355: Vanished on Camera | The Case of Jennifer Kesse

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On the evening of January 23rd, 2006, 24-year-old Jennifer Kessie spoke on the phone with her family and boyfriend from her condo in Orlando, Florida. That's the last time anyone heard from her. As the days pass by, there's been few answers, and even fewer leads. We miss Jennifer every single day. Hello, I'm Jennifer Kessie. It's her laughter. It's her wit. It's just her loving nature. We don't have her, we need her. We're issued. You know, aliens didn't have doctor. It's been 14 years. Where is Jennifer Kessie? Hey true friend besties. Welcome back to an all new episode of Serialist Suite. I hope you had a fantastic weekend. If you are ready to start your week, whether you're driving, maybe you're at your house cleaning, maybe you're on a walk. Maybe you are watching this on your computer at work. And now, this is the best way to get this to you. You are ready to start your week, whether you're driving, maybe your house cleaning, maybe you're on a walk, maybe you are watching this on your computer at work and not working, which do you, boo, do you? I remember the days I used to do that. So wherever you are, I hope that you are like mentally in a safe space for what we are about to talk about today because I have a wild case for you today. It's one that kind of has a lot of questions throughout, which it's like you feel like you know where it's going, but then you're not really entirely sure. And I don't know, I'll be really curious to know what you guys think of it once we like start really getting into it. So please, if you're watching this on YouTube, comment along the way. But basically, it starts on a day in 2006. It was Tuesday, January 24th, 2006, and it started off as a normal morning for Drew and Joyce Kessie. But by 11 a.m., they got a very strange phone call. It was from their daughter's workplace, a time share company in Okia, Florida. Now the person on the other end of this line, it wasn't their 24 year old daughter, Jennifer Kessie. It was her boss, and he sounded pretty worried. He was asking them questions like, hey, your Drew and Joyce Kessie, Jennifer's parents, right? And they were like, yeah, can we help you? So that's when Jennifer's boss told them something that immediately set off alarms. Jennifer hadn't shown up for work. And not only was that completely out of character for her, but it was concerning. Jennifer was always the definition of reliable. She always went to work, and on the very rare occasion when she couldn't make it in, she would always call ahead and let them know. And this also wasn't just any work day. Jennifer had a major meeting that morning. The kind of meeting that she wouldn't miss under any circumstance, not illness, not, you know, hang over or not, the health, nothing, is she would never miss it, not for anything. So without one phone call, everything shifted. And it was the moment that would change things forever. And launch a case that would haunt Jennifer's family and friends for decades to come. Now, since Jennifer's parents were listed as her emergency contact, her boss had reached out to them first, as I mentioned. But like I said, Drew and Joyce were they were just as stunned to hear that she hadn't shown up. Jennifer loved her job. It was her first real position out of college, one that she had worked incredibly hard for. And in turn, at that same time, she had a company while also finishing her finance degree at the University of Central Flora, which really proved her dedication long before she ever even had a paycheck. Her efforts paid off too. After graduation, they ended up hiring her on as a project manager. And within her first year, she earned multiple promotions. She was very proud of what she had built, proud of the independence it gave her as well, proud enough too that at just 24 years old, she bought her own condo in Orlando, which was a great deal. But then again, Jennifer, she wasn't your typical 24 year old. And that's exactly why her parents knew that there was absolutely no way that she would just blow off work, especially with this big meeting happening and potentially jeopardizing her reputation that she had worked so hard to build. So as soon as they hung up with her boss, they started calling and texting her nonstop, begging her to answer, saying, you know, just tell us you're okay, it's all fine. We just want to hear from you. We just want to know you're all right. But a thousand possibilities were running through their minds. Maybe she was sick, maybe she was hurt, maybe she had been in an accident on the way to the office. Or maybe there was even some innocent explanation, something that maybe they would joke about later, like her alarm didn't go off or she over slept and everybody was panicking for no reason. They knew that those scenarios were probably long shots, but it was almost comforting to cling to anything that kept the panic at bay. But with each unanswered call to Jennifer's phone, their fears just grew worse. Jennifer never missed a call. Her mom Joyce even said, quote, her cell phone that she has had since she was 16 years old went to voicemail for the very first time. That's how we know that something horrendous has happened. And her parents weren't sure what to do next. So they called the management office at her condo complex. Surely, they could tell if something was going on, they could maybe gain access into her condo. So they explained everything what her boss had told them how none of this made any sense. And they asked if somebody could go check on Jennifer, check on her condo and see if anything looked out of place. Now obviously the management company couldn't just barge into her condo, but they did swing by. And from the looks of everything, things seemed very normal on the outside. It's not like her door was left wide open or there was anything suspicious, you know, at first glance. However, they did note to her parents that her black Chevy Malibu was gone. So it definitely didn't seem like Jennifer was home. Now Jennifer's parents and her brother Logan lived in Florida as well, just not in the Orlando area. They were in Tampa, which is close enough to reach her, but far enough that every single mile that you're driving feels like it's taking forever and you're like at this slow crawl. So as they rushed toward Jennifer's condo, that drive became the longest, most antagonizing trip of their lives. They were calling every single local hospital. They were asking if Jennifer Kessie or any Jane Does had been brought in. They were panicking that maybe if she had been in some sort of car accident or if something happened on her way to work, that maybe that's what happened. She was in the hospital and they just hadn't identified her yet, but each call ended the same. No Jennifer Kessie, no unidentified Jane Does, no answers. And then they finally arrived at her condo. Now I'm not sure if they had a spare key or if the complex maybe made an exception to let them in since they were so worried about her, but either way they were able to get inside her condo and take a look. And what they saw inside, it only made them worry more. But before you get ahead of yourselves, no, it's not like they just like walked into a crime scene. There was no blood. There was no broken bases, no furniture as if there had been some sort of struggle and things were turned over. In fact, it actually looked pretty normal, pretty clean. Her shower still had drops of water on the side of the walls, her shampoo and conditioner bottles still had little