Sisters Spent 17 Years Searching for Brother Before a Cold Case Project Revealed He Died by Suicide in 2007
Grieving sisters spent almost two decades searching for their brother, Jean Eli Gonzalez, who went missing after he traveled to Chicago in 2007
This spring, they learned he had died by suicide that same year as part of a cold case project
Now, the family is preparing to go to his grave to give their "last goodbye"On Sept. 15, 2007, 23-year-old Jean Eli Gonzalez called his mom back home in Puerto Rico to let her know that he'd arrived safely in Chicago. Then she never heard from him again.
Almost two decades later, his family — who spent years grappling with unanswered questions that only fueled their fear and despair — finally learned what happened to him.
According to CBS News, Gonzalez's name was uploaded into the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs) by the Cook County Medical Examiner's Office as part of a cold case project in February 2025, eventually leading his family to learn that their beloved son and brother had died by suicide.
His body had been found hanging off a billboard in a railroad yard near the Dan Ryan Expressway on Sept. 24, 2007, just nine days after he arrived in Chicago, according to the police report reviewed by PEOPLE. Investigators confirmed the cause of death was the result of depression.
'The only relief we have is that we know now where he [died] and that we can say goodbye to him,' his sister, Vilmarilys Hernandez, tells PEOPLE. But so many questions remain, she says.
Gonzalez was a kind man, who wasn't afraid to fight for others. Vilmarilys remembers once when her brother, then 15 years old, jumped in to protect middle school students from a group of older high school students when they were growing up in San Lorenzo. He was stabbed with a pocket knife and hospitalized.
'My brother saw that nobody was doing anything and he intervened,' the 45-year-old esthetician says. 'So, that was my brother.'
But Gonzalez had his struggles. He was using drugs and decided to go to Chicago for a substance abuse program, Segunda Vida, which he learned about from local police officers. His mom still has the brochure. (The treatment facility is now defunct.)
A week after Gonzalez arrived in Chicago and told his mom a person from the program had picked him up, Vilmarilys had a disturbing dream. 'He was telling me in the airport, 'Don't worry, everything's going to be okay. I love you,' ' she remembers. 'And I took that as goodbye.'
Vilmarilys woke up crying and immediately urged her mom to call the program. When their mom reached an employee at the program, she was told that the family couldn't talk to Gonzalez. The program never called back as promised, according to Vilmarilys. Days later, an employee told the worried mom that Gonzalez had left the program.
So began the family's desperate search. Vilmarilys recalls calling the Chicago Police Department, local hospitals and homeless shelters in the area. She was unable to file a missing persons report, despite her request to authorities. She then called any place she could think of, seeking help for days, weeks and months, which turned into years.
The grieving sister says the toll on her family was great. 'Maybe he doesn't want to talk with us. Maybe he's mad at us,' Vilmarilys says of the questions Gonzalez's four siblings and mom had as they feared what had happened to him. 'Maybe he's ashamed of himself, but what's going on? Maybe he's cold, maybe he's hungry.'
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It wasn't until this spring that they learned Gonzalez had died.
In 2023, the Cook County Medical Examiner's Office began inputting the paper files of cold cases of unidentified people into NamUs, focusing on the years from 1988 to 2014, a Cook County spokesperson confirmed to PEOPLE.
'Our staff worked tirelessly to find photos, biological samples for DNA analysis, fingerprint cards and dental information for these decedents in order to create a record,' the Cook County spokesperson says. 'Law enforcement agencies have been critical partners in this process by searching their warehouses and evidence rooms for anything that could assist in identifying these decedents.'
So far, more than 200 decedents have been included in NamUs and 20 cases have been resolved, with Gonzalez's case being one of them.
After his case was put into NamUs, CBS News reported, Vilmarilys saw his picture on Facebook, which had been reposted by a group of mothers who wanted to help people find their missing loved ones. His identity was confirmed after Vilmarilys and her sister traveled to Chicago to provide a DNA sample.
But with the confirmation came new grief. They learned that Gonzalez's body had been found with a handwritten note in Spanish, which contained the Serenity Prayer. Their brother's name was written at the top, which prompted the investigating officer to use the name for the deceased, according to the police report.
After the investigating officer found a woman with the same name in Elmwood Park, who had no knowledge of the dead man, the name was changed to unknown. After that, a copy of the report was sent to the missing persons department and the case was suspended, pending identification of the deceased, the police report said.
Vilmarilys was disturbed by what she tells PEOPLE was a lack of a thorough investigation, especially because she'd given authorities a description of her brother and had called to ask about his disappearance for years.
The Chicago Police Department did not respond to PEOPLE's request for comment about her claims. Additionally, the Cook County Medical Examiner's Office would not share any specifics about Gonzalez's case with PEOPLE.
Vilmarilys and her sister were unable to get Gonzalez's remains, which, according to CBS News, have been interred in Homewood Memorial Gardens, which has served as Cook County's potter's field for unclaimed bodies, since 2008.
Gonzalez's family, however, was able to start a donation page, so their brother could have a proper headstone. The sisters created matching T-shirts that say 'we found you' in Spanish and plan on visiting his grave.
Vilmarilys tells PEOPLE, 'We are just waiting for the day to go there and say our last goodbye to him.'
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