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this episode contains mentions of graphic or sensitive material that may be triggering listener discretion is
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[Music] advised crime hi everyone and welcome to the show made by the crime junkie Ashley
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flowers for those who are crime junkie AF I am here today with a very special guest who has not only been a champion
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for their Community but a staunch advocate for victims of domestic violence and families of the missing and
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murdered she is the founder of Barry the violence a nonprofit organization that helps find missing and runaway children
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in which she has helped reunite you're not going to believe this number 200 families in the Buffalo area to this
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date she's a Survivor a mother of six children and was also honored as one of USA today's women of the year in 2023
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that's kind of a big deal representing the state of New York and you can also catch her on her new radio show kicking
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crime with Karima please welcome the amazing Karima Morris to Crime junky AF thank you so much I'm Mega excited to be
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here I am so excited to have you our producer Diana has been talking about you for months and months and months
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this is a long time in the making and you actually are here for a specific case one that Diana has been talking
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about for months and months it's one of the most mysterious cases I've come across in a while it's of a young boy
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who went missing he's found years later in someone's attic but there have been no arrests and so you are the one who's
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really out there pushing for answers for his family and we are going to get into
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his case but before we do I think it's really important to understand what brought you here because True Crime
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isn't your background much like me so how how did you get to this point like what brought you into this
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world well I am for first uh Survivor of domestic violence myself and I know firsthand what takes place in the
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community when you need help and then in 2013 we had a runaway quote unquote situation in my own family my niece
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lania was a seventh grader and she had um went missing and we went to the police department Buffalo Police
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Department and ask for help when did you realize she was missing so it was a Sunday morning and I was at work in
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nagra fall factory outlet which is you know like 30 minutes away from the city and her mother had noticed she wasn't
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there when her her grandmother came home off the church bus and lenia wasn't there and so she had looked around the
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house and things like that so then my sister calls me a Sunday morning everybody's just getting out of church
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and I said check her underwear drawer she loves fragrance so her smell goods were untouched and her she's like you I
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I keep talking you smell studio right now first of all yes really and so that's the thing with our um our family
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and then also her snacks were they were there so we knew something was wrong and
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the police department told us that she was a Runa away what makes them feel confident in saying that when they have
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no history with her she has no history with running away you and they had her family in front of them well because
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they have the discretionary option you know it's to their discretion if they want to look for a child or not so
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ultimately they label them as a runaway and they use 40% less of the resources if they do take the opportunity to find
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that child if they're labeled as a runaway yes is that so 40% where does that where does that number come from
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it's it's just that's what you find out when you do your research yeah and so first of all it's up to that law
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enforcement agency's um discretion if they even want to look for the child child yes seventh grade I'm like
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thinking about myself in seventh grade like I couldn't have taken care even even if I was a Runway I couldn't take
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care of myself and uh and that's what what's crazy right and so she had was said to
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be at a party none of us know about this party because we turned to social media
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oh okay we started going to the social media platforms to look for information about what we can find out about her
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okay um but in the inum as I'm getting off of work and my sister went to the police department and they denied her
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help I told her to make make flyers and I was on my way so we started from the north Bailey area which is like coming
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from the suburban area Amhurst into the City and passing out flyers of her to get the word out right and so we started
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our own investigation because we didn't have help from the police and how did you even know where to start I mean like
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that that for you to be able to go into action like that like okay let's make flyers let's do this I I didn't I just
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knew that people needed to know who she was so her face had to be where we could
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you know duplicate this same message a thousand times over and so the pictures so we just literally printed up a
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picture and put our phone numbers on it did you get your first lead from the Flyers did you get your first lead from
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social media what happened next so this is really crazy when we're passing out the Flyers and I get closer to where
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she's at right they're saying oh that's 2:00 and I'm like this is lania this is my niece lenia she's 13 and then they're
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saying that's two :00 so as more the the closer I'm getting not knowing that I'm
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getting the people are calling her 2:00 had you ever heard that name before absolutely not so I'm like what's 2:00
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yeah and so I aggressively asked cuz now I'm frustrated yeah and they said that's
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the time she comes out 2: a.m. so they they they knew her they knew they knew her 13
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yep and so um after 3 days so I I did receive a phone call from a government official and they told me that I had to
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stop I was going into other people's private residence without permission I mean like like I'd be doing
