48 Hours - Where is Jennifer Kesse? - Encore

Episode Date: July 11, 2021

A young woman vanishes from her Florida condo – security footage captures a phantom figure calmly parking her car. Is it the kidnapper? "48 Hours" correspondent Peter Van Sant rep...orts.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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Starting point is 00:01:54 ConstantContact.ca It's been more than two weeks now since 24-year-old Jennifer Kesey disappeared. Jennifer has vanished. What could have happened? Where could Jennifer be? As the days pass by, there's been few answers and even fewer leads. Someone out there knows something. How could someone just vanish? But she did. Oh, my God. Oh, my God, this can't be happening.
Starting point is 00:02:16 Detective, it's been 14 years. Where is Jennifer Kessy? We miss Jen every single day. Hello, I'm Jennifer Kesey? We miss Jen every single day. Hello, I'm Jennifer Kesey. It's her laughter. It's her wit. It's just her loving nature. I think of her all the time. We were inseparable.
Starting point is 00:02:39 Our friendship never wavered. Just the greatest friend I've ever had. Weaver. Just the greatest friend I've ever had. In January 2006, Jen was on top of the world. She was in love. I remember Jennifer giving me her phone number. She's like, I don't ever do this. I could spend hours on the phone talking to her. Couldn't have been happier. She had a great job, had just gotten promoted. She had just bought her first condo with her own money. Life couldn't have been any better for her.
Starting point is 00:03:10 On the morning of January 24th, 2006, we got a phone call. Was Jennifer okay? She didn't show up for work today. Totally out of character for Jennifer. So out of character. Something's wrong. Something was wrong.
Starting point is 00:03:27 Was there any evidence of a forced entry? No. There was no blood on the ground? Mm-mm. The Orlando Police Department, they worked it very hard. Thanks for joining us tonight. I'm Louis Bolden. Joyce and Drew Kessy organized searches. They were standing on street corners, holding signs, begging, pleading for anyone to please
Starting point is 00:03:51 help them find their daughter. Nothing panned out. Nothing. Absolutely nothing. She's been missing for more than two years. Ten years ago. Twelve long years. Thirteen years later. Twelve long years. Thirteen years later.
Starting point is 00:04:05 Fourteen years. Now it's our turn. So not only am I looking at Jennifer Kessy's parents, I'm looking at the two lead detectives right now on this case. Yes. Yes. Us and our team. I'm a private investigator, and I'm working for the Kessy family.
Starting point is 00:04:26 We have to find her. Oh, my God, we've got to find her. There are people out there who know exactly what happened to Jennifer Kessy. Субтитры сделал DimaTorzok Продолжение следует... If you have any tips about the Jennifer Kessy case, you can contact the Kessy family tip line. We don't have her. We need her. Where is she? You know, aliens didn't abduct her. Please help us.
Starting point is 00:05:41 Don't worry. To meet the Kessys is to love the Kessies. They're just good people. Lewis Bolden is an investigative reporter for WKMG in Orlando. He's covered the case since Jennifer Kessie went missing in 2006. Joyce and Drew Kessie were very vulnerable. It's just really hard. And you could sense that, you could feel that.
Starting point is 00:06:05 We're a desperate family. And people just wanted to help them. I'll have the story all new at six. If you had told me then, in 14 years, we would still be looking for Jennifer Kessy, I would not have believed it. Um, can I just have a second? Lauren McCarthy and Jennifer were best friends since childhood.
Starting point is 00:06:31 She was extremely safety conscious. She was very aware of her surroundings. She carried pepper spray with her all the time. The reasons that she bought the place that she did was because it was a gated community with the guard. On Sunday, January 22nd, 2006, Jennifer returned from a vacation to St. Croix with her boyfriend, Rob Allen. My best friend said to me after the trip, he's like, oh, you're in love and you just don't want to admit it. They had been dating a year. You've got the bug. You're all in. Even though Rob lived in Fort Lauderdale, about three hours from Jennifer's condo in Orlando. We did the long distance, but
Starting point is 00:07:15 after the initial day, we started spending virtually every weekend together. On Monday, January 23rd, on her way into work as a project manager for a timeshare company, Jennifer called her mom. Jen shared every detail about the trip. She was just really happy. She was on a cloud. But that evening, Jennifer spoke with Rob, and their conversation didn't end well. We had a disagreement. Long distance was taking a toll on their relationship. She was a little emotional, saying, oh, you know, you don't love me. I'm not with you, and a little insecurity.
Starting point is 00:07:54 They spoke around 10 p.m. Rob had no idea that it would be the last time he would ever hear her voice. That's just not something that even came into my mind. Unfortunately, you take things for granted. The next morning was when Jennifer didn't show up for work and didn't answer her phone. She was always on the radar with everybody. It was so out of character for Jennifer to not respond, her friends and family rushed to her condo. We were probably on the road within five minutes.
Starting point is 00:08:28 We were very frantic. Okay, call the hospitals again. Okay, call the police again. When they arrived at the condo in the early afternoon, a building manager opened Jennifer's locked apartment. What did you see the first time you walked in? Her travel bag. It was like she walked in the night before
Starting point is 00:08:49 and just dropped her suitcase right where it was. The rest of the home looked like a maid had been there. Except for Jennifer's bathroom. God loved Jennifer, but she's a little bit of a bathroom pig in the morning. So makeup, curling iron, all that stuff all over the vanity, wet shower, wet towel. Back in 2008, the Kessies told 48 Hours that while the condo appeared to be in order, they did notice that Jennifer's purse, keys, and cell phone were missing.
Starting point is 00:09:20 What do you believe happened? She slept, for sure, and I think she got up for work as she normally would. Okay, I'm going to work, I have a meeting, it's busy, locks the door of her condo. That's where the mystery starts. It's your sister, it's your family, it's your blood. I love her. That afternoon, Jennifer's brother, Logan, began to question some of the construction workers at the complex. He said they were uncooperative. It didn't feel right. Did you sense somebody knew something? Yeah, 100 percent. At first, the Kessies say police infuriated them by not taking their daughter's
Starting point is 00:10:01 disappearance seriously. I'm like, come on, start to work, get to work. Police say they did not believe Jennifer's case met the criteria for declaring her missing. They kept suggesting that she must have had a fight with her boyfriend and would be back. Joyce used to complain to me. She's like, call them. I don't hear helicopters in the air. But by early evening, when there was still no sign of Jennifer, police officially declared her missing.
Starting point is 00:10:29 And despite evidence that she was at her condo that morning, police pursued a theory that Jennifer may have been abducted the night before. Cell tower data was analyzed, and it indicated Jennifer was out of her apartment and not at home. Police kept insisting that Jennifer went out in the middle of the night and we're like, you don't understand. That's not how our daughter's brain works. But upon further investigation, police realized the cell tower data was misinterpreted
Starting point is 00:10:59 and she actually wasn't out that night. She was the type of person who would call her mom or her dad or me when she was simply walking from Target in the parking lot and it was dark out. We all along have felt that she was abducted in the morning. But police were very quick to shut us down on certain things. As the hours went by, the Kessies' panic became unbearable. They feared that time was running out. We have to find her as quickly as possible because the more time that passes, the less chance we have and the worse it's going to be. Using Jennifer's apartment as their headquarters,
Starting point is 00:11:45 they began their own media blitz. You could go to any part of town and everyone knew Jennifer Kessy's name and they knew her face because there were posters, there were billboards. Her face was everywhere. The searches were massive.
Starting point is 00:12:04 There were hundreds of people that came out. The community just rallied. I had never seen anything of this magnitude. But still, no one knew where Jennifer was. As you can imagine, we were basket cases. We were flipping out. Then, two days after her disappearance, I think that my heart stopped. Police found Jennifer's car. Panic. Sheer panic. In 2014, Laura Heavlin was in her home in Tennessee when she received a call from California. Her daughter, Erin Corwin, was missing.
