to search it before because of the dangers the water presented to divers, but when the water levels dropped, divers were able to do an extensive search. It's called hellhole for a reason. It's a deep gorge in the baton kill Washington County, and it's almost inaccessible because of the surrounding high cliffs. The current is so fast it looks like a whirlpool. Underwater is littered with dangerous debris from a mill upstream. But today the river was the lowest it's been since Jelief were missing so state police divers went in.

But sadly nobody was found and the police were left once again with nothing. Jim it was a risky dive, and that's why it took so long to get done, but state police didn't find human remains. Then on December 13th, 2012, it was announced that Jelik's case was no longer considered a missing persons case.

It was considered a probable homicide. And when that news was announced, Jelik's grandparents made a very emotional statement. It's a hard day, It's a sad day. We, you know, have always held out hope that, you know, Jelique is alive and would be coming home. For Jelique's grandparents, hearing the word homicide is horrifying. This is really hard. I mean, we walk closer.

We need closure. But, you know, it's been five years and it's another holiday season and it makes it really hard. I mean, we walk closer, we need closure, but you know, it's been five years and it's another holiday season and it makes it really hard. In 2014, the police went and searched the home he was last seen in Steven's parents' home, which had since been sold. And the new owners of the police could come and search it. However, nothing came out of it. In 2017, there was a second skull that was found by a hiker along the Hudson River. And when they analyzed it, they believed that the skull belonged to someone, a boy, between ages 10 and 13. And because Jolique was 12, they thought maybe it could be his. However, once again, it wasn't him. And unfortunately, the chief who was in charge of this case actually passed away in

2018. The state police and FBI continued to follow up on tips, including one that came out as recently as June of 2022. A new lead state police investigators say they've gotten new credible information. First on 13 state police investigators follow a new lead that brings them to this large wooded preserve,

hoping to find evidence that could ultimately bring justice for Juleek. A tip came in that alerted police to the South Troi Dodgers field. And if you remember, South Troi is the area where Stephen was placed by cellphone records the night of Jelik's disappearance. And please haven't given us any specific details about the search or the tip that came in. All they've said is that it was one worth pursuing. Have you found anything today that might provide some hope to Julie's family? Well, with any lead and right

now I can't say that we've, you know, I can't get into what we have or have not found investigators were on the scene for about six hours before they shut the search down and sadly we don't know if anything was found. Former lead investigator

on the case, Tom Aiken says this is one of the more challenging cases state police have tried to solve over the years. It got to on the case, Tom Aiken have tried to solve over point where we're getting country. I hope and pray family that actually lov, but also it holds the one that count about who hurt him. So it's now been 15 years since Jelique Rainwalker disappeared. Jelique was last seen wearing a gray t-shirt with a dragon on it, blue jeans and black high-top sneakers. He was five foot six inches, weighed approximately 105 pounds at the time of his disappearance,

and I really wish that there was more to report on at this time. I'm hoping that one day there will be more to share on this case. But for now, that's really all we have. So if you know anything about Jolique Rainwalker's disappearance, please contact the Cambridge Greenwich Police at 518-677-3044, or the state police at 1-800-GIV-TIP, or email crimetipatroopers.ny.gov. Like I said, cases like this are so, so frustrating,

especially when foster care is involved. There's just so many instances of horrible care and abusive homes, and it's just so depressing to hear about, but it's so important that we talk about it. I really hope that one day there are at least some answers for everyone who misses Jelique to this day. It's just a shame how challenging his life was right out the gate. I mean, he just didn't deserve any of this, and it's very sad thinking about his potential as an adult now, you know. He's only two years younger than me. I can't even imagine what he would be doing at this point

if he had the proper care in his life. And the proper therapy as well. The system failed him, his adoptive parents failed him, and we can only hope that the police will pull through with the answers that everyone needs. Also, please check out our current fundraisers for a national center for missing and exploited children. Again, they were brought up in today's case and they're just such an incredible and important

organization that anyone should feel very proud to support. That is going to be it for me today, guys. Thank you for joining me for another episode. And make sure you follow the show on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. It really does help me out. If you want to watch the video version of this show, you can find it on my YouTube channel, which will be linked, or you can just search Kendal Ray.

I will be back with another episode soon, but until then, stay safe out there. From joyful occasions to the unexpected, first Franklin financial makes loans for living, offering fixed rates and flexible terms on loans up to $15,000. The next time you're looking for some extra cash to help make ends meet, come see the friendly Franklin folks, or visit us at 1ffc.com to learn more. All loan terms and APRs depend on meeting our underwriting and income criteria and may require collateral. First-ranking financial corporation is licensed by the Virginia State Corporation Commission

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