A solemn circle of people holding candles and signs with pictures of Joseph Smedley gathered outside of the Monroe County Courthouse Wednesday evening.
Around 30 people gathered at 6:45 p.m. Wednesday for a vigil for Smedley, a former IU student who passed away in 2015.
Smedley’s case was deemed a suicide, but his friends and family believe foul play was involved and that local law enforcement failed to execute a fair investigation.
All of the participants were masked, only breaking social distancing guidelines to engage with small huddles of mourners to share memories and embrace those still grieving.
Joseph’s friends and family spoke at the vigil, describing memories of growing up with Smedley, his dreams and ambitions and the last moments they shared with him before his death. They called for Bloomington and IU police departments to release information regarding the case.
“It's like having a big missing hole in our life,” Smedley's sister Vivianne Bernas said.
The vigil was organized to remind the community of the case Smedley's friends and family believe is unsolved.
“I still meet people every day to this day, who have never even heard about the case and they attend IU,” Joseph's sister Gizelle Smedley said
Chantelle Carter, a former classmate and Smedley’s friend, said the case may have not been taken seriously enough because of his race.
“I’m not sure if that's because he's an African American or not,” Bernas said, “But I know that there's been other cases around the area with predominantly white women that have gotten a lot of publicity.”
The files Smedley’s family are working to obtain would provide insight into the missing pieces of the night of Smedley’s death, Carter said.
The family has petitioned the Bloomington Police Department, the Indiana University Police Department and the Bloomington City Council for justice for Smedley. The Change.org petition that was created four months ago has close to 110,000 signatures.
The family is also raising money for an attorney and private investigator, and has raised around $3,000, Bernas said.
Many of the speakers at the event encouraged Bloomington and IU to release information on the case, but participants were primarily there to honor Smedley’s memory.
“The vigil is more about just remembering Joseph than it is trying to invoke some type of reaction from Bloomington police department,” Bernas said.