Starting point is 00:12:59 The young wife of a Marine had moved to the California desert to a remote base near Joshua Tree National Park. They have to alert the military and when they do, the NCIS gets involved. From CBS Studios and CBS News, this is 48 Hours NCIS. Listen to 48 Hours NCIS ad-free starting October 29th on Amazon Amazon Music. The most frustrating thing is not knowing where Jennifer's at. Not knowing where to look next. Patrol 13, can you send me the call, please? We can sit around and discuss different ideas and different theories, but not having a concrete, solid avenue to go down to bring resolution to the family is the most frustrating part of this case right now.
Starting point is 00:13:58 As the desperate hours went by, Sergeant Roger Brennan and his team of investigators searched the streets of Orlando looking for Jennifer Kessie. We were going through canvases of areas that she would travel or that she might be at. 48 Hours interviewed him in 2008. As we were driving around the area, around her complex, we were trying to identify different areas that her vehicle may have been seen. Jennifer's car had been seen the morning she disappeared. A couple said they saw it swerving out of her apartment complex at around 740.
Starting point is 00:14:39 It appeared that somebody was fighting over control of the car. Detective Joel Wright was one of the original investigators. Unfortunately, the witnesses couldn't say which way the car went once it got out onto the surface road. Then, two days after Jennifer vanished... Norwich County Sheriff's Office received a call about Jennifer's vehicle being in the Huntington on the Green condominiums, approximately 1.1 miles away from her condominium. What was concerning about this was the area it was located is not an area frequented by Jennifer. It's actually a complex that's been known where stolen cars were would be recovered from. You have that initial hope like
Starting point is 00:15:16 okay we found the car it's only going to be a matter of time before we find Jennifer. In an unexpected move detectives summoned boyfriend Rob Allen to meet them at Jennifer's car. When the police officer asked me to follow with him and to look at the inside of the car and the inside of the trunk, my stomach was churning as far as what could you find, you know. Despite being more than 200 miles away when Jennifer disappeared, Rob was suddenly a person of interest. I think they wanted to open the trunk, Jennifer wasn't there. There were no signs of a struggle. In fact, everywhere they looked, everything seemed normal.
Starting point is 00:16:07 This is the interior of Jennifer's car as we found it. In 2008, Sergeant Brennan shared evidence photos. Several items were located inside the vehicle, her cell phone, charger, sandals and shoes. Nothing appears to be disturbed in the vehicle at all. It didn't appear that it was a robbery. It didn't appear that it was a car theft. It didn't appear that it was a robbery. It didn't appear that it was a car theft. It didn't appear that it was carjacking. When that car was found, we jumped all over it. We immediately started asking everybody walking around if they had seen anything.
Starting point is 00:16:34 The canvassing started then, and then it got more intense as the days went on. We eventually had horses and helicopters and everything else up in the air looking around. We didn't come up with any solid leads of anybody who saw Jennifer, saw anybody park her vehicle here. But when police checked security cameras, it looked like they finally caught a big break. We have a film of the car being dropped off. Around noon on the day Jennifer disappeared, one of the cameras captured a person driving Jennifer's car. He pulls into a parking spot next to the pool area, backs out to even straighten himself in there, sits in there for 32 seconds, gets out, walks away, never looks back.
Starting point is 00:17:30 The phantom figure walked away in the direction of Jennifer's complex. It was beyond frightening. In my mind, it was that person took my daughter. And how fast can we find that person? This is the camera that caught the person that parked Jennifer's vehicle here. But to the Kessie's frustration, the person caught on that camera could not be identified. Apparently this video, when it films, captures every two to three seconds as it's filming. So that's why you only see the subject on one side of the gate and then the opposite side of the gate. And he's blocked by the posts on either side of the gate. Technology then was not what technology is now.
