More than 300 people marched in Peru, Illinois, Tuesday demanding further investigation into the death of Jelani Day, an Illinois State University graduate student who went missing for several days before his body was found in September in the Illinois River.
The march took place the day after the LaSalle County coroner said Day died by drowning.
The march began at the Peru Police Department headquarters before traveling to the location where Day’s body was found. Marchers then headed to the YMCA near where Day’s body was found.
Day, 25, was last seen Aug. 24. His family in Danville and a faculty member reported him missing after he did not show up for class for several days,. His car was found Aug. 26 concealed in a wooded area in Peru, in LaSalle County.
On Sept. 4, a body was discovered floating near the south bank of the Illinois River, just east of the Illinois Route 251 bridge, Bloomington police said, and it was identified as Day’s body Sept. 23.
Coroner Richard Ploch said, “There was no evidence of antemortem injury, such as manual strangulation, an assault or altercation, sharp, blunt or gunshot injury, infection, tumor, natural disease, congenital abnormality or significant drug intoxication.”
It’s not clear how Day ended up in the Illinois River, Ploch said.
The Rev. Jesse Jackson, who spoke at the march, has said Day’s case looks similar to other racially motivated killings.
A multijurisdictional task force including the Illinois State Police, the Bloomington and Peru police departments, LaSalle County sheriff’s office and the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit continues to investigate Day’s death.
Day’s mother, Carmen Bolden Day, posted in the Justice for Jelani Day Facebook group that she does not believe Day committed suicide by drowning and wrote that the narrative the task force is creating is “DISRESPECTFUL, INSENSITIVE, LAZY.”
“These police departments want an EASY way out,” the post read. “They DIDN’T do their job, so they want to look at surface details.”
She wrote that her son had no history of mental illness or suicidal ideation and was an “AVID swimmer.” She said she wants to ensure her son gets justice.
State Rep. Kam Buckner recently wrote a letter to Peru police Chief Robert Pyszka, noting “multiple autopsies and an independent pathology report” have “raised more questions about Jelani’s death.”
In the letter, Buckner also raised doubts about the task force’s ability to solve the case, although he called for a state-level investigation rather than a federal one.
“I believe this case rises to the level that specialized resources, skills, and attention are necessary to properly move forward,” Buckner’s letter read.
