Police Take Evidence From Kerr’s Home

Police take evidence from Kerr’s home

GREENWICH – Police in Greenwich are currently at the former home of Jaliek Rainwalker’s adoptive parents.

The 12-year-old boy was been missing since Nov. 1. His father, Stephen Kerr, has been named a person of interest in the case.

Police Chief George Bell says new information gathered this week led to a search warrant for the residence on Hill Street. Officers spent about four hours there and took evidence out of the home.

Bell would not comment on what the new information is or what eveidence they gathered in the home.

Kerr says he’s evaluating the legality of the search.  He says police did not have a search warrant when they first arrived.

Kerr and his wife, Jocelyn McDonald, moved late last week from Greenwich to West Rupert, Vermont.

Earlier today state police divers were in Troy searching for the boy in the Hudson River near the Hoosick Street Bridge. Two state police boats combed river using sonar equipment searching for any possible sign of Jaliek.

Jaliek’s grandmother, Barbara Reeley, watched the search from the shore. It’s hard, she says, because she lives close by and her husband works just a couple blocks away.

“It’s difficult to think that we would have come and gone back and forth to work, to home each day. If Jaliek is found here, I mean, I don’t think that anything could be more heartbreaking than finding him not alive, but also that we could have come and gone for months not knowing,” Reeley said.

Bell says they were looking there because he believes Kerr is lying about the car ride he and Jaliek took the day the boy disappeared.

According to the chief, Kerr says he picked up Jaliek from a couple watching the boy at a hotel on Western Avenue in Albany. They went to the Red Robin in Latham and then got on alternate Route 7, crossed the Hoosick Street Bridge and moved on to Greenwich.

Bell says he thinks there was more to that trip. They’re focusing on the Hoosick Street Bridge, but won’t say why.

Troy police were on scene to assist, keeping in mind they may need to do more.

“If in fact Jaliek’s body is discovered in the river and it is determined that harm came to him at this specific location, this becomes a city of Troy homicide,” Troy Police Capt. John Cooney said.

Bell says the divers did not find anything in the water on Thursday.  There is no word yet if the search there will resume on Friday.

http://wnyt.com/article/stories/S339852.shtml?cat=300

Divers search Hudson River for Jaliek

 TROY – Police are searching the Hudson River in Troy for any sign of a missing 12-year-old boy from Greenwich.

Jailek Rainwalker has been missing since Nov. 1.

Divers began searching the river late Thursday morning. They are concentrating their efforts in the area under the Hoosick Street Bridge.

Greenwich Police Chief George Bell says investigators recently found out Jaliek’s adoptive father, Stephen Kerr, drove over that bridge with the boy in the car on the last day Jaliek was seen.

Bell says Kerr has not been completely truthful with them. Kerr has been labeled as a person of interest in the case.

Jaliek’s adoptive grandmother, Barbara Reeley, came to the shore of the Hudson to watch the search. She says it’s difficult because she lives close to that location and her husband works just a couple of blocks away.

“It’s difficult to think that we would have come and gone back and forth to work, to home each day. If Jaliek is found here, I mean, I don’t think that anything could be more heartbreaking than finding him not alive, but also that we could have come and gone for months not knowing,” Reeley said.

The divers are using sonar equipment on the river.

In terms of the weather being a factor in the search, police say it’s not so much cold or the snow causing problems as it is the fast-flowing current of the water. They say what they’ll have to look for is debris.

http://wnyt.com/article/stories/S339563.shtml?cat=300

This just in …

This is UNCONFIRMED by me, but Dede left a comment so I thought I would post it here.

Dede said,

February 7, 2008 at 3:49 pm · Edit

As I write this the police are at Kerr’s father’s house searching for the computer or typewriter that the note was written on. Apparently Kerr did not want them to search the house and requested a warrant and the police said it was on the way. The news cameras are there.

*5:30 pm update …I still have not heard any news on whether or not LE is at Kerr’s father’s house or if they obtained a warrant.  If anyone else has any detail, preferably a link to a news story, please let me know. 

