Four-Year Search for Missing Black Boy Comes to a Haunting End

When a child goes missing, it is truly heartbreaking. But when a Black child goes missing, it’s devastating because the search for them will not be the same as it will be for a white child.

That didn’t seem to be the case involving this 12-year-old boy from Buffalo, N.Y. On August 4, 2020, he told his family that he was just going up the street to the grocery store. However, he never returned. After four years, police are now opening a homicide investigation into the boy’s disappearance.

Monday, Buffalo police confirmed the remains found in the attic of a home over the weekend were that of Jaylen Griffin, the Black boy who vanished four years ago. He was last seen at a corner store. Two days later, he was reported missing. Over the years, police did everything they could to find the preteen.

Exhaustive searches launched with teams of police and K-9 units in fields and throughout the city of the Buffalo. The department even followed up on tips from multiple psychics who tried to locate the boy. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children also rendered an image of what the boy would look like as a teenager.

However, Friday morning, a tragic report came in from a maintenance worker doing work on a house on Sheffield Avenue. Dispatch recordings reveal the worker discovered Griffin’s body when he went to do work in the attic, per WGRZ News. The worker didn’t note any decomposition odors.

Buffalo Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia told reporters in a press conference it’s presumed Griffin’s body was located in that house for a “significant amount of time.”

“I do want to extend my sincerest sympathies to the family of Jaylen. This department has conducted extensive searches and I want Jaylen’s family to know that we are working diligently to bring the next closure for the family,” said Gramaglia.

Due to the state of Griffin’s remains, the medical examiner’s autopsy could take months, according to interim Erie County District Attorney Michael Keane.

There is little information on who would have committed such a crime in the relatively quiet neighborhood. However, neighbors told WIVB that police frequently responded to the home in the past.

For Griffin’s family, the discovery their beloved boy is gone was heartbreaking but it also brought closure to years of open-ended questions. Monday would have been Griffin’s 16th birthday. Instead of mourning the milestones he was cheated of — planning a birthday bash or learning to drive — Griffin’s family insists on celebrating his memory.

“Happy birthday Jaylen, and I’ll see you again when we meet,” said his grandmother, Shirley Banks, said at the vigil.