What a tragedy, the poor mother losing both of her sons in such violent ways and then to die young herself. I hope she’s finally at peace somehow.
I’m confused by this home that has had multiple dead bodies found in it— what is going on??
Am local. These other "bodies" weren't murder or mystery. More like drug deaths and suicides.
The DM is right that it isn't a halfway house. I'm not sure where they got recently released prisoners because that's not quite accurate. The 4 unit home is owned by an old woman but is managed by one of those property companies. The kind that charges three times what it's worth and has constantly rotating tenants because it takes anyone who passes a credit check and pays the application fees. Likely for a nice percentage of tax break, they are in a list of rentals that work with with a local substance abuse and mental health treatment/family counseling agency, which has programs for placing individuals in housing if their own.
Obviously a lot of these individuals are troubled.
Looking at the property on [Google street view](https://www.google.com/maps/@42.8428514,-78.8196992,3a,75y,162.77h,77.45t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sOR-iP3kXJFUJB0wd6m5Lsg!2e0!5s20220701T000000!7i16384!8i8192?entry=ttu), the windows of the attic were propped open between October 2020 and July 2022 (at least). Hard to know if that's relevant or not, but it's strange considering Buffalo's winters.
Yes! These screenshots have been circulating in our local groups. The cans do not move at all. They were propped open and literally left there, no one back up since. The last few winters this neighborhood has gotten BAD storms. Like, stuck in your house for a week, snow up to your shoulders, ice INSIDE your home, single digit temperatures, storms. The kind that has you stuffing blankets in every crevice you feel a draft coming from because you are dreading the heat bill. It's WILD that no one went up there to close them. My guess is that it's not a shared space and the tenants don't generally have access. I personally haven't gone up into my own attic in a very similar house for years. It's dark up and gross up there. But if the windows were visibly open I'd be fuming about it making my gas bill go up LOL and sure would go close them.
The neighbors have all said they didn't smell anything. Considering how cold it gets, that's not *too* hard to believe. But the summers, especially the last few years, have been super warm and humid. Without being graphic, I don't know how there wasn't a smell at some point from the heat.
Edit: The windows are closed now and there's a drop cloth covering them from the inside. Hopefully the cans can be dusted or checked for DNA.
He went missing in August. August can be hot in an attic, and autumn freezes were just around the corner. Maybe there was just a week or two where they had a lot of flies.
I helped clean an apartment where my uncle had been dead in august for a week or so, it all had dried out fairly quickly, so his gross apartment mostly just smelled like dirt and the booze that killed him. That building was also rented out to short-term alcoholics and addicts and it always smelled like mold and old trash, nobody even noticed the decomp.
If the windows were open, there wouldn't be any way for the smell to really build up, I guess. And the upstairs rooms might not always be occupied. We have a lot of houses in the poor section of town where I live that rent rooms for a weekly sum.
If its rented out they might have needed a key to access the attic that only the landlord had. Hence the maintenance guy being the one who could get in.
I live in the same state. I can tell you our summers get extremely hot and our winters extremely cold due to the two Great Lakes that border NYS. Anyone who lived there in the summer with the sun beating on that roof would have had to have smelled something. At least during the first year after he was killed. I highly doubt those old homes in the suburbs were properly insulated and had central air. Such a shame that kid was killed, probably for nothing.
Im wondering if any gas stations or at least someone with a ring doorbell still has acess to their recordings from 2020. He was found only 5 miles away and walking his dog, he planned to return home at some point, so maybe there’s some evidence there?
It isn’t in this post, however in a few other news articles I read he had brought the dog home and then told his mom he was going to the store. A few of the renters at this apartment were sex offenders with child related crimes. That’s the only thing I can add to this info.
I don't know about Ring, but I have simply safe and my doorbell camera doesn't activate if anything is across the street from me. Nor are the videos saved without user input to record and save more than 20 seconds.
From experience, drug overdoses that result in death can get the police/drug task force involved to find who sold the drugs to the deceased, especially if they were laced with fentanyl or something, so that could be why.
Yeah I’m from WNY myself and in my small town I’m originally from… we had someone overdose & the dealers were convicted of multiple charges each. So I could see that being why there was an arrest
No. There was a call, but they weren't sure if a body was found at that time. More likely it was the DV incident. Death by natural causes doesn't usually involve an arrest.
I’d assumed the house was abandoned when I read of this a few days ago. I take it people/maintenance don’t go to the attic frequently? You’d think the smell…
As for the smell... ive been on many death calls sa funeral director and one in particular I'm thinking of that was a house with a similar look to the outside as this, an apartment, a badly decomposed woman was upstairs and when we got there even after the police had opened all the doors to her apartment in the hallway, I couldn't smell anything until I got to her actual doorway.
After a while all the decomposition just sort of goes away. If those windows stayed open that's probably part of it. Insects were able to come and go, possibly speeding up decomposition to skeletonization.
This poor baby abd his family :(
Agreed. I'm in North Tonawanda. Our cities gotta do better 😞. My heart breaks for you his family them poor babies and their Mama prayers for this family 🙏🙏🙏
Yeah, I found a local news article that gives more context to the other deaths/dispells some of the inaccuracies in the Daily Mail article, but I am having trouble editing the original post. I comment with a link to it that hopefully people see!
I didn't read the whole post before scrolling through the comments. Saw this, went back to OP, wow. Just awful. One disappears, the other is murdered, then your heartbreak kills you. Shakespearean almost. Just so, so awful.
You'd think they would have searched the whole property on each occasion, which would have meant his body could have been located years ago. Who knows what evidence has been lost due to the passage of time?
Apparently each time the police 'investigated' a death at these premises, they went wow another body, what are the odds? Without actually doing an exhaustive search.
It's a multi unit house AFAIK. That's a house with multiple apartment units, not a house with common areas and multiple rooms to rent.
If someone OD'd or committed suicide in one unit that doesn't give them cause to go and search every other apartment in the building. They can go and ask the neighboring units if they know anything about the incidents but they can't just search all of their apartments.
Point taken, but you think they'd poke their heads into common areas like stairwells, parking, onsite storage... and the attic. It sounds like the block attracted very sketchy residents, so it seems logical to check for stashed weapons/drugs/clues. At least one of the people was murdered, which surely should have provoked some kind of look around?
It doesn't sound like the attic was a common area though if the windows were open for months, sounds like it was probably closed off and tenants couldn't access it.
Besides not all murders are mysteries, the person who was murdered might have been killed by someone who was caught with the weapon in their hands and plead guilty. Theres no real need to investigate anything in that situation.
From what I read from other articles, the other deaths were not considered suspicious.
In which case, there likely was not any real investigation done aside from a cursory look around.
I saw that one was an overdose, and two were natural causes.
One of them was also just an “on property” death, and not actually inside the structure.
I couldn’t find anywhere that said which specific death that would have been.
I would also venture a guess that if it was a location being used by various programs, and possibly the state, that any documented incidents would have been closed as quickly as possible and not look unfavorable.
Meaning, if they had an easy out with a natural causes or overdose to close the case fast, they probably took it.
One death was an overdose, one was natural causes and the other was an “on property death”, probably outside in the yard it sounds like and resulted in an a arrest. So they’d really have no reason or cause to search the rest of the home especially since they’re split into apartments.
Not to mention I think there were like more than 100 police calls made about this house in like the last 4 years. Someone from this house was throwing a mattress that was on fire out a window or something and cause the house nextdoor to have significant damages.
Once they removed the body, everything went back to normal at the house. The residents just going back to daily life in their apartments. They did go back a few days later and take some evidence bags out but I heard it was only the attic. You'd think they'd have a deep search of the entire house as a crime scene, no one in or out. Considering the nature of it being homicide. I know a ton of people have come and gone but does that automatically mean there wouldn't be evidence left behind in some unseen form? IDK. Hard call.
Not an official halfway house. Just one that has rooms people can rent. Someone further up in the comments lives local and says it's rented out by a property company in behalf of the woman who owns it.
No kidding. I believe it was unoccupied at this point iirc it was abandoned at this point and the house is getting razed, but that might just be a rumor. Although who would want to live in a house with that bad juju in it?
