Chapter 1: What happened to Jay Lee and why is it significant?
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Jay's number one thing was people will know my name. People will know me. Jay Lee was one in a million at Ole Miss. He was regularly on social media. Snapchat, Instagram, TikTok. All of a sudden that stopped. We got the call from the University Police Department about, hey, Jay Lee's missing. I didn't know what could have happened to him.
We start looking at who he's talking to on Snapchat. We see this name, Red Eye 24.
What was it about those exchanges?
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Chapter 2: How did Jay's family and friends respond to his disappearance?
It seemed like Jay Lee was upset.
If you mess with those men, something bad could happen to you. Because of the secret, he has it all to lose.
It's in the middle of the summer here in Mississippi. Somebody wearing a hoodie caught our eye.
He looks at the trash can big enough to put a body in. Lord, what type of punishment is this?
It's like emotional torture. This humble, loving family, they were going to get everything that we had.
We started sifting through decaying leaves, and there was a piece of jewelry.
That was the only piece that we didn't have. Now we've got it. Let's go.
A victim whose life was an open book and a suspect whose life was a story of secrets. I'm Lester Holt, and this is Dateline. Here's Blaine Alexander with Bringing Jay Home.
By all appearances, it was just another piece of trash, strewn amongst the tires and tossed junk in these forgotten woods of rural Mississippi.
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Chapter 3: What clues were discovered during the investigation?
But here, in the heart of the Bible Belt, this story is also about faith and that eternal hope that what's done in the darkness will always come to light.
I know God's going to make a way.
Lord, I don't know what you want me to do at this point, but I'm going to keep saying Jay's coming home. It was July 8th, 2022, when Taylor Carey texted her 20-year-old brother, Jay Lee, a recent graduate of the University of Mississippi in Oxford. She was just checking in, something she'd done daily since they were kids. Where are you at? What you eating today? What you doing tomorrow?
You guys were literally walking each other through your days. Step by step. In real time. In real time. Jay loved his sister, but he was a mama's boy through and through. As soon as he knew that mom was up and moving, he was gonna call. Jay's parents, Stephanie, a retail manager, and Jimmy, a truck driver and minister. And it's not just one time, it's two or three times a day.
Miss Stephanie, there wasn't a day that went by that you didn't talk to him. Not a day went by. Until that hot summer day in July, which was strange. Inexplicable, really. It was my birthday. And me knowing Jay, he would call me and sing happy birthday all night long before 2 or 3 in the morning. She did get a text from Jay at 2 a.m. It's your birthday, lady, he wrote. I love you.
But after that, silence. As a mom, you knew in your heart something was wrong.
I knew, yes.
Jay, the youngest of Stephanie's four children, had always shared his cell phone location with his mom.
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Chapter 4: What role did social media play in Jay's case?
It started back in high school. So we were keeping tabs on each other, you know. I can roll over in the bed at 2 o'clock in the morning and say, okay, he's at home. Can I say, it is remarkable that once he went off to college, he kept that location on. He did. But now?
The location was turned off just like that, you know. We just didn't know what to think.
Taylor reached out to Jay's college friend, Jose Reyes.
which was odd because I had never had a conversation with Tayla. And she kind of was just asking, hey boo, have you heard from Jay Lee?
He tried to call and text his friend, but none went through. So now, almost a day since Jay had last texted his mom, Jose drove to his friend's campus apartment to check things out.
I went up and I knocked on his door. No one opened the door. I could hear his dog Lexi on the other side of the door.
Another red flag. Jose knew Jay was obsessed with Lexi. Everyone knew it. He took her everywhere, to shops and museums, on road trips, even to class.
That boy, he would not leave Lexi like that alone. Not for that long. That's out of character. Out of character for Jaylee, for sure.
Jay's mom knew it was time to call police. She reached out to the University of Mississippi PD to request a welfare check. The dispatcher notified Captain Jane Mahan, a 19-year veteran of the Ole Miss Police Force. She was very insistent. The mom called 6 a.m. the next morning looking for an update expressing, I have still not heard from my son.
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Chapter 5: Who was Tim Harrington and what was his connection to Jay?
This is very unusual type behavior for him. Captain Mahan sent officers to Jay's apartment. From their conversations with Jay's mom, police knew about the car Jay owned, a black Ford Fusion with a distinctive gold racing stripe on its hood. but they couldn't find it in the parking lot. Upstairs, Jay's door was slightly open. They knocked, no answer. So they went inside. He's not there.
