Psychics in search for boy

“Intuitives” fail to turn up new information in Jaliek Rainwalker case

Three psychics joined the search for 12-year-old Jaliek Rainwalker last week, but information they offered officials about the missing boy failed to best anything offered by basic police science.

According to relatives, two of the psychics, or “intuitives” as they prefer to be called, had similar visions of where Rainwalker’s body might be, which led to a meeting with police, relatives, a third psychic and searchers last Thursday.

The group visited wooded sites in Greenwich not far from the Cossayuna home Rainwalker shared with his adoptive parents and four siblings.The search turned up nothing.But it highlights the fact that 10 weeks since the boy was last seen, police still have virtually no clue as to where Rainwalker, missing since Nov. 1, might be.

“If someone contacts us and says they have a vision, and it fits in to where we believe (Rainwalker) might be, and we have someone who can go with them, yes, we’ll do a search,” said George Bell, chief of the Greenwich-Cambridge Police Department, who is in charge of the Rainwalker investigation. He readily admits his frustrations with the case.

Elaine Person, who has provided respite care for the emotionally troubled Rainwalker and saw him a day before he disappeared, said she appreciates any help she can find. She defended the use of psychics.

“I like to keep an open mind,” she said. “When you have a child who is missing, you owe it to that child to use every resource at your disposal,” she said. “And, who’s to say that maybe people have access to a kind of information that the rest of us don’t have?”

So many psychics have been contacting Rainwalker’s relatives and police that the Web site about the search, www.findjaliek.org, includes a link inviting intuitives to contact them by e-mail.

Meanwhile, Rainwalker’s adoptive father, Stephen Kerr, is trying to move the family to West Rupert, Vt., about 10 miles east of their Washington County home. That information was reported by WNYT NewsChannel 13 and confirmed by Bell, who said he has been speaking with Kerr daily for the last several weeks.

Someone who answered Kerr’s cellphone on Thursday said Kerr was not available to talk.

Rainwalker went missing after spending the night of Nov. 1 alone with Kerr at Kerr’s father’s home in Greenwich. Kerr’s father, Graham, was out of the country at the time.

Rainwalker, who has a long history of emotional problems and outbursts, had just spent five days with Elaine and Tom Person of Altamont, who cared for Jaliek for several days at a time to provide respite to the family.

The relationship had grown so stressful, in fact, that Kerr and wife Jocelyn McDonald were planning to undo their adoption of Rainwalker at the time he disappeared. It’s not clear how far along they were in that process the night of Nov. 1.

When Kerr awoke Nov. 2, he said he found a note in Rainwalker’s handwriting, in which he apologized for hurting people. Kerr said the note is proof his son ran away from home. Elaine Person believes the note was a homework assignment Rainwalker completed while at her house. Rainwalker had to apologize for allegedly making a sexually explicit threat to a 4-year-old in the family’s home-school group.

Kerr has said he believes that his son is living with an “African-American gang or family” in Albany, Schenectady or Troy. Rainwalker is biracial and has always been fascinated with black culture, said Kerr, who is white. Police said there is no evidence to support Kerr’s theory.

On Monday, Bell and State Police investigators announced Kerr is a person of interest in the case, though there is not enough evidence to charge Kerr with a crime. Police said they have an image from a surveillance camera that captured the image of a van similar to one Kerr was driving on the night of Rainwalker’s disappearance. Police want to re-examine the van but Kerr has denied their request.

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