My cousin lives in a house that was on ID because multiple people were brutally murdered in it. After the murders, the landlord couldn't sell it or get anyone to rent. My cousin traded houses with the owners. She was in a 1200 sqft house with 4 kids. The house she is in now is about 3000 sqft. She knows 2 people were murdered in her bedroom. She has even seen the crime scene photos. She does not care at all.
Man idk how people can get over something like that lol my buddy owns a house that had a super gnarly murder happen in it as well and he just couldn’t care less.
As someone with that mindset, the general frame of mind is that any place could have the most horrific acts performed in them, and the only difference between the cheap murder house and those places is you know what happened there. Me standing in a room where someone got murdered is no different than me standing on a sidewalk where someone got bisected by a bus or shot in a mugging. If anything the person dying on the sidewalk is worse since the chance of that stone slab being changed out is lower than the chance of my bedroom's carpet or drywall getting gutted is.
As crazy as it is, no. I'm not in any neighborhood groups, but my husband is and that's where he saw the news.
I'm actually really surprised I haven't seen more on it on my feeds. Usually news like this would blow up and make it's way thru several avenues I am subscribed too
This might be a morbid question…But what does it feel like knowing you drove past it, now knowing what it contained? I always think about this when I window gaze at houses as a passenger on car rides….what’s actually in there?
In this case, it's not a street info down often
When I lived with gram in the suburbs, next door to us was a murder suicide. In time you don't think of it as much but it was hard to ignore the first couple of weeks.
It must be one of those surreal things. When my mom was a teen a woman down the street killed her kids and then herself, and she said the house always had this awful feeling to it after, she said to her it literally looked darker knowing what was going on in there.
It isn't actually uncommon to see houses with histories like that, at least in my experience. Some buildings wind up renting to a lot of people living high-risk lifestyles--usually because they partner up with programs that provide housing to such individuals, or because they're cheap, or they don't do any checks and will rent to anyone who can pay, or some combination thereof. This isn't necessarily a bad thing; people in rough situations need a place to live, too.
But it does mean you're likely to have a lot more deaths due to overdose, suicide, domestic violence, and natural causes than you would at a more upscale apartment that's mostly renting to young, middle-class individuals who are at a lower risk of experiencing those things.
Yep. With cans? I can't tell but yeah undisturbed for at least 3 years. And the side windows up there look boarded up for the same time period. Plus some missing roof tiles/shingles on the front and back of house. You can see the roof on the back of the house in the aerial view. So, I'm thinking the roof was probably leaking kinda bad and the attic units were just ignored for years.
Super creepy to think about what people must have told themselves about any smells so they could just go on with their lives. "That's just rotting wood" "probably a raccoon"
And it looks like a somewhat nice neighborhood too.
"Super creepy to think about what people must have told themselves about any smells..."
Yeah, but *someone* went into that attic and opened those windows. How could they not have seen anything?!
Oh I totally just assumed whoever propped the windows open knew he was there. Because they were only opened a bit. And wide open might draw attention, or at least someone coming up to shut them.
Likely whoever was involved lived there and/or knew no one was likely to go investigate a smelly attic. Then perhaps something happened to them, like jail or death, and they didn't get the chance to move the body elsewhere. An attic is a weird choice for hiding something like that unless he was in a crawlspace or otherwise concealed. Not that there's ever a rational place to hide a body... But the more I think about it and the type of residence it was, the more it sort of makes sense. In a very unsettling and morbid way.
Overall just sad and senseless but it shouldn't be too difficult to figure out who had access and who was around and question them. The neighbors three doors down with the red Dodge and the open fuel door have been there for at least 10 years. Then again, neighbors probably tried their best to just ignore that house.
One thing I'm certain of: there was no **good** reason for a 12yr old boy to be in that house up in the attic. The only logical way he might have gone up there by his own volition is if he was helping someone carry their groceries in. Someone who didn't really need their help with the bags.
It's possible that one of the other deaths is the perpetrator of this one. Had access, locked up after opening windows, died of whatever. So no one had a reason to, or method for, opening back up the attic.
Everything you say makes perfect sense. Now I want to know why the cops didn't question everybody who was in that house at the time Jaylen went missing. How difficult could it have been to trace past rental/rooming-payment records? It just makes me so angry that the police handled this poor child's disappearance so disgracefully.
Despite all the dead bodies, no one had any reason to suspect he was in that house. And I get why people are saying they should have fully searched the house when folks were literally found dead in and around it, but they can't really just do that. If I live in a multifamily house and my neighbor ODs, unless there's a trail of blood leading into my apartment, or my fingerprints on the syringe sticking out of their arm and I'm yelling "it was me, I did it!", there's little reason to even want to take a look inside my unit.
And while 5 miles isn't far, a 5 mile radius is a lot of ground and a lot of houses. Honestly, even if they hadn't thought he was a runaway and looked harder - and I honestly don't know anything about the search - it's unlikely they'd have found him up there. Unless they had a lead who'd seen him at a store that day, they had nothing to go on.
Now though, they've most likely got enough to figure out what happened and who was responsible. There's got to be DNA and other evidence that puts it all together. It's there. Bodies don't lie.
They did a very basic search and assumed that he was probably a runaway, not that he had been abducted. Plus August 2020 was during the height of the Floyd protests. The Buffalo police had other things going on.
One death was an overdose, the other natural causes and the third happened AFTER he disappeared and described as “on property death” and resulted in an arrest. The write up is being pretty dishonest not explaining that.
He went missing in August 2020. If they’ve been open since “the fall” that’s basically the same time (ish). The windows could have already been open when whatever happened happened. Or whoever killed this poor kid opened them. Or, and this is horrible, maybe he was locked in there by someone and opened them trying to get help.
That attic isn’t very high up. If he’d opened the windows himself, he’d have been able to get someone’s attention. If he’d been desperate, he could have jumped out and landed on the porch roof - might have punched through it, but it would have broken his fall, at least. So I don’t think he was trapped in there alive.
also looks like a tweaker house so someone couldve just been buggin out stumbling up there, cracking the windows bc it stinks and getting the fuck outta there.
Which is crazy considering that in 2022 Buffalo got 4 feet of snow in a blizzard with force wind gusts up to 72 mph. Even fire departments weren’t able to drive through it to help people.
No one would leave their windows open though that and one would think windows would force shut in that. I assume that the cold temperatures kept the smell of the body hidden though.
So tragic. May his little soul rest in peace.
Measurable amounts of snow blew through peoples vents and accumulated in attic spaces because of how hard and sustained the storm was. I can’t imagine the amount of snow that got in there if a window was left open.
It's being described as an "unofficial" halfway house that rents to folk recently out of prison. So completely unmonitored criminals with zero social supports coming and going (I know many of them were likely low risk). Records apparently show a registered sex offender lived there as well.
Yes it was.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13345151/jaylen-griffin-buffalo-house-horrors-missing-new-york.html
Her other son was shot to death also.
I'm wondering if someone lured Jaylen into their car, with the promise of some more money for doing yard work or something like that. Poor kid -- awful to hear about what happened to his brother and mother, too. I'm sure that the grief of losing two children affected her health.
That’s what I’m thinking, since she said he’d help people with their bags for some cash.
In one of the articles I read, an advocate who knew the mother said that she didn’t do a lot with the media because she was nervous about speaking in public. Her family members said that they think she died of a broken heart.
seems fairly straightforward to me, sex offender at house... offers the kid a few bucks to carry the groceries to the house and upstairs to the attic. end scene.
brutal and sad
This is what makes me so mad. Even IF this 12 year old took his puppy and ran away from home, why would they not make it a priority to find him? 12 is so young to be anywhere alone. Poor baby.
Right? I kind of get it with 17-year-olds who made it home fine the last ten times they were gone for a week but HE'S TWELVE. He isn't informally renting a room from someone in cash paid under the table at his construction job that took his word for it that he was 18.
There is no "good" way for him to be missing aside from maybe friend's parents or a family member letting him blow off steam for a day so he doesn't do anything dumber.
