Albuquerque City Councilor Nichole Rogers is demanding answers after learning that Jayvon Givan’s family wasn’t told of his death for more than a year, even though police ruled it a suicide.
Givan, a 28-year-old homeless Black man from Kansas City, Missouri, was found dead Sept. 17, 2024 outside a Westside business closed for renovations. His birthday was Oct. 8, which would have made him 29. According to police reports, he was hanging by a metal chain from a stucco pillar in a shopping area off Corrales Road near Alameda Blvd. Officers and forensic pathologists ruled the death a suicide, and a pair of eyeglasses and a journal were found at the scene.
The reports show his body went to the Office of the Medical Investigator (OMI), but no next of kin was contacted until his twin sister, Jaivryon Walker, filed a missing persons report on Oct. 1, 2025. The Kansas City Defender reported that Givan was cremated before his family was notified of his death, though City Desk could not independently confirm it.
Rogers said the city must review how APD and OMI handled the case to make sure families aren’t left in the dark…