Jerrie Kennedy

**Jerrie Kennedy** is a woman who was kidnapped for the purpose of human trafficking by Ronald Pergman.

## History

### Early Life

She says she knew from the age of four that she was a girl. She loved all the girly things like dolls and dresses, but never talked about it. Then when she was fourteen, she couldn’t hide it anymore and told her parents. They told her they loved her and then put her in therapy. She told them therapy wouldn’t fix it, so they threw her out. She’s lived in a trailer park on her own ever since.

### Captivity

Jerrie was a hopeful singer, recording her music and sharing it with as many people as she could, including the waitress, Melissa, who was a fan of hers. However, as making music didn't support her, she also spent time at truck stops, propositioning truck drivers to make ends meet. This is how she ended up in the cab of Ronald Pergman, whom she told her name was Michelle. He told her she was beautiful. She worked on seducing him and he seemed to be into it until she asked what he wanted to do and he tased her until she passed out. He then wrapped her in plastic and put her in the back of his truck. She woke up when Danielle and Grace, also kidnapped by Ronald, opened her plastic covering and did CPR on her. The girls then started banging on the sides of the truck. This lured Ronald's attention and Jerrie played dead when he came to the back of the truck. He went to her to check on her and she stabbed him in the neck with a tease comb while Danielle jumped on his back. They fought, but he was able to subdue all three girls again with his taser.

When they woke again, they were in a storage container with chains around their legs. Danielle asked Jerrie where Ronald had gotten her and she said he got her at a truck stop. Danielle then asked what she thought he was planning to do with them and Jerrie didn't answer.

While their captivity continued, Grace tried to reassure Danielle, saying their mom tracked Danielle's phone and reminding her that if Ronald wanted to kill them he'd have done it already. Grace then figured out they were underground. She asked Jerrie about her capture and Jerrie said she'd climbed into his rig, saying she worked in "human services." Danielle then quietly told Grace she believed Jerrie was transgender. Then she asked Jerrie directly, upsetting Grace. Jerrie confirmed that she was. Ronald then opened the container they were in, confronted the girls for how they'd treated him, threw some supplies in, and left.

Grace told the others they needed two plans for survival: one physical and one emotional. She planned Stockholm Syndrome for the physical survival and wanted to use Danielle to lure Ronald into removing their leg chains. They then would attack him. For the emotional survival plan, she suggested singing together, as Jerrie had told them she was a singer and she and Danielle sang in a church choir when they were kids. Jerrie also suggested their religious background might help them bond with Ronald.

Ronald returned while they were singing and took Jerrie to get her cleaned up. When she resisted, he showed that he had the taser with him. Ronald took Jerrie to a shower and ordered her to strip. She told him she didn't want to take her clothes off. He told her she'd be sent to another place where she'd do what she does, but it would be safer. She then made him look at her after she stripped and took off her wig. He returned her to the container still wet and she told Grace and Danielle that he had a plan and the plan was ruined when they asked her what happened. She further explained that they were into trafficking and were selling them as sex slaves. She got out of it by showing him the goods. It got her out of being sent away, but she was still captive. Grace said still here is better and told Jerrie she had the two of them. Back together, the girls sang together again to ease their troubles.

Grace was able to use her shoelace to release her leg iron. She showed Jerrie and Danielle how she did it as she released the other leg, then started to work on them. Once they were free, they started looking for a way out. Jerrie found a patch of the wall with some give, so they started pushing on it. They were eventually able to make a gap big enough for Grace to slip through, but without Grace’s strength, Danielle and Jerrie weren’t able to move it enough to get out themselves. Jerrie then guided Grace to the trap door Ronald took her through, but she found it locked. Grace then noticed running water and started breaking away at the source. Before she could get all the way through, Ronald returned. He opened the container and discovered that Grace wasn’t in there and quickly closed it again.

Danielle and Jerrie worried about Grace after her escape. Danielle was worried she was dead, but Jerrie thought it was more likely that she got out. With Grace gone, Danielle and Jerrie talked about Jerrie’s childhood. When Ronald returned, they both attacked him, but he used the taser to subdue them again. Later, the container was opened again and Grace was returned. She’d been shot twice in the leg with an arrow, worrying Danielle.