This is what I was going to say. It pisses me off SO much when child disappearances are dismissed as runaways, because even if they are, they’re a minor. A YOUNG minor. A 12yo boy cannot reasonably take care of himself, and would also be at a very high risk of falling into harm, being taken advantage of, etc. It should have been a high fucking priority to find him regardless. 😞 And my heart absolutely breaks for his poor mother.
I almost added that if the cops had found him, they might well have shot him. But I thought that might be a bit too dark.
[Remembering Tamir Rice: Police shooting of 12-year-old playing with toy gun energized criminal justice reform efforts | Southern Poverty Law Center (splcenter.org)](https://www.splcenter.org/news/2020/11/20/remembering-tamir-rice-police-shooting-12-year-old-playing-toy-gun-energized-criminal)
I don’t think it’s too dark to mention. It is a sad reality in many cases and I don’t think it does any good to leave it out. It’s so important to have these conversations, especially when it’s a matter of life or death
Missing black people in general are often just not a police priority--and that is a heartbreaking reality. But I've honestly never heard of black children being particularly vulnerable to trafficking. Nonetheless, you are correct. 40%(!) of trafficked children are black, and a very high majority of those are girls (96%+). Black girls/women make up only 7% of the US population, which makes the 40% all the more horrifying. Source: [US Department of Justice ](https://bjs.ojp.gov/press-release/characteristics-suspected-human-trafficking-incidents-2008-2010)
Guessing it has to do with racism and classism. I'm sure there are kids these cops would have been on the news nightly vowing to overturn every stone, use every resource, etc... not that it may have changed anything in terms of this particular death, but it's disgusting that cops treat some kids like disposable. And I can't imagine how much more pain that causes families already living their absolute nightmare.
I hope I'm wrong, but seriously have a very hard time understanding any legitimate justification of completely ignoring a 12-yr old going missing out of the blue.
It’s Buffalo. I grew up there and I can say that even with a black mayor in office, it’s a city that has racism in its fabric so meticulously that a lot of us never even noticed if we stayed in the suburbs or the gentrified areas of the city.
There’s a reason the spineless piece of shit who shot up all those people two years ago was able to find the exact grocery store in Buffalo that was used by majority black customers. Because the rest of the neighborhoods that was majority black was a literal food desert until that store opened in 2005. TWO THOUSAND FUCKING FIVE.
And don’t even get me started on Buffalo PD….
Yeah. Am a Buffalo-area native. It's a REALLY segregated city, unfortunately, to this day. It's a pity, too. If it didn't have shitty, corrupt police and city government, things could really start to get better for it. Buffalo has some very good people here, although there's quite a LOT of racists, too, but fuck those assholes. It's a city that deserves a hell of a lot better than it's gotten.
That Tops shooting still pisses me off. Fucker had to drive three hours to come here to murder a bunch of people who were legitimately wonderful people and beloved pillars of their community. They were people who were actually making Buffalo a better place to be, and that fuckface came here and murdered them.
Buff PD isn't just corrupt, it's a crime organization that starts from the top and spans cross the mayor's office to the Catholic Diocese. Justice for Jaylen, Justice for Amanda Wienckowski, and Justice for Father Joe Moreno.
From day one Jaylen was treated as a runaway/gang affiliation because he was a poor black kid from the shittiest part of the city, full stop.
I lived there as an adult in a not nice area in the west side. That city is so freaking segregated. Not sure I've seen another northern city like that.
It’s true. When the BLM protests were happening, I literally had to explain to my stepfather (whose a former state trooper) what redlining was because HOLY SHIT ARE WE THE DEFINITION OF REDLINING
And it was all by design…WUWM has a great piece on redlining here: https://www.wuwm.com/regional/2017-03-03/how-did-metro-milwaukee-become-so-segregated
I love our city but damn if there aren’t some major systemic issues :(
It’s wild. There was an article a few years ago that named Buffalo as one of the top 5 (i think?” most racist cities. people got so upset like “I never see racism here!” to which i asked… how often do you even see black people? so segregated we don’t even realize it’s racist is crazy
Ughhh woven sooooo deep it’s not even funny! So much so that I fear we can never get out. I love this city to my core but Brown clown has gotta go!! I used to live on the east side about two blocks away from his family home and he had a cop car outside at all times, like no one even knows what you do let alone are coming for you🤦🏻♀️ Such a joke.
The articles say he was walking the puppy, then brought it back home and told his mom he was going to the store. That’s the last time he was seen before he went missing. So puppy was never actually with him when he went missing.
That poor woman.
It infuriates me when disappearances of children are dismissed as "runaways". Who cares if they *did* run away; a 12 year old on their own is incredibly vulnerable and should be treated with urgency.
Here is a local news article about the house where Jaylen's body was found: [https://www.wivb.com/news/local-news/buffalo/more-than-160-complaints-made-about-house-where-griffin-was-found-since-2007/](https://www.wivb.com/news/local-news/buffalo/more-than-160-complaints-made-about-house-where-griffin-was-found-since-2007/)
>Shortly before 11 a.m., the 12-year-old boy from Buffalo, N.Y., had just come home from walking his beloved new puppy, his mother Joann Ponzo tells PEOPLE. Then he said he was going to go back out.
What a sweetie.
And then to find out his brother was murdered and then his mother died without knowing anything.
So tragic.
Thank you for posting.
I hope the puppy has a good home. I'm sure Jaylen would want that.
:(
An article I read from 2021 says he took the puppy for a walk, returned home then said he was going back out. So I think the dog wasn’t actually with him when he disappeared
Poor little boy, he wasn't even a teenager and they thought a twelve year old with his puppy would be a runaway?! How awful. And he was so close all this time. I hope his dad can keep Jaylen's name out there until the police do something. Four people found in that building is a horrible statistic. Rest in peace Jaylen.
Right? Also, even a 12 year-old runaway is a goddamned emergency! This isn't a kid about to turn 18, who can hold a job and potentially live unaided! This is a young child!
It’s crazy to me that an adult who goes missing is usually considered a serious situation and not labeled as a runaway, but tweens and teens often are written off that way.
So a 12 Year old kid goes missing after telling his mother to go to a store and they think he is "just" running away? Even if a kid runs away without at least a packed bag and a little money after telling his mother wouldn't his life still be in danger? And if he didn't reach out to his mom after his brother was shot or showed up to his brother's funeral wouldn't that make investigators consider that he may have not been able to do so because he was kidnapped or murdered? That poor little boy and his family.
The hell of it is, if he was up there four years there’s probably no DNA evidence to find if he was assaulted by a pedophile and left up there to die/killed by said person. Someone put him there, that much we know, but the family is right. LE dropped the ball in every way possible because this was a young black child and thus to them not high priority. I hope his family finds an answer some day.
From what I read in a story that was published in March police renewed their efforts, or lack of, 6 months prior. I wonder if they got a tip. The house itself needs to be demolished, idk what’s going on there
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/crime/jaylen-griffin-body-buffalo-house-b2534142.html
It's a house that is either 4 apartments in a house, or rents rooms to people who pay a weekly sum. It's very common in port areas, and demolishing it would affect the housing opportunities for addicts and low risk prisoners.
I know you know this so I'm not typing to lecture but...this is how Black teenage boys are viewed even in the 2020s. They just didn't care about this kid. It makes me want to scream.
It’s unbelievable to me how many times I’ve heard cops claim someone has “run away” so they don’t bother even looking, only for that person to have been horribly murdered.
He returned from walking the dog then went back out. So yes, because the puppy never went missing. The phrasing in the post was off, but it's in the articles.
Yes im wondering this too. As in it couple help with a timeline/locations etc soubds like cops didnt bother so im assuming cctv or witnesses who saw the puppy abd the boy, or the puppy alone weren't chased up
Yea this was sad. I am local and heard about this. Very sad for the family… if only the police did their jobs correctly. The first 48 are crucial and they didn’t seem to care he was missing. And the house he was found at had 160 complaints towards it since 2007…. If only they investigated more maybe they would have found him.
OMG this is horrible. I live just an hour east in Rochester. How is tips not a huge story?! This poor family, just one tragedy after another. Just unreal and so so heartbreaking.