Starting point is 00:18:11 What are the chances of that happening? But it did. Seeing that tape of Jennifer's car, that was probably the worst moment. It was like being hit with a ton of bricks. And then also anger, just anger, because the person was so casual. Something really bad obviously happened, and they were just so casually dropping this car off
Starting point is 00:18:43 like they were, you know, getting home from work. We printed out pictures and we brought them out here. We were hopeful that somebody would recognize just the gate or just the general appearance or the stature or maybe the hairstyle or some aspect of this individual, but that didn't happen. What does that image tell you of that individual in front of the gate? It's difficult to tell. It looks like a man by the wall, by the gate,
Starting point is 00:19:13 and someone with pretty big feet for his height is the information we've been getting. In 2008, Detective Wright and Sergeant Brennan analyzed the surveillance tape with 48 hours. What do you know about this person's height? We've done quite a bit of measuring and work with the camera angles and also had people of different heights walk by. We've come up with a height between 5'3 and 5'5, and this has been backed up by the FBI, who also came down and checked out the figures. The clothing looks to be maybe someone who is a painter or some type of worker.
Starting point is 00:19:54 What do we know was going on around Jennifer's condominium at that time? We know there was quite a bit of a renovation going on inside her complex. The workers made her feel uncomfortable. She just said, you know, there's a lot of workers here, and they tend to, like, just stop when I'm walking by or going to my car, and they just look. Complicating the investigation, many of the workers disappeared before police could talk to them.
Starting point is 00:20:23 Some of the people who were working on the property left. A lot of your day laborers are not here legally. So I think they were scared. Investigators then went to check the security cameras at Jennifer's condo complex, but there weren't any. Just a security guard who was supposed to log the names and license numbers of visitors. However, the logs that we went through didn't appear to be complete. They also couldn't count on getting any reliable forensic evidence from Jennifer's condo. It was never secured by Orlando police. By the time they took it seriously, we had 14 people in the condo. And they said, well, you ruined the crime scene.
Starting point is 00:21:13 And I said, are you kidding me? They had no better luck with the forensics inside Jennifer's car. We didn't find any fingerprints on the steering wheel. Do you think the car was cleaned by someone? We didn't find any fingerprints on the steering wheel. Do you think the car was cleaned by someone? Possibly wiped it. The surveillance video does tell us that there was about 30 seconds of time when the person was inside the car. That person could have taken that time to wipe down the steering wheel and the rearview mirror or what have you.
Starting point is 00:21:38 And what about DNA? There were some vacuuming samples taken from each section of the vehicle that were subsequently sent off to a lab for evaluation. But the samples were inconclusive. So to me, they don't have DNA. At every turn, the detectives kept coming up empty and the case was going cold. But the Kessies refused to give up on Jennifer. I refuse to let her be forgotten until she's found. See more photos from the case on Facebook at 48 Hours. There's just no other place I could be today. My heart is here. In 2008, on the second anniversary of Jennifer's disappearance,
Starting point is 00:22:42 family and friends gathered on a street corner in Orlando. It's just difficult not having her. You know, she's like my other half, so... I just miss talking to her. Sorry. They held up signs, just as they had done the day Jennifer went missing, with the desperate hope that someone passing by knew something. A wrong has been done, and a person has been taken against her will,
Starting point is 00:23:16 and that's my daughter, and she needs to come home to her family. Maybe the right person will see us. Detective Joel Wright was still trying to solve this confounding mystery. There were an unbelievable amount of man hours went into this case. In 2009, Detective Wright decided to take a fresh look at the case. One of the people he interviewed on audio tape was a former housekeeper at Jennifer's Complex. The woman had not been questioned back in 2006. Do you remember a person by the name of Jennifer Kessie that turned up missing?
Starting point is 00:23:55 Do not. Yes, she was in the Marcy case. When he showed her that security camera photo of the unidentified suspect, she gave him a possible new lead. She did look at the photo and said, that looks like Chino. The housekeeper said the phantom figure's walk, clothing, and hairstyle resembled a man she knew from the complex named Chino, but she could not be sure it was him. Chino was a name Detective Wright had not heard before,
Starting point is 00:24:28 but he learned Chino used to live in another building at Jennifer's condo complex and was a former maintenance worker there. In fact, Chino had done work in Jennifer's condo just one week before she disappeared. And that's not all he learned. They put just the name Chino into a leads tracking system, and one tip did come up. A Crimeline tip had been received in the first week of the investigation.
