The search for a missing 12-year-old child came to a grisly end last Monday when police discovered his badly decomposed body in an attic, just months after the death of his own mother.
Jaylen Griffin was last seen on August 4, 2020 when he went to a grocery store in Buffalo, New York, but never returned home.
A desperate search ensued, with community members and police putting up flyers and scouring the city for signs of the missing boy.
The search ended on April 12, when police found Jaylen’s body in the attic of a house just after 10 a.m. Three days later they publicly announced the discovery.
The development came too late for Jaylen’s grieving mother, Joann Ponzo, who was buried in September without knowing what happened to her son.
The body of 12-year-old Jaylen Griffin was found in an attic in Buffalo, New York nearly four years after his disappearance
The discovery came too late for Jaylen’s mother, Joann Ponzo, who died in September at age 48
A maintenance worker discovered the body at 107 Sheffield Avenue last Monday
Ponzo, 48, died at the Sisters of Charity Hospital after her health rapidly deteriorated.
It is unclear what her illness was, but friends and loved ones suspect that her illness was only exacerbated by the loss of her children.
Three months after Jaylen’s disappearance, Ponzo’s eldest son, 18-year-old Jawaan, was shot just steps from the family home.
Kareema Morris, founder of Bury the Violence, worked closely with Ponzo before her death.
She said Buffalo news that the heartbroken mother was reluctant to talk to reporters about her son’s case because she lacked the confidence.
But she was a familiar face at all of Jaylen’s wakes, where she could see paper lanterns shooting into the sky.
A month before her death, Joann was seen crying and praying for her son to be found during one of the ceremonies.
Ponzo continued to cling to the memory of her son. Months after Jaylen disappeared, she posted a birthday message on Facebook.
“Wherever you are, I pray you are safe and enjoying your day,” she wrote.
Although Ponzo was hesitant to talk to members of the media about Jaylen’s case, she attended all of his wakes and was seen sobbing during one of the ceremonies just a month before her death.
Jaylen’s body was found five miles from where he was last seen, almost four years after he left his family home and went to a nearby supermarket.
The boy’s body was so severely damaged that the medical examiner’s office had to identify him using dental records
Morris told the publication that Ponzo had trouble imagining her child in a different way than when she last saw him.
When an age-processed image of Jaylen at age 15 was released, his mother was horrified.
‘That’s not my son. It doesn’t look like my son,” she said.
Ponzo also showed Morris a drawing she found in their home weeks after Jaylen disappeared. A message was scrawled on it: “I’m already gone.”
Jaylen was last seen leaving his home on Warren Avenue in the Broadway-Fillmore neighborhood. He told his mother he was on his way to a nearby convenience store.
But it was in the house on Sheffield Avenue, a dark, foreboding home amid a sea of white and gray houses, that his body was found.
A maintenance worker raised the alarm when he came across a body in the attic of the multi-unit house. The worker said he didn’t smell any decomposing material.
Homicide detectives arrived just before 10:30 a.m. and said they needed more time on scene due to a “death on arrival.”
Months after Jaylen’s disappearance, Ponzo posted a birthday message on Facebook that read, “Wherever you are, I pray you are safe and enjoying your day.”
Buffalo police held a press conference on April 15.
“The body that was inside the house had been there for quite some time,” Chief Joseph Gramaglia said.
Although he could not say how long the body had been there, Gramaglia said it had deteriorated so much that the medical examiner’s office had to confirm Jaylen’s identity using dental records.
“First and foremost, I would like to express my sincerest condolences to Jaylen’s family,” Gramaglia said.
“This department has conducted extensive searches and I want Jaylen’s family to know that we are working diligently to bring the next closure for the family.”
District Attorney Mike Kane echoed Gramaglia’s condolences.
‘This is a young boy. He is 15 years old. This is a tragedy and a terrible way to end this search,” he said.
Morris also spoke at the press conference, where she shared a statement from the family thanking the community’s collective efforts to bring Jaylen home.
Jaylen would have turned 16 years old on April 22. A birthday memorial service was held in his honor.