Nearly four years after vanishing while on a grocery run and months since being found dead in the attic of a random home, investigators are still trying to piece together what happened to Jaylen Griffin.
Jaylen Griffin, 12, vanished in 2020 while heading to a neighborhood corner store to buy groceries in Buffalo, New York. Despite being quickly classified as a runaway by police, friends of the family maintained that he would never stay away from home long.
"He wouldn't want to be away from the house and his mom for too long, or his father, either," Paston Tim Newkirk, a friend of Jaylen's mom, told HNGN on April 18, also revealing that in 2023, Jaylen's mom, Joann Ponzo, "died of a broken heart" before his body could be found. On her deathbed, she asked Newkirk to never give up searching for Jaylen.
Jaylen's body was discovered on April 12, 2024 by a maintanence worker nearly 4 years after he vanished. The worker came upon heavily decomposed set of remains in an attic just a few miles away from where Jaylen was last seen alive. The home has zero connection to the family.
Jaylen Griffin's father, Brian Griffin, revealed to HNGN's Tristan Balagtas that Jaylen was stabbed to death, citing his death certificate. Jaylen died from forced entry of a sharp object, and his death has been ruled a homicide.
"There should be no person or perpetrators out there who have done something like this to a kid, walking around feeling like there's no clues and no evidence and no way that they can ever be caught." Tim Newkirk said on July 31, adding that the "clock is ticking," and that every day the case gets closer to going cold again.
The investigation remains on going.
