SAN ANTONIO — For every month that passed since the death of Jeanelle Cornelius' son Brandon Cornelius, and every month her son's murder remained unsolved, Jeanelle posted about his case to social media.
"I did it in the hopes that somebody would come forward - or somebody who had heard something and would say something and it would lead to an arrest," Jeanelle said.
On Friday, days before her birthday, Jeanelle got the call.
"(The detective) was pretty certain that that was the person who was responsible for the murder of my son," Jeanelle said.
That suspect was 21-year-old Jamarque Washington.
Washington is accused of fatally shooting Brandon as he sat in a car in the parking lot of a northside shopping center back on June 23, 2018.
According to arrest documents, police tied Washington to the case last year when they got a hit from the National Ballistics Database (NIBIN). Court records state that the spent shell casings collected at the scene of Brandon's murder matched those collected from the scene of a shooting in Houston in which Washington was suspected.
Police this year obtained a search warrant to obtain a DNA sample from Washington and submitted the sample to a crime lab, an arrest affidavit states. The findings matched Washington's DNA to the DNA collected from the car door that police said was pulled open by the gunman before Brandon was fatally shot.
Jeanelle said, to her knowledge, Brandon didn't know Washington. Brandon's friends, she said, also said the same.
"I think it's terrible," Jeanelle said. "I think it's terrible that my 25-year-old son died. I think it's terrible that a 21-year-old man has thrown his life away, and I hope even while incarcerated he can find a way to change his life because it's just such a waste. It's a horrible waste."
While court documents detail how police connected Washington to Brandon's death, they don't explain the motive.
"Some people do want to know why, but the 'why' doesn't really matter to me because there's no real good enough reason for killing my child ... The 'why's don’t matter," Jeanelle said. "Not to me."
Prior to Brandon's death, Jeanelle said she applied for a job in Germany. She reminisced about the conversations Brandon had with his siblings about the opportunity.
"I still have the text messages between me, and him and my other older children, talking about who's going to get the house when I left," Jeanelle said smiling as she reflected on the memory. "He said no, he called dibs on it. Then my daughter was like, 'No, I'm going to get the house.' And they went back and forth and back and forth."
Despite her distance from San Antonio, she said she remained in contact with investigators. In May, she held a balloon release in Germany to mark Brandon's birthday. He would've been 26.
A month after that, she returned to San Antonio for the anniversary of Brandon's death. She was joined by Brandon's friends for a vigil.
"We laugh, sometimes we cry," she said. "It's horrible. It really hurts because we can't share things with him anymore, but we get through things by being together."
Jeanelle said she's also found friendship and comfort in members of the local chapter of Parents of Murdered Children. She said it's
"I'm surprised it's only 15 months. I've met so many other people who have gone five years to wait for answers -- who have not had answers for 10 years,” Jeanelle said.
Knowing it could years before her son's alleged killer is brought to justice, Jeanelle said she'll be there every step of the long road ahead.
"I’m in it for the long haul," she said. "As long as I’m breathing. I’ll be there to represent my son since he can’t represent himself anymore."