According to Chicago Sun-Times, Jelani Day’s four-door sedan was found on Aug. 26, one day after he had been reported missing by his family. Nine days later, police found his lifeless body floating in the Illinois River near the Illinois Route 251 Bridge.
Day’s body was found in unimaginable conditions. At first, deputies couldn’t identify the body as male or female. They also couldn’t determine whether the body was black or white. Also, according to the Chicago Sun-Times report, his body couldn’t be even remotely matched to Jelani’s description. The discovery at the time was heartbreaking for everyone involved.
As news broke that this could be Jelani’s body, his mother gripped onto her last bit of hope it wasn’t him. She prayed endlessly to keep him alive and find her baby safe. The absence of answers for Jelani’s mom was heartbreaking enough to get them working faster.
Jelani’s car, a 2010 Chrysler 300 which he had fixed up himself, was found along the river the first week Jelani was reported missing, according to his mother in the Chicago Sun-Times report. His mother questions why no one had searched this area sooner when the initial discovery was made.
Reports broke early, Tuesday, Sept. 12, as autopsy reports came out that Jelani’s organs may have been missing prior to the autopsy. Jelani’s mother had to tell ABC7 that her son was murdered and her goal is to find out what happened. In the initial autopsy, there were conflicting reports about Jelani having organs missing from his body as a result of someone harvesting them before his time of death. This is so hard to imagine for anyone, let alone his mother. After the initial first report, the second autopsy confirmed that there were missing organs, but they are unsure what the cause of it is.
Jelani’s siblings did release a statement regarding the autopsy reports and spoke on behalf of their mom. They wanted to let everyone know in their statement that their mother isn’t focused on conflicting reports, she wants to find who killed Jelani. They report that they’re unsure why these two autopsy reports differ from each other. As for the second autopsy, his family explains to the ABC 7 reporter, the pathologist didn’t have all of the body parts and organs to identify their brother. The second pathologist even stated that he was confused about how the first pathologist conducted the autopsy and why he didn’t have the whole body in the first place. Other major organs are considered “mush or liquefied,” according to the pathologists, with no answers as to why. As of now, they aren’t taking organ harvesting off the table because there is no accurate cause of death at this time.
An investigation is still in the works, and Jelani’s family has been brave enough to share their thoughts and give their community as many answers as they can about Jelani. If anyone would like to donate to Jelani’s family or his burial funds, a GoFundMe is linked here.
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