When a child goes missing, most parents scour the neighborhood searching and/or putting up posters wherever they can. At one time, Stephen Kerr distributed reward fliers for missing Jaliek. In a strange twist, the adoptive father of Jaliek Rainwalker is now spending his time taking fliers down.
GREENWICH — Stephen Kerr, the last person to see Jaliek Rainwalker, his adopted son, before the boy disappeared Nov. 1, has been seen around Greenwich and Cambridge tearing down fliers advertising a vigil for the missing boy.
Jaliek is listed at the NCMEC as “Endangered Missing“. Intially his adoptive father said he believed his son was still alive , so his latest actions are strange to say the least.
GREENWICH, N.Y. – Stephen Kerr said, “My wife and I took in a child who was mentally ill in foster care, who was thrown away by the State of New York, by the citizens of New York, and we chose to try to care for him and we’re doing the best we can.”
Greta Van Susteren-GretaWire has comments concerning the need fo more coverage of his disappearance.
Jaliek was officially adopted by Kerr and his wife, Jocelyn McDonald, when he was 5 years-old. Per the Albany TimesUnion:
Rainwalker was last seen by his adoptive father, Stephen Kerr. The two spent the night alone at Graham Kerr’s house. The next morning, Rainwalker was missing. Stephen Kerr produced a note that he described as a goodbye message from Rainwalker, saying he no longer wanted to be a burden to his family. Rainwalker was prone to violent outbursts because of serious emotional issues. At the time he disappeared, Rainwalker’s adoptive parents, Kerr and Jocelyn McDonald, were trying to undo the three-year adoption and put him back into foster care.
To read more about missing Jaliek visit According to Kim .
Note: Click on flier to enlarge
There are only four Endangered Runaways listed at the NCMEC under the age of 12 years-old. In three of the cases they are infants in the company of an older teenager. The other two are in the possible company of an adult.
Update 12-29-07 ‘Find Jaliek Task Force’
Altamont resident Elaine Person will head the group — taking a leave of absence from her job as executive director of a “small non-profit agency” to guide it — leading activities that will include fundraisers, a toll-free hotline and at least one Web site. They also plan educational efforts about foster care and adoption.
The task force’s press conference is to be held at 11 a.m. Tuesday at Washington Square Deli in Greenwich. The Web site will be set up at www.findjaliek.org.
Video Missing Jaliek Coming Soon “An Inconvenient Child“
Note: The book on Jaliek may be nixed as Kerr, McDonald step in according to WTEN.
Lawyers for Rainwalker’s adoptive parents sent a letter to a pair of New Jersey authors writing about the boy’s life. Jocelyn McDonald and Stephen Kerr say they did not give their consent to write about the boy.
Update 01-12-08 Rally for Jaliek
Sunday, January 13th at the Albany Housing Authority at 200 South Pearl Street in Albany at 3:00pm.
FRANK BARAJAS and RUBY BARAJAS
Update 01-31-08
ALBANY - The FBI is investigating a letter sent to Capital Region media outlets claiming missing 12-year-old Jaliek Rainwalker is alive and well.NewsChannel 13 and The Post-Star received copies of the anonymous letter Thursday morning
This note was apparently provided to them.
An Appeal from the Find Jaliek Task Force to the party who wrote and sent the “Jaliek is alive” letter to the media:
Update 02-09-08
GREENWICH – A computer and printer were seized by police when they executed a search warrant at the home of Jaliek Rainwalker’s grandfather.
Related Post: Stephen Kerr – a person of interest
Great site you have here. Thank you for posting about Jaliek. The vigil, “Light the Night for Jaliek” is this Sunday night. I was made aware that Stephen Kerr was taking posters down and for reasons that don’t make sense. I hope that justice is found for Jaliek.
Kim,
you have done a wonderful job by posting in many places about Jaliek and bringing it to Greta’s blog is so good, because it finally brings it into national awareness. Thank You!
I would like to encourage peole to also just google jaliek Rainwalker and read back through the various sources to get a clearer picture.
Like many people I am really suspicious of S. Kerr and hope that there will be a brake soon. I will also be at the vigil on Sunday with my family and I am looking forward to meeting Barbara and her husband, Elaine and Tom and Joy and all the people who have loved Jaliek. All our prayers are helping to bring to light what needs to come to light.
Thank you so much for taking the time to feature Jaliek on your site. What a wonderful site and a wonderful thing you do for the missing. I’m not sure how important it is, but Jaliek was adopted by Kerr/McDonald two years ago when he was almost 10, and he was 7 yrs old when he became their foster child. Just keeping the facts straight. The media has listed incorrect information regarding this several times. Peace to you and yours. You did a beautiful job for Jaliek here. I hope there will be a big turn out for Jaliek Sunday. I encourage all to come to keep awareness out there for Jaliek. I think the lighting of the search lights is so appropriate for him, as Jaliek always lights up a room when he walks in.
I saw Stephen Kerr one morning at Hannaford in Greenwich, around Christmas time. I didn’t speak to him, and I’ve never known him, but he seemed extremely cheerful. He was pushing a shopping basket down the frozen food aisle. He had a smile on his face and he was heard saying “Good morning!” in a very cheerful way. I recognized him from News Channel 9…in fact, he was wearing the same jacket and cap he wore while being interviewed on TV.
I thought to myself that he seemed a bit too happy for someone who didn’t know where his adopted son was. The man was practically skipping down the aisle. I think this is suspicious behavior.
And on a related note, the giant garbage bag that has been tied to the guard-rail near Hegeman’s Bridge in Greenwich for more than 7 months was finally removed. I often wondered as I drove by it; are Jaliek’s remains in that bag? I guess they were not…
I didn’t know Jaliek, but he is in my prayers and I hope the answer to this mystery is revealed.
Perhaps LE should be checking out the find jaliek task force to get the answers they are looking for.