The Connecticut State Conference of the NAACP is launching an investigation into circumstances surrounding the death of a 17-year-old male who was found dead in the woods along the banks of the Quinnipiac River in Wallingford 20 days after he went missing following a reported motor vehicle crash.
Leaders with the Connecticut NAACP held a press conference Friday to discuss the discovery of Khasir Jennette’s body on Feb. 21 and the lack of public information about his death.
“We’re here today because of a young man whose body was found here in Wallingford,” Scot X. Esdaile, state president of the Connecticut NAACP, said Friday. “Deeply concerned about this particular matter because we just found out about this about two days ago.”
According to Esdaile, the NAACP was told that Jennette was involved in a car accident on Route 15 and his body was not found until 20 days after, around Feb. 21.
“It’s extremely important that the NAACP investigates when we find out that a minor, someone that’s 17 years old, body is found in the woods in Wallingford and we’ve never seen anything public about this young person being found,” said Esdaile. “So we have some serious questions with the Wallingford Police Department of exactly what is the policy of what is supposed to be done when you find a body in the woods.”
According to Esdaile, the Connecticut NAACP has decided to put “a full-fledged investigation into this particular matter.” Esdaile noted that Jason Teal, second vice president of the Connecticut NAACP, and Kim Fisher, president of the Meriden/Wallingford NAACP, will put together a committee of lawyers, private investigators and community activists to find out exactly what took place.
“What we’re gonna do, due to the fact that we feel that the agencies didn’t do the right thing in getting the public information out to the people, the NAACP will mobilize and organize to get that information out to the people,” Esdaile said.
“A 17 year-old a minor, whatever allegations may exist in any report, he was still a child. He was a Black child and the history has taught Black communities that when our children are in crisis, missing, harmed or deceased, we cannot simply accept silence, delay or confusion from the systems responsible for protecting life,” said Corrie Betts, first vice president of the Connecticut NAACP and president of the Hartford NAACP.
“We are not here to rush judgment, we are here to the demand clarity,” Betts said. “We want to speak directly with every agency involved: Wallingford, North Haven and the Connecticut State Police. Each agency has a role. Each agency has information and each agency must be must help the public understand what happened.
“We just want clarity to what happened to this young man’s life,” Betts said.
Teal wanted to make it clear that “We are not standing here today accusing any individual, officer or agency of wrongdoing or foul play,” he said. “Our responsibility is to insure that the facts surrounding this case are fully examined, that the public receives transparency and that any unanswered questions are addressed through an independent civil rights review.”
According to Teal, the investigation will follow “facts in evidence, timelines, witness statements and records, wherever they may lead. This family deserves answers. The public deserves transparency, and this young man deserves dignity.”
Following the press conference, the Connecticut State Police released a timeline outlining law enforcement’s response to the crash and subsequent disappearance of Jennette.
In the release, state police extended their condolences to the family of Khasir Jennette. “The Connecticut State Police is committed to the search of all missing persons in the State of Connecticut, and we are saddened when the outcome is tragic for those involved.”
According to the state police timeline, troopers from Troop I in Bethany responded to a reported of a multi-vehicle crash just before 10 p.m. Feb. 1 on Route 15 North just before Exit 58A in Wallingford.
State police noted that weather conditions at that time consisted of approximately 12–16 inches of estimated snow on the ground. “The highway was free of snow or ice. The Quinnipiac River was not fully frozen and had water flowing under breakable ice. The temperature in the overnight hours was approximately minus-3 degrees Fahrenheit,” the timeline said.
Arriving troopers located three vehicles, including a Black Acura RDX bearing a Rhode Island registration that was stopped partially in the left lane with both front driver and passenger doors open. State police said the driver side curtain airbags were deployed, and it was unoccupied.
According to state police, several cell phones were located inside the Acura. The driver and any passengers were believed to have fled the scene on foot. The drivers of the other involved vehicles could not provide a description of the occupants of the Acura, and stated that they did not see anyone near or around the vehicle. “It was unknown at that time how many occupants were in the Acura at the time of the collision,” state police said.
A law enforcement database inquiry of the Acura’s VIN number revealed that the Acura was reportedly reported stolen out of Hamden, according to state police. The vehicle was also identified as an involved vehicle from an alleged armed carjacking that took place in North Haven around 5 p.m. earlier that night.
Due to the alleged circumstances surrounded the collision, Troop I personnel requested police K-9s for tracking in the area of the Quinnipiac River near the abandoned vehicle on Route 15, state police said. The track began at 10:38 p.m. and included the area of the Quinnipiac River, Oliver Creek Road, Pent Road and South Cherry Street in Wallingford, “which yielded negative results,” according to state police. Wallingford Police Department patrol units assisted Troop I with the K-9 track.
At 11:04 p.m. that night, state police said a small white hatchback vehicle approached the scene of the collision and an unknown woman allegedly said she believed her godson “Nasir” may have been involved in a crash. When troopers attempted to gather more information, including the name, date of birth and description of her godson, she allegedly drove away at a high rate of speed, according to state police.
On Feb. 2 at 1:34 a.m., Troop I Dispatch received a call from Jennette’s mother, Kendra Jennette, stating that she believed her son was involved in an accident on Route 15 and “is in the woods with his friends freezing,” state police said.
According to state police, Kendra Jennette said she had not seen Khasir since Jan. 31, and provided a description of her son and the clothes she believed he may be wearing, including a dark-colored hoodie and a gray coat. Kendra Jennette claimed that she received a phone call from another mother who had allegedly received a call from her son in the woods. Kendra Jennette told state police she did not know the woman’s last name or the name of her son.
