Letter deepens missing youth mystery
“We are treating this seriously and consider the letter potential evidence,” said Greenwich-Cambridge Police Chief George Bell, who is leading the search.
He said every media outlet that received copies of the note turned over the originals to police, who are checking them for fingerprints. The Times Union did not receive a copy of the letter, but its wording was confirmed by police.
It said, “Jaliek still alive. Needed a foot soldier for this war on drugs. Picked him up Rt 40 Post 30. He’s ok. No fake. He says asks his Mama and Papa/Who are the macaronni (sic) family? My cat name diamond? Why does Franti yell fire? Don’t try to look we are not there.”
Elaine Person, a former foster mother to Rainwalker and one of several former caregivers who have worked to keep Rainwalker’s name in the headlines, called the letter “a sick prank.”
“It was written by someone who knows something about his family. Jaliek does have a cat named Diamond, but a lot of people could have known that,” Person said.
The wording of the letter doesn’t make sense to her: It shifts from the third person in the beginning, as if written by someone else, to the first person at the end, as if Rainwalker had written it. Jaliek, she said, wouldn’t have written that way. “He is very intelligent. This was written by someone who wasn’t so intelligent,” she said.
“This was written by someone who is either just sick or wants to make the police scramble,” she said.
Stephen Kerr, Rainwalker’s adoptive father, has publicly said he believes Jaliek is alive. Kerr’s theory is that Rainwalker, who is biracial and interested in black culture, is living secretly with a black family in Albany or Troy. Authorities have called that theory groundless and have focused on searching for Rainwalker’s body in woods near Greenwich, Washington County. Rainwalker lived with Kerr, his adoptive mother Jocelyn McDonald, and four siblings in a rustic home in Cossayuna.
Kerr did not return a call Thursday seeking comment.
Police have called Kerr a “person of interest” in Rainwalker’s disappearance and have publicly complained that he has not been cooperative in the investigation. There is not enough evidence to charge anyone with a crime, police said.
Local police and investigators from the FBI, State Police and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children have followed leads throughout the Capital Region but have found no sign of Rainwalker.
Kerr is the last person known to have seen Rainwalker. On the night of Nov. 1, the two stayed alone at a house in Greenwich owned by Kerr’s father. Rainwalker’s relationship with his adoptive family was volatile, relatives and police said. Kerr and McDonald were moving to undo their adoption of Rainwalker at the time of his disappearance because of frequent emotional outbursts. The last straw, relatives said, was a threat Rainwalker directed at a 4-year-old in his home-school group.