When Grace's leg wounds started to get infected, she instructed Jerrie and Danielle to take maggots out of a can of canned ham to put in the wound to clean it out. Grace said the fact that it was disgusting might actually help them as they were meant to be trafficked and she wouldn't be presentable with an infection, so they'd have to give her antibiotics or something, which would buy them time. When Ronald next came, he cleaned her wound with hydrogen peroxide and gave her some medication, but she vomited on him. He left over Jerrie and Danielle's pleas that Grace needed help. Grace's condition worsened and she developed a fever. Legarski then came in and gave Grace a shot, telling her it was antibiotics, which he got from his cousin, a vet. Later, the girls woke to sounds of people walking above them. They shouted for help, but their cries went unheard.

The girls sang to pass the time. When Ronald came in to check on them, they told him that Grace's leg was still full of pus. Danielle then taunted him, saying she knew she represented all the girls who had rejected him and called him a freak. Ronald realized she was trying to find a way to escape and just left the girls there. The girls then discussed what they'd change if they got out. Jerrie said she'd already made the biggest change, but admitted she'd go see her parents, even as much as they hated her, because she missed them. Danielle also blamed herself for getting Grace kidnapped. Soon after, Ronald came and took all three girls from the container to the All-In. He told them it wouldn't be long. Legarski then took over supervising them as they waited for the pickup. When someone came in, he called out to them, thinking it was the pickup. He was surprised to see it was Cassie Dewell. The girls watched as Legarski and Cassie had a standoff. Legarski then told Cassie he was going to count to five and then shoot her. He started counting, but when he got to four, she shot him in the head.

With Legarski down, Cassie told the girls they were safe. They were quickly evacuated from the bar and treated at ambulances. They spoke to the police and gave descriptions of their second captor so the sketch artists could make a rendering of him.

After her rescue, Jerrie struggled. She spoke to Jenny about Cody and said she’d give Jenny any help needed to help her find their captor. She told Jenny that his truck had been heavily customized.

Jerrie then attended Cody's funeral. When Jenny struggled to sing Cody’s favorite song, first Cassie went up to help her and then Jerrie joined them and they finished the song together.

When Jerrie went home that night, she was followed by a man who kept calling out to her. She ran faster, trying to get away, but he caught up and she saw that it was Jimmy, someone she knew. He said he just wanted to check on her, but she said their days were over. She then finished walking home and found a note on her door that read, "YOU DON'T LEARN," the same phrase Ronald had said to them while they were being held.

Jerrie spent the night sitting up in a chair with a baseball bat in her hands. The next day, she went to Dewell & Hoyt Private Investigations to talk to Jenny and Cassie and told them about the note. She said she could probably stay with her friend Melissa, but knew she was a bigger threat to the trucker because she'd seen his truck up close in the daylight and the other two hadn't. For her safety, she went to stay with Melissa and her husband, Ben, who said his one fantasy in life was having an intruder enter his house and get to blow their head off, even more if that person were a sex offender.

After Jenny and Cassie had a close call with catching Ronald at the Legarski house, Jerrie came to the office. She gave them everything she knew about Ronald's truck and Tubb assured her they'd increase drivebys at Michelle's place.

Jerrie was horrified when she learned that Ronald had taken another person, a kid. She asked Jenny and Denise when they were going to find him because she kept seeing him everywhere, even when he wasn't there.

When Cassie discovered Ronald Pergman and that he was likely the one who had taken Erik, Denise then found a picture of Ronald on his mother's facebook, which Jerrie confirmed was one of her captors. When the police surrounded Ronald's house and attempted to get him to surrender, Jerrie and Erik's mother, Rachel, watched the news from the office. They also learned that the house had exploded, but Denise was quick to say there was no evidence to suggest Erik was in the house when it exploded. Jerrie also assured Denise that in all her interactions with Ronald, he didn't strike her as a killer and she didn't believe he would kill Erik.