pools of water surrounding them like they had been freshly used. There was a damp towel sitting right there on top of her dryer in her laundry room. Her hair dryer and makeup were scattered on her bathroom counter almost like she had been getting ready that morning, maybe even in a rush. There was also a t-shirt just lying on the ground near her shower. And her parents knew that Jennifer always wore t-shirts to bed, so they assumed it was probably the one that she had worn the night before, took it off when she got in the shower then rushed to get ready to go to work and something happened to her on the way. Then they walked into the bedroom to check it out. And in the bedroom, the bed was unmade. It looked like it had been slept in the night before. So again, no real red flags. There were even some different pieces of clothing on her bed, still on the hangers almost like she had been rifling through her closet trying to figure out what to wear. But that's when her mom Joyce noticed something else as well. Apparently Jennifer had just recently bought some brand new 9 West alligator skin pumps, a heel. And she was really excited to wear them, specifically to work. Joyce being a typical mom, remembered that conversation that she had had with Jennifer. So she searched high and low through Jennifer's closet and bedroom, but the heels were nowhere to be found. So then, again, based on all this information and everything that they're saying at her level, the family believed that she had likely just gotten ready for work that day, having every intention of going in. She's wearing her snake skin heels in. She obviously got ready in the bathroom. She was looking for the right outfit to wear. Her car is gone. It makes sense. Plus, the biggest clue to her family, the Jennifer had left her condo that morning, like normal, going to work, was the fact that her purse, her car keys, and her phone weren't there. They were all missing. And of course, like the complex had already told them, remember, her car was gone as well. It really did seem like Jennifer had just gotten ready and headed off to work, but they knew that she never made it to her job. So obviously, something had to have happened between leaving her condo that morning and then arriving at work. And at this point, they were in full panic mode. Jennifer's phone was still going to voicemail. She wasn't at work. She wasn't at home. And then her family learned that her boyfriend, a man named Rob Allen, also hadn't heard from her all that day. Jennifer and Rob had been dating for about a year at the time. They had first met in January of 2005 when Rob and his roommate were out in Orlando for a trade show. Rob and his buddies went out one night. Jennifer and her friends were out as well. So they met at this bar and it was kind of almost like, you know, an instant connection. And apparently they both knew right away that this connection wasn't because they were both just tipsy and having a good time. They were really into each other. So they got each other's contact information and the relationship grew from there. And then Rob lived in Fort Lauderdale. That's about three hours away from Jennifer's condo in Orlando. So definitely long distance. That's kind of the same distance from me here in Orange County to Vegas. So I mean, it's pretty far distance, even though it's the same state. They also both had jobs and had established lives where they lived. So the weekends were really the only time when they could really spend quality time with each other. But Rob didn't seem to mind the distance. In fact, according to a quote with NBC News, he said, when you find that instant connection with someone, you find a way to make it work. So that's exactly what they did. They made it work. They got into a pretty regular routine too. Every morning, Jennifer would call or text Rob before going into work just to check in, kind of, you know, debrief each other on the day ahead. Then at the end of the day, they would call each other and they would talk for hours about everything that they did that day, about what they were going to do on the weekend that together and just all the things. But like I said, Rob told Jennifer's family that he hadn't heard from her that day either, which was really weird and out of their routine. He thought though that maybe it was just because Jennifer needed some space. You see the weekend before they had gone on this little getaway together to St. Croix. And it had been an amazing weekend. Don't get me wrong. They got to spend quality time together in person. It was no more phone calls and text messages. And it was kind of almost like they were seeing the potential future that they could have with one another. But the night before Jennifer was reported as missing, they had a bit of an argument. And really, at least in the way that Rob describes it, it wasn't necessarily an argument in the way that you might be thinking. There wasn't any yelling or calling each other names. They also didn't break up. It was more of this like tense relationship conversation. Because after the end of this really fun long weekend with Rob, the reality of doing the long distance thing suddenly kind of felt tougher to Jennifer. So she needed reassurance from him. She was wondering if he was really in it for the long haul, what are everything they were going through was going to be worth it in the end. So she was kind of just feeling a little bit down kind of doubting things. I mean, maybe even being a little bit needy if we're being honest, like just being like, I just want to make sure we're on the right track. Like this felt so great. But now we're back to long distance. Like are we working toward the same goal? Which hello, what relationship hasn't gone through that? Or maybe I'm just being overly sensitive because my relationship started as long distance. But unfortunately that conversation was the last time that Rob would talk to Jennifer. It was around 10 p.m. on January 23rd and really it was the last time that anyone was known to have talked with Jennifer. Now could Rob be lying about how the conversation really went? 100%. We don't know. We weren't on the call, but that's how he described it. So all of that to say nobody knew where Jennifer was and nobody had heard from her since the night before. By that evening, her family had done all of the searching that they could possibly have done to make sure that it wasn't just some sort of misunderstanding here. They ruled out everything that they possibly could. So now they knew they needed to get the police involved. So Drew, Joyce and Logan all sat around at Jennifer's condo, absolutely worried sick, and they called the police to explain everything. They wanted to file a missing person's report and get some help trying to locate her. However, something was off because an officer came out to the condo to talk to the family in person and that's when things started to go south. See Jennifer's dad, Drew, described what happened next like this. Quote, we went up to the condo and they sent an officer out. Officer came in, looked around for about 30 seconds and then said she probably had a fight with her boyfriend. She'll be back. And then the officer walked out. So right away, her disappearance, it wasn't really being treated as a disappearance. There was no sense of urgency at all. And I don't know if it was the fact that she was an adult or the fact that her condo didn't really look like a suspicious crime had taken place there or what or that it didn't seem like there was things, you know, thrown about or broken. Or if this was just