Jaliek Rainwalker, 12, of Greenwich, was last seen on Nov. 1, 2007, with his adoptive father Stephen Kerr, who has since been named a “person of interest” by police. His disappearance has been a mystery to local authorities, family members and area residents over the past five months. His adoptive parents, whom he was last seen with, now live in Vermont and have refused to cooperate with investigators.

Nonetheless, Jaliek’s remaining family members have joined together to form the Find Jaliek Task Force. The group was created in an effort to find Jaliek, provide public events in his honor and to keep public and media attention on his disappearance.

On April 5, the Find Jaliek Task Force held a fundraiser featuring a bake sale and concert.

Barbara Reese, Jaliek’s maternal grandmother, said the event raised $1,100. The money will be used towards two billboards which the Find Jaliek Task Force have placed along Route 40 and the rest will go toward a reward fund for any information leading to Jaliek’s whereabouts.

Reese and her husband Dennis Smith have recently announced they are going to pursue gaining custody of Jaliek. Reese said that no one knows if Jaliek is still alive or not, but they figure if he is still alive then he would probably not want to go back to live with his adoptive parents.

“If Jaliek is still alive, we want to let him know that we will give him a home,” Reese said.

Reese said that by gaining custody of Jaliek it will give her access to all of the records that their son-in-law has withheld from investigators since his disappearance. “By adopting Jaliek, his parents will have to turn over all of Jaliek’s possessions to me,” Reese said. “He might have kept something like a journal that could give us clues to his whereabouts.” 

Another party joining the hunt for Jaliek over the past few months is a pair of private investigators who work for Mission Possible Investigators located in Wynantskill. Stacy Jones, an investigator with Mission Possible, said the firm has been following the investigation since it began and that they started donating their time to the case back in January.

Investigators had originally treated Jaliek’s disappearance as a runaway case, when his adoptive father, Stephen Kerr, told authorities that he believed the boy had run off with three teenage gang members. But since then, investigators have found no evidence that points to Jaliek running away, which leads them to believe that foul play was involved.

“What has been most surprising is the lack of leads,” Jones said. “This has led us to believe that Jaliek did not run away, because typically when a child runs away someone has seen or heard from them.”

According to Jamie Richardson of Mission Possible, investigators have obtained information that leads them to believe the areas in and around South Troy, Wynantskill and Poestenkill are all areas of interest related to Jaliek’s disappearance.

Investigators know that it is hard for people to remember what they were doing five months ago, but they ask residents or anyone that may have been in these areas the weekend of Nov. 1, 2007 to remember back to that time and if they think they saw anything suspicions to please come forward.

“Now that it’s starting to get nice out we are asking people to look around neighborhoods and in their yards,” Jones said. “We are also asking people to try to remember what they were doing around the time of Jaliek’s disappearance.”

The investigators are currently working on new leads in the case based off a tip they received last month. Jones said that she couldn’t comment on the new leads because she didn’t want to compromise the firm’s investigation.

At least 60 searchers will take to the woods of Greenwich in an effort to search for Jaliek on Saturday, April 12. The search will be coordinated by The New York State Forest Rangers in conjunction with Greenwich police. At least five-dozen rangers, firefighters and volunteers will aid in the search effort.

New York Forest Ranger Lt. John Solon said the effort will be part of a two-day training course that local volunteers will receive this weekend from forest rangers.

“Usually trainees only get the opportunity to take part in a simulated search, but we thought this was a great opportunity for them to use their new training to take part in a real search effort,” Solon said.

Greenwich Police Chief George Bell said police are also asking area residents to check riverbanks and to be observant of anything that seems out of place.

Police and the Find Jaliek Task Force will also receive additional help in their search efforts, when the founder of a volunteer search group, Texas EquuSearch, comes to Greenwich on Monday to help search for Jaliek and see how he can help local police with the investigation, Reese said.

Law enforcement officials and family members urge anyone with information pertaining to Jaliek’s disappearance to call the Cambridge-Greenwich Police Department at 692-9332. You can learn more about Jaliek’s case by visiting the Find Jaliek Task Force website at

www.findjaliek.org