Long Gone: Jahnay Bryan

In this episode of Huntinf 4 Answers:  She was a Cornell-educated chemist with a bright future—until she vanished. After cutting ties with loved ones and moving across the country, Jahnay Bryan disappeared from a busy Los Angeles street in October 2024. Rumors of human trafficking, delayed alerts, and a haunting lack of urgency from police have left her family searching for answers years later. Anyone with information about this case should contact the LAPD Missing Person's Unit at 213-996-1800. You can also leave an anonymous tip at 800-222-8477, or use the Black and Missing Foundation's anonymous tip line on their website. 

This is the story of Jahnay Bryan. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hunting for Answers is a production of the Black Effect
Podcast Network and iHeartRadio. Welcome to Hunting for Answers, a
true crime podcast. I'm your host Hunter, and today's case
is one that is still ongoing. It centers around the
disappearance of a young woman who seemed to have everything

(00:20):
going for her. She was a Cornell University graduate with
a promising future in chemistry, but all of a sudden
something changed. She lost all contact with family and friends,
moved across the country to Los Angeles, and then ultimately vanished.

(00:40):
This is the story of Janey Brian. Janey was just
twenty three years old when she disappeared. She was the
kind of person who left an impression. Her sister described
her as someone who was unwavering in her values and
approached any situation that's challenging with confidence and determination. Janey

(01:02):
had attended Cornell University, where she studied chemistry and co
authored several academic papers. She was brilliant, driven, and had
a bright future ahead of her, But after graduating in
May twenty twenty three, something shifted. Janey moved back home
with her mother in East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, and that's when

(01:26):
she began to withdraw from the world she once knew.
The change was gradual at first, and then all at once.
Janey began cutting off all communication with family and friends.
Her sister hadn't spoken to her for about a year
before her disappearance, but after college, no one could have

(01:49):
predicted what would happen next. In the fall of twenty
twenty four, Janey made a decision that would prove to
be faithful, left Pennsylvania and moved to Los Angeles. Janey
had also previously mentioned during this time fears of going missing.

(02:10):
October twenty twenty four, Janey had been in Los Angeles
for weeks, living a life that remained largely unknown to
her family back east. The last known communication she had
with anyone from her past was an email to an
ex boyfriend sometime in October. Then, on October sixteenth, twenty

(02:31):
twenty four, at approximately nine am, Janey Brian was last
seen near the two thousand block of West eighth Street
in Los Angeles. It's a busy area in the Westlake District,
which is a densely populated neighborhood. So what happened to
Jane that morning was she meeting someone running an errand

(02:55):
or was she already in danger. The truth is no
one knows, and whoever does know has yet to come forward.
Weeks had passed and no word from Jane. There were
no phone calls, no texts, no social media activity whatsoever.

(03:18):
It wasn't until November thirteenth, nearly a month after she
was last seen, that her sister had finally reported her
missing to the Los Angeles Police Department, but even then
the response was slow. It took six more days before
an ebony alert was issued on November nineteenth. The Ebony

(03:40):
Alert system was created specifically to address the disparities in
how missing black youth cases are handled. As days turned
into weeks, there was nothing, and then a chilling phone
call came in. Someone had seen Jane's missing person's poster

(04:01):
and called the number. The caller claimed they had seen
her in Los Angeles, but the circumstances they described were horrifying.
According to the caller, Janey was living with someone they
believed to be a pen What they were implying was
clear Janey might have possibly become a victim of human trafficking.

(04:26):
When loved ones heard of the news, their hearts dropped.
The possibility that Janey, a smart and talented Cornell graduate,
might have been forced into the world of human trafficking.
Was almost too horrible to bear. But this tip as
terrifying as it was represented one of the only potential

(04:50):
leads in the case that seemed to be starling out.
By December twenty twenty four, nearly two months had passed
since Jane's disappearance, and there was still no update from
the LAPD, no arrests, no significant leads, no press conferences

(05:12):
for the Brian family. The silence from the law enforcement
was almost too loud. That's when former California State Senator
Stephen Bradford decided to speak up. Bradford, the author of
the Ebony Alert legislation, was deeply frustrated by the lack
of progress in Jannay's case as well as her family.

(05:37):
He pointed to the disparities in how missing persons cases
are handled, saying how when black young women and children disappear,
resources are not committed to find them, and how we
need to ask ourselves why is that. Around the same

(05:57):
time Jane disappeared, a woman went missing in Los Angeles,
Hannah Kobayashi. Hannah's case received international media coverage, the LAPDAN
held press conferences, and the story dominated news cycles. Eventually,
police determined that Hannah had voluntarily crossed the border into Mexico. Meanwhile,

(06:24):
Janee Bryan's case quote barely gets a whimper. As former
Senator Bradford put it, the contrast was stark and deeply troubling.
Frustrated by the lack of progress, Janey's family and community
advocates decided to take matters into their own hands. On

(06:47):
December tenth, twenty twenty four, they organized a community search
event in the Westlake area where Janey was last seen.
The volunteers canvas the neighborhood, taping up posters, handing out flyers,
and talking to shopkeepers and others passing by. They were

(07:07):
doing the work that in many missing person cases law
enforcement should be doing, but on a much larger scale.
Their efforts did yield some hope, though two shopkeepers reported
recently seeing someone who matched Jane's description. It wasn't much,

(07:28):
but it was more progress than the official investigation had
produced in months. At the time of her disappearance, Janey
was five feet seven inches tall, weighed approximately one hundred
and twenty five pounds, with black hair and brown eyes.
She was last seen on October sixteen, twenty twenty four,

(07:50):
near the two thousand block of West eighth Street in
Los Angeles. Today, Jane Bryan has been missing for more
than eight months. Her case remains classified as a missing
person investigation, and the circumstances of her disappearance remain unclear.

(08:12):
My thoughts and prayers are with the family and friends
of Janey Bryan. Anyone with information about her whereabouts should
contact the LAPD Missing Persons Unit. You can also leave
an anonymous tip or use the Black and Missing Foundation
Anonymous tip line on their website. You can find their
information in the description box below. As we close out

(08:35):
this episode, don't forget to click the follow button to
stay updated on this case and others like it. Be
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follow us on Instagram and TikTok from our true crime updates.
Thank you so much for joining us on another episode.
Until next time. Hunting for Answers is a production of

(09:15):
the Black Effect Podcast Network. For more podcasts from the
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