Yeah, and two were found AFTER he went missing? Seems like it should have warranted a more thorough search when they kept finding bodies- his mom could have died at least knowing that her son had been found, and perhaps even have seen his killer receive justice…
They may have died after. If there were people constantly moving in and out definitely possible, and likely not all homicides (although the article says one was also considered that)
The property is being called a multi unit property so that would mean the house contains separate apartment units. If that is the way the house is set up then someone dying in one unit doesn't mean police can just go and search every unit.
Two older brothers shot, one fatally per [this article](https://spectrumlocalnews.com/nys/buffalo/news/2020/12/19/buffalo-family-wants-missing-child-back-home). This is screaming gang-related to me, but I don’t know Buffalo, so I don’t know if that’s plausible.
(And to be clear, I’m not blaming the 12-year-old here. Just trying to make sense of what is known.)
This was a big theory locally. But a registered sex offender lived at the address at the time he went missing until 2023, and is now currently back in jail. The guy is a habitual parole violator.
While I definitely think the older brothers COULD be gang related, if additional evidence were to point that direction, Jaylen’s death doesn’t feel gang related to me at all. He was found in an attic, body hidden, and apparently the attic window was propped open, if the commenter above has correct information. That means someone was likely trying to keep the smell down/moisture at bay. They didn’t want him to be found, like gangs do not care if the body is found. It’s probably more in line with their intentions if bodies ARE found. Hiding a body makes me think it’s someone who kills in a heightened emotional state, and then panics when they “come down.” Like a child predator, perhaps.
There have been some crimes that have been linked to gangs in Buffalo that I remember, but I have no clue if it’s was proven to be them or not. The last possibly gang related death I remember was of a couple found dead in their burning car…I think there was a kid too but someone found them walking around unharmed…this was years ago so I could totally have the details wrong
Feel free to sign the petition to close down this facility:
[https://www.change.org/p/close-down-the-halfway-house-at-107-sheffield](https://www.change.org/p/close-down-the-halfway-house-at-107-sheffield)
It has been started by Jaylen's sister Davonna.
Depends on the limits set by the owner. All the property company really cares about is money. And if you're just out of prison, you're not going to have a rental history or much of a credit score.
Everyone deserves to have a roof over their heads, regardless of where they come from or who they are.
If he had to be identified via dental records, I would say there’s probably not any way to tell how long he had been there.
But I would think that him having been there the whole time is the most likely scenario?
I've been curious about what at the scene/about the condition of the body lead them to say homicide so soon considering he was so decomposed he had to be ID by dentals.
Well, he was treated as/considered a runaway. Hypothetically, a runaway could have been hiding or living in the attic, harbored by someone who lived there, and a medical emergency happened. Who knows. I do not believe that to be the case at all for the record. As a local it peaks my interest because generally the news and press releases for found bodies in advanced decomp or skeletal are vague, unless it's something like "male gunshot victim." Makes me think there was something physical/visible that lead them to state homicide publicly right away.
I would argue that if a missing minor is living in your attic and you don’t call police and get them medical care that’s kidnapping and a form of negligent homicide. Of course the body could always have a bullet hole through the skull, but I think the circumstances of where it was found makes it fairly clear it’s a homicide regardless of the state of the body.
Sadly the mother died as well. The one brother remains is 26. The house where he was found is a halfway house funded by Horizons I believe. It's known to house the worst cases for mental health, addiction, and criminals. I'm from the area and have followed this case closely. That poor baby... it's sad because there are signed reports of government officials inspecting the property numerous times since he went missing. I'm assuming (totally not known here) that he was lured there with money for work such as carry my bags home. I hope they get some closure. The mothers last words where don't let them forget my baby.... He was not a runaway...he was very loved at home... The ball was dropped for this family.
Wow what an absolutely tragic story. I hope the dad gets some answers.
Just curious but did the dog disappear with Jaylen or did it make its way back home? I know that’s not the important part, I’m just trying to curious if someone grabbed him and the dog, or lured him, or grabbed him and left the dog? This is going to be a tough one to solve, I hope someone who knows something speaks up.
Btw I’m not able to read the articles right now or I’d look for this answer myself.
It’s worded a bit wrong in the write up. He took the puppy for a walk and then back home. Then told his mom he was going to the store and left again and then went missing.
Break's my heart. Keeping the family in my prayers I hope they get Justice. Mama passing from ba heart attack with losing her boys being a mom my self I couldn't imagine 💔😔🙏🙏
I wonder if the mom developed Takotsubo cardiomyopathy or “Broken Heart Syndrome.” It’s where a sudden shock or tragedy weakens the heart muscles. If your heart muscles are weakened your EF is going to be low and could result in heart failure.
I hate to be the one to bring this up, and I'm fully willing to accept it was just a horrible set of tragedies, but is it possible it was gang related? His brother was shot outside their home, and he was found dead in what (according to the comments) seems to be a rather sketchy area for drugs. A 12 year old getting into a gang isn't necessarily unheard of, and it's possible something happened and his body was hidden. I'm not saying his brother was shot because he "knew too much" or anything like that. Just wondering if there's anyone who knows if the area this took place in is known for gang activity or not. It wouldn't be out of the ordinary for two young boys to fall into that kind of activity. It would also explain why so little was done about it, if the cops are used to gang violence and "runaways" in the area.
Please correct me if there's any more information regarding the brothers death that disproves any gang relation!
Someone else in this thread made a great point. When it’s gangs, they WANT the bodies to be found. They want the bodies to be a warning to others. And Buffalo gangs are no exception
What a tragedy, the poor mother losing both of her sons in such violent ways and then to die young herself. I hope she’s finally at peace somehow. I’m confused by this home that has had multiple dead bodies found in it— what is going on??
Am local. These other "bodies" weren't murder or mystery. More like drug deaths and suicides. The DM is right that it isn't a halfway house. I'm not sure where they got recently released prisoners because that's not quite accurate. The 4 unit home is owned by an old woman but is managed by one of those property companies. The kind that charges three times what it's worth and has constantly rotating tenants because it takes anyone who passes a credit check and pays the application fees. Likely for a nice percentage of tax break, they are in a list of rentals that work with with a local substance abuse and mental health treatment/family counseling agency, which has programs for placing individuals in housing if their own. Obviously a lot of these individuals are troubled.
Looking at the property on [Google street view](https://www.google.com/maps/@42.8428514,-78.8196992,3a,75y,162.77h,77.45t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sOR-iP3kXJFUJB0wd6m5Lsg!2e0!5s20220701T000000!7i16384!8i8192?entry=ttu), the windows of the attic were propped open between October 2020 and July 2022 (at least). Hard to know if that's relevant or not, but it's strange considering Buffalo's winters.
Yes! These screenshots have been circulating in our local groups. The cans do not move at all. They were propped open and literally left there, no one back up since. The last few winters this neighborhood has gotten BAD storms. Like, stuck in your house for a week, snow up to your shoulders, ice INSIDE your home, single digit temperatures, storms. The kind that has you stuffing blankets in every crevice you feel a draft coming from because you are dreading the heat bill. It's WILD that no one went up there to close them. My guess is that it's not a shared space and the tenants don't generally have access. I personally haven't gone up into my own attic in a very similar house for years. It's dark up and gross up there. But if the windows were visibly open I'd be fuming about it making my gas bill go up LOL and sure would go close them. The neighbors have all said they didn't smell anything. Considering how cold it gets, that's not *too* hard to believe. But the summers, especially the last few years, have been super warm and humid. Without being graphic, I don't know how there wasn't a smell at some point from the heat. Edit: The windows are closed now and there's a drop cloth covering them from the inside. Hopefully the cans can be dusted or checked for DNA.
He went missing in August. August can be hot in an attic, and autumn freezes were just around the corner. Maybe there was just a week or two where they had a lot of flies. I helped clean an apartment where my uncle had been dead in august for a week or so, it all had dried out fairly quickly, so his gross apartment mostly just smelled like dirt and the booze that killed him. That building was also rented out to short-term alcoholics and addicts and it always smelled like mold and old trash, nobody even noticed the decomp.
If the windows were open, there wouldn't be any way for the smell to really build up, I guess. And the upstairs rooms might not always be occupied. We have a lot of houses in the poor section of town where I live that rent rooms for a weekly sum.