negligence, I really don't know. But at the time, it wasn't required by law for missing adults to be looked into right away. The police still could if they deemed that the situation was worthy, but it wasn't required. So I would imagine that they probably just didn't want to go above and beyond for something that they didn't have to for something where they thought that she wasn't really missing. Nothing nefarious. She probably just had a fight with her boyfriend. And regardless, this was frustrating because to the family, it seemed like the police had already jumped to conclusions. They didn't know Jennifer's story. They didn't know her background or who she was as a person, which all really comes into play anytime somebody goes missing, right? You look at the patterns, the behavior, the history. And Jennifer didn't have any history indicating that she would just take off and ghost every buddy. Yet they still kind of stereotyped her as a girl who would just be willing to go missing over a normal relationship conversation. And we hear these things time and time again, right? Whether it's a situation like this or maybe a teenager who was automatically assumed to be a runaway, and I will say it never gets any less frustrating. Her family knew that the police's theory was complete bullshit. Her suitcase was still lying on the ground. It was half unpacked from where she left it after coming home from that romantic getaway. It looked like she got ready for work. This was not somebody who's packing stuff up and taking off for a few days to cool off. If Jennifer truly needed space for everyone, some time to think and time to be alone, when she had just repacked a bag of clothes and her toiletries and her makeup, surely that wouldn't all be left behind, right? And I get where some of you may be thinking like, okay, any like slow your roll, she could have just left with the clothes on her back and just needed some space, which yes, that could be true. But it also wasn't like she was fleeing her condo, trying to get away from an abusive partner and could only leave with the clothing on her back. She had time. The shower was still wet. She had just taken a shower. She, the blow dryer, was out. She could have put together some clothing, or at the very least, brought a toothbrush with her, right? It just did not make sense. Then, finally, after two long days, the police finally started to come around. Not because they had a change of heart, but because they were presented with more information that kind of made them stop and think like, huh, maybe Jennifer's family is right after all. Maybe they actually know their daughter better than we do. Maybe there is more to this. And specifically, what got them changing their tune? Is someone had found an abandoned black Chevy Malibu? The sun shining, birds are singing, and all feels right in the world. Until the season changes, and suddenly you lose your motivation to get out of bed. In fact, one in five people experience some form of depression no matter the season or time of year. At the American Psychiatric Association Foundation, our vision is to build a mentally healthy nation for all. Because we want you to live your best life and be your best you all year round. Please visit mentallyhealthination.org to learn more. I am Eleanor, just your average walk and talk and dancing thing and puppet. A puppet that loves an LNER train journey, it beats the CERR every time. I'm free to do all the things I love. Get lost in a true crime series, type away like an office ninja, order yummy food and drinks to my seat, or just have a cheeky power nap. And now, with more services and faster journey times, there's more freedom all the way with LNER. Selected routes only, visit LNER.co.uk slash timetable for details. The world moves fast. You work day, even faster, pitching products, drafting reports, analyzing data. Microsoft 365 co-pilot is your AI assistant for work. Built into word, excel, PowerPoint, and other Microsoft 365 apps you use. Helping you quickly write, analyze, create, and summarize. So you can cut through clutter and clear path to your best work. One more at Microsoft.com slash M365 co-pilot. Now let me start by saying this. Jennifer was described as being somebody who was fun and adventurous, but only up to a point. She wanted to go out and have fun, but she was also somebody who was very big on safety. She never really wanted to do anything that would put her safety at risk. It was something that her parents had instilled in her from her very young age, including her younger brother. You see, before the Kessies moved to Florida, they had lived in New Jersey, and there had been this very scary incident where Drew and Joyce were actually held up at gunpoint. And obviously that kind of thing, it leaves a lasting impression on a person, and so they wanted their kids to realize you can never be too safe. You can never be too careful. And safety was actually partially why Jennifer chose the condo that she did. It was a new build. It was a really nice community. It was also gated, so not just anybody could wander in. And it was a place that made her feel safe as a young woman living by herself. And being that she was this stickler for safety, there were a few other things that she made a habit out of doing on a daily basis. First and foremost, she always made sure to be in contact with at least one of her family members every single day, even if it was just to send a quick text message. That way they would know that she was fine, that things were okay. She was just like checking it and she always did that. Then there were the more basic things, like always keeping her car and condo doors locked, never answering the door for strangers. And finally, if she was ever walking alone somewhere, she would call someone, she would be on the phone with somebody, whether it was her family, her friends, her boyfriend Rob, just someone, anyone, so that she didn't feel alone, and so that somebody would know immediately if anybody approached her, tried to take her or if anything happened to her. So the fact that Jennifer was always just so vigilant about her surroundings and her safety, it kind of made her disappearance even more terrifying for her family. Now because the police weren't doing much yet, her loved ones really had to step in and act as the investigators. I mean, at least for the first two days after her disappearance, which two days might not seem like a long time, but imagine if that was your daughter or your sister who was missing. I mean, they say the first 48 hours is crucial for a reason. Those two days might as well have been two years. So with that, they made the decision to turn Jennifer's condo into a place where everybody who wanted to help and look for her could stay. That way everybody would be together. Things could be done faster. Everybody would be in the know of any updates, any progress made. There's almost kind of like a home base for everything involving her investigation. Jennifer, we just want you to know we love you. We're doing everything. Everything we can to find you. Let her go. Not interested in prosecuting. We just want our daughter back. Believer in a safe place. You leave. Caught call and say where she is. We just don't care. We want her back. Our family is aged or family's. Which look, I think that is all well and good. I think that it's important to have a home base set up where you can have people meet. You can give them updates. You can recap. You can give directives, whatever it is. Make flyers, all of these things. However, at that point, they still didn't know