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the same like God forbid anyone in my life go missing Like rules do not apply yeah I was on a ranch in my mind okay
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and I was just going wherever I needed to to figure out what was going on and so so wait are they only contacting you
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because like you're going into places not because they're ready to start looking exactly and so the conversation
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ended a little like this I'm going to give you 24 hours because I'm doing what you guys we asked you to do yeah and
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then with uh we received a phone call in the 23rd hour from a Community member that there was a crime scene in
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the very place that we had asked the police to go and look oh no my niece was located deceased she was
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murdered she was stabbed they tried to dismember her um they used the won soup container to pour gasoline on her body
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and so she um and this is all in the discovery of the court case right and so it was her and they had took me to um
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they told me to meet them downtown at headquarters so they can basically retain me but told me they wanted to ask
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me some questions so I had to go sit in a room while they finished because I was
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you know it it was very overwhelming and her mom wouldn't get out the car cuz we're two different personalities yeah
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and so ultimately when you have a child that's missing you don't know why they're missing each case is different
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right and here you have my sister her mother who wouldn't get out the car and this is something that you have to take
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into consideration when you're finding people everybody's not going to respond or react the same each case is different
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in this case when you hear that they're calling your child 2:00 and they're telling you that she comes
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out you have trafficking so she didn't run something kept bringing her outside on a regular
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basis was she there the whole time you were looking for her yes she was wow she was in the backyard of the house where
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they had killed her at they had dumped her body in the back so they went out their back door and took her body to the
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backyard behind their house whose house is this the guy Daron Morris who is no relation to me we don't we don't know
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this guy um he was 21 years old and he was um Mary and allegedly other people were involved in the homicide of money
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so the 21y old man that lived there and his wife right they were at this sad party and he left with her and took him
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to his to my to laia my niece and took her to his house where he lived with his wife and children and
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that's where she was killed at did he have a connection to her before this no connection she's he's 21 years old we
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don't know that guy wow yeah that's unbelievable mhm and is he he was arrested yes he was arrested and
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charged um with 39 years to life and the defense attorney was the one really um triggering my sister with talking about
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making it look like my niece was prostituted I I was to say I don't even know how and this was you said 2013 13
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and when did it go to trial oh it was immediately she um so we were done by like 2014 with everything so I I feel
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like we've come a long way in like the vernacular the way that we talk about trafficking but I mean even then to say
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that she's 13 right I mean she's also much young he you said he's 21 right 21 she was it's also statutory rape exactly
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so after this happened to your family you you like so many of the people I've talked
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to find yourself in a situation you never thought you would be in never what did life look like after that for you
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some people go through a grieving process I can't say that I did I was flaming on the inside like something has
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to be done this can never happen again kids can't just leave and nobody knows where they're at and then they're just
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brushed off like it's a runaway and I felt like literally everything that we dealt with in that
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time we had to help people because this is what goes on and nobody has a clue of
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what to do so we started navigating that space to help people find their missing
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kids how do you even think about starting it I always say I there are certain people I meet in the world who
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see a problem and they say oh that sucks right and then there's certain people I
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meet in the world who see a problem and they say well if I don't do something about it then who is going to and you
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are so clearly one of those people MH where did you even I mean what was what was your background before this I
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started as a debt collector right and then I was a retail manager so I was at Solstice sunglasses selling sunglasses
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and so you know you got customer service there and then you learn how to use t uh
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skills from um collection that help you to build information about people yeah and so which I love because I mean none
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nothing that I'm doing is my like train formal background but but I think that's
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what's so great is I think that so many people want to do something bigger something more impactful but they're
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like well I don't I don't know how or I wasn't trained or that's not my background and I'm like that doesn't
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nobody wakes up one day and it's like I'm the expert you make yourself the expert right well I have to be a th%
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honest when people felt like I found my niece and like I found who killed her yeah they started calling me for help
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like people within the community absolutely yeah like one of my first calls were um my daughter was murdered
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and we don't know who shot and killed her and I'm like okay and you're like what do you
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want me like right what do you want me to do they were they were so desperate for help like and and you were you you
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were a beacon for them in that moment when especially I'm sure they had the same experience you did when you guys
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went to police and they said too bad so sad it was like I I was still so fueled by this can't happen and this has got to
