Jahi Turner

Jahi Turner, 2, disappeared from a Golden Hill-area playground in San Diego on April 25, 2002, while in the care of his stepfather, Tieray Jones, whose 18-year-old Navy sailor wife was deployed at sea. Jones told police he left Jahi with a woman and other children at the park to buy a soda and returned to find them all gone; police found inconsistencies in his account but lacked evidence to charge him at the time. The case went cold for 14 years until new evidence, including a journal entry Jones wrote to his wife describing Jahi as unresponsive after a fall two days before he was reported missing, led to a murder charge in 2016. A 2018 jury deadlocked 10–2 in favor of acquittal on second-degree murder, and 10–2 in favor of conviction on the lesser charge of involuntary manslaughter; the judge declared a mistrial and later denied prosecutors' request for a second trial, finding it unlikely any future jury could reach a unanimous verdict given the missing body and 16-year delay. No one has ever been convicted, and Jahi has never been found.

San Diego, CA · San Diego County

• 2002: Case opens — victim reported missing or found.
• Documented milestones (renewed investigation, media coverage, family advocacy) to be added as sourced.
• Present: case remains unresolved. No named suspect has been convicted.

• Jahi's disappearance from a Golden Hill park on April 25, 2002, per San Diego police records and Jones's own account to investigators.
• Police found inconsistencies in Jones's story in 2002 but lacked sufficient evidence to file charges at that time; the case remained open as a suspected homicide for over a decade.
• Jones was arrested in North Carolina in 2016 after new evidence emerged, and charged with murder and felony child abuse causing death.
• A journal entry Jones had written to his deployed wife, dated two days before he reported Jahi missing, described the toddler as unresponsive and not moving or talking after falling off a bed.
• A 2018 jury deadlocked after deliberation, splitting 10–2 toward acquittal on second-degree murder and 10–2 toward conviction on involuntary manslaughter; the judge declared a mistrial.
• Superior Court Judge Joan Weber denied the prosecution's request for a second trial in March 2018, stating the missing body and 16-year gap made it unlikely any future jury could reach a unanimous verdict, effectively ending the criminal case.
• Jahi's body has never been found despite extensive searches, including of the Miramar landfill.

• Whether Jahi died from an accidental injury that Jones then concealed, or was killed outright, has never been resolved — the judge herself said she could not rule out several different scenarios, including the possibility Jones's original story was true.
• The location of Jahi's remains, if his death is confirmed, has never been established.
• The exact numerical jury split differed slightly between contemporaneous news reports on the murder versus manslaughter counts, though all describe a hung jury favoring acquittal on the more serious charge.

• KPBS — “Stepfather Arrested In 2002 Cold Case Of Missing Toddler”
• KPBS — “Judge Dismisses Charge Against Tieray Jones In Murder Of 2-Year-Old Stepson”
• ABC7 Los Angeles — “Jury deadlocks in murder trial of stepfather accused of killing 2-year-old Jahi Turner”
• City of San Diego Police Department — official cold case record
• NamUs — Missing Person Case #MP6751
• Project Cold Case
• Murder Accountability Project
• NamUs