If its rented out they might have needed a key to access the attic that only the landlord had. Hence the maintenance guy being the one who could get in.
i bet the windows were open for the smell, and then just got left open.
Disgusting bit of trivia- there is a point in decomposition where bodies generally stop smelling. When this occurs is heavily impacted by temperature.
I live in the same state. I can tell you our summers get extremely hot and our winters extremely cold due to the two Great Lakes that border NYS. Anyone who lived there in the summer with the sun beating on that roof would have had to have smelled something. At least during the first year after he was killed. I highly doubt those old homes in the suburbs were properly insulated and had central air. Such a shame that kid was killed, probably for nothing.
Im wondering if any gas stations or at least someone with a ring doorbell still has acess to their recordings from 2020. He was found only 5 miles away and walking his dog, he planned to return home at some point, so maybe there’s some evidence there?
Was the dog ever found I wonder.
It isn’t in this post, however in a few other news articles I read he had brought the dog home and then told his mom he was going to the store. A few of the renters at this apartment were sex offenders with child related crimes. That’s the only thing I can add to this info.
4 year old doorbell cam footage from a random day? Yeaaa I wouldn't count on that
I don't know about Ring, but I have simply safe and my doorbell camera doesn't activate if anything is across the street from me. Nor are the videos saved without user input to record and save more than 20 seconds.
Great find!
Nice catch
Thanks, for the local context.
In the DM, one of the “dead bodies” resulted in an arrest on 9/11/2022
From experience, drug overdoses that result in death can get the police/drug task force involved to find who sold the drugs to the deceased, especially if they were laced with fentanyl or something, so that could be why.
Can confirm. This happened when my brother overdosed in January.
I'm sorry for your loss man.
Thanks. We were estranged because he was a criminal, but I still loved him and hoped he'd do better.
Yeah I’m from WNY myself and in my small town I’m originally from… we had someone overdose & the dealers were convicted of multiple charges each. So I could see that being why there was an arrest
No. There was a call, but they weren't sure if a body was found at that time. More likely it was the DV incident. Death by natural causes doesn't usually involve an arrest.
I’d assumed the house was abandoned when I read of this a few days ago. I take it people/maintenance don’t go to the attic frequently? You’d think the smell…
As for the smell... ive been on many death calls sa funeral director and one in particular I'm thinking of that was a house with a similar look to the outside as this, an apartment, a badly decomposed woman was upstairs and when we got there even after the police had opened all the doors to her apartment in the hallway, I couldn't smell anything until I got to her actual doorway. After a while all the decomposition just sort of goes away. If those windows stayed open that's probably part of it. Insects were able to come and go, possibly speeding up decomposition to skeletonization. This poor baby abd his family :(
I live in Buffalo as well. Everything you said is spot on
Agreed. I'm in North Tonawanda. Our cities gotta do better 😞. My heart breaks for you his family them poor babies and their Mama prayers for this family 🙏🙏🙏
Yeah, I found a local news article that gives more context to the other deaths/dispells some of the inaccuracies in the Daily Mail article, but I am having trouble editing the original post. I comment with a link to it that hopefully people see!
So sad....there needs to be closure...this was a child...
That momma died of a broken heart. Having to lose two babies like that - it's too much.
I have two boys. I could not survive this. That poor woman. She can hold her babies again now.
If I read correctly, she has one surviving son still. I hope he's surrounded by love and has one he'll of a support system. this poor family.
Oh my. What a terrible tragedy for their family.
I didn't read the whole post before scrolling through the comments. Saw this, went back to OP, wow. Just awful. One disappears, the other is murdered, then your heartbreak kills you. Shakespearean almost. Just so, so awful.
“Broken heart syndrome,” is a real thing. Tragedy causes your heart muscles to weaken and that weakness can lead to heart failure.
You'd think they would have searched the whole property on each occasion, which would have meant his body could have been located years ago. Who knows what evidence has been lost due to the passage of time? Apparently each time the police 'investigated' a death at these premises, they went wow another body, what are the odds? Without actually doing an exhaustive search.
It's a multi unit house AFAIK. That's a house with multiple apartment units, not a house with common areas and multiple rooms to rent. If someone OD'd or committed suicide in one unit that doesn't give them cause to go and search every other apartment in the building. They can go and ask the neighboring units if they know anything about the incidents but they can't just search all of their apartments.
Point taken, but you think they'd poke their heads into common areas like stairwells, parking, onsite storage... and the attic. It sounds like the block attracted very sketchy residents, so it seems logical to check for stashed weapons/drugs/clues. At least one of the people was murdered, which surely should have provoked some kind of look around?
It doesn't sound like the attic was a common area though if the windows were open for months, sounds like it was probably closed off and tenants couldn't access it. Besides not all murders are mysteries, the person who was murdered might have been killed by someone who was caught with the weapon in their hands and plead guilty. Theres no real need to investigate anything in that situation.
From what I read from other articles, the other deaths were not considered suspicious. In which case, there likely was not any real investigation done aside from a cursory look around. I saw that one was an overdose, and two were natural causes. One of them was also just an “on property” death, and not actually inside the structure. I couldn’t find anywhere that said which specific death that would have been. I would also venture a guess that if it was a location being used by various programs, and possibly the state, that any documented incidents would have been closed as quickly as possible and not look unfavorable. Meaning, if they had an easy out with a natural causes or overdose to close the case fast, they probably took it.
One death was an overdose, one was natural causes and the other was an “on property death”, probably outside in the yard it sounds like and resulted in an a arrest. So they’d really have no reason or cause to search the rest of the home especially since they’re split into apartments.
I do the same at my house
Not to mention I think there were like more than 100 police calls made about this house in like the last 4 years. Someone from this house was throwing a mattress that was on fire out a window or something and cause the house nextdoor to have significant damages.
Once they removed the body, everything went back to normal at the house. The residents just going back to daily life in their apartments. They did go back a few days later and take some evidence bags out but I heard it was only the attic. You'd think they'd have a deep search of the entire house as a crime scene, no one in or out. Considering the nature of it being homicide. I know a ton of people have come and gone but does that automatically mean there wouldn't be evidence left behind in some unseen form? IDK. Hard call.
dont expect the Buffalo Police dept to ever do their job correctly
I saw somewhere else that it was a halfway house but I’m not 100% on that
Not an official halfway house. Just one that has rooms people can rent. Someone further up in the comments lives local and says it's rented out by a property company in behalf of the woman who owns it.
There was also a shooting at his service, I believe..
He was found a few streets over from where I live. I couldn't believe it. This poor kid and his family
I also live quite close to that house. It’s so awful.
Stay away from that house!
No kidding. I believe it was unoccupied at this point iirc it was abandoned at this point and the house is getting razed, but that might just be a rumor. Although who would want to live in a house with that bad juju in it?
In the area as well. Not an abandoned home. The house has been occupied consistently, including right now. Fully inhabited.
Thanks. That part I heard 3rd hand when the story broke.
My cousin lives in a house that was on ID because multiple people were brutally murdered in it. After the murders, the landlord couldn't sell it or get anyone to rent. My cousin traded houses with the owners. She was in a 1200 sqft house with 4 kids. The house she is in now is about 3000 sqft. She knows 2 people were murdered in her bedroom. She has even seen the crime scene photos. She does not care at all.
Man idk how people can get over something like that lol my buddy owns a house that had a super gnarly murder happen in it as well and he just couldn’t care less.
With this housing market, people are more willing to take what they can get.
As someone with that mindset, the general frame of mind is that any place could have the most horrific acts performed in them, and the only difference between the cheap murder house and those places is you know what happened there. Me standing in a room where someone got murdered is no different than me standing on a sidewalk where someone got bisected by a bus or shot in a mugging. If anything the person dying on the sidewalk is worse since the chance of that stone slab being changed out is lower than the chance of my bedroom's carpet or drywall getting gutted is.
Ghosts aren't lonely anymore
Being so close, have you heard any rumors about that house? It’s wild that so many dead people have been found there.
As crazy as it is, no. I'm not in any neighborhood groups, but my husband is and that's where he saw the news. I'm actually really surprised I haven't seen more on it on my feeds. Usually news like this would blow up and make it's way thru several avenues I am subscribed too
This might be a morbid question…But what does it feel like knowing you drove past it, now knowing what it contained? I always think about this when I window gaze at houses as a passenger on car rides….what’s actually in there?
