Just a few statements of several that stood out to me from this article:
Read the documents: LaSalle County emails give insight into Jelani Day investigation | Local News | pantagraph.com
"I want the Illinois Attorney General; I need the Illinois Department of Justice; I need the FBI because obviously the state police didn’t think it was important for them to take over," Day's mother, Carmen Bolden Day, said
to a crowd in Peru last month. "They just wanted to oversee. Now I need more than oversight; I need more than oversight. I need justice for Jelani."
However, in the documents, The Pantagraph found several other agencies have had contact with the case. Among the 20 identified in the county email exchanges are four police departments, four fire departments, four emergency management agencies and three specialized search and rescue agencies, as well as Illinois State Police, two FBI offices and the bureau’s Behavioral Analysis Unit.
Law enforcement officials have said several additional agencies were contacted during the missing person search, extending from Tazewell County to Day’s hometown of Danville.
The FBI’s role has been limited as the agency has thus far declined to take the lead on the investigation.
The Pantagraph last week reported the FBI can take the lead on a local investigation only when a federal law is violated or a case crosses state lines.
5 items sent to lab and media interest
According to emails sent between LaSalle County and Bloomington police, five items of evidence from Day’s car have been sent from Bloomington to ISP forensic labs. Those include:
- Steering wheel swab,
- Front driver side interior door handle swab,
- Front passenger side interior door handle swab.
- Blue straw from a Styrofoam cup,
- Partially smoked cigar blunt.
An email between Bloomington detectives indicates ISP labs in Morton, Joliet and Belleville would accept five items from each department involved in the case, but a list of items sent from LaSalle County officials was not found in The Pantagraph’s review of the emails.