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change for our community and I just was helping people and I just looked up and was like oh my God what's going on and
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so we literally started out by giving my niece a walk for her birthday she was killed um Labor Day weekend and we gave
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her a walk the first Sunday in June for her birthday right and then we were giving out scholarships to people to
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children in the eth grade who needed the change and they made that change oh and
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so we had all this going on at the same time and before I knew it we were a full-blown out organization so it really
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was so organic you didn't sit down one day and be like ah I'm going to solve this problem you just started solving it
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and you're like oh I'm the only one solving this problem yes it's US yes so what does the organization do now like
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how has it grown since you got that first call right to what it is now and and what it is your mission is so we
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started out as lja Rose foundation and we wanted to be a basketball team oh yes of course and we wanted to help the
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youth that way cuz that was the cute version of it right and then it didn't work that way cuz I had no time or
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interest because everything else right and people were bringing me real life situations and so um eventually we
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evolved to bury the violence because even though we still do it in her Legacy but because it wasn't just about little
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girls that were running away it became something way bigger with domestic violence and I was already experienc and
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at the time she was killed it became runaway and murder and it's like we started out with the intent to help the
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youth and the girls right specifically and it turned into people calling me with questions that I didn't know how I
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was supposed to answer it and then ended up resolving the matters and being there
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as a liaison between law enforcement who we understood their response if it was a response at times
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and so literally people will call me to be Liaisons for them and to help them solve things and then we started
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advocating for them to get financed for their homicide funerals and it just kept going and
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going and I'm like the need was so huge it wasn't just one thing which is what you find out when you get really deep
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into True Crime it's not one problem you can't point to one murder and say this is isolated it's a it's everything that
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led up to it and the system around us that contributes to it and you can't fix you can't stop or prevent or solve the
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thing without solving all of the problems around it right the INX and that's what we ended up with right so we
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ended up with everything that was attached to her case missing and trafficked yeah W as a runaway and then
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you have the N is she was murdered you mentioned something kind of in passing that when all of this was happening and
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unfolding with your niece that you were experiencing domestic violence yes you you were this isn't something that you
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had come out of you were in the middle of that when this happened I was dealing with um my quote unquote fiance at the
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time violating two of my children in the household and I reported him within two
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hours of trying to figure out in my mind what to do but not to alarm my sons for
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them to react and then I have a bigger mess right we also lived in the demestic Violence
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Shelter prior to that when they were younger and so I realized that we silen our kids when they come and tell us that
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this guy in our house did something to them and they look at our kids like they're
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lying and so I took them right to the professionals and they sorted through it while I was strategizing how to get him
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back into the space where they could pick him up because we were in the suburbs and he had to cross back into
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the line in which he had my vehicle and so I just spring into action because which is clearly like your Mo
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yeah it's unbelievable and and so we we're working to House women and get them in the safe
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spaces so their kids can have healthy interactions and um and provide services for them um like family therapy and
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things like that because ultimately they've experienced domestic violence and then you don't want them to
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come back and be what they seeing they need to learn how to deprogram unprogram their
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mind especially like in a time when they're so vulnerable vulnerable and influenced I mean there's it's such
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formative times for them yes but this is not the only thing you're doing so much to to go back to kind of
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where this all started a lot of what you're doing revolves around kids who go missing absolutely can you talk about
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that work a little bit yes so in our city we have learned that it takes our community to find the missing children
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because if we already know that law enforcement has an option is not an option for us so we need to be that
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option and so we had started out by canvasing communities with Flyers we put their information of their most updated
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pictures which is absolutely unrealistic because you have kids with filters on social media oh yeah I didn't
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think about that you don't have like who do what do they really look like anymore
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what do they look like and so then you have angles right and it's just all different kind of I'm like about to go
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home and make my daughter take a mug shot no seriously yeah so we we canvas cuz what we have to do first is really
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get the information we grab the information if intel was easier to get through law enforcement we could take
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those IP addresses on those websites and stuff like the Instagram and those chat
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rooms that we could flip that information skip Trace who they're talking to and probably you say skip
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Trace tell people what you mean by Skip Trace skip Trace is a tool to flip information to find out who's on the
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other side of it okay and so you have access to people's family members jobs last known residents you find all of
