Bones found likely not Jaliek

GREENFIELD - Police are searching for clues after a child's skull was found in a remote section of Saratoga County.

Those bones were found in a wooded area in Greenfield on Monday.

Investigators say it'll take several weeks to complete DNA tests.

Area police are eager to find out if the discovery helps close one of several open cases.

However, police are leaning less and less toward the case of Jaliek Rainwalker, the 12-year-old Greenwich boy who disappeared in November 2007.

As a team of state police investigators were searching in the woods off Lake Desolation Road, Cambridge-Greenwich Police Chief George Bell was hoping that he had the break he's been waiting two years for.

"Hopeful and very optimistic that it was Jaliek," Bell said.

Police believe Jaliek was killed, but they've never found his body.

When a Northville man discovered a child's skull in the woods this week, Bell and state police immediately thought of Jaliek.

Bell says investigators will compare DNA taken from Jaliek's toothbrush with DNA taken from teeth found in the woods to determine conclusively if it's Jaliek, but he's not holding his breath.

"I'm being told right now that it doesn't appear to be him. Still, we have to confirm through DNA," Bell said.

Police named Jaliek's adoptive father, Stephen Kerr, a person of interest in the weeks after the boy disappeared. Kerr has maintained his innocence.

Bell faults Kerr for not reaching out to police when news of the skull discovery spread.

"I think being concerned adoptive parents of Jaliek, that they'd at least make a call or have their attorney call myself or somebody else associated with the case and just say, 'Hey, look, we have these bones in Edinburg, could this be our son?' We've heard nothing from them," the chief said.

Saratoga Springs police are watching closely.

There are several missing persons cases that police could be considering as they try to figure out who the bones belong to.

Fourteen-year-old Tammie McCormick was last seen while on her way to Saratoga Junior High in April 1986.

In addition to Jaliek and Tammie, Sara Ann Wood's body is still missing. Wood was 12 years old when she was kidnapped while walking home from church in Herkimer County. That was back in August 1993.

Lewis Lent confessed to Sara Ann's murder, but never revealed where he buried her body.

Lent is now serving a life sentence.