what had happened to Jennifer. So there was this added element of could they have potentially been contaminating a crime scene, having all these people in and out moving around, sitting on things, moving things, throwing things away. It just makes me a little nervous. A rob her boyfriend put everything on pause as well. He came into town. He wanted to be with Jennifer's family. He wanted to help look for her. And he was really helpful during the entire process. Which I think we can all be honest. A lot of the times, the husband or the boyfriend is the first person that everybody looks at. But there really wasn't anything to suggest that Rob was involved. The only thing he was guilty of was having that tough conversation that they had had the night before. And obviously that in and of itself just seemed kind of like a case of bad timing. It's my understanding that Jennifer's family was never really even suspicious of Rob. So for the next two days after Jennifer's family tried to report her missing and get the police involved, they tried to do everything in their power to make her disappearance known. They were still hounding the police, of course, but they were also putting up missing person's flyers all over the city. They were posting about her disappearance online. They were trying to just spread the word and spread it fast. They were handing out pictures with her name on it too to anybody who lived at that complex, hoping that maybe one of her neighbors had seen something that could generate some sort of tip or lead. And I just can't imagine that feeling of only being able to do so much, just being hopeful but only doing so much. I mean, none of them were trained investigators, right? They didn't have the tools or the resources that actual professionals do. So I don't know. Nobody prepares you as a parent or a loved one for what to do in this kind of situation. There's no guidebook and they really did the best that they possibly could. And sure enough, it paid off because by this point, people in the area, they knew Jennifer's name. They recognized her face. They knew that she was missing and they also knew that her car was still missing. So when someone saw a black Chevy Malibu that matched the description of Jennifer's car, seemingly abandoned, they knew that they needed to reach out to the police. And this tip was huge because it not only was a huge lead in the investigation, but it also forced the hand of the police to finally get the shit together and like realize this is actually a missing person. And the car was in fact Jennifer's car. But interestingly enough, it wasn't abandoned on the side of some back road or highway or like wooded area or something like that. It was just abandoned in the parking lot of an apartment complex right there in the open an apartment complex called Huntington on the Green. Now this apartment complex was insanely close to Jennifer's condo only about 1.2 miles away. So the investigators went over. They started looking at the car, but it wasn't super helpful as far as clues go because there was no sign of Jennifer or any of her missing things like her purse or her phone. It also didn't look like the car itself was a crime scene at all. It looked almost like she had just parked it there and then went and visited a friend. So the investigators reported that not only was there no evidence in the car, but also that they believed that it had likely been cleaned by whoever left it there. Now there was some good news and some bad news about the discovery of the car. The good news is that the apartment complex had security cameras and they were actually up and running and working. Half the time places either have fake cameras to give some sort of false sense of safety or cameras that are real, but just not working because there's tech issues. But in this case, the investigators were able to take a look at those cameras. And when they did, they actually caught something. It was around 12 p.m. on the day that Jennifer's family reported her missing. And at that time, her Chevy Malibu pulled into the apartment complex and it parked right in that parking spot near the pool area. Then somebody got out of the car, but just one person, not two. And Jennifer was nowhere to be seen. This person getting out of the car was not Jennifer. And this person just got out of her car and walked off like nothing had ever happened. Now for those of you who are listening to the audio version of this episode, I highly, highly, highly recommend just even briefly checking out the YouTube version of this episode. Because I'm about to put a surveillance clip in and I'm playing it while I'm talking. So you watching the video will be able to see it, but let me describe it. And let me just say to it's a terrible clip. It really is when I first heard that they had caught this person of interest on camera. I was super excited, but the clip is just very, very bad quality. But there are two different angles, one from farther away and one that's a little bit closer. Now the one that's further away is literally just a white blob. It almost looks like a video from one of those ghost hunting shows where they say they caught some sort of ghost or something like that. That's how bad it is. The closer clip is still pretty bad. You can never really get a solid view of the person's face or anything like that because the clip itself skips a few seconds, but it's at least something. The camera angle also made it so that the perpetrator was walking behind a fence. So literally every single view that they were getting from this camera, the person's face was behind a fence post, which it's so crazy because what are the odds of that something like that even happening? But again, at least it was a little bit more helpful in all of this. It gave the police a slightly better idea of who the person was and it also helped to create a description of a person of interest. Now I've seen some sources that indicate that this person of interest is a man. But from what I can tell, even when the FBI later got involved, they never indicated whether it was a man or a woman because they just couldn't really tell if we're being honest. However, they do believe that the person was between five feet, three inches and five feet, five inches. The clothes that they were wearing have been debated on, especially online. Some people say it looks like the person is dressed in more of a blue collar type outfit, like a construction worker. Other people say it looks like a security guard uniform. But personally, when I look at it, I struggle to see either of those two options. It almost looks like just a t-shirt and pants to me. But again, it's really hard to tell. So if you're watching the video version, I am definitely curious to know what you think in the comments. Now, the investigators had said that the most important thing to make note of was the person's hairstyle and body type. And at the same time, the investigators were literally contacting local hair salons, telling them to be aware of somebody coming in and changing their hair from the style and the video to something completely different. And another thing that I found interesting in all of this, which again, I can't really even tell from the video clip, is that the investigators noted this specific person had quote, unusually large feet compared to their height, which it seems like a random tip, but it could still be helpful if anybody knew somebody who matched that description. So needless to say, finding the car and catching the person of interest on camera, it really did ignite this case. The police tried