Overview of Jaliek Rainwalker
Jaliek Rainwalker was a 12-year-old living with his adoptive family in Greenwich, New York, at the time of his disappearance. Jaliek was known as a strong and vivacious boy who loved to play music and go apple picking. Jaliek’s home life was challenging. He went between six different foster homes before finally being adopted, just when he was finally getting the stability he needed, Jaliek was placed into respite care by his adoptive parents, Stephen Kerr, and, Jocelyn A. McDonald. Luckily, he went into respite care with people who had provided respite care for him in the past.
Jaliek was picked up from respite care on November 1, 2007, by his father to be sent to another respite home. They drove to Jaliek’s adoptive paternal grandparents' house -who was not present at the time- to stay over since it was closer to the new respite home. The morning of November 2nd, 2007, Stephen Kerr awoke to find a note left by Jaliek saying he had run away. Kerr did not contact the police right away; he took a shower and did some errands. Investigators would discover that Kerr was not home the entire night of November 1, 2007. Surveillance footage would later show Kerr driving around midnight despite his initial report to police that Kerr was at his parent’s home the entire evening.
Hours later he reported Jaliek missing to the police and the investigation for him began that day. Jaliek’s former foster parents said the note Jaliek left was written early before as an assignment from Kerr. Stephen Kerr is the only person of interest named in Jaliek's case, but lack of concrete evidence has prevented any arrests or legal ruling. As of 2012, Jaliek's case is thought to be a homicide instead of a runaway case.