At this time, Troop I initiated a missing person investigation for Khasir. According to state police, Troop I personnel established a command post in the area of the Amazon warehouse on South Cherry Street in Wallingford.
Troop I issued a missing person alert to its social media pages with Khasir’s name, date of birth, photo and descriptio, state police said. A Silver Alert was later issued by the Connecticut State Police Message Center, according to state police.
Following the phone call from Kendra Jennette, a command post was established at the Wallingford Animal Control Office and all available Troop I personnel were dispatched to the call. According to state police, the Wallingford Police and Fire Departments were dispatched to the command post and provided the updated name, date of birth, and description of Khasir. State police also claimed that additional resources were requested and deployed for the search of Khasir, including the Connecticut State Police Air 1 Unit, Connecticut State Police Drone Unit, Connecticut State Police Search and Rescue K-9 Units, Connecticut State Police Troop I K-9 Units, Connecticut State Police Troop I Patrol Units, Troop G K-9 Units, Troop G Patrol Units, Connecticut State Police Troop H Patrol Units, Connecticut State Police Troop H K-9 Units (patrol and bloodhound K-9), EMS services, Wallingford Fire Department Thermal Imaging, Wallingford Police Department Patrol Units, Connecticut State Police Central District Major Crimes, Connecticut State Police Intelligence and Operations Unit and Connecticut State Police Collision, Analysis and Reconstruction Squad.
“These resources were deployed during the midnight hours of Sunday night into Monday morning and then returned for additional searches of the area in the days following the motor vehicle collision,” state police said. “Tracks were conducted that lead through extreme conditions including frozen waterways, embankments, wooden unlighted terrain, brush, sticks, prickers and into the Amazon property campus locations with huge solar farms. Areas searched included the Quinnipiac riverbanks, South Cherry Street, Route 5, Exit 58 on/off ramps and the Amazon warehouse campus.
At this time, state police said it was still unknown how many occupants were in the Acura at the time of the collision.
Kendra Jennette provided a sworn written statement to Troop I troopers on Feb. 2 at 5:26 a.m. She claimed that she last saw Khasir on Jan. 31 at her home and she believed he was wearing a black sweatshirt, black sweatpants and white sneakers. She told state police she tried texting him on Feb. 1 at 9:36 a.m., which Khasir allegedly read but did not respond to. She also told state police Khasir’s phone did not have cellular service, and he only connected via wi-fi when it was available.
After a neighborhood canvas of the area around 7:58 a.m. on Feb. 2, Troop I reportedly obtained surveillance footage showing a male wearing a black hoodie with red writing and gray hood allegedly get into the back seat of a silver Toyota Camry on Ball Street and South Cherry Street, the timeline states.
On the afternoon of Feb. 2, detectives from Central District Major Crime and Wallingford Animal Control conducted a canvas of businesses in the area of Pent Road and South Cherry Street in Wallingford to locate additional surveillance footage, state police said.
One business provided surveillance footage which allegedly showed an individual get into a silver Toyota Camry, later identified as an Uber ride share, and a car dealership provided surveillance footage which allegedly captured the Toyota leave the area and head south on South Colony Street, according to state police.
The Connecticut State Police Aviation Unit reportedly completed an additional arial sweep of the area around 3:37 p.m. on Feb. 2 in an effort to locate Khasir, state police said.
In the days following the collision, detectives allegedly pursued several leads on the potential whereabouts of Khasir, “including emergency disclosure requests from Uber.” State police said Uber provided a list of completed Uber rides in the area of the Wallingford Amazon warehouse in the overnight hours of Feb. 1 through Feb. 2. Detectives were unable to determine the identity of any additional passengers from the motor vehicle collision, or if the Uber riders were involved in the collision, according to state police.
On Feb. 21, around 9:15 a.m., a Wallingford resident walking their dog along the banks of the Quinnipiac River discovered a body near the Wallingford Compost Center on John Street. The resident contacted 911, and the Wallingford Police Department and EMS responded to the scene, state police said.
Wallingford police alerted dispatch that the body was potentially Khasir. Detectives responded to the scene and noted that the clothing on Khasir matched the description of what his mother believed he was last wearing, according to state police. Additionally, detectives believed the body matched a photograph of Khasir that Kendra Jennette provided detectives investigating the case. According to the timeline, “the body had notable scarring on his left leg, which detectives knew to match an injury Khasir had received from a gunshot wound to his left leg in December 2025.”
The body of Khasir was transported by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner for an autopsy. State police said detectives contacted Kendra Jennette and made next of kin notification at 5 p.m. that day. The Connecticut State Police Collision, Analysis and Reconstruction Squad responded to the scene to assist with investigative mapping.
According to state police, no press release was completed by any law enforcement agency after discovering Khasir’s body on Feb. 21, “as it is standard operating procedure that press releases are not completed by police departments following unattended death investigations.”
Furthermore, state police said, “Press releases are not issued for juvenile deaths as a standard communications protocol. We, at the Connecticut State Police, respect the protections guarded for the identities of juveniles involved in our investigations.
“We are saddened by the death of Khasir Jennette that occurred in spite of the dozens of police, fire and EMS personnel that worked this case in the hours and days following the motor vehicle collision on Sunday, February 1, 2026, in an effort to find Khasir,” state police said.
