Find Jaliek Task Force Press Conference Transcript

January 1, 2008 11:00am – Washington Square Deli, Greenwich, NY

As many of you know, I am Elaine Person who, together with my husband, Tom, took care of Jaliek Rainwalker for the six days before he disappeared after we returned him to his adoptive father, Stephen Kerr on November 1st. We also had the pleasure of having him visit with us several times when he was living with the Schoens about five years ago.  Together with us today are Jodi and Larry Schoen who took care of Jaliek from ages 3 to 7 and Joy Purdy, who took care of Jaliek for about 2 years when he was 2 and 3 years-old.  In addition, Barbara Reeley and her husband, Dennis Smith, Jaliek’s maternal grandparents have joined our task force as they have known and loved Jaliek for the past 5 years.  Several others have expressed an interest in contributing to our efforts, and will be joining us in the near future, but for right now, we’re it.

We have been brought together by our love for Jaliek and our desire to have him found.

It is January 1st, the two-month anniversary of Jaliek’s disappearance. And on this day, the $25,000 reward, offered by Jocelyn McDonald and Stephen Kerr for the RETURN of their adopted son has been reduced by $5,000.  This reward, apparently offered ONLY for his return, has not resulted in one lead.

In an effort to keep Jaliek’s disappearance in the public eye, our four families are replacing Jaliek’s adopted family’s $5,000 reward decrease with our $5,000 reward that will be given for information that leads to Jaliek being found.  That amount has been deposited in the Trustco Bank across the street.

Each month, as Jocelyn and Stephen REDUCE their reward, we hope to INCREASE ours.

None of us are rich.  We work, we have families.  We love our children and we care about the foster children that come into the foster care system.  None of them asked to be there.  We ALL care about Jaliek and with all our hearts want him found.

We, collectively, are putting up this first $5,000.  After this, as they decrease their reward each month, we’re going to increase our reward.  But we’re going to need help and support from the community.  We got together earlier in the week to discuss what might be possible.  I shared our plans with Sue Muzio, the owner of the Washington Square Deli.  I’d like to introduce Sue.

Sue Muzio: “I wanted to support this reward because I want Jaliek found, just as the rest of our community does.  I can’t offer much financial support, but I jokingly offered to contribute to the reward a free lunch, once a week for a year, here at the Deli.  They thought it was a good idea.  We then spoke with a friend and fellow business owner and they offered to contribute a $250 gift certificate to Wal-Mart as part of the reward.  They have chosen to remain anonymous.”

Our reward may not be big, monetarily, but it comes from the hearts of the community that has come to love and care about Jaliek and want him found.

If any individual or local businesses want to pledge their support of this reward, either with a donation or a pledge of goods or services, they can visit a website that has been set-up, www.findjaliek.org or call our toll-free number, 877-4JALIEK to contact us.

In addition, if any families or groups want to organize a fund raiser for the Find Jaliek Reward Fund, they can contact us and we’ll be glad to help.  This could be in the form of a Bake Sale, a Spaghetti Dinner, a Book Sale, a 50-50 Raffle, a Car Wash, anything they can think of to help out.  Jodi and Larry Schoen will be in charge of these donations and a list of contributors will be maintained on our website.  Anyone wishing to donate cash or checks to the Find Jaliek Reward Fund can do so at any Trustco Bank branch. 100% of the donations and fundraising will go to this reward.  If, at some time in the future, the reward is no longer necessary, all donations will be returned to the donors and monies raised will be used to buy books in Jaliek’s name for the Greenwich Public Library.

Speaking of our website, Joy Purdy will be helping to design and maintain our www.findjaliek.org website.  It will contain many pictures of Jaliek from age 15 months to a few months ago, stories of our days, months and years with Jaliek, links to media coverage of Jaliek’s disappearance and other appropriate website.  We will provide information about all upcoming events.  It will have downloadable/printable posters for rewards and events. And, it will have updates on our efforts and law enforcements efforts to find Jaliek.  Barb and Dennis will continue to be our interface with the authorities.  This website is a work in progress with new additions every day.

It is our hope that this very unique reward will continue to grow, generate a lot of public interest and entice ANYONE who knows what happened to Jaliek to come forward with that information.

The website will contain contact information for each of us, so the media can contact us with any questions you may have.

As we stated in the press release about this press conference, our goals are simple – we want to:

FIND JALIEK

Share the joys of foster parenting and adopting older children

Improve resources and funding for post adoption services

Institute some kind of oversight by government agencies for families who have adopted hard-to-place children

Provide and support public events to keep community and media attention on Jaliek’s disappearance

Generate love, prayers and positive energy from all over the world and direct it toward Jaliek wherever he may be 

We also want to express our support and gratitude to all of the dedicated law enforcement efforts directed at finding Jaliek. 

Q & A: There were two important comments that came up in the Q&A:

When asked about Stephen's violent tendencies, Barbara Reeley told the following story:

Three and a half years ago, Jaliek was doing an annoying behavior.  (She taps her fingers on the table repeatedly.)  Stephen dragged Jaliek by the scruff of his neck out of the house and dunked him underwater in the stream behind their house.  The children & Jocelyn screamed for him to stop.  When Jaliek came up out of the water, gasping for breath, he shouted, "I'm going to tell my therapist about this."  Jocelyn made Stephen write Jaliek a letter of apology and do Jaliek's chores for a month.  Jaliek never told.

The other involved the $1,500 they receive each month, tax free per adopted child:

One of the reasons they could be saying that Jaliek is still alive is because they are still receiving an adoption subsidy for him.  This $3,000 a month is supposed to be for the children.  According to Barbara Reeley, neither child has received therapy or has been on meds in over a year, despite the fact that they have described Jaliek as mentally ill, homicidal and suicidal.  However, BOTH parents are on meds and are in therapy.

Contact Information: