Jamel's mother, Kelly Williams, stated she last saw him on May 25, 1994 at approximately 11:00 a.m. He was on the rear steps of his mother's apartment at Weiler Homes, a housing project on the east side of Toledo, Ohio. When his mother returned five minutes later, he had disappeared. Jamel has not been heard from again.

Gary Thomas was Kelly's live-in boyfriend at the time of Jamel's disappearance and the couple later married. The month after Jamel went missing, Thomas's cousin filed charges against him for domestic violence, aggravated menacing, criminal trespass and criminal damaging. His cousin said Thomas became violent after she brought up Jamel's disappearance. Thomas denied knowing anything about the child's disappearance, and Kelly defended him and said he had always been good to the child.

Authorities stated Kelly and Thomas did not cooperate with them and in fact hindered the investigation into the child's disappearance. Kelly said she and her boyfriend resented being treated as suspects in the case. Police could find no evidence that Jamel had ever even lived in the apartment he supposedly disappeared from. Kelly had moved on April 15, more than a month before his disappearance, but no one else living in the building reported having ever seen him.

Jamel's disappearance remains unsolved. It's classified as a non-family abduction by some agencies.