Talking Dateline: Bringing Jay Home
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What is the story of Jimmie 'Jay' Lee and how did he go missing?
Hey, everyone. I'm Andrea Canning, and we are talking Dateline. Today, I'm here with Blayne Alexander, who will be talking about her episode, Bringing Jay Home. If you haven't seen it, you can find it in the Dateline podcast feed. So go there and listen to it or stream it on Peacock and then come back here. For this talking Dateline, we have a podcast exclusive clip from Blayne's interview with Jay's parents. Then we'll answer some of your questions that you had and comments from social media. And there were a lot. Blaine, thank you for sharing Jay's story with the world.
Yeah, of course. Of course. I really, really enjoyed telling the story and getting to know him while reporting on this.
Yeah. I feel like we all really got to know Jay from your story and then some. I mean, that was one of the best datelines I've seen getting a glimpse into that person's life. You know, it was very rich. Could you just recap the story for us first?
Jay Lee was a young man from Jackson, Mississippi. He went to Ole Miss. He graduated in three years and he was preparing to enter grad school. And he was just, I don't even know if vibrant can capture who he was, but he's somebody who lived life to the fullest. He was an out and proud gay man. I mean, he was very, very honest. well-known in the LGBTQ community. He was just very vivacious, but also had this desire to give back to communities. I mean, I think one of the details that really struck me was that on the day that he disappeared, he was set to hold a baby formula drive. It was something that he had organized, and then he went missing. And that was one of the big clues that let his friends know, okay, something's going on because he would never miss this.
So he goes missing. It was his mom's birthday. And he didn't call her. And so immediately his mom knew, okay, something's wrong. They reach out to Ole Miss police and police go look at his apartment. They come across security video that shows that he left his apartment, came back, and then left again early in the morning. And they noticed that he's holding his cell phone like this, right? The same way that we would all hold our cell phone if we're talking to someone on speaker. And they come to find out that he's going to have a sexual encounter with another man. And through Snapchat, through kind of tracking things down, they come to find out that it's a young man named Tim Harrington who – there was no indication that he was gay at all –
And police put together this case that Tim Harrington ultimately killed Jay Lee, strangled him to death in his apartment, wrapped his body in moving blankets and duct tape and dumped him about an hour and a half outside of Ole Miss because he was concerned that he was going to out him as being gay.
Wow.
And in the first trial, the first trial ended in a mistrial because one juror just couldn't get over the fact that there was no body. Investigators still hadn't found Jaylee's body. Not too long after that, though, Andrea, they found Jaylee's body and they were headed for a second trial and he took a plea deal.
I mean, I think, goodness, he put the family out of their misery from that perspective, you know, from having to sit through a trial again, from having to go through all of that. And it spared Jaylee's mom from having to testify again, Ms.
Stephanie. She would have had to take the stand again.
Blaine, you know, all these missing persons cases, you know, they start... with, you know, a text that doesn't go answered, a phone call that doesn't get returned. And, you know, everyone feels the same, I think, in the beginning, like, oh, they're busy, you know, they'll get back to me. And then in this case, and, you know, eventually, sadly, in a lot of these cases, they don't. In this case, it was interesting because right off the bat, This hit me because, you know, Miss Stephanie's birthday is July 8th, which is my dad's birthday. And, you know, so I thought right away, I was like, you know, the first thing on my mind on July 8th when I wake up is I have to call my dad.
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Chapters
7 chapters
1
What is the story of Jimmie 'Jay' Lee and how did he go missing?
0:04–4:17
2
What were the circumstances surrounding Jay's disappearance and the initial investigation?
4:17–7:32
3
How did Jay Lee's family react to his disappearance?
7:32–10:58
4
What led to the confession of Jay's murderer, Tim Herrington?
10:58–14:50
5
What challenges did investigators face during the trials for Jay's murder?
14:50–19:13
6
How did the community respond to Jay Lee's story and legacy?
19:13–23:30
7
What insights did Jay's parents share during their interview?
23:30–26:03
Speakers
4 identifiedMore from Dateline NBC
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