NEWS UPDATES 2018 The Kenneka Jenkins Case Conspiracy Theories #j4k #kennekajenkins #thereasamartin
Channel: They Devils
Date: 2018-08-14

NEWS UPDATES 2018 The Kenneka Jenkins Case Conspiracy Theories - New Coverage & Commentary #j4k #kennekajenkins #thereasamartin @j4k @kennekajenkins @tereasamartin

Chicago cops have released new details about the investigation into the death of Kenneka Jenkins, the teenage girl found dead in a hotel’s walk-in freezer in the city on September 10.

According to the Chicago Tribune, the newly released documents build up a picture of the night Jenkins died—how she went to an event in one of the hotel’s rooms, became intoxicated, and appeared to have become separated from friends who left her briefly in a hallway while they searched for her phone and keys.

One friend said Jenkins, 19, had been swaying, and that after she left with two friends, one returned for her phone. The two friends subsequently said she was missing but “didn’t make it seem important,” at first, police reports said. 

Video released by police shows Jenkins stumbling around various corridors of the hotel but does not show her entering the freezer.

The discovery of Jenkins’ body prompted mourning, rage, and wild speculation throughout the city of Chicago.

People protested outside the Crowne Plaza O’Hare Hotel where she was discovered, some believing the hotel staff did not take reports of her being missing seriously. According to the Tribune, a range of different theories circulated on social media as to what had caused her death, including accusations against specific people.

The attorney suing a Rosemont hotel over the death of Kenneka Jenkins said at a news conference Tuesday that someone might have inadvertently locked the young woman inside the freezer where her body was found.

Holding an enlarged photo of a freezer door, Geoffrey Fieger said the latch has a button that allows it to be locked from the outside, potentially trapping a person inside the chamber.

“We believe that it’s very possible … for reasons that we cannot explain, without ever looking in the freezer, someone came and locked this freezer door so that Kenneka could not exit,” he said at the news conference near Midway Airport.

That theory, however, is contradicted by videos released by Rosemont police after their investigation concluded in October 2017.

One video, taken by a motion-activated camera inside the hotel’s kitchen, showed that after Jenkins rounded the corner where the freezer was kept, no one else was in the area until her body was found. 

Other videos taken by police show the freezer door. It does not appear to match the images Fieger displayed at the news conference.

Geoffrey Fieger said Kenneka Jenkins might have been accidentally locked inside the hotel freezer where her body was found.

The door in the police video has a patterned metal panel that is missing in Fieger’s photo, and the latch does not have the lock button he mentioned.

Police reports say the freezer door had an handle that allowed it to be opened from the inside. The mechanism appeared to be working properly, they said.

Fieger could not be reached for comment about the apparent discrepancies.

Jenkins, a 19-year-old Chicagoan, disappeared in the early morning of Sept. 9, 2017, after attending a party held in a room of the Crowne Plaza Chicago O’Hare Hotel.

Though her family and friends came looking for her, authorities didn’t find her body until about 21 hours after she went missing. Surveillance video released by police showed Jenkins, apparently intoxicated, stumbling through the hotel’s hallways until she ended up in the kitchen where the freezer was kept.

An autopsy report from the Cook County medical examiner’s office concluded that Jenkins died of hypothermia, with alcohol and a drug used to treat epilepsy and migraines “significant contributing factors.”

Jenkins’ mother, Tereasa Martin, is suing the hotel, security company Capital Security and Investigations and the Murray Bros. Caddyshack restaurant, which was renting the space where Jenkins was found. Martin is seeking a judgment in excess of $50 million.

She was at Fieger’s side as he outlined details of the legal complaint. Among them was a claim that the unused kitchen where the freezer was located had a set of doors that could have been locked to prevent access.

“This was taken after her body was found, but there’s clearly an ability to lock the entire kitchen off,” Fieger said, displaying a photo of plywood doors sealed with a padlock.

Fieger also blamed the hotel and its security company for failing to promptly search for Jenkins after her family and friends reported her missing.

A spokesman for the hotel has said the lawsuit has no merit, and that it plans to fight the case.

In brief comments, Martin said she still suffers deeply from the loss of her daughter.

“My life will never be the same,” she said. “I birthed my daughter, and to know that I had to bury my child because of someone (who should have offered) help. … It’s a pain that I can’t even explain.”