Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Killers Amongst Us: Florida's missing Jennifer Kesse showered and dressed for work, then vanished (part 2)

Episode Date: August 11, 2020

As the search continues for Jennifer Kesse, her black Malibu is found in an apartment complex about a mile away. How did it get there and what can it tell us about what happened to the 24-year-old? Jennifer's parents, Drew Joyce Kesse, give us insight into what was found and dashed hopes of finding surveillance video that would reveal all. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Hi guys, Nancy Grace here. Welcome back to Killers Amongst Us, a production of iHeartMedia and Crime Online. A beautiful young girl, Jennifer Kessie, skyrocketing in not only the workplace, but in her home life, her private life. Proud parents, Drew and Joyce, watched her as she hit a home run in practically everything she did. Beautiful, outgoing, smart, the works, until one day Jennifer doesn't show up at work. What happened to Jennifer Kessie? Are there killers amongst us?

I'm Nancy Grace. We want to solve the mystery surrounding the disappearance of Jennifer. With me, Ray Caputo, lead news anchor, Orlando's Morning News 96.5 WDBO. Renowned psychoanalyst joining us from Beverly Hills, Dr. Bethany Marshall at drbethanymarshall.com. Professor of forensics, Jacksonville State University author, Blood Beneath My Feet on Amazon, Joseph Scott Morgan, California prosecutor, author, Red Flags. You can find her at wendypatrickphd.com.

And special guests joining me now, Drew and Joyce Kessy, Jennifer's parents. Listen. Her car is missing. Her family, Jennifer's parents. Listen. Her car is missing. Her family says she's missing. She's not been to work. She drove a black Chevy Malibu. It had been all over TV for two days.

Now in Florida, we have a number of bodies of water. We have all kinds of different places where cars can break down. Yeah, this is Millennium Mall right here. Tips came in. Yeah, we think we see it over here, we think we see it over there. Tuesday is when she disappears. When was her car found? Thursday morning.

A neighbor who lived at Huntington on the Green saw the news report. The Huntington on the Green apartment complex, it's about a mile or so east of Jennifer's apartment. The complex was, yeah, it's rougher. Come to find out, a lot of crime in the area. We went out to the apartment complex and found Jennifer's car parked at the complex. Guys, you're hearing our friends at Fox regarding Jennifer's Black Malibu. The car reported in an apartment

complex about a mile east from Jennifer's condo, 96.5 WDBO. Ray, what can you tell me about the location where the car was dumped? Nancy, it was about a mile away from where Jennifer lived, literally on the same road. Now, Jennifer lived in a really nice place. It was getting built at the time, but this apartment complex where this car was left wasn't as nice. But other than that, it was an innocuous place. Now, as we move farther away and down the road where Jennifer was, there is more crime in that area, but it's a general area of tourism where there is a lot of crime built in, too. So there isn't really anything notable about that apartment complex other than I can say it's just not as nice as the one that Jennifer lived in. Joseph Scott Morgan, professor of forensics, Jacksonville State University author, Blood Beneath My Feet on Amazon.

What do you make of it? And what do you do when you get that vehicle? Well, you know, my hope is that the police would take that vehicle and lock it down completely. I mean, no one having access to this, you know, because it's so important, this evidence that could be contained within the vehicle. You know, we have an expectation that Jennifer would be in the vehicle. So to find trace evidence from her, her DNA, this sort of thing, that's not going to be surprising. Even to find, say, for instance, her boyfriend's DNA. But what you really want to do, Nancy, in this particular case, is lock it down so that you can find unknown DNA that you can profile off of this because we all leave some kind of trace behind. You know, we slough almost 100,000 skin cells, dead skin cells from our body daily.

And this leaves behind what's called touch DNA. And now we have the ability to go in and trace, track this down. But even before that, we have fingerprints, all these things that are still very fragile in and of themselves. So it's important to lock it down and make sure that it is secure. Listen, we thought this will be what these parents needed. Her car is here. There will at least be DNA. Is she in the trunk? I think it's a parent's worst nightmare. what these parents needed. Her car is here. There will at least be DNA. Is she in the trunk? I think it's a parent's worst nightmare.