### Continued Search for Ronald

Three months later, the trail had gone cold on Ronald and Jerrie was working at Dewell & Hoyt. After talking to Denise about the calls, Jerrie told Jenny and Cassie about them. She confirmed that she could confirm his identity if he would just speak. When another call from a blocked number came in while Jenny and Cassie were in the office, Jerrie answered it on speaker phone, expecting it to be Ronald again, but found it was Blake Kleinsasser calling to ask for help instead.

When Mark Lindor came to town to help with the investigation, he asked Jerrie to tell him something about Ronald that wasn't in the report. She told him about the moment when he found out she was transgender, when he had her undress in the shower. She said she felt safe with him, but didn't know why. It felt like he was looking for something, maybe love.

When Cassie disappeared and left a message on the Dewell & Hoyt answering machine, Jerrie played it for Mark, who said he was going to Lochsa to help find her.

Jerrie then went to a karaoke bar with Jimmy. When it was her turn, Jimmy encouraged her to go up and sing despite her nerves. While she was singing, she saw Ronald watching from the crowd and froze. She tried to keep singing, but ultimately stopped to run off the stage after him when he started to leave. She was unable to catch him and told Jimmy what happened when he found her.

When Mary Leyendecker called Dewell & Hoyt Private Investigations claiming she'd seen Ronald, Jerrie and Denise played the message for Mark and Cassie. They believed it was genuine because Mary sounded scared, like she'd definitely seen him.

When a body was discovered in a freezer at Mary's house, Jerrie joined Mark there. She told him that Scarlet, Mary's sister, didn't live far away. When he later went to go there, Jerrie asked to go wit him. He allowed it, but tried to get her to stay in the car. She insisted that she needed to close the chapter with Ronald before she could move on with her life. When no one answered the door, they asked a neighbor about Scarlet and learned she and her daughter had left in the middle of the night with Scarlet's boyfriend in a truck. He identified Ronald as Scarlet's boyfriend.

When they were finally able to ping Scarlet's cell phone, Jerrie tried to get Mark to take her with him, but he refused, saying he didn't want to spook Ronald. Jerrie continued pinging Scarlet's phone and when it showed her heading back into town, Jerrie ignoring Mark's request and went to follow him. Jerrie arrived at Mary's house while Mark waited outside, preparing to enter. Mark tried to get her to go home, but she refused, pulling out a gun. They walked to the front door together and Mark kicked it open.

Once inside, Mark confronted Ronald, who was holding Scarlet as if she were his hostage. Scarlet broke out of his grasp, running to Mark, while Ronald went the other way. However, Jerrie was waiting with her gun and kept him from leaving. Mark then came and arrested him. Once he was taken in, Jerrie expressed disbelief that they'd finally arrested him and called Grace and Danielle with the news. That night, Jerrie was finally able to sleep.

While they looked into Scarlet, Jerrie learned that she had an expunged record. She and Denise did more digging and found that she'd spent time in a facility for the criminally insane when she was sixteen, for an unknown reason.

## Relationships

### Familial

She told Ronald she hadn't seen her parents in a very long time.

## Personality

Jerrie is a young trans woman who's suffered a lot as a result of her gender, being kicked out by her parents, forcing her to do sex work for survival. This results in her being kidnapped and trafficked. She escapes however and turns her life around with acceptance from new people.

## References

1. ↑ The Big Rick, 1x03
2. ↑ Pilot, 1x01
3. ↑ Nowhere to Run, 1x02
4. ↑ The Big Rick, 1x03
5. ↑ Unfinished Business, 1x04
6. ↑ A Good Day to Die, 1x05
7. ↑ The Wolves Are Always Out for Blood, 1x06
8. ↑ I Fall to Pieces, 1x07
9. ↑ The End is Near, 1x08
10. ↑ Let It Be Him, 1x09
11. ↑ Catastrophic Thinking, 1x10
12. ↑ All Kinds of Snakes, 1x11
13. ↑ No Better Than Dogs, 1x12
14. ↑ White Lion, 1x13
15. ↑ Nice Animals, 1x14
16. ↑ Bitter Roots, 1x15
17. ↑ Love is a Strange and Dangerous Thing, 1x16
18. ↑ Pilot, 1x01