to do what they could with the information that they had. They gave the description to the media and to the public, and were hoping somebody would have a lead or say something. And they were also finally admitting that foul play was likely involved here, which this discovery it brought in an insane amount of tips. I'm not sure exactly how many tips came in right after the investigators released the information, but I do know that over the course of the investigation, there were over 14,000 tips. They also brought in a sent dog to try and trace Jennifer smell backwards from the car, but unfortunately it led back to her condo, which was just a mile away. So the investigators and Jennifer's family started working more on the timeline of the case, and they started building theories. Now we know that on Sunday, January 22nd, Jennifer and Rob flew back to Miami from their trip. Jennifer spent the night at Rob's place in Fort Lauderdale, and then she left early the next morning on Monday the 23rd so that she can make that long drive to work. That day went completely as expected, totally normal. Jennifer left work around 6 p.m., and she went straight home. Then after getting settled, she spoke to her parents, spoke with her brother. They were catching up, talking about everything that had happened on the trip, and it was like nothing out of the ordinary. Jennifer was also asking how her brother's weekend had been, because while she was gone on vacation with Rob, she actually let her brother and some of his friends stay at her condo, kind of like their own little vacation. Then at around 10 p.m., Jennifer talked to Rob. They had that little argument, that tense conversation, whatever you want to call it, and that was the last time that anybody spoke with Jennifer. Thinking through that, could something have happened to Jennifer that night? Technically, but it also just doesn't add up with the way that her apartment was found the following morning. The investigators and her family believe that she went to sleep that night, that she woke up and got ready for work, and that it was likely the walk from her condo to her car where something went wrong. The belief is that Jennifer left for work sometime between 7.30 and 8 a.m., but there's no real solid proof of that timeline. It's more of a theory. It's not like she sent a text message at those exact times or anything like that. It's just kind of what you would assume based on when she was going to arrive at work, which it might make you ask, why does everyone think that whatever happened took place after Jennifer left her condo? And if the perpetrator staged her condo to make it look like she got ready for work that morning. Now let me start with that first question, which is one that we kind of already did touch on a bit, but every detail of what was left behind in her condo showed that she had gotten ready for work that morning. However, some people have brought up a very reasonable question. How do we know that the perpetrator didn't purposefully do all of that? It certainly would have been smart to mess up everybody's theories and timelines, which technically it could have happened that way. However, her family feels like everything looked too close and too authentically to what Jennifer's habits were for it to have been staged. For example, the t-shirt right by the shower. She always wore t-shirts to bed. The shoes that she was excited to wear, they were missing. Things that the perpetrator, if staging the scene wouldn't exactly know or know where to place things, right? It's also worth noting that even though it makes the most sense that Jennifer was the only one in her condo that morning, we can never say that with 100% certainty. Because her condo, remember, was never processed as a crime scene. And people were in and out of that condo as the home base for the first two days. Now the police also do double down, saying, yeah, we didn't process it as a crime scene. And there was no need to because the family had swooped in and contaminated any potential evidence, which, yes, fair. But Jennifer's family was basically like, well, yeah, because you waited two full days to get on board. So we had to do what we had to do, which I do wonder if processing the scene would have been a whole other mess anyway. Because remember, Jennifer's brother Logan had a bunch of his friends there over the weekend. So their prince and DNA was probably all over the place too, which could investigators rule out individuals probably. But all of that to say everyone, both Jennifer's family and the investigators, they believe that she was likely abducted while she was at her car with her back turned, trying to get it unlocked or even right before she got into her car. But then that begs the question of who would want to do that to her. Jennifer was an incredibly well-liked person. She kept to herself. She was never in any trouble. But here is where the different theories start to come into play and buckle up because there are a ton. And to be honest, each one sounds just as convincing as the next. Now I mentioned earlier that Rob was cleared pretty early on in all of this. There weren't any red flags in the relationship with Jennifer, nothing that really pointed to him wanting her gone or any sort of like contention between the two. Not to mention he was at work in Fort Lauderdale during the time that she disappeared. So he had an alibi. However, there's someone from Jennifer's past who was looked into. His name was Matt and he was an ex-boyfriend. And they couldn't find exactly when they dated or why they had broken up. But apparently some of Jennifer's friends and family had heard rumors that he was still in love with her and that he wanted to get back together with her. Now how they learned that, I don't really know, it could have been word of mouth or maybe Jennifer herself had confided in them about it, I'm not sure. But the night before Jennifer went missing, on the 23rd, Matt was at a bar called Blue Martini. And Blue Martini is right across the street from her condo. When the investigators learned that Jennifer's ex-Matt had been literally across the street from her condo the night before she went missing, I mean, obviously they were interested in learning more. So they interviewed Matt and they asked if he would be willing to take a polygraph test, which he agreed to. He seemed willing to help in whatever way necessary. But for whatever reason, the investigators never dug any deeper. They didn't give him the polygraph test. They just dropped him as being a person of interest. Which Matt claimed that he had an alibi for the morning of the 24th because he went to work. But I'm not sure if this was something the investigators ever even looked into, or if it was after they had already dropped him as a potential person of interest. The source that I saw indicated that the bar that I had mentioned, Blue Martini, was a pretty popular bar. So maybe it wasn't really that crazy that Matt was there. I mean, maybe it wasn't like he was there because he specifically knew it was across the street from Jennifer's condo, or maybe he knew that, but still like a bar is where a bar is going to be. Maybe it's just a coincidence, who knows. But it seems like we don't know the whole story when it comes to Matt. But in the end, it also seems like it was a coincidence that he was near her condo that night. It's also worth noting that Jennifer's family does not think that he was involved in any way. So the current boyfriend and the ex boyfriend were cleared. But there was another man who was in Jennifer's life, not a current