Jelani Day's mother wants the answers she believes national attention got for the Petito family - CNN
10/27/21
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The LaSalle County Coroner wrote Monday that the 25-year-old graduate student
died from "drowning" with no evidence of pre-death injury but added, "the manner in which Mr. Day went into the Illinois River is currently unknown."
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Day's car was found in woods behind a YMCA and surrounded by homes.
Where the car entered, according to the
former family attorney, looks like a dead end from the paved road.
The license plate had been removed. The clothes Day was seen wearing on a surveillance camera on August 24 were in the car.
His wallet was found "somewhat in the bushes" about a half-mile away, according to investigators. Neither the car nor wallet was found near the water, yet Day's body was recovered more than a week later over a mile away off the bank of the Illinois River.
According to investigators, an ID lanyard was found just across the river from the body. Clothing was also found further east along the river next to the Illinois Route 251 Bridge.
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Bolden Day has commissioned two independent autopsies after she told CNN it's been hard to keep faith in local authorities.
Jelani Day's body was found in a severe state of decomposition, so much so that Bolden Day does not believe the coroner could say with such certainty in his report there was "there was no evidence of any injury, such as manual strangulation, an assault or altercation, sharp, blunt, or gunshot injury, infection, tumor, natural disease, congenital abnormality, or significant drug intoxication."
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The coroner's report was "an insult to not only myself, but to my son," she said. They're sentiments civil rights campaigner Jackson. shares, saying "it assumes there's a kind of suicide planned."