Jahnay Bryan (23) has been missing since October 2024. She was reported missing by her family in November.
Jahnay’s sister Jahque Bryan-Gooden has been spearheading the search for her, and was the one who reported her missing on November 13.
What we know about Jahnay is that she was originally from Pennsylvania. After she graduated from Cornell University in New York in 2023, she moved back to East Stroudsburg in PA to live with her mother.
After her graduation, Jahnay began to cut off communication with her friends and the rest of her family. “She had basically stopped talking to all her friends,” Jahque said.
“The last time I actually personally spoke with my sister was via email. And that was actually last year,” Jahque told Dateline. “It was just, like, a positive email of her wishing me well.”
Jahque has said that she has not been in contact with her mother for a long time. After not hearing from either her or Jahnay, Jahque asked for a welfare check at her mother’s home in April. Authorities confirmed that the mother and Jahnay were both still living there.
In August 2024, Jahnay indicated to an ex-boyfriend that she was going to move to a new city. She sent him this email on August 1, 2024. “Gone for the last few months. Back,” the email read. “Moving to a new city Monday. Bye.”
Jahnay sent her ex another email on October 16. “I think we should get married and I think we should work in industry,” it read. “I was just in contact with the commissioner of the Department of Water Management in a city and it’s a brilliant idea.”
“It wasn’t even grammatically correct,” Jahque remarked about the email. “And so that was definitely like, ‘OK, what’s happening here?’ you know? But I don’t think that someone else would have had her email.”
That was the last known communication that Jahnay had with any friends or family. When her family realized that nobody had seen or heard from her, they began making social media posts.
“We then received a call from someone saying that, like, you know, ‘We saw her in LA,’” Jahque said.
“That was her biggest fear — like, being a Black girl and getting trafficked, or someone kidnapping her, or her going missing,” Jahque told Dateline. “She had vividly shared to a friend, like, ‘If something ever happens to me, find me.’”
Jahque and her friends were able to search in Los Angeles for Jahnay.
“We keep meeting people that say, like, ‘Oh, I saw her at this bus stop,’ or, ‘I saw her in this area,’” Jahque said. “The random people that we find that say, ‘Yes, I saw her,’ are all near that street. Like, they all say they saw her in that area.” She also notes that Jahnay’s Outlook email indicated she was on Pacific Time — another sign she may be in California.
On November 19, the LAPD issued an Ebony Alert about Jahnay, which they shared with Dateline as a news release. “On October 16, 2024, around 9 a.m., Jahnay was last seen near the 2000 block of West 8th Street,” the release read. “Jahnay has not been seen since and her family is concerned for her wellness.”
If you’re wondering what an Ebony Alert is, I believe it may be specific to California. An Ebony Alert is a resource available to law enforcement agencies investigating the suspicious or unexplainable disappearance of a black woman or black person.
The LAPD have said they have no further information about Jahnay’s case. “The only information we have is what was provided in the news release,” LAPD Media Relations Division Officer Drake Madison wrote in a statement to the media.
“I feel like it wasn’t taken as seriously as it needed to be,” she said, “and I definitely had higher expectations from law enforcement.”
In a bit of a twist in the case, Jahque has said that she has been unable to get in contact with her mother – who Jahnay had been living with prior to her Los Angeles move. Dateline also attempted to contact the mother and were unable to. Jahque has said that the mother is not involved in the search for Jahnay.
You can see Jahnay’s Facebook here.
According to a LA Times article from December 2024, someone called the phone number on Jahnay’s missing persons poster and said they had seen her in Los Angeles living with someone whom they believed to be a pimp. This call came in weeks before the article – so possibly not long after she was reported missing?
“When I heard that, my heart dropped,” Jahque said.
Jahque has said though that she does have renewed hope after two shopkeepers recently reported seeing someone who matched Jahnay’s description.
Jahque believes Jahnay is in serious danger. “Not only was she loved, but she loved a lot of people, so — or does love people,” she said. “So, to know that— know that people that care for her the most, she hasn’t been in contact with, it’s scary. And it’s not like her, right? It’s abnormal behavior.”
Jahque speaks about her sister in glowing terms. “She is brilliant. She’s –. Like, she’s a natural leader,” she said. “She’s very caring and thoughtful. And she, you know, she’s someone that people love to be around.”
Jahnay has black hair and brown eyes. She is 5’7’’ and weighs approximately 125 lbs. It is unknown what she was wearing when she disappeared.
SOURCE LIST
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-12-06/jahnay-bryan-ebony-alert-search-stalls