A longtime family friend of Jaylen Griffin is criticizing Buffalo police's alleged mishandling of the investigation after the 12-year-old's remains were found in a stranger's attic nearly four years after he vanished.
Jaylen was reported missing from his Buffalo, New York home in August 2020. He was on his way to a neighborhood corner store when he disappeared. According to Pastor Tim Newkirk, investigators immediately classified Jaylen as a runaway "because of his age."
Buffalo police "pretty much didn't put that much emphasis on there being a suspect or any type of crime or foul play. They didn't believe that he was in any harm or danger," Newkirk told HNGN during an interview Thursday.
"It was weird because how can law enforcement, or any other authority that's designed to serve and protect, not have taken this seriously, and look at it as just a runaway case - in a high drug infested area, such as Broadway, where there's gun violence, drugs, prostituting, overdoses and all kinds of different weird activities?" Newkirk wondered.
The pastor knew Jaylen's family well, having grown up with Jaylen's parents in their tight-knit Buffalo community. Except for the occasional run to the corner store for some snacks during a break from playing video games, the pre-teen was a homebody, and seldom drifted far from the familiarity of his neighborhood and the company of his parents and siblings. But like any other 12-year-old, Jaylen was impressionable.
"He wasn't really a street smart kid. He was more of a follower. So he would hang with somebody, if you called him and told him to come with you. It wouldn't be hard to get him to do that," Newkirk explained.
Still, it was completely out of character for Jaylen to be gone for so long and to leave without a trace.
Days turned to months, and months turned to years, and Jaylen's case soon went cold.
It wasn't until Friday, nearly four years following his perplexing disappearance, that a maintenance worker came upon Jaylen's decomposed remains in an attic, just five miles from where he was last seen alive. Despite the seemingly short distance from where he went missing, Newkirk said Jaylen's remains were discovered in a dangerous neighborhood that was unfamiliar to the boy. And he wouldn't have traveled there willingly.
"He wouldn't even know if you took him in that area. He would have thought he went out of Buffalo, New York," Newkirk said. "He would have probably been a nervous wreck. And if he walked, he would have gotten lost and probably got scared. He would have been nervous with the traffic and the cars and the people, unfamiliar faces. I just don't see that happening. Not at all."
Months after Jaylen vanished, his 18-year-old brother, Jawaan Griffin, was shot to death outside their home. Then in September 2023, tragedy struck the family once more, when Joann Ponzo, Jaylen's mother, died from health issues and a "broken heart," said Newkirk.
The grieving mother never lived to see the day her youngest son's remains were recovered. Still, Newkirk believes Joann's "spiritual being" was instrumental in tracking down her little boy in an effort to help her family heal from their mountain of devastating losses.
"God heard our prayers and sent somebody over – their angel to go in that attic. And God led that search party from heaven, which I believe was Joann, Jawaan, and Jalen pleading with the Lord to give us closure," he assured.
The Buffalo Police Department did not respond to HNGN's request for comment.
