Jason Jolkowski

Case background and investigation

Jason Anthony Jolkowski was 19 years old and living with his family in Omaha, Nebraska, when he disappeared on the morning of Wednesday, June 13, 2001. Born June 24, 1981, Jason was described by his family as shy and reliable, a young man who did not use drugs or alcohol, stayed close to his parents and younger brother, and had no known enemies. He worked at a Fazoli's restaurant and had been called in early that day. Because his car was in the shop for repairs, he arranged for a coworker to pick him up at Benson High School, his former school, about eight blocks from the family home near 48th and Pratt Streets.

Around 10:45 a.m., a neighbor saw Jason helping his younger brother bring trash cans in to the garage — the last confirmed sighting of him. He then set out on foot for the short walk to the school, wearing a white Chicago Cubs or Sammy Sosa T-shirt, a Cubs baseball cap, black dress pants, and black dress shoes, and carrying his red work shirt. Between roughly 11:15 and 11:30 a.m., the coworker called the Jolkowski home asking where he was. Investigators later reviewed security camera footage from Benson High School, which showed Jason never reached the campus. Somewhere along that half-mile route, in broad daylight in a residential neighborhood, he vanished.

The investigation by the Omaha Police Department found no evidence of what happened. Jason's bank account, which held about $650, was never touched. His final paychecks were never cashed, his cell phone was never used again, and he never retrieved his car or showed up for a new job he was due to start the following week. Police have said they found no evidence of foul play, but also no indication that Jason ran away voluntarily; one officer described it as the most baffling case of his thirty-year career. The Charley Project notes that Jason had learning disabilities related to speech and language, though he was of above-average intelligence. His case is classified as endangered missing, and he is listed in NamUs as case MP73 and with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

Jason's disappearance had a lasting impact on missing persons advocacy. His parents, Kelly and Jim Jolkowski, discovered there were few resources for families of missing adults and founded Project Jason, a nonprofit that assists families of the missing and publicizes unresolved cases. They also successfully lobbied the Nebraska Legislature, which in 2005 passed Jason's Law, creating a statewide missing persons database to improve how such cases are reported and tracked. Kelly Jolkowski received a national Volunteer for Victims award from U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder in 2010 and Nebraska's Governor's Points of Light Award in 2014 for this work.

The case remains open with the Omaha Police Department, though leads dried up long ago. In 2018, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children produced an age-progression image showing how Jason might look at 36. On June 13, 2021, family and friends marked the twentieth anniversary of his disappearance with a gathering at Roberts Park in Omaha, at a tree planted in his memory. His mother noted that she had now lived without her son longer than she had lived with him. Anyone with information is asked to contact the Omaha Police Department or the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.