*10:00 pm Thank You Karen and Thank You Dede!  I’ve been out at a school function for my daughter.  When I came home I found that indeed the police had searched the home on Hill St.  I will be posting that info soon. 

Jaliek’s story reaches Westchester

Westchester letter refers to missing upstate boy

The mystery surrounding a 12-year-old boy who vanished from upstate New York in November recently deepened when a cryptic letter sent from Westchester County claimed he was still alive.

Police in the boy’s hometown of Greenwich, about 180 miles north of Westchester, are trying to determine exactly where the letter originated and whether it’s real.

“There’s always the possibility that someone in Westchester County has this kid,” said Greenwich-Cambridge Police Chief George Bell, who is leading the search. “We don’t have any indications of that other than this letter. It’s just bizarre that this shows up two and a half months after he went missing.”

The boy, Jaliek Rainwalker, was last seen Nov. 1, leaving a Red Robin restaurant with his adoptive father, Stephen Kerr. The chief, who has organized several searches of the region, said he fears the child is dead.

“It’s like he vaporized almost, literally,” the police chief said.

He has called Kerr a “person of interest” in the case. The adoptive father, who police said had a volatile relationship with the child due to the boy’s severe emotional problems, was trying to give him up to another adoptive or foster family at the time of the disappearance.

“On Oct. 23, he made an inquiry about how he could go about breaking the adoption,” the chief said. “He was told he couldn’t. They gave him opportunities such as respite homes and child protective services, but that was only going to be short term. He wasn’t happy with that.”

The police chief said Kerr and his wife have not cooperated with investigators and that he has been explosive with the news media. Bell described Kerr’s behavior as “certainly way out of character for a dad who’s missing his son.”

“He’s created his own mess,” Bell said.

However, the letter threw a new wrinkle in the case. Eight copies of the letter, postmarked Jan. 28 in Westchester, were sent to news media in Greenwich and surrounding areas.

The typed letter says “Jaliek still alive.” It also reveals some details that only the boy and those who knew him would know, such as the name of his cat, and ends with the line, “Don’t try to look we are not there.”

The police chief, who spoke yesterday with the TV show “America’s Most Wanted” to further publicize the disappearance, questioned the letter’s authenticity.

“This could be some sort of cruel hoax, trying to take attention away from our person of interest,” Bell said. “It’s too early to tell.”

http://www.lohud.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2008802060351

Hudson River to be Searched

Hudson River search set in effort to locate Jaliek

Police divers mark area near Troy on route traveled with adoptive father

Police divers plan to search the Hudson River near Troy today as part of the ongoing hunt for missing 12-year-old Jaliek Rainwalker.

Greenwich-Cambridge Police Chief George Bell said crews will use a sonar mounted to a boat, and if the weather cooperates divers will be sent in as well. The search will begin near the Troy Farmer’s Market, Bell said.

Rainwalker has been missing since Nov. 1. Searchers probed the Batten Kill in November and December, but today’s search is their first in the Hudson River.

Bell said police were not operating on a specific tip, but rather chose the new river site based on conversations with Stephen Kerr, Rainwalker’s adoptive father and the last person known to have seen the youngster alive.

Police believe Kerr drove with Rainwalker through Troy on the night of Nov. 1 after the two of them went out to dinner at a Red Robin restaurant in Latham. Kerr picked up his emotionally troubled son from a stay in respite care and took him to dinner. Kerr said the two went straight from the restaurant to Kerr’s father’s house in Greenwich.

Rainwalker disappeared sometime during the night. Kerr produced a note his son had written that seemed to indicate he had run away. But police have had doubts about that story from the beginning.

No one has been charged with a crime related to Rainwalker’s disappearance.

At the time of his disappearance, Kerr and wife Jocelyn McDonald were attempting to undo their adoption of Rainwalker, because of what they described as frequent emotional outbursts.

Last week, copies of a letter that seemed to indicate Rainwalker was still alive were sent anonymously to local news organizations, including the Times Union. The cryptic note offered few details, but police requested the letters to check for fingerprints or other forensic evidence. No results from the forensic tests have been released.

http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=661786