Starting point is 00:24:57 The tip was anonymous and suggested Chino may have been involved in Jennifer's disappearance, but it's unclear if police had looked into it or talked to Chino may have been involved in Jennifer's disappearance, but it's unclear if police had looked into it or talked to Chino at all. At that point, I thought the investigation was kicking into gear. It wasn't hard to find Chino. He was serving time in a Florida prison for statutory rape of a teenage girl, a crime he committed two years after Jennifer disappeared. I knew that Chino had been arrested for a sex crime, and that was part of the development of him as a person of interest. You go by Chino, is that right?
Starting point is 00:25:41 Yes. Detective Wright interviewed him in prison and asked him about working in Jennifer's condo. When you did the work in her unit, was she present while you were doing it? How did you get into the condo? She doesn't. Is everything normal? Everything was normal. She's not ready to work.
Starting point is 00:26:00 Chino was then asked about these pictures, the one that the housekeeper said may have looked like him. You know the photos that you looked at earlier with the guy walking by the gate? Is there any reason why somebody would say that was you? And Chino is 5'9", taller than the figure's height estimated by police. Chino is very cooperative. He was familiar with the case, and he denied any kind of wrongdoing. Chino agreed to take a lie detector test. He passed.
Starting point is 00:26:37 And what did that tell you? It told me that he passed the polygraph, but I would never rule someone out just because they passed the polygraph. Wright also re-interviewed another maintenance worker who had done repairs with Chino in Jennifer's condo. Is nobody mad about anything, getting along fine? Everybody getting along fine, regular conversation, just letting us know what she wanted to be done in her unit. to be done with her and you and them. Detective Wright then interviewed the building manager at Jennifer's condo to find out if there were any issues between Jennifer and Chino or anyone else.
Starting point is 00:27:12 Are you aware of anybody that might have had a problem with Jennifer that worked there or lived there? No. Again, the case stalled. Then, in 2010, Detective Wright was moved off the case. As time went by, the Kessies felt abandoned by the Orlando Police Department. We asked them for several years to make her case cold because there's more resources available for cold cases. And they kept saying, nope, her case is extremely active. Do you believe that anyone realistically has been working this case in recent years? No.
Starting point is 00:27:50 No. In 2016, it had been 10 years since Jennifer went missing. She was declared dead by the state of Florida. That was one of the hardest things I've ever done in my life. I stood in the courtroom alone while a judge declared her deceased. Fed up, the Kessies made a dramatic move. They sued the Orlando Police Department to get Jennifer's case files. At the time, we thought, they want what? They want the police department's files?
Starting point is 00:28:25 I had never heard of that happening. In 2018, Orlando Rallone became the Orlando police chief. Although he wasn't in charge during the initial investigation, he sympathizes with the Kessies. I can understand why they're frustrated. I can understand why they're frustrated. I can understand why they would feel that maybe an agency like ours has not delivered on what they would expect for an agency to do. Chief Rallone gave his investigators six months to work the case, and when they came up with no new leads, he made the unprecedented decision to finally release the files to the Kessies. After the number of years that we have
Starting point is 00:29:06 spent trying to solve Jennifer's disappearance, I think it was time to also honor the wishes of the family. The family wants closure. We want closure. We want to find the person responsible for her disappearance. I think it's a win-win for all. So these are just some of your daughter's case files? Yes, I mean we probably have at least three times more in boxes of this. In all, the Orlando Police Department handed over more than 16,000 pages of documents and 67 hours of video and audio to the Kessies. But under the agreement, the Orlando PD would no longer lead the investigation. So at this point in time, the only people that are truly investigating what happened to Jennifer is us and our team. When you talk about challenging investigations,
Starting point is 00:30:02 this is the one. Michael Toretta is the Kesey's private investigator. I'm looking through these 16,000 documents for something that might have been missed by the Orlando PD, the FDLE, maybe even the FBI, who have had parts in this investigation. He says when he reviewed the files, he was amazed at what police didn't do. There's never been one quarterback on this case. And who they didn't speak with. There's a lot of information that could have been developed that I believe wasn't in the most critical hours of this investigation.