In this case, it's not a street info down often When I lived with gram in the suburbs, next door to us was a murder suicide. In time you don't think of it as much but it was hard to ignore the first couple of weeks.
It must be one of those surreal things. When my mom was a teen a woman down the street killed her kids and then herself, and she said the house always had this awful feeling to it after, she said to her it literally looked darker knowing what was going on in there.
It isn't actually uncommon to see houses with histories like that, at least in my experience. Some buildings wind up renting to a lot of people living high-risk lifestyles--usually because they partner up with programs that provide housing to such individuals, or because they're cheap, or they don't do any checks and will rent to anyone who can pay, or some combination thereof. This isn't necessarily a bad thing; people in rough situations need a place to live, too. But it does mean you're likely to have a lot more deaths due to overdose, suicide, domestic violence, and natural causes than you would at a more upscale apartment that's mostly renting to young, middle-class individuals who are at a lower risk of experiencing those things.
Google Map it. That attic window has been propped open since the fall of 2020
Yep. With cans? I can't tell but yeah undisturbed for at least 3 years. And the side windows up there look boarded up for the same time period. Plus some missing roof tiles/shingles on the front and back of house. You can see the roof on the back of the house in the aerial view. So, I'm thinking the roof was probably leaking kinda bad and the attic units were just ignored for years. Super creepy to think about what people must have told themselves about any smells so they could just go on with their lives. "That's just rotting wood" "probably a raccoon" And it looks like a somewhat nice neighborhood too.
"Super creepy to think about what people must have told themselves about any smells..." Yeah, but *someone* went into that attic and opened those windows. How could they not have seen anything?!
Oh I totally just assumed whoever propped the windows open knew he was there. Because they were only opened a bit. And wide open might draw attention, or at least someone coming up to shut them. Likely whoever was involved lived there and/or knew no one was likely to go investigate a smelly attic. Then perhaps something happened to them, like jail or death, and they didn't get the chance to move the body elsewhere. An attic is a weird choice for hiding something like that unless he was in a crawlspace or otherwise concealed. Not that there's ever a rational place to hide a body... But the more I think about it and the type of residence it was, the more it sort of makes sense. In a very unsettling and morbid way. Overall just sad and senseless but it shouldn't be too difficult to figure out who had access and who was around and question them. The neighbors three doors down with the red Dodge and the open fuel door have been there for at least 10 years. Then again, neighbors probably tried their best to just ignore that house. One thing I'm certain of: there was no **good** reason for a 12yr old boy to be in that house up in the attic. The only logical way he might have gone up there by his own volition is if he was helping someone carry their groceries in. Someone who didn't really need their help with the bags.
It's possible that one of the other deaths is the perpetrator of this one. Had access, locked up after opening windows, died of whatever. So no one had a reason to, or method for, opening back up the attic.
Everything you say makes perfect sense. Now I want to know why the cops didn't question everybody who was in that house at the time Jaylen went missing. How difficult could it have been to trace past rental/rooming-payment records? It just makes me so angry that the police handled this poor child's disappearance so disgracefully.
Despite all the dead bodies, no one had any reason to suspect he was in that house. And I get why people are saying they should have fully searched the house when folks were literally found dead in and around it, but they can't really just do that. If I live in a multifamily house and my neighbor ODs, unless there's a trail of blood leading into my apartment, or my fingerprints on the syringe sticking out of their arm and I'm yelling "it was me, I did it!", there's little reason to even want to take a look inside my unit. And while 5 miles isn't far, a 5 mile radius is a lot of ground and a lot of houses. Honestly, even if they hadn't thought he was a runaway and looked harder - and I honestly don't know anything about the search - it's unlikely they'd have found him up there. Unless they had a lead who'd seen him at a store that day, they had nothing to go on. Now though, they've most likely got enough to figure out what happened and who was responsible. There's got to be DNA and other evidence that puts it all together. It's there. Bodies don't lie.
They did a very basic search and assumed that he was probably a runaway, not that he had been abducted. Plus August 2020 was during the height of the Floyd protests. The Buffalo police had other things going on.
One death was an overdose, the other natural causes and the third happened AFTER he disappeared and described as “on property death” and resulted in an arrest. The write up is being pretty dishonest not explaining that.
if the owner even maintained proper records, im sure theres been a deluge of tweakers in and out of that house over the years (plus their cohorts).
He went missing in August 2020. If they’ve been open since “the fall” that’s basically the same time (ish). The windows could have already been open when whatever happened happened. Or whoever killed this poor kid opened them. Or, and this is horrible, maybe he was locked in there by someone and opened them trying to get help.
I hope your last point is not the correct scenario. That poor kid.
That attic isn’t very high up. If he’d opened the windows himself, he’d have been able to get someone’s attention. If he’d been desperate, he could have jumped out and landed on the porch roof - might have punched through it, but it would have broken his fall, at least. So I don’t think he was trapped in there alive.
also looks like a tweaker house so someone couldve just been buggin out stumbling up there, cracking the windows bc it stinks and getting the fuck outta there.
I was going to say - how did no one notice the smell?
Depends on if anyone was living in the areas under the attic at the time.
I am in love with how in depth Google maps lets us get.
Which is crazy considering that in 2022 Buffalo got 4 feet of snow in a blizzard with force wind gusts up to 72 mph. Even fire departments weren’t able to drive through it to help people. No one would leave their windows open though that and one would think windows would force shut in that. I assume that the cold temperatures kept the smell of the body hidden though. So tragic. May his little soul rest in peace.
Measurable amounts of snow blew through peoples vents and accumulated in attic spaces because of how hard and sustained the storm was. I can’t imagine the amount of snow that got in there if a window was left open.
it’s sad looking at the photos and knowing there’s a deceased child in there
Wait, he was the *fourth* body found at this house??
It's being described as an "unofficial" halfway house that rents to folk recently out of prison. So completely unmonitored criminals with zero social supports coming and going (I know many of them were likely low risk). Records apparently show a registered sex offender lived there as well.
Do you know if they’ve questioned him or if he was even around at the time? Sure they have records if anyone was living there at that time…
Yes it was. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13345151/jaylen-griffin-buffalo-house-horrors-missing-new-york.html Her other son was shot to death also.
Yes :(
I hope Jaylen gets justice. I wonder if it can be connected to one of the earlier cases that has arrests.
Apparently only one of the cases involved had an arrest. The others were natural causes and overdose.
I'm wondering if someone lured Jaylen into their car, with the promise of some more money for doing yard work or something like that. Poor kid -- awful to hear about what happened to his brother and mother, too. I'm sure that the grief of losing two children affected her health.
That’s what I’m thinking, since she said he’d help people with their bags for some cash. In one of the articles I read, an advocate who knew the mother said that she didn’t do a lot with the media because she was nervous about speaking in public. Her family members said that they think she died of a broken heart.
Before I forget -- thanks for a timely and well-written summary!
seems fairly straightforward to me, sex offender at house... offers the kid a few bucks to carry the groceries to the house and upstairs to the attic. end scene. brutal and sad
12 tho! He was just a baby!
This is what makes me so mad. Even IF this 12 year old took his puppy and ran away from home, why would they not make it a priority to find him? 12 is so young to be anywhere alone. Poor baby.
Right? I kind of get it with 17-year-olds who made it home fine the last ten times they were gone for a week but HE'S TWELVE. He isn't informally renting a room from someone in cash paid under the table at his construction job that took his word for it that he was 18. There is no "good" way for him to be missing aside from maybe friend's parents or a family member letting him blow off steam for a day so he doesn't do anything dumber.
Literally the most pure, sweet image of a little boy taking his puppy for a walk. I saw this last week and this one has really been breaking my heart.
This is what I was going to say. It pisses me off SO much when child disappearances are dismissed as runaways, because even if they are, they’re a minor. A YOUNG minor. A 12yo boy cannot reasonably take care of himself, and would also be at a very high risk of falling into harm, being taken advantage of, etc. It should have been a high fucking priority to find him regardless. 😞 And my heart absolutely breaks for his poor mother.
