Jaliek Rainwalker is Still Missing: Are Foster Parents Involved?
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Hi guys, welcome back to my channel. I am 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's a lot of people involved and

and Jalik's life changed a lot. Up until his disappearance, Jalik 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

the current fundraising efforts that I am 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 NECMEC 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 milehighermerch.com. I will have links to it below. And 100% of the proceeds from that goes directly to NCMEC.

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 Jalik Rainwalker was born on August 2nd, 1995, and he faced challenges worldwide.

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 he,

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 are 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 complex.

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 Kers, with Stephen Kerr and Jocelyn McDonald in 2003. So when Jalik 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 when Jalik 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 Jalik'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 Jalik said that he was a really difficult child.

His maternal grandmother, Barbara, and him spent a lot of 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 has great memories of that day. And she said Jalik 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. Jalik 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 they were, which is such an adorable thing to say and shows how deep and emotional he was.

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Barbara said that Jalik did struggle with his behavior from time to time, but she said that those 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, Stephen and Jocelyn said that Jalik'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 Stephen 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...

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'd 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 where 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

process if they truly wanted to remove Jalik 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, Jalik was not in any sort of therapy or treatment for his behavior. It seems to

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 child care program clearly means that the child may need medical attention or therapy. Stephen 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 Jalik 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 needs should have taken a backseat. And because these needs were not being met, obviously his violent outbursts kept

happening. So it was around the same time that Jalik had gotten in trouble at the homeschooling program that Stephen 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, Stephen 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 Jalik 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 caretaker just temporarily.

And respite care was actually suggested to Stephen 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 respite care was just in place while they were trying to find a new home for him. So in the last few days of October, Jalik was placed with a caretaker named Elaine Ackerman.

Jocelyn originally asked Elaine to take care of Jalik 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 respite care is Jalik 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 Jalik from October 27th to November 1st and then they would pick up again on November 6th. So because they weren't able to have Jalik the entire two weeks, Stephen ends up canceling his trip to Romania. And

And even though he was going to be home, they still decided to have Elaine take Jalik for a few days. So when Jalik first got to Elaine's house in Altima, 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, Jalik and Elaine ended up going to this Halloween themed local fair and Jalik 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. Jalik

loved to read and she had a large bookshelf 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, go on 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 Steven and Jocelyn. Jalik 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 afternoon.

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. Jalik also told Elaine a lot about Steven 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 Jalik. It seemed to her that he was being singled out and that his siblings received much better care than him. For instance, Jalik 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 $3,000 a month for the adoption of Jalik and his sister. And with this money, they were supposed to make sure that Jalik and his sister got proper psychological care. But like I said earlier, neither of them were getting any type of therapy.

So although Jalik was removed from his homeschool program, Stephen still had him doing the homework from the program while he was in respite care. So Stephen gave him a clipboard with all of his 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 Jalik's stay with Tom and Elaine came to an end.

So Stephen drove from their home in Washington County to Altima to pick him up. But instead of going back home, Stephen took Jalik to Greenwich, New York. Stephen's parents had a house in Greenwich that was unoccupied at the time. Now, there's mixed reporting on why he decided to take Jalik here instead of going straight home, but this is what he did. Some sources say that he was planning to bring Jalik here until Stephen could figure out how he wanted to proceed with his business.

problematic son. So basically in this version of the story, Stephen was keeping Jalik at this property while he figured out what to do with him next. Other sources say that Stephen 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, Stephen and Jalik went to Red Robin.

And this is actually the last sighting of Jalik. They were spotted at a Red Robin in Latham around 8 p.m. Stephen says that after they had dinner, he and Jalik 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, Stephen says he went into the room that Jalik 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 Jalik was not in there and hadn't been there at all. He said that Jalik 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, Stephen said he went into the kitchen and found two things that made him think that his son Jalik had relapsed.

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 Stephen found was a goodbye letter, which read, 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 9-1-1 to report his son missing. He first noticed that Jalik was missing at about 7.30 and he didn't call 9-1-1 until 8.57. And it has been reported that he actually took a shower and returned some rental movies before calling 9-1-1.

And when police did arrive, Stephen 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 Jalik Reem.

So the news of Jalik's disappearance did spread quickly. A newspaper article was published on November 5th, 2007, and it identified the missing boy as 12-year-old Jalik 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", approximately 105 pounds, and he spoke with a slight speech impediment.

His R sounded like W's. Jalik 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, Jalik 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,

the following morning, Jalik 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

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 Jalik had left on his own, it didn't make sense of how he, a young boy, traveling in 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 Battenkill 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 Jalik was nowhere to be found. And to make matters more difficult for the police, Stephen's participation and cooperation continued forever.

to dwindle so much so that they actually announced to 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, Stephen 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 Stephen wasn't cooperating anymore, it was obvious

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 Jalik's honor.

