Family of Jelani Day, state lawmaker want Peru police to hand death investigation over to FBI
BLOOMINGTON, Ill. - The mother of Jelani Day buried her son this week, but there is still a mystery of what happened to him after he went missing on August 25.
The Peru Police Department is handling the investigation, but Illinois State Representative Kam Buckner wants that to change.
He wrote a letter last week to the police chief asking him to hand over the entire investigation to the Illinois State Police or the FBI.
There were two autopsies done on the Illinois State University graduate student. According to the family, both had different information on the state of Day's body.
Buckner's letter addresses that, saying the investigation has "included some unsettling discrepancies and inconsistencies," and being a multi-county investigation, "rises to the level that specialized resources, skills and attention are needed to move forward."
"18 days from the day his body was found in order for it to be identified. Even with dental records. Now lets juxtapose that against a similar case … the case of Brian Laundrie. The FBI was a part of that investigation and led that investigation and they found his remains on Wednesday of this week and yesterday on Thursday of this week they were able to identify who he was based on his dental records. That's a one-day period versus an 18-day period," Buckner said.
Peru police did acknowledge they received Buckner’s letter on October 26.
There will be a march by the Day family outside of the Peru Police Department to demand they hand over the case.