Why did Jelani leave campus that morning?
I don’t believe Jelani left campus merely to meet up with someone, Nor do I think he was planning on going back to campus that day. He needed to get something done for the Director of Clinical Education (Cara Boester), which was his TB test in order to start clinicals and see his patient later that afternoon. He was seen on surveillance video that morning at the Student Health Center located on campus. His mother, Carmen, believes he went there to try and get his TB test completed but wasn’t able to. TB tests have to be read within 48-72 hours and since he was away in Houston that previous weekend with his brother Seve, the deadline to have it read had most likely passed. Carmen even said, and I quote, “he knew he didn’t take care of his business on time”. This would be detrimental to his progress in the graduate program. It would negatively impact his final grade and put him way behind his cohorts.
The Redbird Care Team reports that were submitted by ISU faculty when he didn’t show up for the meeting, classes, and clinicals were requested through FOIA. They state that he “has been late to meetings and out of compliance on requirements to start his work in the clinic”. When these reports were released in a Facebook group his mother was LIVID and said they were not true. Basically, she implied the faculty was lying. But why would they lie? Furthermore, when the FBI BAU got involved they wanted to know why Jelani was doing certain things. The question is what "things" was he doing that we are all unaware of? According to news reports, the family was upset the FBI was looking at his death as a possible suicide. These facts are very hard to ignore.
“According to officials, behavioral analysts will try to get a better understanding of Day to figure out why he was doing certain things.”
https://newschannel20.com/news/local/fbi-provides-new-resource-for-jelani-day-case
It was his first week on campus for in person classes but he had been taking courses online during the summer. We don’t know what his grades were, but I do think it was enough time for him to feel overwhelmed academically, as well as personally. The onset of many mental health issues emerge in late teens and early twenties. Graduate students are already 6 times more likely to experience a mental health crisis than the general population. On top of that this was during COVID when anxiety and depression prevalence increased by 25% globally. Also, his father's illness and the stress of being a donor. He had all these things going against him. On the outside, maybe he looked like he was holding it all together (at least to his family). However, just because someone has a history of meeting challenges does not mean they don’t have a breaking point.
https://sitn.hms.harvard.edu/flash/2021/the-mental-health-crisis-in-science/
https://www.vnews.com/Missing-Dartmouth-graduate-student-found-deceased-in-river-55238001
What was going on with Jelani?