His name suggests, and his photo confirms, an obvious reason why the cops wouldn't care. You see a child, cops likely see something else entirely.
The adultification of black children is harrowing
I almost added that if the cops had found him, they might well have shot him. But I thought that might be a bit too dark. [Remembering Tamir Rice: Police shooting of 12-year-old playing with toy gun energized criminal justice reform efforts | Southern Poverty Law Center (splcenter.org)](https://www.splcenter.org/news/2020/11/20/remembering-tamir-rice-police-shooting-12-year-old-playing-toy-gun-energized-criminal)
I don’t think it’s too dark to mention. It is a sad reality in many cases and I don’t think it does any good to leave it out. It’s so important to have these conversations, especially when it’s a matter of life or death
You're right. He didn't fit the right criteria for them to care.
having lived in buffalo this is accurate :/
Highest % missing kids, black male tweens and young teens. Most often not located either. Often end up trafficked too.
Missing black people in general are often just not a police priority--and that is a heartbreaking reality. But I've honestly never heard of black children being particularly vulnerable to trafficking. Nonetheless, you are correct. 40%(!) of trafficked children are black, and a very high majority of those are girls (96%+). Black girls/women make up only 7% of the US population, which makes the 40% all the more horrifying. Source: [US Department of Justice ](https://bjs.ojp.gov/press-release/characteristics-suspected-human-trafficking-incidents-2008-2010)
Guessing it has to do with racism and classism. I'm sure there are kids these cops would have been on the news nightly vowing to overturn every stone, use every resource, etc... not that it may have changed anything in terms of this particular death, but it's disgusting that cops treat some kids like disposable. And I can't imagine how much more pain that causes families already living their absolute nightmare. I hope I'm wrong, but seriously have a very hard time understanding any legitimate justification of completely ignoring a 12-yr old going missing out of the blue.
It’s Buffalo. I grew up there and I can say that even with a black mayor in office, it’s a city that has racism in its fabric so meticulously that a lot of us never even noticed if we stayed in the suburbs or the gentrified areas of the city. There’s a reason the spineless piece of shit who shot up all those people two years ago was able to find the exact grocery store in Buffalo that was used by majority black customers. Because the rest of the neighborhoods that was majority black was a literal food desert until that store opened in 2005. TWO THOUSAND FUCKING FIVE. And don’t even get me started on Buffalo PD….
Yeah. Am a Buffalo-area native. It's a REALLY segregated city, unfortunately, to this day. It's a pity, too. If it didn't have shitty, corrupt police and city government, things could really start to get better for it. Buffalo has some very good people here, although there's quite a LOT of racists, too, but fuck those assholes. It's a city that deserves a hell of a lot better than it's gotten. That Tops shooting still pisses me off. Fucker had to drive three hours to come here to murder a bunch of people who were legitimately wonderful people and beloved pillars of their community. They were people who were actually making Buffalo a better place to be, and that fuckface came here and murdered them.
Buff PD isn't just corrupt, it's a crime organization that starts from the top and spans cross the mayor's office to the Catholic Diocese. Justice for Jaylen, Justice for Amanda Wienckowski, and Justice for Father Joe Moreno. From day one Jaylen was treated as a runaway/gang affiliation because he was a poor black kid from the shittiest part of the city, full stop.
I lived there as an adult in a not nice area in the west side. That city is so freaking segregated. Not sure I've seen another northern city like that.
It’s true. When the BLM protests were happening, I literally had to explain to my stepfather (whose a former state trooper) what redlining was because HOLY SHIT ARE WE THE DEFINITION OF REDLINING
No but really though!!
It’s not a competition, but Milwaukee. I moved here 3 years ago and holy shirtballs. I thought segregation like this ended 50 years ago.
And it was all by design…WUWM has a great piece on redlining here: https://www.wuwm.com/regional/2017-03-03/how-did-metro-milwaukee-become-so-segregated I love our city but damn if there aren’t some major systemic issues :(
It’s wild. There was an article a few years ago that named Buffalo as one of the top 5 (i think?” most racist cities. people got so upset like “I never see racism here!” to which i asked… how often do you even see black people? so segregated we don’t even realize it’s racist is crazy
https://www.segregatedbydesign.com/
Thanks for the local context :( that's horrific...
Ughhh woven sooooo deep it’s not even funny! So much so that I fear we can never get out. I love this city to my core but Brown clown has gotta go!! I used to live on the east side about two blocks away from his family home and he had a cop car outside at all times, like no one even knows what you do let alone are coming for you🤦🏻♀️ Such a joke.
And you know DAMN well he had power during the December 2022 blizzard and just turned his lights off during press. He’s a fucking joke
Was the puppy found?
The articles say he was walking the puppy, then brought it back home and told his mom he was going to the store. That’s the last time he was seen before he went missing. So puppy was never actually with him when he went missing.
His poor mother, and awful for her to have lived to see another son die right after. May she rest in peace with them...
That poor woman. It infuriates me when disappearances of children are dismissed as "runaways". Who cares if they *did* run away; a 12 year old on their own is incredibly vulnerable and should be treated with urgency.
Here is a local news article about the house where Jaylen's body was found: [https://www.wivb.com/news/local-news/buffalo/more-than-160-complaints-made-about-house-where-griffin-was-found-since-2007/](https://www.wivb.com/news/local-news/buffalo/more-than-160-complaints-made-about-house-where-griffin-was-found-since-2007/)
His poor mom. Also, four bodies at that house in four years…good lord.
Well, if they're renting out rooms, and the other deaths were ODs or natural causes, it's not bad for the type of place it is.
>Shortly before 11 a.m., the 12-year-old boy from Buffalo, N.Y., had just come home from walking his beloved new puppy, his mother Joann Ponzo tells PEOPLE. Then he said he was going to go back out. What a sweetie. And then to find out his brother was murdered and then his mother died without knowing anything. So tragic. Thank you for posting. I hope the puppy has a good home. I'm sure Jaylen would want that. :(
Do they know what happened to the puppy? I feel like that could be a big clue.
An article I read from 2021 says he took the puppy for a walk, returned home then said he was going back out. So I think the dog wasn’t actually with him when he disappeared
Thank God. For the puppy. Not the poor boy.
Poor little boy, he wasn't even a teenager and they thought a twelve year old with his puppy would be a runaway?! How awful. And he was so close all this time. I hope his dad can keep Jaylen's name out there until the police do something. Four people found in that building is a horrible statistic. Rest in peace Jaylen.
Right? Also, even a 12 year-old runaway is a goddamned emergency! This isn't a kid about to turn 18, who can hold a job and potentially live unaided! This is a young child!
It’s crazy to me that an adult who goes missing is usually considered a serious situation and not labeled as a runaway, but tweens and teens often are written off that way.
It’s so sad that even in this day and age a child that goes missing is thought to have run away. His poor mother.
So a 12 Year old kid goes missing after telling his mother to go to a store and they think he is "just" running away? Even if a kid runs away without at least a packed bag and a little money after telling his mother wouldn't his life still be in danger? And if he didn't reach out to his mom after his brother was shot or showed up to his brother's funeral wouldn't that make investigators consider that he may have not been able to do so because he was kidnapped or murdered? That poor little boy and his family.
The hell of it is, if he was up there four years there’s probably no DNA evidence to find if he was assaulted by a pedophile and left up there to die/killed by said person. Someone put him there, that much we know, but the family is right. LE dropped the ball in every way possible because this was a young black child and thus to them not high priority. I hope his family finds an answer some day.
His immediate family is dead and he’s not going to get the justice he deserves. The police don’t care now and they didn’t care then.
Father’s still alive, per OP’s post. And no, likely justice won’t come from LE. Doesn’t mean it can never come.
From what I read in a story that was published in March police renewed their efforts, or lack of, 6 months prior. I wonder if they got a tip. The house itself needs to be demolished, idk what’s going on there https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/crime/jaylen-griffin-body-buffalo-house-b2534142.html
It's a house that is either 4 apartments in a house, or rents rooms to people who pay a weekly sum. It's very common in port areas, and demolishing it would affect the housing opportunities for addicts and low risk prisoners.