Starting point is 00:30:57 In the Pacific Ocean, halfway between Peru and New Zealand, lies a tiny volcanic island. It's a little-known British territory called Pitcairn, and it harboured a deep, dark scandal. There wouldn't be a girl on Pitcairn once they reached the age of 10 that would still a virgin. It just happens to all of us. I'm journalist Luke Jones, and for almost two years,
Starting point is 00:31:23 I've been investigating a shocking story that has left deep scars on generations of women and girls from Pitcairn. When there's nobody watching, nobody going to report it, people will get away with what they can get away with. In the Pitcairn trials I'll be uncovering a story of abuse and the fight for justice that has brought a unique, lonely, Pacific island to the brink of extinction. Listen to the Pitcairn Trials exclusively on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
Starting point is 00:32:09 We all have kids that this could have happened to, and as parents we need to help out each other, and that's what I'm doing. Private investigator Michael Toretta says he has gone through the more than 16,000-page case file at least three times. He's hoping to find new clues as to who could have abducted Jennifer Kessie. I always told the Kessies what I like to do with this investigation is put a puzzle together, one piece at a time. One of the first things he did was go back to the scene of the crime and speak to people who lived at Jennifer's complex.
Starting point is 00:32:47 You were there at the same time as Jennifer Kessie. Did you ever meet her? I don't recall formally meeting her. She did look familiar. Colleen, who asked to only use her first name, moved into the complex two years before Jennifer disappeared, believing it was a safe place to live. We were a gated community. We had a guardhouse. I would say 75% of the time, somebody was there. But she says once workers started living in empty apartments around the complex, she felt uneasy. When I would come home from work, there would be a large group of men outside drinking,
Starting point is 00:33:27 and whenever I would have to walk past them, you know, there would be a little bit of comments or just a lot of uncomfortable stares. It wasn't a great feeling. I didn't like it. Colleen says she complained to the leasing office manager. He was apologetic, but he told me
Starting point is 00:33:44 there was really nothing that he personally could do. From the very beginning, there were some uneasy things that I kind of brushed off that were red flags. When Tammy, who also asked to only use her first name, moved into the complex years later, she believed workers often entered her apartment when she wasn't home. There was creepy things like my underwear drawer was tossed.
Starting point is 00:34:10 One time the shower was wet. There was footprints in my closet. And then Tammy says she caught a peeping Tom, a man she believes was a worker at the complex. He was pleasuring himself in the corner of my patio. You opened the door and saw that? Busted him. Caught him. But she says he fled in a white van.
Starting point is 00:34:31 Tammy filed a police report, and to this day, she says they have never found the peeping Tom or the white van he was driving. Then, Toretta spoke to a woman who did not want to appear on camera. And the name Chino came up again, that maintenance worker at Jennifer's complex. The woman claimed that Chino often approached her in the parking lot late at night when she returned from work and made her feel uncomfortable. How often would you socialize with him? A few times a week. But this woman, who wants to be called Ashley, had a different opinion of Chino.
Starting point is 00:35:10 I remember him being fun and friendly, talkative. She moved into the complex just weeks after Jennifer disappeared. He came over to my condo quite a bit. She says they never talked about Jennifer's disappearance. I always wanted to ask him, you have keys to all the apartments. What do you think happened? That's a really hard question to ask somebody that's sitting on your couch next to you. Ashley says she never was suspicious of Chino until one day, nine months after Jennifer vanished, when Chino suddenly disappeared and moved out of the complex
Starting point is 00:35:46 in the middle of the night. He had the opportunity to tell me, and he didn't. Ashley says at first she didn't reach out to police. I sat on it for a little bit, and it just ate away at me. So I did, I called the crime line back then and told them, and they took my statement. But she says no one ever followed up with her. Why is what the women at the Mosaic told you important? I think it's important because it paints a picture that I don't believe I would have gotten from the 16,000 documents. There's nothing in there that indicates that there were problems at the mosaic.
