Jelani "J.J." Day

Sep 4

Written By M T

25 years old · Bloomington / Peru, Illinois · August 24 – September 4, 2021

Who he was

Jelani "J.J." Day was 25 years old and grew up in Danville, Illinois, a hardscrabble former coal mining town that, as journalist John W. Fountain wrote, is the kind of place known to make you or break you. Jelani was made. He was the fourth of five children, the youngest son, in a family anchored by his mother Carmen Bolden Day, who describes him as her "bill collector child" because he called her several times a day, every day, just to hear her voice. He was 6'2", handsome, with a brilliant white smile. He was a member of Omega Psi Phi fraternity. He was a track and field athlete at Alabama A&M University, where he graduated at the top of his class in 2018 with a bachelor's degree in speech pathology. He chose speech pathology because of a childhood promise. A little boy he knew was teased for a speech impediment, and Jelani decided he would spend his life helping people like him. He was planning to become a doctor. His father had cancer. Jelani had registered to donate bone marrow. In August 2021, he had just begun his first semester of graduate school at Illinois State University. He called his mother on August 23. "He said, 'Okay mom, I just wanted to hear your voice.' And that was our last conversation."

What happened

On August 24, 2021, security footage showed Jelani entering the Beyond/Hello cannabis dispensary on Veterans Parkway in Bloomington, the last confirmed sighting of him alive. He did not come home. His family reported him missing on August 25. Bloomington Police launched a search. Two days later, on August 26, Peru Police found his white 2010 Chrysler 300 abandoned in a wooded area south of the Illinois Valley YMCA in Peru, Illinois, a city more than 60 miles north of his campus with a population that is 0.4% Black, and a city with a documented history as a sundown town. The license plate had been removed from the car. Inside, investigators found a partially smoked marijuana cigar and a journal. They did not release the contents of the journal and said there was no suicide note. On September 4, rescue crews found a body floating in the Illinois River near Peru. It took until September 23, nearly three weeks, for the LaSalle County Coroner's Office to formally identify the remains as Jelani Day.

His shoes and clothing were not on his body. They were found a mile upriver from where his body was recovered, weeks later. DNA recovered from those clothes did not match Jelani. Shoeprints were found near the body. His iPhone was discovered months later, shattered, on the side of I-55 north in Bloomington, found by chance by a man who had pulled over to secure a mattress on his roof. The phone was sent to the FBI in Chicago. Investigators were unable to crack the passcode until Carmen Day noticed Jelani punching it in on surveillance footage and alerted detectives in April 2023. Within ten days, investigators accessed the phone. They told Carmen there was no substantive information on it.

Official ruling

On October 26, 2021, LaSalle County Coroner Richard Ploch ruled Jelani Day's cause of death as drowning. The manner of death — homicide, suicide, or accident — was never determined. Ploch stated: "Unfortunately, there is no specific positive test at autopsy for drowning. Drowning is considered a diagnosis of exclusion." He acknowledged the forensic examination was "suboptimal" due to decomposition and river predator activity during the weeks the body was in warm water. Ploch found no evidence of manual strangulation, assault, sharp or blunt force injury, gunshot injury, infection, tumor, natural disease, or significant drug intoxication. How Jelani Day ended up in the Illinois River was declared "unknown." The case was classified as a death investigation — not a homicide investigation, not a missing persons investigation with foul play suspected. It has never been reclassified.

Contested record

Carmen Bolden Day has never accepted the drowning ruling and has spent four years documenting what she believes was a failure of investigation from the first day.

From the beginning, she said law enforcement agencies were not communicating with each other — she would ask one agency about evidence and they would be unaware of what another had found. The 20-day delay in identifying her son's body prompted Illinois lawmakers to pass the Jelani Day Bill, signed by Governor Pritzker, requiring county coroners to report unidentified bodies to the FBI within 72 hours. The law is his legacy — and an implicit acknowledgment that the original investigation failed.

The physical evidence has never been explained: clothing and shoes found a mile upriver, not on his body; DNA on those items belonging to an unknown person; shoeprints near the body; a car found 60 miles from campus with its license plate removed. None of these questions have been publicly resolved. "Jelani was an avid swimmer," Carmen said. "An avid swimmer doesn't drown himself. Jelani didn't have depression or mental issues. Those are indicative of someone who had suicidal thoughts. That's not what my son had."

The racial dimension was explicit from the start. His disappearance occurred the same week as Gabby Petito's — a white woman whose case drew wall-to-wall national media coverage while Jelani's went largely unacknowledged for weeks. Civil rights attorney Ben Crump, Rev. Jesse Jackson, and advocates across the country called out the disparity directly. Jackson said: "I think that some men followed him and somebody knows something that we don't know." Peru, Illinois — where his car was found and his body recovered — sits in a county that is overwhelmingly white and has a documented history as a sundown town, a place where Black people were historically unwelcome after dark.

A multi-agency joint task force was assembled to investigate the case. In 2023, it was quietly disbanded — with no arrests, no suspects, no answers, and the case still officially open.

Legal process

August 24, 2021 — Jelani Day last seen at Beyond/Hello dispensary in Bloomington. Does not return home.

August 25, 2021 — Family reports him missing to Bloomington Police.

August 26, 2021 — Peru Police find Jelani's car abandoned in wooded area near Peru, 60+ miles from campus. License plate removed.

September 4, 2021 — Body found floating in Illinois River near Peru.

September 23, 2021 — LaSalle County Coroner identifies remains as Jelani Day.

October 26, 2021 — Coroner rules cause of death drowning; manner of death undetermined. Multi-agency joint task force formed.

November–December 2021 — Jelani's clothing and shoes found a mile upriver; DNA does not match Jelani. Shoeprints found near body. FBI and Illinois State Police join investigation.

December 2021 — Ben Crump calls on FBI to take full control of investigation and investigate as potential hate crime. Rev. Jesse Jackson holds marches in Peru and Bloomington-Normal.

October 2022 — Jelani's shattered iPhone found on side of I-55. Sent to FBI Chicago. Passcode not cracked for over a year.

April 2023 — Carmen Day identifies Jelani's passcode on surveillance footage, alerts investigators. Phone unlocked within ten days. Investigators say no substantive information found on device.

August 2024 — Joint task force disbanded. No active leads. $10,000 reward for substantial information remains unclaimed. Case remains officially open as a death investigation.

As of June 2026 — No suspects identified. No charges filed. Manner of death still undetermined. Case effectively abandoned.