Jelani Day.Photo: Bloomington Police Department The attorney for the family ofJelani Dayinsists that the 25-year-old graduate student — whose body was recovered from the banks of the Illinois River earlier this month, soon after he was reported missing — was the victim of foul play. While investigators have yet to release an official cause of death,lawyer Hallie Bezner tells Newsythe evidence that has been collected thus far suggests “Jelani did not end up in that river willingly....

Stephen Smith and his mother, Sandy.Photo: Justice for Stephen N. Smith Family Page/Facebook Stephen Smith’s body was exhumedthis past weekend in a quest to learn what led to his untimely 2015 death, which wasrecently ruled a homicide. Prior to that, Smith’s attorney spoke to PEOPLE about the night of his killing. Smith, 19, was found dead in the early morning hours of July 8, 2015 on a dark road in Hampton County, S....

Photo: Lyon County Sheriff A Nevada woman has issued a plea on TikTok for help to find her missing sister. “I need your help. My sister is missing,” Tamara Cartwrightsaidin a video shared on the social platform earlier this week. Cartwright said that her sister, Naomi Irion, has not been seen since she was in the parking lot of a Fernley, Nevada Walmart around 5 a.m. Saturday. “Someone came up to her while she was in the driver seat - said or did something that made her move to the passenger seat and they drove away....

Abraham Amezcua’s kids.Photo: GoFundMe Three children in California who recently lost their father tocoronavirus (COVID-19)complications are now battling the novel virus themselves, according to their family. The relatives of single dad Abraham Amezcua have made a desperate plea onGoFundMeafter his children — son Moses, 13, and twins Antonio and Sydney, 11 — tested positive for COVID-19 in the days following his death. “He was battling COVID-19 at home and did not make it through the night,” the campaign’s description read....

Rosanne Boyland.Photo: courtesy The brother-in-law of one of the women who died during the riot at the Capitol on Wednesday is blamingDonald Trumpfor inciting the violence. Rosanne Boyland, 34, was killed as the mob rushed the Capitol building andone of four Trump supporters killedon Wednesday. AU.S. Capitol police officer later diedfrom injuries sustained during the rioting as well. Justin Cave, who is married to Boyland’s sister, shared a prepared statement withCBS 46blaming he president for inciting the deadly pro-Trump riot and calling for him to leave office....

Photo: East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s Dept. Templet, 53, had been shot in the head and torso. His 17-year-old son, Anthony Templet, told police he had shot his abusive father in self-defense. Anthony Templet told police he went back to his bedroom, but his father followed him and initiated a physical altercation. According to police documents, Anthony told police that he grabbed two guns and shot his father three times before calling 911....

Photo: Courtesy of Diana Jackson The family of an Arizona father accused of murder after police sayhe beat a man who allegedly tried to enter his teen daughter’s bathroomstall at a Phoenix gas station is speaking out in his defense. “He didn’t mean for anybody to get killed,” Diana Jackson, the fiancée of Melvin Harris, 40, and the mother of the couple’s 16-year-old daughter, tells PEOPLE. When Harris learned in a phone call from Jackson that 26-year-old Leon Armstrong had died four days after the two men had a physical confrontation following the bathroom incident on Aug....

Photo: Facebook Worried family members are calling on the Atlanta community for help in tracking down a 21-year-old college student who has been missing since early Thursday. Alexis Crawford, a student at Clark Atlanta University, disappeared somewhere between Wednesday evening and Thursday morning, family spokesman Rev. Markel Hutchins said at apress conference. “A young lady who’s got her whole life ahead of her from Athens, Georgia,” Hutchins said. “[She] is the daughter of two very loving parents and a member of a very large family....

Sativa Transue, Taylor Allen.Photo: Sativa Transue Facebook Family members of aWashington woman killed in Mexico last weekare sharing details about her killing and the now-arrested boyfriend she was traveling with. Sativa Transue, 26, was on her second day of vacation in Cancún, Mexico, when she began sending her loved ones concerning messages. “[On Friday] she was messaging me, showing me the views, Snapchatting my daughter Amelia. She told me she wasn’t having the best trip, but she was enjoying the sun,” Sativa’s sister, Mykayla Bolieu, wrote on Facebook....

37-year-old Ingrid Coleen Lane.Photo:Sandoval County Sheriff’s Office Sandoval County Sheriff’s Office New Mexico authorities are searching for a 37-year-old woman who they saydisappearedin a remote area of the state last month. Friends and family — including twin sister Kelsey and their mother, Rebecca — haven’t heard from Lane since the previous Friday, when the former spoke to her sister on the phone. “It’s a mystery that keeps deepening," Scuderi told the station....

Nicole and Jeff Sperry.Photo: CNN/Twitter A Virginia family is in mourning after their 10-year-old daughter died of COVID-19, just daysafter she started feeling sick. Nicole and Jeff Sperry said their daughter Teresa had no underlying conditions, and first developed a headache on Sept. 22. “We thought it was just a simple headache,“Nicole told CNN. “I get headaches; migraines run in our family. We gave her medicine and she felt better. The next day, when she came home from school, she passed out, she went straight to bed, and she doesn’t do that....

Photo: gofundme The Balvaneda family has sincelaunched a GoFundMein Iran’s name to help cover funeral expenses, as the local community mourns the teenager’s death. As of Monday, the campaign has raised more than $2,000 of its $30,000 goal. “With a heavy and broken heart we share this tragic and unexpected loss of our beloved Iran Moreno,” the family wrote. “Iran was 13 years old son, brother, grandson, nephew, cousin and friend with a bright future ahead of him....

Photo: GoFundMeWhen police were called to a St Louis apartment building on Saturday evening, they found a gruesome and disturbing scene.Inside a loft apartment, they found three bodies, including that of a young girl. Two of the victims had been shot; another one had been stabbed.The following day, police identified the little girl as 10-year-old Nyla Banks. Also dead were Gene Watson Gene Watson III, 46, and 45-year-old Antoinette Banks, 45 — Nyla’s mother....