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this stuff through skip tracing um when I was in collect Lexus Nexus was my best friend uh we use
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Ben verified so we take the Ben verified number we type in the seven digits and it flips back who owns it who owns that
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phone number and then it gives me a person that I can go and look for gotcha and so it could be something as little
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as a phone number that can break a case unbelievable have you guys put together a guide or is it something that they
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call you and you give them steps or do you have this like one pager that you're like someone's missing like here you go
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so my primary objective is to get the information to the masses and so we've put out there sometimes what to do and
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how to do it but I don't think people are really watching that I think easier to call me well well and I think
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people are like oh well I'm not I don't need it like they it they I can't tell you it it always is it's it happens to
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other people right and that's the and you can't that we believe I know and cuz you can't imagine that you're going to
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you're going to need that information one day can't you can't picture yourself in a world where your world's been
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turned upside down right and I think that's the that is part of the problem you know we've got some very Vigilant
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people but then we also have a lot of people who are just like I just can't picture that as my reality and I'll you
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know if and when I need it I'll come back to it and then when you're the unfortunate part is when you're in the
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situation and you need it you can't think you can and again especially depending on your personality depending
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on how you function in times of trauma and stress like there are plenty of people who just shut down and you don't
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you can't think you don't remember where you heard something you don't even feel
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like you have the time to go back and try and figure that out and you don't cuz sometimes this becomes overwhelm and
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just thinking about the situation within itself and that's why we are strategic and divvying out the information to you
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and pulling it out cuz it's like an interview you have to pull the information out so you can figure out
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what's going on so you got a very interesting call one day you've gotten a lot of calls but the
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case that you're here to talk about today is a specific one the search for a missing 13-year-old boy in Buffalo
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continues the search growing more desperate each day he was last seen walking as dog before he was going to a
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grocery store in the Broadway Filmore neighborhood and never returned home the question where is jayen Griffin can you
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can you talk to us about about getting that call and how how this all started for you we had um Jaylen Griffin 12
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years old go was missing in 2020 August 4th 2020 and he was said to be walking to the corner store and his mom is is
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talking about him having a dog and he's walking to the store she a he ask her do
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you want something from the store she says no he walks to the store like a block away and never returns 12 years
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old my niece was 13 and so now was pulling on the strings y so we get this case and we're trying to figure out how
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this young boy goes from walking to the store to disappearing and you know in America nobody just disappears mhm and
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so he's in this community that like every other house is torn down so it's impoverished so we
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have this child that lives near the Central Terminal Station which is shut down you got this huge train station
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that's not affable I was just going to say August 2020 it's still I mean Co like we were the pandemic was still
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fairly new yeah we were still living in an alternate world right and so it it was scary were police helping out in
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this case no yeah no um so we did end up requesting more from the police more involvement because ultimately at that
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point when we got this call to come in so first there was the other organization that put up this huge
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billboard that he was missing that's great but that's you know that's in one area everybody in the city not access to
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this and so my coworker seen that and was like uh why is nobody talking about this I'm like I've shared it on my page
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and she's like what what are you doing about it and I'm like um somebody what are you doing about it
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I said I got the memo right and so then the family reaches out and then I'm like we have to yeah be more involved
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and so the end of 21 coming in the 22 the 2021 2022 he was gone that there's no sign the whole time
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no no sign were there tips like what were people saying within the community all that time they were saying too much
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but it was not productive because they didn't give us any pictures oh he's at my house oh I just seen him oh that's my
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bro there were no pictures there was no evidence nobody ever said hey um we have Jaylen
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Griffin over here you could come you know hanging up so there was nothing that led to a solid returning of Jaylen
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and were what were you thinking in those early days were did you think that he could still be alive were you were you
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concerned about F play I'm very optimistic I never want to speak death on anybody right because one thing about
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it is our words have power and so if I start putting that out there I never know what power I put into it and so I
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have to operate in my truth we don't know the answer when you talk about going in you said every case you you
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forget what you knew before it's a different family it's different circumstances and I think people are
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quick to judge what were the circumstances here like why did why did his mom wait two days I know that she
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was fed up with the involvement that didn't you know watching everybody else just say that um he's not missing he'll
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be right back and and that's another thing he's the baby right so he has older siblings so she eliminated her