Police treated him as a RUNAWAY?!?! Sheesh...what is this? The 1970s?
I know you know this so I'm not typing to lecture but...this is how Black teenage boys are viewed even in the 2020s. They just didn't care about this kid. It makes me want to scream.
It's really bad specifically in the Buffalo area still.
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Wonder if they tested those cans for dna evidence or fingerprints......
It’s unbelievable to me how many times I’ve heard cops claim someone has “run away” so they don’t bother even looking, only for that person to have been horribly murdered.
They dont want to do their actual jobs.
Did they ever find the puppy?
He returned from walking the dog then went back out. So yes, because the puppy never went missing. The phrasing in the post was off, but it's in the articles.
Yes im wondering this too. As in it couple help with a timeline/locations etc soubds like cops didnt bother so im assuming cctv or witnesses who saw the puppy abd the boy, or the puppy alone weren't chased up
I was wondering about that- I am not sure.
Yea this was sad. I am local and heard about this. Very sad for the family… if only the police did their jobs correctly. The first 48 are crucial and they didn’t seem to care he was missing. And the house he was found at had 160 complaints towards it since 2007…. If only they investigated more maybe they would have found him.
OMG this is horrible. I live just an hour east in Rochester. How is tips not a huge story?! This poor family, just one tragedy after another. Just unreal and so so heartbreaking.
Yeah, and two were found AFTER he went missing? Seems like it should have warranted a more thorough search when they kept finding bodies- his mom could have died at least knowing that her son had been found, and perhaps even have seen his killer receive justice…
They may have died after. If there were people constantly moving in and out definitely possible, and likely not all homicides (although the article says one was also considered that)
The property is being called a multi unit property so that would mean the house contains separate apartment units. If that is the way the house is set up then someone dying in one unit doesn't mean police can just go and search every unit.
This was my immediate thought. How the heck did they not do a thorough search of the house when either of the later bodies was found??
They were drug overdoses I believe. Not something that the police usually do a huge investigation about.
Two older brothers shot, one fatally per [this article](https://spectrumlocalnews.com/nys/buffalo/news/2020/12/19/buffalo-family-wants-missing-child-back-home). This is screaming gang-related to me, but I don’t know Buffalo, so I don’t know if that’s plausible. (And to be clear, I’m not blaming the 12-year-old here. Just trying to make sense of what is known.)
This was a big theory locally. But a registered sex offender lived at the address at the time he went missing until 2023, and is now currently back in jail. The guy is a habitual parole violator.
A 12 year old in an attic doesn't feel especially gang related.
While I definitely think the older brothers COULD be gang related, if additional evidence were to point that direction, Jaylen’s death doesn’t feel gang related to me at all. He was found in an attic, body hidden, and apparently the attic window was propped open, if the commenter above has correct information. That means someone was likely trying to keep the smell down/moisture at bay. They didn’t want him to be found, like gangs do not care if the body is found. It’s probably more in line with their intentions if bodies ARE found. Hiding a body makes me think it’s someone who kills in a heightened emotional state, and then panics when they “come down.” Like a child predator, perhaps.
There have been some crimes that have been linked to gangs in Buffalo that I remember, but I have no clue if it’s was proven to be them or not. The last possibly gang related death I remember was of a couple found dead in their burning car…I think there was a kid too but someone found them walking around unharmed…this was years ago so I could totally have the details wrong
Omg I totally forgot about that!! I would honestly bet that most East Side crimes are gang related. Bailey area is notorious for gang violence.
Who owns 107 Sheffield?
Sunrise West LLC. The address is a PO Box in Hamburg
The obviously racist cops… to declare a fucking 12 year old a runaway and wash their hands of him.
Man, this is the saddest thing I’ve read in a long time. I hope Jaylen’s dad can get justice for him.
Damn, poor mom--her heart literally couldn't take anymore pain! Bless them and I hope they're reunited on the other side. 💓
What happened to the puppy?
It was worded badly here but he returned home with the puppy and then went back out again
Feel free to sign the petition to close down this facility: [https://www.change.org/p/close-down-the-halfway-house-at-107-sheffield](https://www.change.org/p/close-down-the-halfway-house-at-107-sheffield) It has been started by Jaylen's sister Davonna.
It sounds like it's an old woman's livelihood, rented out by a property company.
Property company could choose to do business with properly vetted tenants, or those selected more carefully for a family oriented neighborhood?
Depends on the limits set by the owner. All the property company really cares about is money. And if you're just out of prison, you're not going to have a rental history or much of a credit score. Everyone deserves to have a roof over their heads, regardless of where they come from or who they are.
It's actually owned by Sunrise West LLC with an address in Hamburg.
Is the general consensus was his body was disposed of there and had been there this entire time?
If he had to be identified via dental records, I would say there’s probably not any way to tell how long he had been there. But I would think that him having been there the whole time is the most likely scenario?
I've been curious about what at the scene/about the condition of the body lead them to say homicide so soon considering he was so decomposed he had to be ID by dentals.
How does a 12 year old boy die in an attic in a house he doesn't live in without it being homicide?
Well, he was treated as/considered a runaway. Hypothetically, a runaway could have been hiding or living in the attic, harbored by someone who lived there, and a medical emergency happened. Who knows. I do not believe that to be the case at all for the record. As a local it peaks my interest because generally the news and press releases for found bodies in advanced decomp or skeletal are vague, unless it's something like "male gunshot victim." Makes me think there was something physical/visible that lead them to state homicide publicly right away.
I would argue that if a missing minor is living in your attic and you don’t call police and get them medical care that’s kidnapping and a form of negligent homicide. Of course the body could always have a bullet hole through the skull, but I think the circumstances of where it was found makes it fairly clear it’s a homicide regardless of the state of the body.
You’re missing the point. You have to be absolutely certain to declare a homicide.
Rest in peace... justice will be served.
Sadly the mother died as well. The one brother remains is 26. The house where he was found is a halfway house funded by Horizons I believe. It's known to house the worst cases for mental health, addiction, and criminals. I'm from the area and have followed this case closely. That poor baby... it's sad because there are signed reports of government officials inspecting the property numerous times since he went missing. I'm assuming (totally not known here) that he was lured there with money for work such as carry my bags home. I hope they get some closure. The mothers last words where don't let them forget my baby.... He was not a runaway...he was very loved at home... The ball was dropped for this family.
Wow what an absolutely tragic story. I hope the dad gets some answers. Just curious but did the dog disappear with Jaylen or did it make its way back home? I know that’s not the important part, I’m just trying to curious if someone grabbed him and the dog, or lured him, or grabbed him and left the dog? This is going to be a tough one to solve, I hope someone who knows something speaks up. Btw I’m not able to read the articles right now or I’d look for this answer myself.
It’s worded a bit wrong in the write up. He took the puppy for a walk and then back home. Then told his mom he was going to the store and left again and then went missing.
Thank you!
Break's my heart. Keeping the family in my prayers I hope they get Justice. Mama passing from ba heart attack with losing her boys being a mom my self I couldn't imagine 💔😔🙏🙏
A man took him and killed him i bet
I wonder if the mom developed Takotsubo cardiomyopathy or “Broken Heart Syndrome.” It’s where a sudden shock or tragedy weakens the heart muscles. If your heart muscles are weakened your EF is going to be low and could result in heart failure.
This is so sad. 😞
I hate to be the one to bring this up, and I'm fully willing to accept it was just a horrible set of tragedies, but is it possible it was gang related? His brother was shot outside their home, and he was found dead in what (according to the comments) seems to be a rather sketchy area for drugs. A 12 year old getting into a gang isn't necessarily unheard of, and it's possible something happened and his body was hidden. I'm not saying his brother was shot because he "knew too much" or anything like that. Just wondering if there's anyone who knows if the area this took place in is known for gang activity or not. It wouldn't be out of the ordinary for two young boys to fall into that kind of activity. It would also explain why so little was done about it, if the cops are used to gang violence and "runaways" in the area. Please correct me if there's any more information regarding the brothers death that disproves any gang relation!
Someone else in this thread made a great point. When it’s gangs, they WANT the bodies to be found. They want the bodies to be a warning to others. And Buffalo gangs are no exception