Family Seeks Leads in Death of Jeremy Lake
His body was found June 24.
By GABRIELLE FINLEY
The Ledger
Published: Friday, July 7, 2006 at 12:01 a.m.
LAKELAND — It was only the beginning of their painful trek.
For more than 20 hours Rená and Troy Lake drove to Lakeland from Deer Park, Texas, to look for leads in the death of Jeremy Lake, their 19-year-old son.
“The answers are here,” Rená Lake said Thursday.
Armed with fliers, the couple, along with their 17-year-old son, Justin, and family friends, scoured downtown and South Lakeland businesses seeking help from strangers.
The plain, white fliers picture Jeremy and say there is a reward for clues about his death.
Lakeland police found Jeremy Lake’s body shortly after 2:30 a.m. Saturday, June 24, on the railroad track behind Amtrak train station near Lake Mirror. He had been struck by a CSX freight train.
When CSX crew members saw Lake from a distance, he was already lying on the railroad track, a police report said. The crew members sounded a warning horn and tried to stop, but could not.
“It’s like living it all over again,” said Rená Lake, after talking about Jeremy’s death with workers at Palace Pizza downtown. “We’re trying to find justification on how something so terrible happened. We’re doing the leg work police can’t do.”
On May 15, Jeremy Lake arrived in Lakeland and went to live with a college friend in ImperiaLakes, a subdivision in South Lakeland, his mother said.
He and his friend were working with a construction company called CCC Construction for the summer, Rená Lake said.
Rená Lake didn’t want to give out the friend’s name.
“He (Jeremy) was getting homesick, and we wanted him to come home. But he said he had a job to finish,” Rená Lake said.
When a detective called the couple’s Texas home and told them about Jeremy’s death, they were sure their son had been murdered, Rená Lake said.
“There’s no reason he should’ve been in that area -near railroads,” Rená Lake said.
Police are still conducting an investigation into Lake’s death, said LPD spokesman Jack Gillen. Lake’s autopsy report is pending toxicology results, said the Polk County Medical Examiner’s Office.
His family and friends from Texas, donning black T-shirts in remembrance of Jeremy, are focusing on local hot spots for Lakeland college students.
They planned to visit The Gym, Molly’s, Lillian’s and Hurricane Alley in downtown Thursday night to talk to anyone who might have come in contact with Jeremy.
Robin Hernandez, a manager at Harry’s Restaurant, said she saw the teen outside the restaurant about two weeks ago.
But the group came across no other leads Thursday afternoon.
Rená Lake said her son was popular and always went out with friends, but on June 23 he was alone and looking to enjoy a night out on the town in Lakeland.
“He went to work that day,” she said. “His roommate had to work that night.”
She remembers the last conversation she had with her son.
“It was that Friday at lunchtime. He was going to get new contact lenses. He said `Mom I love you. I’ll call you later tonight,’ ” Rená Lake said, close to tears.
Justin Lake talked briefly with his brother about 9:30 p.m. Lakeland time and told him he was going out that night.
“We know he was here,” said Rená Lake, looking around Kentucky Avenue.
He had planned to go diving and fishing in Tampa the next day, his usual weekend activity since he started work in Lakeland, Rená Lake said.
Rená Lake said she experienced “every parent’s nightmare” when she visited the spot where her son’s body was found.
“I lost my world. I lost a fishing buddy,” said Troy Lake, as he fiddled with a roll of tape for the fliers. “I just loved him dearly,”
“This past two weeks seems like one day,” said Rená Lake, as she crossed another street to hand out another flier.
Gabrielle Finley can be reached at gabrielle.finley@theledger.com or 863-802-7590.