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cousins and everybody else it's he over there that I do remember clear as day I can almost you know feel like she's
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saying it all over and you again you're not you don't think you're living in that reality no I it's got to be there's
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got to be an explanation there's got to be I'm not thinking of something this is
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going to be I'm going to be so pissed when he comes back this is going to be something we talk about later right and
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and so and ultimately that what happened so she eliminated every family member that he could have been with you know
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she had her own process and then it's like okay he's not home yet and when we finally get on we have
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to start from Ground Zero we have to go back and do checks and balances we have to treat treat it as if it just happened
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yesterday MH and so we requested that um polygraphs be done and it wasn't that we
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had any idea that the family could do anything but we still had to eliminate them at this point he's gone so long did
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you or I don't know if they knew this in early days or if this is something that
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you were the one who came and find out did he ever make it to the store that he went to so we did have a young boy that
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was on the news interview right after then say he seen him over there but he didn't know he was okay sure right and
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so it placed him on Broadway okay I I didn't know when you're talking about polygraph in the family I'm like I mean
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because truthfully I was like we got we have Mom saying that he went there right
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but you that was his intention he was going to the yeah and and now we know someone actually saw him there right and
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another mom story credibility absolutely right and so you always have people trying to tear down the parent like they
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did us and we we're working family we don't lay in front of the door like many people don't we don't lay in front of
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the windows and we don't hear our kids as they enter and exit the house all the time we go to sleep we're humans and so
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ultimately we when we first got it we went back to ground zero and we started canvasing again we we had Flyers being
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removed in the community which was very eerie to me and so we did you figure out
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who it wasn't a big deal to some people so we went back and we asked those same people that were volunteering and
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willing to post them up in our Medical Campus which we have um three hospitals in within a block range of each other he
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could have been at the hospital and nobody knew he was missing so we got that initiation going again that
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initiated again um buried the violence my organization and Western New York missing and un
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unidentified persons also came together and we started with canvas in the community cuz they found out that the
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neighbors didn't know and so we had to start literally from where he was last seing leaving his house cuz that's all
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we know is he left the house and he walked towards Broadway and so we we had those canvas in again we actually went
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and followed up on the tips and leads of where he was said to be that were given to police the phone calls that
00:28:03
were coming to his mom and sister and in this year year and a half had police changed their tune did they did they
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recognize that this is something concerning when they are getting these tips are they doing anything about
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it yeah feel like I know the answer so where so yeah so one of the tips were that he was in a trailer park a trailer
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home okay that somebody some's dad had did something to him and took him in a truck
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or a van to this trailer park right and did did this person do you know who Dad no so these are the tips that were given
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we took the information uhhuh and we went with what they said we took the basics we're looking for a creeper van
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or a truck that's so vague right it's so vague but what happened was they gave us
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a area of where he was taken it was an address so we went there and where he was taken not where he was taking from
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okay right right and so we went to that area on South Park in laana which is the
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outskirt of the city okay so we go out to this trailer park and we're canvasing and we see creepy stuff and we
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see things that are like well this doesn't make sense like this is a bandit maybe he's in here could he be there we
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see spaces underneath the trailer parks well can we look under there and so we had to go to the police and say can you
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guys come with us in laana can you come with us because we need to see what's in
00:29:35
here mhm and so this area is far past his house not somewhere he's walking to nowhere near it yeah okay and so then we
00:29:48
look across from this trailer park and you can see the the I 190 the interstate where another tip was said that he was
00:29:56
at so literally we go right across the street until the street ends and end up on the side of the
00:30:03
I90 so we go down to this space that they say he's at and we did our own investigation in which we took back to
00:30:12
the police we found some rolled up rugs and and the trailer park that you guys were talking about it's right over there
00:30:19
and so you're almost getting like all of these tips and leads that are not like right you're not finding
00:30:24
them so they're not the one but they're all they all feel like they're clustered
00:30:27
and one of those things where like there's like there's got to be a little truth in there somewhere for it all to
00:30:32
be circling around this one area that isn't the place that he went missing from right and so as we go
00:30:40
backwards from that area then you go to South Buffalo South Buffalo this one Street South Park
00:30:53
connects all of these towns that area became very prominent to us it became a question can you guys go over
00:31:03
there and search we need you to get drones we needed Dr things we didn't have money for and so come to find out
00:31:09
some of those things weren't available through the Buffalo police SVU either so we had to request dogs we had to request
00:31:16
drone drones and then they could go over there and look at what we seen to be interesting okay I did have the
00:31:24
detective on the case at the time uh go with me into the fi to go through those rugs and cut open and nothing was found
00:31:32
there but they didn't take fers either okay so that was like they're working with us
00:31:38
MH right and so we requested that we get the flyer of him missing with the Crime
00:31:45
Stoppers on it m it took years to get that it took right and and so even with me calling I had to get the police to
