Every week, Alyce Hamilton visits Calvary Cemetery in St. Paul, to make a promise to her son.
"I tell him we're going to find out what happened to you," Hamilton said. "And even if we don't, you're always with us."
Hamilton last saw her son, Jelani Brinson, ten years ago. Brinson died in 2009 at the age of 24, but the exact date and many other details of his death remain elusive.
"There's gotta be someone out there that knows what happened," Hamilton said.
Brinson was last seen on the night of April 17th, 2009, after going to a home in Anoka with some former co-workers. Eight days later, after several searches led by family and friends, detectives pulled Brinson's body from a pond on Greenhaven golf course in Anoka.
"I think we will find that answer soon," Hamilton said.
Detective Maggie Titus, with the Anoka County Sheriff's Office, says she's working on it.
"It's my job to make sure I can get her an answer," Titus said, who was reassigned the case about six months ago. "I'm trying to give it a fresh set of eyes.
Detective Titus' office now has a wall, and floor space, dedicated to the case.
"This bigger pile is actually statements and reports that I still am going through," she said. "This picture is actually a picture of Jelani that was taken the night he went missing."
Titus says the three former co-workers with Brinson that might, told investigators that he left abruptly, shortly after they arrived at a friend's home. The home was just a quarter mile from the pond where he would turn up a week later.
"In this 1,516 foot area, what happened to Jelani?" Titus said, pointing to a GPS map of the area from that time.
Detective Titus says, despite reportedly leaving on his own, Brinson's shoes were found strewn across a bizarre path that cut through backyards, across a railroad track and through a construction area.
"Was he being chased? Was he scared of something?" Detective Titus said. "His death, to me, is very suspicious."
The autopsy only deepened the mystery. Neither drugs nor alcohol were deemed to be factors in his death. Though they found his body in the water, they couldn't determine any cause of death.
"As far as I know, he did not drown," Hamilton said. "We don't even really know what happened, but we know he didn't really end up in the pond by himself."
Detective Titus says she can't rule anything out, but admits there aren't many easy explanations.
"I'm investigating it as a homicide until I find out differently," she said.
"There is someone out there that knows what happened to Jelani," Hamilton said. "I'm just hoping that our family can get peace and justice."
That includes justice for Brinson's daughter Zion, who had just turned one at the time of his death.
"I feel like he's here right now," Zion said, during a recent visit to the cemetery with her grandmother.
Zion just turned 11 and she also has a nine year old brother her dad never got to meet.
"I miss him a lot and so does my little brother, Jelani, and my Mom," she said.
If you have any information on the Jelani Brinson case, please contact the Anoka County Sheriff's Office. They would like to speak to anyone with information from the night he disappeared, no matter how small it may seem.