BUFFALO, N.Y. — Shirley Banks and Angela Anderson have spent the last three and a half years praying.
But no amount of prayer could prepare them for the news they received Monday.
The body of Anderson’s nephew and Banks’ grandson Jaylen Griffin was found on Friday in an attic of a home on Sheffield Avenue in South Buffalo nearly four years after he went missing at the age of 12. He went to the grocery store and never returned home.
“I ask the Lord to give me strength. That’s how I process it,” Banks said. “I held that up until yesterday when they told me they had found him and he was deceased.”
Authorities have ruled Griffin’s death a homicide and they believe that his body had been in the house for quite some time but did not give any detail as to how long.
“I was mad. I got mad because it was like, who would do that to a child?” Anderson said. “So many questions, so many details, but not enough detail.”
Acting Erie County DA Michael Keane said the medical examiner will conduct an additional autopsy but that could take months.
In the meantime, Griffin’s loved ones are left without answers as to why the young boy, who loved football and would have turned 16 this coming Monday, never made it home.
As they have for the last four years, Griffin’s family will continue to pray in the coming months. But this time, it’ll be for justice.
“It’s not over until we find out everything,” Banks said. “He, she, we, they, whoever, they need to answer. They need to take responsibility for what they’ve done.”
The family will have a memorial service for Jaylen on his birthday Monday at 6 p.m. in front of the Central Terminal near the traffic circle.
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