00:31:54
push it through the detectives to push it through so we requested all these things and
00:32:00
then we have the visibility campaign that we had went to hire this lady to put it together for us to say how do we
00:32:08
ask people for help and so Liberty Taxi Company helped us by putting it on the digital platform his missing flyer on
00:32:18
the digital box that's in the car was anyone saying they were seeing him or were the most of the tips you were
00:32:24
getting later and later about something having happened to him no but not we weren't getting anything new mhm and we
00:32:32
were going on social media and still finding people writing about him up until 2023 oh wow jaylen's mother knew that
00:32:40
something was absolutely wrong because his brother Jaan was shot and killed steps away from their home right older
00:32:48
brother younger brother his older brother he was 18 at the time and is this after he went missing and this is
00:32:53
after he went missing so then you have him missing he never returned so is this is reason and as to why his mother just
00:33:00
knew her baby was gone he never showed up for the funeral and that was 6 months after Jaylen went missing was it
00:33:06
connected in any way or completely separate incidents we don't have any information on that because Jawan is a
00:33:12
Cold Case yeah yeah they didn't do an investigation that brought forth any information and so in 2023 September
00:33:21
2023 jaylen's mother's um Health declined and she transitioned M she passed away before any answers were
00:33:31
found in either of her son's cases in either of the cases that family has experienced so much loss does he does
00:33:39
are there still there are other siblings out there right I mean she had other kids Joan had six
00:33:44
children and um so you have the Griffin children and then you have the Roberts children so yeah but they're all hers
00:33:52
cuz I when people say step it drives me but they're all out the same mother and so now here you have it that you have
00:33:59
the baby missing and you have the 18-year-old brother shot and killed murdered murdered no answers and so this
00:34:07
is happening around Thanksgiving and then it's funerals in December and she would literally talk about you know what
00:34:14
day it is and I'm like no and she's like she's living on the schedule of the traumas and the tragedies oh you know
00:34:23
it's coming up the day that jayen went missing what are we doing this year we bringing out our
00:34:28
lanterns and I'm like this is really sad yeah that the quality of life has become
00:34:36
scheduling around around the traa around trauma we speed up 2023 September she passes away she had a
00:34:47
beautiful home going and then um his sister's birthday was April 12th 2024 and there was some information
00:34:58
buzzing around that they got a call that police were walking around with her brother's Jalen's flyer asking if anyone
00:35:06
has seen him in the neighborhood yeah it was kind of like well what's going on and we do begin
00:35:13
tonight with breaking news that breaking news out of the city of Buffalo the search for a boy missing since 2020 has
00:35:19
ended in tragedy police announcing today they have recovered the body body was found in a home on Sheffield Avenue in
00:35:25
South Buffalo a missing person investigation now turns into to a homicide investigation Monday
00:35:34
morning her jaylen's grandmother called me Joanne's mother and said baby they around here looking for Jaylen in this
00:35:43
neighborhood and we need to know what's going on and I'm like well they'll call us right and so I'm actually teaching
00:35:50
the class of social workers about what really goes on behind the people that you have come into your chair know it's
00:35:58
coming from trauma and extreme circumstances be empathetic Be watchful and watch out for this right so I'm
00:36:06
talking about all my jazz about the trauma that we dealt with stone face right and then when I got off the phone
00:36:14
with her I felt so heavy like I came back and I'm in tears and I'm talking to them and
00:36:20
they're like what happened and I'm like nothing I'm trying to figure out what's going on but that was one of my cases
00:36:27
and was the grandma and she's telling me that you know yeah so let's finish up here and by the time I get finished with
00:36:34
this the detective is actually calling me at this point and she's telling me that
00:36:41
um we are going to meet with Deana jaylen's oldest sister and that the commissioner of police would like for
00:36:51
you to come down to headquarters and I'm like that feels significant and not to match you know
00:36:58
the feeling that I already had earlier not knowing what it was but there was a discovery made and so when we get there
00:37:08
I see everybody in the room that I've been dealing with on the phone for years and I'm like oh but why is everybody
00:37:15
here and they're like so we could pretty much you know why you're here I'm like well uh detective bince did tell me that
00:37:21
she was going to talk to jaylen's sister and it's about Jaylen okay he was discovered in an attic by a maintenance
00:37:30
man deceased and I'm like what you found Jaylen so I'm like you found jayen yeah
00:37:37
uh yeah right and so this maintenance man had called and reported that there was a body in the
00:37:45
Attic on the day of his sister's birthday that they were right they they were out there looking and that was the
00:37:54
discovery that we didn't know how did they know so quickly it was him he fit the demographic black young boy the only
00:38:02
one in the system that matched it and so what happened was the reason why they didn't
00:38:07
reach out until us until Monday yeah was they had put his request in for his dental records and when the dentist came
00:38:14
back to work Monday and confirmed that it was his Dental record then they could tell you then they could tell us what
00:38:19
was going on I have a thousand questions I want to know specifically I guess I think the two biggest ones are
00:38:26
like are what condition was he found in and what's the deal with this house like
00:38:31
to me it seems so simple it's like okay who owns the house like if you f if you find a body in the house problem solv
00:38:37
like but it's not I know it's not that simple so first of all let's start with um how was he found so commissioner
00:38:44
gaglia of the Buffalo police said that he was badly decomposed and he had to be there for a significant amount of time I
00:38:51
know what a couple and a few means but I don't know what significant means well that's what I that's what I was asking
00:38:56
that the fact that they knew was him we're talking two years three and a half years he three and a half years I would
00:39:02
expect him to be skeletal if he had been there since the no well we don't know that yet they're not telling us so his
00:39:10
autopsy won't be available until mid August okay and that's for the family and where we come from it's like top
00:39:19
secret and you can't fo you our medical examiner super great I I'm dealing with some stuff here in Indiana and I'm like
00:39:27
this this is also kind of [ __ ] like I pay the taxes and at what point are you like accountable to people and not
00:39:33
accountable to people right but that's a story for another day and so through his
00:39:37
D um records They found out that it was our 12-year-old Jaylen Griffin um and this was right before his birthday cuz
00:39:46
his birthday is April 22nd and so that was 10 days that you know from the day he was
00:39:54
found right yeah and um so we just hosted his memorial and we had these questions we
00:40:02
don't know how he got to the space which is off of South Park right so that's my
00:40:09
second question whose house is this this is a let's talk about the house is owned by
00:40:16
a company oh that has people um that are paroles they are said to be sex fenders
00:40:26
sex offenders at this address and this is like um halfway house okay but it's not State
00:40:33
contracted okay and so then of course the city goes through their own sleuth moment where they're looking
00:40:43
on um they're researching the house people are skip tracing cuz that's what we do and they're saying who lived in
00:40:49
the house they're putting names out they're putting pictures out they're going on um Google and you know you can
00:40:56
go to the street view and you could look on the camera in 2014 this saying all of