Nobody's in the apartment. Did it look like there were any signs of a struggle or anything like that? No, the apartment looked like a college individual's apartment. Food here and there on the counter, you know. And Jay's things were in his room. University police checked out the hospitals and jails in the area to see if, somehow, Jay had wound up in the ER or behind bars. Nothing.
What's more, they learned, Jay hadn't shown up to work for the past two days. Captain Mahan needed a lead, and she had a hunch. We're looking for any clue at all, and there's a camera right here outside of Jay's apartment. Looking right at his door? Yes, ma'am. It was tremendous in this investigation, being able to identify when Jay was leaving his apartment. Not just when, but how.
The mystery of what happened to Jay would haunt an entire community.
I felt scared. As a father, I just wanted to get him.
He said that the guy told him he was going to do something that he had never done before. And reveal a most unlikely suspect. He was giving me advice on, you know, how to stay out of trouble. And this is what I found. How long does it take to strangle someone?
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Chapter 6: What were the key pieces of evidence against Tim Harrington?
All that before one final, stunning revelation.
I was like, okay, Lord, what type of punishment is this?
Jaylee's family was concerned on the day he went missing. By day two, they were panicked.
I know I was doing at least 24 to 25 calls a minute. Back to back, back to back, back to back, back to back, back to back, back to back, because it kept going to voicemail.
Jay's friend Jose monitored Jay's social media accounts. For years, Jay had posted something almost daily. But now, nothing.
He was always my mini little internet celebrity. I always enjoyed seeing his posts, his stories, his tweets.
So he was very active on social media.
Very active.
Yes.
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Chapter 7: How did the community react to the developments in Jay's case?
Jay Lee was definitely a night owl. He had a very strange sleep schedule. Braylon Johnson was one of Jay's best friends and his former roommate. He definitely wasn't a casual person. He didn't leave the house in his bathrobe very often. He would get dressed. He would get dressed, even if it was just to go check the mail or to walk his dog.
There were many times that I saw him leaving the house to walk his dog, to walk Lexi in heels. Yep, heels. Jay was out and proud. And when it came to fashion, he loved to make a statement.
And I was getting catcalls on the street and stuff, I guess because I had on this revealing outfit.
He was the type of person, he can put on some blue pants, a purple shirt, and a red hat. And some cheetah print heels if he wanted to put on some cheetah print heels. And it was going to look good. And if you didn't like it or well, he was still going to shred it. When you close your eyes and think about your brother, what's the first thing that comes to mind? Unapologetically happy.
Would you say that it takes a lot of courage to be openly gay here in Oxford, Mississippi? A lot of courage. Yes. Especially if, like Jay, you decide to run for Ole Miss Homecoming King.
Oh, Jay, this is your homecoming. So go ahead. Take risks. Prosperity. And be you.
He was campaigning every day and getting a lot of backlash. Face to face? Face to face, yes.
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Chapter 8: What impact did Jay's story have on the LGBTQ community and legal reforms?
What were people saying? Talking about him wearing heels and using the N-word, just saying his campaign didn't represent Ole Miss. And even though he didn't win, he took that as an opportunity to advocate on campus for minority groups of, hey, this is what my experience is like doing something that I have a right as a student to do.
His goal, I think from day one, to be an impact on people's lives.
I can remember him being born. I was in the room. The first thing that came out was his fist. So I knew he was going to be a fighter.
You're a minister. You all are a family of very deep faith, living in the Deep South. Yes. A lot of kids in his situation may have been very afraid to be who they truly were and be open about their sexuality for fear that their parents wouldn't accept them.
You know, you can't leave your child's life. That's something that I think you as a parent should step back and let them know that regardless of what route you take, I'm here for you. I'm going to show you love and I'm going to have your back.
Jimmy says he tried to instill in his son the lessons his father taught him, especially this one.
Be who you are or nothing at all.
Another thing Jay was, a fantastic student. He graduated top 10 in his high school class, and when he set off to Ole Miss, he left with a rather ambitious goal, graduate in three years. He said, y'all watch my smoke. I'm going to do it. I'm going to get it done. And he did it. Literally. He wasn't playing. He was 100% serious about his education and his future.
Jay was just as serious about his faith. He grew up in the church. Each and every Sunday, he would get up and have to do a testimony. And he was going to thank God for what he'd done in his life. So when people look at Jay, they see the confidence. But you're saying really what's underneath it is faith.
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