A Chicago teenager who recently moved to Montana mysteriously died, and his family is fighting to get to the bottom of what happened.
Jalen Williams traded in the big city for a small town in Montana. A recent graduate of Loyola Academy in Wilmette, Jalen was pursuing his dreams of becoming an entrepreneur in the town of Livingston.
“He had reached that point to take off,” said his mother Lilonda Brooks.
Then Feb. 10 happened.
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Jalen’s mom said she got a call from his former principal, and the news was devastating. Jalen had been found dead in a field, not far from his girlfriend’s house.
Brooks rushed to Livingston, meeting with the coroner, they said, but never talking to any detectives.
"He told me Jalen died of hypothermia," Brooks said. "He was frostbitten."
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"He was found face down with no clothes on – in open field," said Terrance Brooks, Jalen’s uncle.
Brooks said Jalen was diagnosed with a heart condition in 2021, but she believes foul play may be involved in his death, saying his body showed signs of trauma.
“It looked like he put up a fight – bruises – like he was swollen,” she said. “Something happened to my son, and not of his own actions.”
NBC 5 reached out to the coroner and police chief of Livingston but didn’t hear back.
Jalen’s family is now awaiting the results of two autopsies, one completed in Billings, Montana, and a second one performed here in Chicago. The family has also contacted the FBI.