boyfriend, not an ex boyfriend, but a coworker who very much wanted to be her boyfriend. His name was Johnny Campos, and to put it bluntly, every description I can find makes him seem like your typical workplace creep. He was a supervisor, which makes it even worse because not many people are willing to stand up to a supervisor who's being weird or creepy, unfortunately. Also this guy was married, but apparently that didn't really mean much to him. And Jennifer's dad claims that on multiple occasions, she would complain about Johnny to both him and her mom. Jennifer said that he was always hitting on her, and that she would just try to reject him as best as she could every single time, you know, saying no, but in the nicest possible way because she didn't want to piss him off or get fired. And according to one of Johnny and Jennifer's coworkers, a guy named Adam, in the days before Jennifer went missing, Johnny was ranting to him about the fact that Jennifer was on vacation with her boyfriend. It apparently very deeply upset him. Now I'm going to say allegedly because again, remember, all of this is coming from another coworker named Adam. Adam also said that on the last day before Jennifer went missing, Monday the 23rd, people at her office actually heard Johnny confronting Jennifer about her vacation. Johnny apparently told her if he was upset that she went on this trip, to which she responded and she's like, well, too bad I had the best time. So it was kind of this weird and tense conversation to have in a workplace. But that was just the weird stuff that happened before Jennifer went missing. Apparently on the day that Jennifer went missing, Johnny actually came into work late. So he didn't have the luxury of work being his alibi. Now he claimed it was because he got a ticket on the way to work. But this has never been officially confirmed or denied by the investigators as far as I can tell. Then there's also the fact that the people in the office say that he was acting really weird that day, almost like panicky throughout the day. And to make matters worse, Adam, the same coworker who had spoken up about his concerns with Johnny, claimed that a few days after Jennifer disappeared, when it was still a major topic of conversation in the office, that Johnny allegedly said to him that Jennifer was quote, likely eaten up by alligators already. Now investigators said that Johnny was not a person of interest. And so a lot of these theories are mainly just theories circulating online, which begs the question, are the internet sleuths just trying to find something suspicious that isn't there? Or are the investigators way off and the sleuths are right? I don't really know. But that leads us into some other theories, ones that Jennifer's family has been more than outspoken about. See pretty early on in Jennifer's case, her family was outspoken about their concerns with some of the workers at Jennifer's condo. Like I said, the condo that Jennifer bought was a new build, but the entire complex itself wasn't completed yet. There were still plenty of sections under construction. And it was these workers that her family really was suspicious of. According to Drew Injoys, there was more than one occasion where Jennifer told them that she felt uncomfortable around some of these workers. Like I said earlier, she was very safety conscious, and she was always aware of her surroundings, even when walking around her own complex. And apparently Jennifer had confided in her parents that some of the workers would like check her out, cat call her when she was walking by, just typical annoying things that women literally have to deal with on a daily basis. But it wasn't like she was getting cat called and feeling uncomfortable at a grocery store or walking to a liquor store and she can just decide, okay, I'm not going to go to that liquor store anymore. I'm not going to go to that grocery store anymore. It was her home. This was her complex. So it made her feel even more uncomfortable. Almost like her safe space was being taken away from her. And then there was the fact that they weren't just there during the day. You see, the complex had allowed some of the workers to stay in the unrented or unbought condos while they worked on the construction. So they were there all the time. And they likely knew where Jennifer lived and that she lived alone. Which I think back to my apartment days and not that you have to be nosy or pick upon every detail, but it is pretty easy to clock patterns and routines. And to know who usually is walking with a spouse or is always walking alone or looks to be young enough that they probably don't have a partner or things like that. So I think it could have been easy to identify that she lived alone, at least in my opinion. And remember how I mentioned that on the night of the 23rd, Jennifer had been on the phone with her parents and her brother? Well during that phone call, Jennifer apparently had been taken off guard because someone knocked on her front door. And she wasn't expecting any friends over. She also wasn't expecting her boyfriend Rob over. She also hadn't put in any maintenance requests or ordered food. So there was no good reason for anybody to be her condo knocking on her door at that time of night. So Jennifer told her family like, look, I'm not going to answer it. I'm just going to ignore it. It's probably just one of my neighbors. However to this day, we still have no idea who was on the other side of her door that night. Could it have been one of those men who was potentially watching her scoping out where she lived? Or was it just actually a neighbor who saw a package delivered or wanted to check in? Or the point is, we don't know. But like I mentioned earlier, Jennifer's condo was in a gated community. So it was relatively safe. Most people who were in the complex were residents, were workers, maybe even visitors of the residents. It wasn't like her condo was on this busy city street next to a side of the city. It was not really too difficult to get into any locked building or gated community. You can either buzz in, you could ride the coattails of somebody else going in. So there is always that possibility that whoever abducted Jennifer wasn't a worker or another community member. It certainly could have been random. Now from what I can tell, the theory that's most important is that the community is not a worker or another community member. It certainly could have been random. Now from what I can tell, the theory that's most prevalent among investigators is the idea that it was one of the men working at her complex. But this theory wasn't something that was being brought up in the first few weeks or even months after Jennifer's disappearance. These were theories that took years to form. For example, it took six months for the lead investigator to even theorize that Jennifer was abducted when she was about to get into her car. Then three years later is when they started looking into people who were working at the complex at the time of her disappearance. And that was only after the investigators decided to, quote, take a fresh look at the case. So during this time they interviewed some more people, specifically a former housekeeper who worked at Jennifer's complex during the time that she disappeared. We don't know this housekeeper's name only that it was a woman. But the detectives showed her the very grainy security camera footage. And she claimed that the person on the camera looked a lot like a guy she recognized, a guy named Chino. She specifically said that the person's hair, clothes, and