Jahnay Bryan ’23 was reported missing in Los Angeles on Nov. 19, attracting national attention. But months after her last sighting, Bryan is yet to be located.
According to the Ebony Alert issued by the Los Angeles Police Department’s Missings Persons Unit, Bryan was last seen at 9 a.m. on Oct. 16 near the 2000 block of West 8th St. in Los Angeles. Bryan’s family reported her disappearance on Nov. 13 after losing contact with her.
Since that initial alert, a LAPD media relations representative wrote that there have been “no updates on the case” in an email to The Sun.
However, Byran’s family members have not stopped looking for her. On Dec. 10, Bryan’s family and friends distributed flyers and searched for Bryan in the area where she was last seen in conjunction with the Black and Missing Foundation.
According to a press release from the foundation, former California State Senator Steven Bradford was also present at the flyer distribution and search. In 2023, legislation authored by Bradford was passed to create The Ebony Alert — an alert system specific to cases of missing Black children and women. The Ebony Alert is activated by law enforcement in order to spread the word to the media and the public.
Bryan’s sister Jahque Bryan-Gooden told the Los Angeles Times in a Dec. 6 interview that “[she] feel[s] like [the case] wasn’t taken as serious as it needed to be” after it took nearly a week for the Ebony Alert to be issued from when she reported her sister missing on Nov. 13.
According to the interview, her sister had stopped communicating with friends and family months after she graduated from Cornell and returned to her mother in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania. In April, Bryan-Gooden called local police to do a wellness check, who confirmed both Bryan and her mother were still living there. Bryan-Gooden has said that since her sister’s disappearance, her mother stopped talking to her and has not been involved in the search.
Bryan-Gooden noted in the L.A. Times interview that in August, her sister sent an email to an ex-boyfriend telling him that she was moving to a new city. She further said that “friends” visited the neighborhood Bryan was said to be living in and confirmed seeing her.
Bryan-Gooden said Bryan emailed her ex-boyfriend again on Oct. 16, the date of her last known sighting. In this email, published in NewsNation, Bryan told him they should get married and wrote “that I think we should work in industry,” after supposedly contacting “the Commissioner of the Department of Water Management in a city.”
In an interview with Dateline NBC, Bryan-Gooden questioned how the email “‘wasn’t even grammatically correct,’” but said “‘I don’t think that someone else would have had her email.’” Bryan-Goodman said these emails were given to her by Bryan’s ex-boyfriend.
Bryan was set to finish her undergraduate degree at Cornell in May 2023 however, according to a University spokesperson, she did not graduate and is currently not enrolled at Cornell. Throughout her time at the University, Bryan studied chemistry, co-authored several academic papers with other Cornell researchers and hosted her own podcast aimed at “authentic” and “underexposed” conversation.
According to the Ebony Alert issued by the LAPD — listed “NR24316ti/lg” — Bryan is described as a Black 23-year-old female with black hair and brown eyes, standing at 5 feet 7 inches and weighing approximately 125 pounds.
Anyone with any information regarding Bryan’s whereabouts is instructed by the LAPD to contact Detective Avalos of the Missing Persons Unit at (213) 996-1800.