It was held in November, and during it, Stephen 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, Jalik, is alive and well.

Unfortunately, after November 2007, the search efforts and information going out related to Jalik 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 Jalik falls out.

But he did say, however, that they were going to take some time and follow up on the leads 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 Stephen 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 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 Jalik as that was their main goal. There was another search in early December that took place at a hydroelectric plant

plant. And they were hopeful that maybe in this search, something of Jalik's 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 Jalik. 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 Jalik 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 Jalik Task Force. And this was put together by Elaine 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

that Jalik 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 lame person. If you remember earlier, I talked about a letter that was left behind by Jalik 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, Jalik. Now, a lame person

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 Jalik's honor. And I bring this up because two very important people did not attend. I'm sure you can guess who they are. Stephen and Jocelyn. Even his adoptive grandparents were there.

And they were sad that his adoptive parents weren't there. Jalik'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 Stephen was seen in the community taking down flyers,

leading up to this event. And Stephen said that his reasoning for doing this was because he felt that Elaine and her husband were working against them. But Stephen also publicly said that he found it to be wonderful that the task force was making efforts to find Jalik. So which is it? Very mixed statements coming from Stephen at this point. And these kinds of contradictions are what make people so wary about Stephen. - I'm not privy.

too 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. Steven was hit or miss, but, you know, then stop communicating, hire an attorney. This is your kid that's missing. Now, Steven and Jocelyn did put up a $25,000 reward for any information that could lead them to Jalik. 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 and why Stephen may be responsible. She said that there was an incident three years ago in which Stephen punished Jalik 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 14th, 2008, when Stephen was officially named as a person of interest.

in his son's disappearance. And investigators 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

1216 a.m. on November 2nd. Now, if you remember, Stephen said he and Jalik 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 Stephen's car driving at 1216 a.m., what was he doing? To be clear,

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 Jalik is still alive. And before I read you this letter, I just want to preface that this letter is

super, super weird. It says,

Now I'm sure you are very confused about this. So am I. And so were the police. They immediately began investigating this letter, trying to see if there was any real significance to it. They actually brought Steven 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 Find Jalik task force also made a public statement asking anyone who sent this letter to send a follow-up with some sort of proof that Jalik was actually still alive. And they even put together three questions that they knew Jalik would be the only one who was able to answer them if he was still alive.

The questions were, one, what did Jalik do on Halloween night? Two, who won the foosball tournament at the Persons? Three, what did Jalik 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 Stephen possibly could have written the Jalik is alive letter. So shortly after this, the cell phone data was analyzed. And I'm sure it's not a big shocker to hear that

Stephen had lied about where he was on November 1st. And investigators learned that Stephen had lied about the route that he took to his parents' vacant home that night. Stephen had said that around 8.15, he was on Route 40, Melrose, New York. But his phone data showed that he was 25 miles south

So why lie about the route you took home, Stephen? 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 minivan at 1216 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 move 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?

Luckily, during this time, there were still many people who were highly focused on finding Jalik 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 Jalik'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 strange.

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 Steven and Jocelyn'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 Jalik's clothes.

clothing that he was believed to be wearing when he went missing. Now, she did 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 Jalik. 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 Jalik and 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 Hell Hole. 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 Hell Hole for a reason. It's a deep gorge in the Battenkill, Washington County, and it's almost unaccessible because of the surrounding high cliffs. The current is so fast it looks like a whirlpool, and underwater is littered with dangerous debris from a mill upstream.

But today, the river was the lowest it's been since Jalik went missing, so state police divers went in. But sadly, no body 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 Jalik's case was no longer considered a missing persons case. It was considered a probable homicide. And when that news was announced, Jalik'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, Jalik...

is alive and would be com

This is really hard. I mean, we want closure. 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, Stephen's parents' home, which had since been sold. And the new owner said 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 Jalik 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 Jalik. A tip came in that alerted police to the South Troy Dodgers field. And if you remember, South Troy is the area where Stephen was placed by cell phone records the night of Jalik's disappearance. And police haven't given us any specific details.

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 Jalik's family? Well, with any lead in right now, I can't say that we've, you know, I can't get into what we have or have not found. And 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 a point where we were getting in leads not only all over the area and all over the state, but also in different areas of the country. I hope and pray that they find

and bring closure, not only to Jalik and his family that actually loved him, but also to hold the ones accountable who hurt him. So it's now been 15 years since Jalik Rainwalker disappeared. Jalik was last seen wearing a gray t-shirt with a dragon on it, blue jeans, and black high-top sneakers. He was 5'6", 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 Jalik Rainwalker's disappearance, please contact the Cambridge Greenwich Police at 518-677-3044 or the state police at 1-800-GIVE-TIP.

or email crimetip at troopers.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 Jalik 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 confidence

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 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 Kendall Ray. I will be back with another episode soon, but until then stay safe out there.