the way that they walked resembled Chino. Now Chino was a new name to the investigation at this point. They had never heard of this guy before, but they were able to discover that he used to be a maintenance worker during the time that Jennifer lived in her condo. He also lived at the same complex, but in a different building than Jennifer's. So it wasn't much, but it certainly was something. So they tracked down this Chino guy because he was no longer a worker at the complex and didn't live there anymore. And technically he didn't live anywhere at all. Because when they finally found him, he was in prison and serving time for a statutory rape charge. When the investigators finally talked to Chino and asked him specifically about Jennifer and her disappearance, he claimed that he did remember her, which I mean, hello, it's hard not to. Her disappearance had their entire complex crawling with investigators. It was also all over the news at the time, but he claimed that he had even been inside her condo to do some maintenance work one time. But he said that that was the extent of the relationship with her, anything he knew about her. That's kind of where it all stopped. He specifically said that he had absolutely no idea what happened to her and that he was not involved in any way with her disappearance. Now that very same day that the police interviewed Chino, they also asked him if he would be willing to take a polygraph test, which he agreed and he passed it with flying colors. So ultimately it felt like it was a promising lead that ended up going nowhere and it felt like they were back to square one. Now that was back in 2009 and that was three years after Jennifer disappeared. Then in 2010, the head detective on the case was reassigned, which in theory does sound good, maybe it was time for some fresh eyes, but it didn't really do much. The case was stagnant then and it stayed stagnant for years. Then in 2016, after 10 full years of searching for Jennifer, there was finally an update in her case, but it wasn't one that brought the family any sort of comfort. At this point, Jennifer was legally declared dead. I mean, after 10 years, the assumption was that she was likely deceased, but having the official confirmation definitely didn't make it any easier. At that point, Jennifer should have been 34 years old. She could have been married, had children, moved homes, moved jobs, she could have and should have experienced so many different things in those 10 years, things that she just never got the chance to. And Jennifer's family didn't really have much faith in the Orlando police department and their investigation at this point. So declaring Jennifer legally dead, it kind of opened up a whole new set of wounds. They were sick of feeling like the investigators weren't doing enough, a feeling that they had had since day one. So they decided to hire a private investigator. His name was Michael Toretta and he was really invested in Jennifer's case. And he told the family, quote, what I'd like to do with this investigation is put a puzzle together, one piece at a time. And that is exactly what he did. He started back at the very beginning, combing through any possible leads that he could, looking into every single theory. And the theory that he really took his time with was the one regarding the construction workers living in Jennifer's complex. Apparently, he had found and interviewed six other women who were living in the complex at the same time as Jennifer, all who had their own experiences with cat calling and gross behavior and different stairs. From the workers, the problem though was that Michael didn't know what the police had already looked into or who they had cleared. So Drew and Joyce decided that they were going to do something very drastic. And in 2018, the Kessies sued the city of Orlando and the Orlando police department. This was in the hopes of getting access to Jennifer's case files. Not just some things here or there or whatever that you would share with them, but access to everything. It's okay. We understand how hard it is. We understand people's mistakes. I've made mistakes. We're all human. But it's time to get every resource available. And we feel that we have the right to. Now it took a lot of back and forth and the legal process was much longer than they would have liked. But in the end, they reached a settlement. And the Orlando police had to hand over the case files. It was a huge win for Jennifer's family, especially when they finally got access to the 15,000 pages of information regarding the case. The other part of the agreement too was that the Orlando police would no longer be the ones leading Jennifer's investigation. And what's even crazier other than the fact that Jennifer's family literally had to fight tooth and nail for these documents is that once the settlement was reached, the total price just to get copies of everything was 18,000. Which it's like why this family had to pay for these documents for their own daughter is beyond me, but that's a fight for a different day. Now after looking into these files, her family felt like there was finally a clear reason why the Orlando police department didn't want these files released. There were a lot of holes in their investigation. For example, after the footage of the person of interest was discovered, the investigators honed in specifically on food service workers, health care workers, painters in the area. And the reason for this was because this person looked to be wearing a white shirt, which I guess the investigators thought showed their profession. But here's the thing, the files apparently don't list everybody who was questioned, which imagine being the private investigator on this case, trying to see who has been interviewed, who's been looked into, who hasn't, who's been vetted from a case room over a decade ago. And you don't even know who the police talk to because it's not listed. There's also then the issue of Jennifer's car. If you recall from when we talked about it earlier, the Orlando police department had claimed that there was no evidence left behind because it looked like the perpetrator had wiped the car clean, right? But when the Kessies and their private investigator were looking through the official pictures of Jennifer's car from the day that it was discovered, they felt like the police description and what they were actually saying were two completely different things. They believe that the pictures taken of the hood of Jennifer's car show a very clear image of what potentially happened to Jennifer. The hood itself is pretty dirty, just normal dirt and dust. But if you look really closely on the right side, there are these big areas that look like smudges. Smudges that somebody's body would make if they were bent over or slammed down onto the front hood of the car. Not to mention near the bottom middle area of the hood, there are what appears to be finger marks that are dragged down the hood. It's very eerie looking at this picture for those of you watching the video version, you know what I'm talking about. And it's eerie to see the picture and knowing that Jennifer's body is the one that possibly made those marks. And apparently this was information that the family hadn't been made aware of before. But it changes things because the theory before was that maybe someone came up behind Jennifer and grabbed her or forced her into the car. But the marks on the hood make it seem like somebody snuck up from behind her and then threw her body against the hood of the car. So the Kessies, they released these photos to the