BLOOMINGTON — For weeks Jelani Day’s family, supporters and loved ones have been calling for the FBI to take the lead on his death investigation, marching in the streets and chanting his name.
So what’s stopping the agency?
“If a violation of federal law has occurred, then the FBI can initiate an investigation and we would typically work that jointly with the other agencies,” said Patrick Hoffman, supervisory senior resident agent, covering the Peoria and Quad Cities resident agencies within the Springfield division of the FBI. “If there is no federal violation — so for example state or local laws have been violated — then the FBI may not have jurisdiction over those crimes. There’s other ways that we can still assist, but it would be in an assistance role, not necessarily as the lead investigative agency.”
People are also reading…
No law enforcement agency has publicly said a federal crime has occurred or is suspected in the case of Day, the 25-year-old Danville native and Illinois State University graduate student whose disappearance in August sparked national attention.
The FBI Springfield office began communications with the Bloomington Police Department regarding this investigation when Day was still considered missing from the Bloomington area.
However, FBI Public Affairs Specialist Becky Cramblit said the Springfield office had not formally moved into an assistance role before Day’s body was found in the Illinois River on Sept. 4, a week and a half after he was reported missing.
When he was identified on Sept. 23 as the person pulled from the Illinois River, the case moved into the Chicago office’s jurisdiction. Special Agent Siobhan Johnson from the Chicago office confirmed Friday the agency is assisting with the case. Previously the FBI confirmed its Behavioral Analysis Unit, which is based at FBI Headquarters in Washington, D.C., is assisting in the investigation.
Several local and state agencies are also part of the multi-jurisdictional investigation, including the LaSalle County sheriff’s and coroner’s offices, Peru, LaSalle and Bloomington police departments, and Illinois State Police.
“Most commonly, the FBI looks to partner with local, state or the other federal agencies throughout all of our investigations,” Hoffman said. “We heavily rely upon our relationships with the other agencies in order to successfully investigate any matter.”
During a meeting with The Pantagraph editorial board Thursday, the Rev. Jesse Jackson said a hate crime would be the nexus that brings the FBI in as the lead investigator on Day’s case.
Jackson, who led a march Friday afternoon through Bloomington and Normal, has compared Day’s death to that of Emmett Till, a Black teenager who was lynched in 1955 Mississippi. Till's attackers brutalized, shot and dumped him in the Tallahatchie River. His body was unrecognizable when he was found.
“It smells like a hate crime to me, not a suicide, but a homicide,” said the Rev. Courtney Carson of Decatur, one of the organizers of Friday's march. “Why else would someone murder another human being in such a wicked way?”
The FBI defines a hate crime as a “criminal offense against a person or property motivated in whole or in part by an offender’s bias against a race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, ethnicity, gender, or gender identity.”
According to the FBI website, the bureau works with local and state authorities when hate crimes are considered, even when federal charges are not filed, and "The FBI is the lead investigative agency for criminal violations of federal civil rights statutes."
No suspects have been identified publicly by law enforcement agencies in connection to Day’s death. The LaSalle County Coroner’s Office autopsy report, which opined his cause of death was drowning, states “The manner in which Mr. Day went into the Illinois River is currently unknown.”
“There must be reason to believe a federal crime has been committed,” Johnson said.
John Fermon, public affairs officer for Bloomington police, reiterated what FBI representatives said: “The federal agencies need a nexus/connection to be a lead agency e.g. a federal crime has to be committed," adding that his department was always willing to seek assistance if needed.
Hoffman noted if a case crosses state lines, “that's often one of the issues that could help the FBI to be involved.”
Peru Police Chief Robert Pyszka previously told The Pantagraph that investigators had given all files in this case to the FBI and despite his request for the federal agency to lead, the FBI declined to take the lead on this investigation.
“The FBI is assisting on this case, but will not take over the lead of this investigation. They will assist us in any possible way they can, but they will not take over the lead in this case,” he said. “The family numerous times asked us to pass this investigation off, and we have attempted to do such.”