Police are asking the public to help identify a man seen on surveillance video knocking on the door of a home in LaSalle, Illinois.
Authorities believe the suspicious man is Jelani Day, whose body was discovered in nearby Peru, Illinois.
However, his family viewed the video and they say it is not him.
Carmen Bolden Day reported her son missing on August 24.
The 25-year-old graduate student was last seen on August 24, on surveillance video outside a marijuana dispensary in Bloomington, Illinois.
His car was found on August 26, abandoned in a wooded area in Peru, a small town about 60 miles north of Bloomington. The clothing he wore in the dispensary video were neatly folded on the backseat.
11 days after Bolden Day reported her son missing, police in Peru pulled a body out of the Illinois River.
Jelani was positively identified on Thursday, September 23. A backlog of DNA cases at the state lab delayed the identification, authorities say.
The distraught mom believes Jelani met with foul play after he went missing on August 24.
In an emotional interview on Saturday, she said police and the coroner’s office were rude, dismissive, and complacent.
“They didn’t look for him,” she said, while fighting back tears. “They wanted to create – and they still want to create this narrative that he did something to himself.”
Bolden Day compares the lack of interest in her son’s case to the worldwide spotlight on Gabby Petito, the 22-year-old blogger who was reported missing on September 11.
Gabby Petito’s body was found in a Wyoming park on September 19. A massive manhunt is underway for her fiancé, Brian Laundrie, in Florida.
Reality TV star Dog the Bounty Hunter has joined the hunt for the fugitive.
After the discovery of Petito’s body, Bolden Day said the search for Jelani slowed to a standstill.
“I need them to feel as if my son is just as important as Gabby, because he is,” she told ABC 7.
Watch Bolden Day’s interview below.
