The mysterious death of Jaylen Griffin and the search for answers

After nearly four years of searching for Jaylen Griffin in upstate New York, his family was given 90 minutes to reflect and prepare for a press conference that would reveal their eternal grief to the world.

Ten days before what would have been Jaylen’s 16th birthday, his body was found in an attic five miles from his Buffalo home. His dental records were used to identify him.

Police said he had been deceased for “a considerable period of time” and it could take several months for the medical examiner to complete his autopsy. A spokeswoman for the Erie County District Attorney’s Office said her office is assisting in the homicide investigation. Buffalo Police Commissioner Joseph A. Gramaglia described the heartbreaking news during the April 15 news conference as the “next level of closure” for Jaylen’s family.

The 12-year-old’s family has experienced enormous grief since they last saw him on August 4, 2020. Three months after Jaylen disappeared, his 18-year-old brother was murdered near Jaylen’s family home. Warren Street. That same year, Jaylen’s older brother survived after being shot on his 21st birthday. And Jaylen’s mother, Joann Ponzo, died in September of what was described as a “broken heart.”

Kareema Morris, founder of the organization Bury the Violence, attended the press conference on behalf of the Griffin family – a role she often takes on to spare vulnerable loved ones further heartache and the feeling of being forced to answer intrusive questions.

A year after Jaylen’s family reported him missing to the Buffalo Police Department, they reached out to Morris for help. They said police labeled Jaylen a runaway — a term often given to missing children of color that reduces the urgency of their cases, minimizes law enforcement resources and diminishes any chance of attracting the attention of media.

The term was all too familiar to Morris. Learning that another missing black child had been labeled a “runaway” was the cornerstone of what inspired Morris to start Bury the Violence after the murder of her niece, Lanasha Rollerson, in September 2013. The 13-year-old year-old went missing and Buffalo police also called her a runaway. His body was found three days later.

Capital B has contacted the Buffalo Police Department for comment on its missing persons policy and use of the term “runaway.” We have not received a response as of publication date.

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Learn more: Lawmakers Address Epidemic of Missing and Murdered Black People

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What was the impact of Jaylen’s case?

It was difficult to reconcile the fact that Jaylen was found less than 5 miles from his home and in a home with a history of dead bodies. In this part of South Buffalo, Morris said, is a community where they talk to each other and “are neighbors first.” She firmly believes that someone knows something because Jaylen “didn’t show up there.”

“How was he in this space and no one saw, heard or smelled anything?” » asked Morris. “Was he led there, was he lured there, was he brought there with the feeling that this was someone he knew maybe – be able to travel comfortably.”

With all the effort that Morris and her team – primarily family, including Lanasha’s mother, Morris’ six children, ages 15 to 28, plus volunteers – put into the search for Jaylen, she cannot stop. stop you from wondering, “What happened?” Where have we missed? What clues were there?

Morris and other Buffalo residents were left with more questions than answers.

What is the role of the lawyer in the case of a missing person?

When Jaylen’s family contacted Morris in 2021, they had already built a reputation in the community by reuniting nearly 200 families around the world with their missing loved ones in the Buffalo area. People often discover her through word of mouth and can fill out a form on her website.

Similar to organizations such as the Black and Missing Foundation and Our Black Girls, Morris’ mission is not only to find the missing, but also to bring media coverage to those who are often forgotten: people of color.

His primary focus is missing people in the Buffalo area.

“I’ve had people contact me looking to find family members who may have traveled here and gone off the grid,” she said.

There are also cases where Morris doesn’t know if the person she’s looking for is fleeing an abuser or trafficker or suffering a mental health crisis, or if the person seeking help is actually an abuser.

“I always located them,” she said.

How are cases of missing adolescents different from those of adults?

“As long as they don’t express that it’s an abuser looking for them,” Morris says she gives the missing adult the option to call home themselves, or she could relay a message that ‘it is alive.

If the missing person doesn’t want to return home, Morris provides them with resources such as cell phone service, and they try to understand why they left their home in the first place.

“And most of the time, it’s just kids being kids.” They don’t want to hear what someone has to say if they are arguing with someone. And it’s like, well, they still love you, and I’ll let them know you’re okay – and that means I have your address and you know I found you,” she said. declared.

“Sometimes the kids don’t get up and walk away. Sometimes it’s things that led to it,” Morris said. There have been cases of neighbors holding children hostage and family members sexually trafficking their own children.

“We have to remember that it only takes one incident for someone to do something and you’re truly off the grid,” she said.

Are there common places where missing teenagers are found?

“Well, a lot of times you’ll find that within a certain age range, there are kids who, I want to say very specifically, are being cared for,” Morris said. “They have friends who help them navigate the streets outside of what they experience at home. Freedom, that sort of thing, is kitsch for kids when they can’t manage at home according to what they think life should be.

“Then you have groups of kids who end up wandering off, ending up in houses or dragging bribes. Their parents are distraught, they’re hanging out with these kids and their parents don’t know who they are. They have no information about the parents of these children, and they are in homes where only God knows what is happening.

“We call these ‘hot spots’ for kids, located in certain common areas. They use kids their age to manipulate them into coming out, and some of them are trafficked,” Morris said.

Working in the Buffalo school system has been to Morris’ advantage. Some of the students she met then researched her and became her “youth advocates” to help her find other missing children, tweens and teens.

“You can’t accomplish things if you don’t have a relationship with these kids. They know when you’re blowing smoke or when you’re serious. Young people are essential in this work,” she said.

What is skip tracking and how can the public help?

Morris, 45, uses search tools she learned as a debt collector to help find missing people.

“We can look up information about people, see who their next of kin are, who they’ve ever been affiliated with, you can even go through systems” such as social services to connect with other people who live in the same address, she explained. “These are people who will appear during the jump tracking.”

Morris launched his own investigation into Jaylen’s disappearance using skip tracking to track him and the online activity of his connections. She said she traced the police investigation and launched an online visibility campaign by reposting a flyer of Jaylen’s that her organization had created on apps such as Ring and a premium version of Citizen. They distributed missing persons flyers in mall parking lots and other locations, collected available surveillance footage and requested cadaver dogs as well as aerial views for search efforts.

Morris’ organization actively raises funds to provide these direct services, including on-demand educational videos. She was reluctant to release details of that project, but said, in part, that it would aim to train all ages, particularly those in customer service-related occupations, such as school administrators, hotels, social workers, pediatricians, on what to do. if they encounter a kidnapped or missing person. Once more people are trained, it will give Morris the space in his schedule to balance networking with other advocates and raising money for the organization.