KC boy found dead after sleepwalking was a gifted student, family says. ‘Shattering’
.JPG "Jackson Georgari, 10, at Briarcliff Elementary School in Kansas City Northland.")
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Ten-year-old Jackson Georgari apparently left his apartment while sleepwalking.
- Police found Jackson dead about 12 hours later in a pond roughly a mile south of his home.
- Family and community members described Jackson as a gifted, sports-loving honor student.
Less than two months ago, there was great joy in this neat Kansas City Northland apartment. Ten-year-old Jackson Georgari no longer was the only boy in his South Sudanese family.
All around he had his loving sisters: Atong, 17, Ayom, 16, Anjeza, 13 and Evilin, 7.
“We’d always like, you know, tease him about how, later, when he finds a girl, he’s going to respect them because he grew up pretty much all around sisters,” Anjeza said.
Then this summer, their mother, Tuna John, gave birth to a second boy, Josiah.
“He was so excited,” John said Friday of Jackson. “He said he was going to teach his brother how to play basketball.”
Her voice was strained with despair. Tears soaked her cheeks. The family that was celebrating only a short time ago sat in their home, heavy with grief.
On Thursday, just after midnight, Jackson had apparently been sleepwalking when he left his home in the Province of Briarcliff apartments, 1282 NW Vivion Road, dressed in a gray T-shirt and shorts and wandered away.
About 12 hours later, at 12:30 p.m. Thursday, Kansas City police reported that the child had been found unresponsive in a pond about a mile south near the Village at Briarcliff shopping center. He was declared dead there.
“It’s like shattering,” Atong said, and equally disorienting. “I don’t know, like for right now, it just feels like, you know, like he’s away for a bit, and he’ll be back.”
Jackson Georgari of Kansas City
A dozen family and friends gathered in the living room of John and her husband, Sandi Marjan, on Friday to speak about Jackson who, as his father said, “loved sports,” and who was smart and kind and respectful.
Although only 10, he talked about one day becoming a firefighter or an athlete. Basketball was a favorite.
Jackson, his sisters said, adored math and video games like Fortnite and Roblox. An avid reader, he finished a new book this summer in three days. He was particularly excited, as a rising fifth-grader, to be entering a sixth-grade math class this fall at Briarcliff Elementary School.
“He has been an honor student all his life,” said Eddie Paul, a family friend. “He’s kind. Super friendly. Helpful. He helps everybody in class, in school, at home a lot. … Gifted kid. He’s been in the gifted kid program his whole life, from California, all the way here.”
Marjan, John and their children had lived in San Diego previously. They moved to Kansas City to be close to family and friends.
Jackson’s sisters said their brother did not sleepwalk in San Diego. He had done it once before in Kansas City, leaving their apartment to be found about 1.4 miles away at Briarcliff Elementary.
‘An unimaginable hole’
“Our hearts are shattered as we grieve the unexpected loss of our beloved Jackson, “ a GoFundMe page established to help the family meet “overwhelming” funeral expenses noted.
The site, as of Friday afternoon, had only 10 donors and $315 of a $5,500 goal.
“At just 10 years old, he brought so much love, laughter, and light into our lives. Jackson was always smiling, sharing his joy with everyone around him, and the making even the toughest days brighter. He loved playing with his friends, spending time with family, and exploring the world with endless curiosity.
“Losing him has left an unimaginable hole in our hearts.”
It’s left neighbors sad and mystified.
“Those kids always play outside, right over there,” neighbor Britney Arnold said Friday. She noted a spot on the driveway a few feet from her front door.
“It’s so mysterious because that’s a big hill all the way up there and stuff,” she said of nearby Mulberry Drive, the most direct route between Jackson’s home and where his body was found.
It rained that night.
“I remember waking up at 1 in the morning and looking out my kitchen window, and it was just really heavy thunderstorms,” she said. “It’s kind of hard to fathom walking that far in the pouring down rain and that nobody seen him.”
Dennis Hull lives along Mulberry Drive. He said police swarmed the area Thursday in search of Jackson. He said a neighbor’s surveillance camera caught a glimpse of a figure that police thought was the boy walking by.
“I think everybody’s pretty upset about it,” Hull said. “It’s just too bad. If somebody could have been around when that kid was walking down the street. … Didn’t happen that way.”
