Jelani Day was a 25-year-old graduate student at Illinois State University who had a goal of being a speech-language pathologist to make a difference in people’s lives. Then, he was reported missing on Aug. 25 and almost two weeks later, he was found dead in the Illinois River. 

RELATED: Attorney Ben Crump Calls on FBI To Investigate ‘Suicide’ of Jelani Day

The LaSalle County coroner did an autopsy on Day and determined that he drowned. However, the facts around how his body ended up in that river are still unknown to this day. Ben Crump, who is the Day family’s attorney, is demanding the FBI to investigate his reported drowning as a hate crime. 

Furthermore, Day’s mother, Carmen Bolden Day, believes that her 25-year-old could not have killed himself.  

RELATED: ‘Justice for Jelani Day’: County Coroner Determines Cause of Death

“Number one, Jelani would never do anything to hurt or harm himself in a way to take himself away from any of us. Number two, a person that commits suicide does not remove their license plates, does not park their car in a hidden wooden area, does not walk miles away and drops their wallet, does not walk another mile away and drop their lanyard, does not take themself to a river and remove their clothing and does not put themself in the river to drown themself,” Bolden Day said. 

RELATED: Jelani Day’s Mother Highlights Racial Disparities in Handling of Case

She wants a “new set of eyes” to take over the investigation because law enforcement isn’t helping her. 

“I do expect them to at least put in the work, to see what happened to him, to find the people that are responsible for this so that those people can be held accountable for this, because my son did not deserve not to be here with me,” she said. “I should not have to be going through this.”