Starting point is 00:36:28 After Chino's name came up multiple times, the Kessie team was anxious to talk to him. Chino should expect to hear from us. Chino needs to be spoken to again. And despite telling Detective Wright years ago he knew nothing about Jennifer's disappearance, the Kessies wondered if Chino was being truthful. Did he know more than he had admitted?
Starting point is 00:36:52 The last time police officially questioned Chino was back in 2009. Now, we have some of our own questions we'd like to ask. So I'm heading now to his last known address where I'm hoping we can find him. Hey, how are you? Chino. I'm Peter Van Sant with CBS News. We agreed not to use his full name.
Starting point is 00:37:16 When we asked about Jennifer Kesey, Chino quickly reiterated that he was innocent. I even did a lie detector test. I mean, everybody knows for a fact that I had nothing to do with Jennifer Kessie. You had nothing to do with her disappearance? Not at all. Where were you the morning of January 24, 2006? I don't have to answer any questions, but that's for sure.
Starting point is 00:37:39 And what about that photo taken by security cameras? Is this you? No, it's not. Do you know who this is? No, actually, I don't. You don't? I do not. You were the maintenance man there.
Starting point is 00:37:51 You saw all the workers at that complex. You don't recognize this figure? No. Mi amor, it's okay. I have nothing to hide. Okay. I do not recognize that person. Do you know of anyone who might have been involved in Jennifer Kessie's disappearance?
Starting point is 00:38:08 Anyone? And believe me, if I did know anyone that was involved in that, the Kessie family would be knowing as well. I met Jennifer Kessie. She was a beautiful person. She had no problem with me. Before we left, Chino even agreed to talk with the Kessy team. And in fact, weeks later, he did. But there were no big headlines. Toretta presses on. I want to do my best and bring Jennifer Kessy home to them one day. After all the interviews and reviewing the case file, Toretto says he now has a new theory as to what could have happened to Jennifer Kessie.
Starting point is 00:38:51 She's locking the door and never sees it coming. 15 years have passed since Jennifer Kessie vanished. Years of anguish for her family and friends. But they are determined to keep Jennifer's story alive. Jennifer is a super funny, super witty person. Very strong-willed and very sure of herself. She knew what track she was going to take and she knew how to get there. Jennifer is definitely the most loyal person
Starting point is 00:39:44 I've ever been friends with or probably ever known. After years of working for the Kessies, private detective Michael Toretta says he has a new theory as to what he thinks could have happened to Jennifer. Based on interviews with people who lived at the complex, he believes that up to 10 construction workers were living in an empty apartment just across from Jennifer's. He thinks it was one or more of these workers who abducted her on January 24, 2006. What I'm thinking is Jennifer comes out, she locks the door, of course she has her back to the apartment behind her and then is abducted by those individuals across the way.
Starting point is 00:40:32 Across the hallway? Yes. She's locking the door and never sees it coming. She probably was attacked immediately upon exiting. She's dragged into that other apartment. And that's the end. But Toretta struck out when he tried to find those workers who he believes lived in the vacant apartment across from Jennifer. And he says there is nothing in the files indicating that police ever spoke to them.
Starting point is 00:41:02 It's impossible to find those individuals. There's no lease. There's no list of names of who was staying in which apartment? Absolutely not. That was one of the most shocking parts of this investigation. As he continued his investigation, Toretta learned that 10 months after Jennifer disappeared, a person was seen dumping a rolled up piece of carpet into a lake not far from her condo. What's intriguing based on your investigation is the men that were in the apartment across from Jennifer's were putting down carpet that day. That's why it's very interesting to me. Based on your experience, is there a possibility what this person threw in that pond was her body?