public hoping that it would change things. Then maybe somebody would remember seeing something that day or seeing someone that day and that seeing pictures of the car would refresh their memory. Sure enough, some people came forward. One woman told the investigator that she remembered seeing what she believed to be Jennifer's car swarming in traffic near an exit that was close to Jennifer's condo. She claimed that she remembered seeing two people in the front seats and it looked like they were fighting over who was in control of the steering wheel. Another person came forward claiming that 10 months after Jennifer's disappearance, they saw somebody throwing a rolled up carpet rug into a lake, a lake that wasn't too far from the condo. And I have to say this was an interesting tip because on the day that Jennifer went missing, the construction crew was scheduled to lay down carpets in several of the condos that they were working on. So the lake was searched by dive teams for two whole days and then they ended up calling it quits. They didn't find any carpet, any rugs, and they didn't find Jennifer. So now it's been years since the Kessies and their private investigator Michael took over the case and they've created a slightly new theory. Apparently, Michael is claiming that at the time of Jennifer's disappearance, there were up to 10 construction workers living in the condo directly across from Jennifer's condo. And he believes that those people know way more than they're letting on. He has also stated that it could have been one or two people who actually kidnapped and likely killed Jennifer that day, despite their only being one person caught on that security camera footage. Then in 2022, there were more updates. Drew and Joyce had successfully gotten the Florida Department of law enforcement to take over the case. So now there was this new hope and resurgence in the case like, okay, we finally have the people who were initially involved out of the picture. These new people are on the case. They've got fresh eyes. We can go somewhere with this. And at the time, the FDLE looked into any new leads. But unfortunately, the case quickly turned cold again. But then in October of 2025, there was some major breaking news in Jennifer's case. Well, this morning new hope in the Jennifer Kessie case. This is nearly 20 years after her disappearance. Now we've been talking about this for years now. And we first told you that authorities found more evidence in this case back in May. And now Jennifer's father, Drew, is telling us that new that new evidence has DNA on it. And it's never been tested in regards to this information. The Kessie's wrote on the find Jennifer Kessie Facebook page. And they wrote, we recently met with the FDLE special agents who lead Jennifer's case. First, they have advised us that Jennifer's case is no longer cold. This is huge. We are told that work has presented itself through nonstop investigations by the team. A lot has opened up for the investigation through active work being done on the case. We are thrilled at the news yet guarded as we have been here many times before. However, this seems different. With this renewed focus, we were also informed that there was DNA found within evidence that was never tested. Again, huge for the investigation. Hopefully, that will lead to more factual information leading to Jennifer. We were also told that the list of people of interest has been greatly reduced and down to just a few individuals that they are working heavily on. We knew that this would happen once a team truly started to investigate the case. This again is great news. We can hear it and see it in our investigative team at FDLE. They are definitely hyped up and moving forward quickly. It's exciting to see it and we are letting them do their work uninhibited by us. We simply don't want to get in the way at this point. Finally, all good things are happening. On another note, recently we were approached by a few production companies in an effort to bring a documentary of Jennifer's story to the television market. We are now working with the documentary team to bring Jennifer's story to the world in a meaningful way through a television series. Please stay tuned for more as the production company continues their work. So even though almost 20 years has passed, we still fight the good fight on a daily basis to bring Jennifer home. Now that is as much as we know so far and even though this case doesn't have the kind of conclusion that any of us would like, I genuinely am so hopeful that sometime soon, maybe within the next year or even or sooner, hopefully we will be getting an official arrest in Jennifer's case. Now we have seen cases much older be solved so it seems like this case 100% can be solved, especially now that DNA evidence is involved, right? Jennifer's family says that they have never been more hopeful than they are at this very moment, but at the same time too, they're tired. They're worn down and they have been through so much and they just want to bring their daughter home and they just want justice. I've never rested. I have not slept the full night in 20 years. I get up every, I get up and change beds every night. No, I have two minds. Jennifer is always going in. Then I learned really quick one day from a psychiatrist that this world isn't stopping for you or anything that's going on in it. Either you can be chewed up and spit out or you can deal with it. It shows to deal with it. But now it's the hardest thing I've ever done in my life. It's part of the parenting. It's continual. It's draining. It's tiring. My body has hurt for 20 years. It's no, right? No. So for now, there are still a lot of unanswered questions. It might be a long shot, but maybe one of you who is watching or listening to this episode, it sparks something new. We do have a big demographic in Florida. So maybe you didn't even realize it would be connected to this case until today. There are a lot of different avenues, though, where you can contact the authorities. If you do feel like you know something, so I'm going to put all of that information on the screen and also put it in the show notes below. You don't have any direct information that you can provide, but you want to help this case in other ways. You can share this video or this link to the audio episode with your friends, your family on your social media. You can also check out the Jennifer Kessie Facebook page and you can donate to their GoFundMe as well. Hopefully we will be getting justice for Jennifer very, very soon. And I'm hopeful that even though it's been too long, long decades, hopefully her family gets some answers here. I am curious to know what you think. Do you think it was the construction workers? Do you think it was the weird co worker? What's with the weird alligator comment? Did he feed Jennifer to the alligators? What is really going on here? Let me know your theories in the comment section, the Q&A section on Spotify or the review section on Apple. Thank you again so much for tuning in to another episode of serialously with me. I will be back on the mic with you on Thursday, breaking down everything happening this week and true crime and all of the breaking cases. So if you're not following the podcast already, take a quick second, open your phone, look at the app, whether it's Apple Spotify, I heart wherever you listen, press follow so that you do not miss an episode. All right, thank you so much. And until the next one, be nice, don't kill people, don't cat call people and be a creep and always check in with your loved ones. All right, bye.