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The Disappearance of Jennifer Kesse

Missing From Orlando, Florida, January 24, 2006

By Molly KentPublished 6 years ago 6 min read
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Jennifer Kesse, 24, before disappearance. 

Jennifer Kesse was born in New Jersey on May 20, 1981. She attended the University of Central Florida in Orlando and graduated with a degree in finance in 2003. Shortly after graduating she bought a condo in Orlando and started work as a finance manager at Central Florida Investments Timeshare Company. She had just returned from a holiday to The Virgin Islands with her boyfriend, Rob, and they were looking forward to taking the next step in their relationship. Then, on January 23/24 of 2006, she disappeared.

Jennifer was a 24-year-old woman, with dark blonde hair, green eyes, a four leaf clover tattoo on her left hip and double pierced ears.

Jennifer—also known as Jenn—was last seen leaving her place of work at 6 PM on January 23. She called her parents (Joyce and Drew), as she always did, and spoke to her brother (Logan) who informed her that his friend had left a phone at her condo when they stayed there while she was away. She promised to overnight it the next day. Later that evening, she called Rob at about 10 PM. This was the last time anyone spoke to her.

The next morning, January 24, Rob did not receive his usual morning phone call from Jenn and so called her instead. It went straight to voicemail. He didn't think much of it, she had an important meeting that morning, and he assumed she was preparing. But, when she hadn't got to work by 11 AM, her boss informed Drew and Joyce, who, with Logan, knew something was wrong and immediately drove to her condo complex. On arriving, they discovered her that her bathroom was wet, a damp towel on her bed, work appropriate attire laid out on and her make up still on her vanity. She had clearly been home that morning and got ready for work.

TIMELINE:

  • Between Jan 14-18: ERICA (witness) meetings with JENN in the apartment office, JENN was nervous and distracted. ERICA said it was like she had ducked into the office to avoid someone.
  • Jan 18: JENN drives to ROB's at Ft. Lauderdale.
  • Jan 19: JENN and ROB fly to The Virgin Islands.
  • Jan 20: LOGAN and friends arrive at JENN's condo, one accidentally leaves his phone.
  • Jan 22: JENN and ROB fly back from The Virgin Islands.
  • Jan 23:
    • 6 AM JENN leaves Ft. Lauderdale to drive to work.
    • 9 AM JENN arrives at work in Ocoee.
    • 6 PM JENN leaves work, calls her parents, and speaks to LOGAN who asks her to post the phone. She agrees to overnight it the next day.
    • 9:56 PM JENN speaks to ROB on the phone; this is the last time she is heard from.
  • Jan 24:
    • 11 JENN doesn't show up to work.
    • 12 PM JENN's car is parked at Huntington on the Green by P.O.I. The P.O.I is caught on security footage parking the car and walking away from the car park. He seems to be dressed all in white, but the security camera does not photograph his face; it is always obscured by a fence (pictured).

Luckiest Person of Interest Ever

Picture taken on January 24, just after Jennifer's car was ditched in the car park of Huntington on the Green.

    • 3 PM LOGAN arrives at Mosaic and begins the search for JENN.
    • 3:15 PM JOYCE and DREW arrive at Mosaic

(Between 3:00-3:30 AM witness, FLO, sees a Hispanic man with a ponytail and a woman, who she thinks is JENN, at Huntington on the Green)

  • Jan 26: JENN's car found at Huntington
  • Jan 27: Family shown pictures of the P.O.I for the first time.

In January of 2010 a complaint is filed by a co-worker against one of the supervisors at JENN's work, alleging inappropriate comments about JENN at the time of her disappearance. More on these later.

Theories:

Investigators believe that Jennifer went missing the morning of January 24, due to the fact that her bathroom was damp, a towel was damp on her bed, some clothes were laid out etc. However, this has been disputed. Some believe she may have left her apartment the night before for some reason, perhaps to post the phone belonging to her brothers friend. Allegedly, her phone was turned off and the battery removed at 10:40 pm the night of the January 23, leading some people to believe this is when she was abducted.

I, however, believe she went missing on the morning of January 24, some time between leaving her house to go to work and reaching her car.

  1. The first theory I thought of was obviously that her boyfriend, Rob, had something to do with the disappearance, as this is statistically the most likely scenario. However, Rob was interviewed by police and was ruled out as a suspect, partially due to the fact that he lived approximately three hours away from Jenn, and he had a strong alibi.
  2. The next theory was that her ex-boyfriend, a friend of her brothers, was involved. Drew reported that he was drunk at a bar across the street from Jenn's apartment on the night of January 23, the night before she went missing. But, he was ruled out by police due to having an alibi.
  3. One of the bigger theories is that one of the landscapers or workers working in the apartment complex had something to do with Jennifer's disappearance. She openly told her family that she was uncomfortable with the presence of the workers, and that they regularly made comments and cat-called her. Many of these workers were said to be working illegally, and "squatting" in the empty lots of the condominium. They all had full access to the apartment building, and when Logan attempted to ask them if they had seen anything they ignored him.

Although all of these circumstances are suspicious, Jenn is not a likely candidate for stranger kidnapping. The events happened in broad daylight in a residential area when she was carrying a briefcase and other objects, that have not been found. If she was kidnapped by a stranger, she would surely have made a fuss and someone would likely have noticed. It is considerably more likely that she would have been kidnapped by someone known to her.

4. The final theory, and the one I learn towards the most is that the aforementioned supervisor was involved. No co-worker was interviewed until about three and a half years after her disappearance, which already could lead to information that would have been important to be forgotten. The supervisor in question was openly interested in Jenn despite being married. He made passes at her regularly despite her politely turning him down.

He was openly angry about the fact that she had gone on holiday with her boyfriend, whom he called an "a-hole" and confronted Jenn about it on January 23, the day of her return to work. The co-worked who complained about this supervisor alleges that the supervisor arrived at work late on the 24th and seemed flustered, but as he was a supervisor didn't need to keep a time card. The next day, January 25, he made comments to her co-worker again, saying that Jenn had likely been "eaten by alligators already." The co-worker reported this a few years later, but was sacked by the company without finding out the results of this complaint.

To Conclude

It is important to note that Jennifer's parents never hired a private investigator, and have said that there is information that the police have asked them not to divulge. This leads me to believe that the police have strong suspicions about someone, but cannot make an arrest due to a lack of evidence. Maybe if Jennifer's body is one day discovered, her family will get the answers they deserve, and the perpetrator of this crime will be punished.

investigation
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About the Creator

Molly Kent

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