Starting point is 00:41:53 Possibly. For the past two days, dive crews have been out on the water. In 2019, local police came out with a dive team. It was a good enough tip that you see the actions of I don't know how many divers. But no carpet was found. This is something that is haunting me. We need to see what's inside that carpet. The Kessies have dedicated their lives and weathered enormous financial hardship
Starting point is 00:42:23 to finding the truth of what happened to their beautiful 24-year-old daughter on that January morning in 2006. It's very, very hard to move forward. The hole in our heart is forever there until we have an answer. We just want an answer. Jennifer's loved ones hope this report will convince someone to take the courageous step of coming forward with information that could solve this heartbreaking mystery. Because someone must have seen something. I just think of Jennifer all the time. Who knows what would have happened if this heinous crime hadn't been committed.
Starting point is 00:43:06 For me, every milestone that I've had without her has been like a tug-of-war with my emotions. You know, getting married and having children and becoming a grown-up and just living life, just having her life. You know, she deserved that. And we just wish that one person that knows something in Orlando would just finally say it.
Starting point is 00:43:31 It's about Jennifer. It's not about us. And just please think of Jennifer. The Kessies are offering a $15,000 reward for information leading to Jennifer's whereabouts. If you have any information about Jennifer Kessies are offering a $15,000 reward for information leading to Jennifer's whereabouts. If you have any information about Jennifer Kessie's disappearance, please visit the Find Jennifer Kessie Facebook page. Hot shot Australian attorney Nicola Gaba was born into legal royalty. Her specialty? Representing some of the city's most infamous gangland criminals.
Starting point is 00:44:03 However, while Nicola held the underworld's darkest secrets, the most dangerous secret was her own. She's going to all the major groups within Melbourne's underworld, and she's informing on them all. I'm Marsha Clark, host of the new podcast, Informants Lawyer X. In my long career in criminal justice as a prosecutor and defense attorney, I've seen some crazy cases. And this one belongs right at the top of the list.
Starting point is 00:44:28 She was addicted to the game she had created. She just didn't know how to stop. Now, through dramatic interviews and access, I'll reveal the truth behind one of the world's most shocking legal scandals. Listen to Informant's Lawyer X exclusively on Wondery+. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. And listen to more Exhibit C true crime shows early and ad-free right now. A rising young music producer.
Starting point is 00:44:58 I said, what's wrong, Kevin? He said, I feel like something's going to happen. 10 to 17 shots. How much do you have to kill him? Who killed Kevin Harris? The clues are absolutely out there. 48 Hours, Saturday at 10, 9 Central on CBS. Thank you. If you like this podcast, you can listen ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app. Before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a quick survey at wondery.com slash survey.
Starting point is 00:45:52 Have you ever wondered who created that bottle of sriracha that's living in your fridge? Or why nearly every house in America has at least one game of Monopoly? Introducing the best idea yet, a brand new podcast from Wondery and T-Boy about the surprising origin stories of the products you're obsessed with and the bolder risk takers who brought them to life. Like, did you know that Super Mario, the best-selling video game character of all time, only exists because Nintendo couldn't get the rights to Popeye? Or Jack, that the idea for the McDonald's Happy Meal first came from a mom in Guatemala? From Pez dispensers to Levi's 501s to Air Jordans,
Starting point is 00:46:30 discover the surprising stories of the most viral products. Plus, we guarantee that after listening, you're going to dominate your next dinner party. So follow The Best Idea Yet on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to The Best Idea Yet early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery+. It's just The Best Idea Yet on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to the best idea yet early and ad free right now by joining Wondery Plus. It's just the best idea yet. Did you know that the movie Candyman was partly inspired by an actual murder?
Starting point is 00:46:58 Listen to Candyman, the true story behind the bathroom mirror murder, early and ad free with a 48 hours plus subscription on Apple Podcasts.

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