00:41:01
the things that Diana has done right and so this is this is what I'm watching on Facebook and which I
00:41:07
just got to get off at this point because it's over stimulating like we're already doing our work yeah and then we
00:41:13
watch everybody else with their stories but they don't know in the background that South Park that was where he's
00:41:21
found that is 5 miles away from its home but further down South Park and we don't
00:41:27
have these answers is that trailer park that the one that you went to right and that entrance off the
00:41:35
I90 so you're back in this like in this bubble where everything was kind of circling around mind yep and that piece
00:41:43
in that carpet that they didn't collect like what was in that carpet like my brain just goes there right and you and
00:41:51
because you don't have the autopsy report you don't know if he was in the Attic the whole time or part of the time
00:41:56
right in a in a significant amount of time isn't a time for me have have you or have the police talked to the people
00:42:05
who were living in and out of that home and there's got to be a lot of people and not only that
00:42:11
but who was monitoring those people that address alone 107 Sheffield is the devil
00:42:21
you look at the reports and you see people um throwing uh mattresses out the window you see the windows open at a
00:42:28
certain time on Google you have all this data and then you have the calls to look
00:42:33
back at how many times the police were called there to that house right to that house and then you have to think about
00:42:39
there were contractors that were in this house he was in an attic like who had access because this house is owned by a
00:42:49
company where residents allowed in the Attic there's a million questions to go with your thousand and how did no one
00:42:57
know he was there I mean I I have never smelled a decomposing body myself but the stories I've talked I've heard from
00:43:05
law enforcement is like I mean you can't mistake it for anything you you would think they knew that mainten this man
00:43:12
know he knew that smell is that is that how he or was he so that he went up to the atct because of the smell he went up
00:43:18
to the atct because that's where supposedly whatever he needed to access that's and as soon as he was up there he
00:43:25
knew he know so what is happening right now in the investigation because I would
00:43:30
I would hope wait what do you mean you're shaking your head are police asking the questions that I'm asking
00:43:35
about who who are they asking the questions to they're not talking to us um once it gets to homicide it's a
00:43:40
homicide case it went from SVU to homicide and we're locked out right and so then um there's a you know family
00:43:49
Dynamics I play right and so they talk to the next of kin the next of kin is his father not his sister or no this
00:43:57
father is still alive okay so he's the next to Kin at that point and and he's not in in contact with any of not
00:44:04
siblings oh well he does and so he does still have um so sadly the three Griffin
00:44:10
children that she had there's one surviving Griffin from the mom's side um so they really don't have a
00:44:20
communicative relationship so he doesn't communicate with her about whatever is going on if he's talking to them if
00:44:27
they're talking to him and when I say they I mean law enforcement so we are locked out we don't know and so what
00:44:35
happens is you know by law they do have right to get the autopsy results and that's something will they next of Ken
00:44:43
or siblings okay so it automatically goes to them but the siblings have to pay for it okay but they do have access
00:44:51
to it and you said that comes mid August for them that comes mid August and will
00:44:55
they get any kind of I know the police don't have to update them but will they get any kind of hopefully we've been and
00:45:02
and this is actually a thing right now um the oldest sister did receive a call that um she's wondering like where are
00:45:11
you why aren't you talking to me what's going on she calling for update and they're like well we we can't
00:45:17
communicate it right now and I'm like what the hell is going on what is going on that you guys aren't talking to her
00:45:23
because still I don't care if you're not talking to his dad if you are talking to
00:45:26
his dad the family Dynamic is these children still want to know what happened to
00:45:31
their sibling and even if I and even if you can't say exactly what you're doing in an active investigation to know is
00:45:37
something happening are we progressing or is is no one working on or are we doing Cold Case again yeah the community
00:45:45
deserves to know if there's a killer on the loose um that's snatching kids and keeping them for years and what happened
00:45:57
that's the thing too right like he had no connection to the area he's found the house that he's in so when you when you
00:46:04
talk is like quite literally one of those scariest scenarios where it is this a complete stranger at least what
00:46:09
it's what it's looking like a complete stranger abducts him off the street on the way to or from the corner store and
00:46:15
he's found years later in an attic and we don't know how long he's been there or how he got there or what happened in
00:46:20
between and that neighborhood is um workingclass neighborhood is uh majority pretty white people that live there
00:46:28
nothing like the neighborhood he came from who seen him going into the house how long was he in the house you know
00:46:33
the questions that everybody want to know but this neighborhood has Neighbors in the hood and they have made
00:46:41
complaints about this house there even a lawsuit from one of the neighbors from the damage that their house had from an
00:46:48
incident that took place at 107 Sheffield it's wild that I I I don't know right like but it's wild to me that
00:46:56
he I don't think he could have been there the whole time and no one noticed when you have police coming in and out
00:47:01
or or maybe they can and nobody's paying attention that's very unsettling that someone could take a kid
00:47:08
off the street for three and a half years and then he ends up in a home like in a space cuz I can't call it a home
00:47:15
yeah and so we we we're looking to honor him through um his legacy we started a petition to strengthen the laws of
00:47:25
runaways because just like we started out with my niece being labeled to run away he was labeled to run away how many
00:47:31
more runaways do we have to lose before we stop calling them runaways when there's everyone wants proof that
00:47:37
something happened but I'm like here's proof that they didn't just walk away right right ultimately at 12 years old
00:47:44
who's going to take care of you you can't take care of yourself well and also when especially when you think
00:47:49
about everything else that's going on right we talked about everything intersecting even if they quote unquote
00:47:54
ran away they left the home home of their own free will when you talk about the trafficking and the stuff that is
00:48:00
happening around them they're not necessarily safe they're not safe they're not safe because you you think
00:48:05
about adults who are used in relationships and they're abused right they're adults educated adults so do you
00:48:13
think that children can't be manipulated and brought into spaces where they believe somebody's going to help them
00:48:19
and then they're violated MH like let's really get to the reality like every child that walks outside of their home
00:48:27
on making that decision does not know what they're walking into that is the truth of it so where can people find the
00:48:34
petition if they want want to support the petition is on our website www. BTV buffalo. org and that's BTV as in
00:48:46
Berry the violence and it's under the about section because we need to strengthen the laws in New York state to
00:48:52
have accountability from law enforcement to the Schoolhouse we need awareness is there
00:49:00
anything else that our listeners can do to support the work that you're doing well we are a nonprofit organization
00:49:07
we're just not funded yet and so we do have a space on our website that they can um make a donation But ultimately
00:49:15
we're looking for also outside of that let me just make sure I'm making it clear we do love people to help share
00:49:23
