15 Years Ago Jennifer Kesse Was Taken While On Her Way To Work And Her Family Is Working On Investigating Leads That Might Finally Help Solve Her Case
Orlando, Florida. 24-year-old Jennifer Kesse was abducted from Orlando, Florida, on January 24th, 2006, while she was on her way to work that morning.
Jennifer had graduated 3 years before she went missing from the University of Central Florida after completing her degree in finance.
She then got a job working at a timeshare resort company called Westgate Resorts, in Ocoee. She was intelligent, well-liked, and hard working. Jennifer moved up quickly in her job and then decided she would invest in a condo for herself.
Her parents helped her pick out the perfect one, and it was situated in a complex that was largely unoccupied while it was still being built.
Jennifer was one of the first and only residents, and her family later recalled her being nervous in the complex, as there were a lot of men around completing the work on the buildings.
The men would obviously stop their work to watch her walk by, with some even daring to make catcalls at her. It’s easy to see why this behavior made her uneasy.
Facebook; pictured above is Jennifer
A few days before Jennifer vanished, she took a vacation to Saint Croix with her boyfriend Rob. While she was gone, her brother Logan stayed at her place and had a few friends over to hang out.
One of those young men was Jennifer’s ex-boyfriend, Matt, though she was no longer in any kind of contact with him.
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Jennifer kept in touch with her family while she was away, and she flew back to Florida on a Sunday. She slept over at Rob’s place that night.
The following morning, Jennifer got into her black, 2004 Chevy Malibu. She drove right to her office, without stopping at her condo, and spent the whole day at work.
One of her coworkers chatted with her towards the end of the day, before she left the office and got back into her car to head home for the night.
At 6:15 in the evening, Jennifer called her dad Drew after arriving home. They chatted for a bit, and Jennifer also spoke with her brother Logan.
By 10 p.m., she had phoned her boyfriend. She was still at home while she spoke to him on the other end of the line. They ended their call after getting into a tiff.
But that would be the very last time she would speak to any of her loved ones.
Facebook; Jennifer smiles in the photo above
Jennifer never showed up at work, which was the first indication something wasn’t right. As a routine-oriented and responsible young woman, she wouldn’t have skipped out on going to the office so last-minute…and without telling a single soul.
Additionally, Jennifer was not answering any text messages or phone calls on her cellphone.
Jennifer’s coworkers wasted no time phoning her dad Drew to see if he had any idea where she was, but he and the rest of Jennifer’s family were simply at a loss.
Jennifer’s family quickly drove to her condo, but it was locked and she wasn’t inside when they were able to gain access from the property’s manager.
Not only was Jennifer missing; her keys were missing, her cellphone was missing, and the cellphone of her brother’s friend who had accidentally left it there when Logan was staying was also missing. Jennifer’s car was gone, and so was her purse she always brought with her to and from work.
Nothing appeared to be disturbed, and it looked like Jennifer or someone else had recently showered, as a wet towel was found inside and the walls of the bathroom had steam on them.
Jennifer’s family called the police, and the hunt was on to find her. 2 days after Jennifer disappeared, her car turned up at an apartment complex located about 1 mile away from where she lived.
Facebook; Jennifer leans on a counter in the photo above
Although her car had shown up, there was still no sign of her. Dishearteningly enough, her car held absolutely no clues to her whereabouts or what happened to her.
Authorities noticed there were security cameras surrounding the parking lot of the apartment complex where Jennifer’s car was sitting, so they were able to pull the footage and look through it.
Sure enough, there was a very hard to make out man seen leaving Jennifer’s car in the lot at approximately noon on the day she vanished.
The video quality was poor, and a fence was blocking this man’s face, but he appeared to be wearing a construction outfit or the kind of clothes a working man would be seen in.
This man had to have answers regarding Jennifer, but it was impossible to tell who he was, even after the video was enhanced.
It was such a promising lead that didn’t go anywhere.
Facebook; pictured above is a missing flyer made for Jennifer, and in the black and white photo at left is the man seen on security cameras abandoning her car in the apartment parking lot
Around the time this man on video was found, authorities brought in a bloodhound to the parking lot where Jennifer’s car was discovered.
This dog apparently picked up Jennifer’s scent and tracked all the way back from the apartment parking lot to the condo complex where Jennifer lived.
Authorities investigated the men working at Jennifer’s condo complex. They looked into her coworkers. They considered her current and former boyfriends. They hunted down rumors. They worked leads. It looked like someone had certainly abducted Jennifer, but who?
More than a decade ended up going by without an answer to this question. Jennifer’s case went cold. In 2018, Jennifer’s family ended up suing the Orlando Police Department so they could get copies of the file on her case.
They also started a GoFundMe page to raise money to help cover the costs of hiring a private investigator to look into what happened to Jennifer.
“Jennifer Kesse, a UCF graduate, was abducted from Orlando, Florida in 2006,” their statement on GoFundMe reads. “We, her family Drew, Joyce, and Logan, and friends believe she was taken the morning of Tuesday, January 24, 2006 from in or around her Orlando, Florida home. No one has seen or heard from her since.”
Facebook; pictured above Jennifer wears a blue colored top
“After 14 long years, the Orlando Police Department and other state and federal law enforcement agencies were never able to crack the case. There is no named suspect. There is not one solid lead. Jennifer, 24, vanished without a trace.”
“In 2018 we filed a lawsuit against Orlando Police asking them to close Jennifer’s case allowing the case files be released to us and our private investigator. In March 2019, we settled with OPD and now have the rights to Jennifer’s case.”
“Over the course of the 14 years since Jennifer disappeared, we spent every penny to our name trying to find her. We are broke. We are humbly asking for your financial help so we can continue attacking Jennifer’s case both on the legal and investigative side. Your donation will pay the monstrous legal fees as well as pay the private investigator who is already reading through the case files.”
“We will never give up on finding Jennifer and we truly believe with your help we can bring her home. We thank you all for joining our fight. Love, Drew, Joyce, and Logan Kesse.”
On July 12th of this year, Jennifer’s family shared on their GoFundMe page that they have quite a few leads they are working on investigating in the hopes that Jennifer’s case will finally be solved after all this time.
Some of these leads have taken Jennifer’s family to what they say are “areas of interest,” including some lakes.
Although they have searched a number of those spots, along with the dive team from Orange County, they have not yet recovered any evidence.
“Due to the complexity of Jennifer’s case we can’t share anything else at this time other than we are moving forward in a positive, purposeful direction and we feel we will ultimately get the answers we need to find Jennifer,” they noted.
January 24th of this year marked 15 years since Jennifer went missing. Hopefully, 2021 will be the year she is found.
You can follow the Facebook page that Jennifer’s family created for her here, and you can take a look at the flyer the FBI created for her here.
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