our content because we never know how far it can go the missing Flyers you have family that lives in other states
00:49:31
you have friends that live in other states you're on social media share our content so the information can get out
00:49:37
we are actually going to start sharing our intellectual properties because if they're not calling us in and
00:49:45
Contracting us to teach them this we need to get it out to the general public and hope that they utilize it we're open
00:49:52
to volunteers they do have to be screened which also costs money if they help us the things that it will go
00:49:59
toward is helping us print colored flyers that cost money um getting skip tracing tools that are more so what
00:50:07
we're used to like Lexus Nexus and Ben verified just hit us for $37 last night you know they'll come at
00:50:15
you for every di they'll come back and get you right and so you know those things is that's what we need help with
00:50:20
so making sure that there's not another lania making sure that there's not another jayen making sure that we and
00:50:27
keep pushing that workout and other 200 plus families are served that we have more people helped and it is sometimes I
00:50:36
think people feel overwhelmed they're like oh I can't donate hundreds of dollars to your point it's $37 from B
00:50:41
verified like every little every right and so um we do our Safety and Security kits we were upstairs talking about um
00:50:50
our UV gel spray pepper spray so we do securing our sisters where we provide provide people with safety kits and this
00:50:59
UV jail spray people don't even know it exists ultimately if I'm going to ma somebody to get away from them and it
00:51:05
blows back in me I did myself a disservice okay but if they have this gel pepper spray and it hits that person
00:51:11
and leaves a mark it helps you and helps law enforcement I love that idea so um that's part of what we also do to help
00:51:21
people who are in domestic violence situations to get away without using guns and then we try to get them the
00:51:29
personal alarms uhhuh and then we teach them the Dow 911 to hang up because if you stay on the phone sorry law
00:51:36
enforcement but if you stay on the phone with that dispatcher they're going to continue to question you and they know
00:51:40
you're okay do they actually have better response rates if you're not on the call
00:51:44
they yeah that's [ __ ] terrifying the reality is terrifying Clues you can use Clues you can use you
00:51:53
need that on a shirt right there you go there you go there are um a couple other
00:51:59
cases you mentioned I know if you wanted we talk about those really quickly cuz obviously jaylen's case is far from the
00:52:05
only one that your organization is helping with people have been shot in historic uh Parks shot and killed Joel
00:52:14
northr um was shot and killed after a basketball game happened there were threats made it's on Facebook live Joel
00:52:24
wasn't even playing basketball at the time that this happened here you have substance right you have people in this
00:52:31
space you have everything you need witness on a live stream on a it was on a live stream he wasn't killed on live
00:52:37
oh but the fight was everything that took place around it oh my God so you can see the people right yeah and so how
00:52:43
do we dare let this happen in Delaware Park where families go to the Buffalo Zoo right across the street and Delaware
00:52:51
Park has been stap for basketball tournaments like they just had one with the former Buffalo Bills player Stevie
00:53:00
Johnson and team Joel actually won that so I'm looking forward to them opening up these cold cases and team Joel making
00:53:08
another one that they find out who killed Joel Northrup we also have Jalia morero who is
00:53:14
like so heart-wrenching so Jalia moro's dad was shot and killed by her boyfriend
00:53:21
and he did it in quote unquote self-defense according to um the statement that Jalia
00:53:29
made with law enforcement but you take a young girl that's a senior and you put her in the situation where somebody
00:53:36
shoots and kills her father in front of her and then you ask her a question which side do you think her
00:53:43
protector just got shot and killed in front of her Jalia went missing soon after her dad was
00:53:49
killed and then she was found in a shallow grave oh no they haven't even started from step one of her her dad
00:53:56
being killed let's look at this as domestic violence and a young girl had to watch her father be shot and killed
00:54:02
her protector be shot and killed and then she leaves with that person what would you do truth of the
00:54:09
matter is I mean listen to the stories you've told over and over again yes police were asking here police aren't
00:54:14
her aren't going to be her Savior and that's why she's not here so um we want Justice for Jalia and if anybody has any
00:54:23
information please don't hesitate to reach out to the Buffalo Police Department and leave those tips they
00:54:29
have tip lines you can reach out to us and transmit the information over because these are just two of the Cod
00:54:36
cases that we need solved and just to remind people that website you're talking about it's
00:54:42
BTV buffalo. org that's also where they can go to sign the petition to enact jaylen's law yes it's the safer youth
00:54:52
act um there were other people looking to do jayen laws we kind of back up and let family do what they need to do and
00:55:00
so again the main reason why we started was lania was listed as a runaway and then years later we have Jaylen approved
00:55:07
that they're still treating runaways as if they don't have value and Worth to be
00:55:13
looked for and so we need safer youth act that if a child does make a decision to walk out of their home that they come
00:55:20
back alive I know sometimes people can get overwhelmed when talking about making a donation because they're
00:55:26
thinking oh I don't have hundreds of dollars but I mean we literally just said that you know been verified once
00:55:31
$37 like it's the small amounts that matter and so again I would really encourage our listeners to head to the
00:55:38
website BTV buffalo. org to make a donation advocacy is always at the Forefront of what we're doing here at
00:55:44
audio check so we want to make sure we're continuing to support that so we'll also be making a donation to the
00:55:50
organization so please you guys join me in doing that to to help continue on this work which is so important for this
00:55:58
community well thank you for the work that you're doing thank you I'm so grateful for the people like you who are
00:56:05
out there who see something and and do something about it you You' buil it's incredible the thing that you have built
00:56:11
around you and for your community and I I encourage you guys to go again that's BTV buffalo. org you can also follow
00:56:19
Barry the violence on Instagram and on Facebook and please go make a donation if you're local think about volunteering
00:56:27
and I hope that this isn't the last time that we get to be together this is thank
00:56:32
you so much for coming for having me it's an honor hi there it's Ashley with just a
00:56:37
quick update for you as you know Karima and I spoke at length regarding the case
00:56:42
of Jaylen Griffin and on Friday August 23rd local media Outlets reported that investigators confirmed jaylen's cause
00:56:50
of death was due to stabbing Karima has also informed us that as of this recording J 's older sister and siblings
00:56:58
have still yet to receive a copy of his autopsy report there have been no arrests made in the case and it remains
00:57:04
an active homicide investigation authorities are urging anyone with tips or leads to contact the Buffalo Police
00:57:11
Department tip line at 716 847-2255 or you can call Crim Stoppers if you want to remain anonymous their
00:57:19
number is 716 867 6161 Crim Stoppers is offering a $7500 reward for any information leading to an
00:57:28
arrest in jaylen's case you guys don't forget to follow this show add it to your library don't
00:57:34
forget to follow crime junkie and we'll have a brand new episode of crime junkie
00:57:37
AF the last Friday of every month but if you can't wait until then you can also hear crime junkie radio on the Sirius XM
00:57:46
app for your 24/7 True Crime fix and you can follow me Ashley flowers on Instagram @ Ashley flowers and Ashley
00:57:53
flowers crime dunky on Tik Tok I'll see you guys next month CRI