I mean, you know, you don't know what you're going to find. It was emotional. Very little was found in that car that was able to help them at all with the case. There was no indication that Jennifer would have been the victim of a robbery. There were valuables in the car. There was still a DVD player with the case. There was no indication that Jennifer would have been the victim of a robbery. There were valuables in the car. There was still a DVD player in the back. There were still a couple of things that were in it. She had brought a brand new DVD player at the time,

so that wasn't stolen. Nothing was stolen out of the vehicle, which is weird. They came up with one latent print and one piece of very tiny fiber DNA. They believe that it was wiped down. Guys, you're hearing our friends at Fox joining me, Drew Kessie and Joyce Kessie, Jennifer's parents. From that spot, Drew, from her condo to where the car was found. I want to talk about the area where the car was found. Was it parked at any kind of a business where there could be surveillance video. And in that mile stretch, Florida is notorious for all of its tolls. Tolls everywhere you go. You got to have that easy pass, that sunshine pass.

So were there any tolls? Were there any red lights that may have had a red light camera between? Oh, and the gate. Was there a camera at the gate? What do we know about that one-mile stretch, Drew Kesey, between Jennifer's condominium, her brand-new condominium, and where her black Malibu was found? What we know at this time is, at first, there were no cameras. Unfortunately, new cameras went up in Jennifer's complex two weeks after she was taken. We also know that two weeks prior to Jennifer taking, the entire security force was let go at the complex and new

security was taken on because of the change from a rental to a ownership situation. The mile stretch in between, unfortunately, we are still looking at 2006, where technology was just starting to boom. There were no cameras in between the 1.2 miles, except for at the complex where Jennifer's car was dropped. Now, we do have in our possession 67 hours of film that law enforcement was able to obtain from anywhere and any place they thought viable. And unfortunately, the big box like Walgreens, CVS, the gas station, their cameras only made it as far as their parking lots. Didn't even make it to like the sidewalks. So it's unfortunately anything that we have outside, the only viable film that we have is what you see on Jennifer's website and what have you of a person parking her car, sitting in it 32 seconds, wiping it down, getting out, walking away and never looking back.

Oh, gosh. So unfortunately, there is very little, if any, the only film we have is what the America sees. You know, another question to Joyce Kessie, when the car was processed, what, if anything, was found regarding evidence? There was a latent fingerprint. It didn't match anybody. But what we have since found out after obtaining the police records is it was Jennifer's latent print. And there is a fiber in the car that they haven't done anything really with. Isn't that correct, Drew? Yes. There is what we call trace DNA on a piece of fiber that we're being told is so

minuscule that they are going to hold it until it's truly used. I have been pressing to get that identified. Once you have DNA identified, you have DNA identified. And let's get it into these databases, the GenMatch, you know, these genealogy databases now and the crime databases. Let's try and solve this thing. I mean, let's not wait for something. It's just incredible. And though we get the files, Nancy, we don't get physical evidence. It seems to me to Joseph Scott Morgan, there was a video of someone parking her car, but it couldn't identify the person. How can that be, Joe Scott, in this day and age that the video cannot be enhanced?

I mean, we can see craters on the moon, but we can't enhance that video? Yeah. And, you know, to think of it, Nancy, it's interesting. You should say craters on the moon. I believe that this video has been pushed up the chain to people that have really high-tech equipment, and they couldn't tighten it up enough. The image is really kind of faint and digitized, and at a great distance, the quality of the camera that was used was not very good to begin with. So the enhancement many times is heavily depended upon, you know, where it's sourced from.

You know, how good is the image that comes to them initially? And when you don't have anything to work with that's, you know, of substance, it's really hard to kind of frame it in a way that it could be usable. Take a listen to this. We started looking for video cameras because video cameras were becoming more and more prevalent in society. Two surveillance cameras at the complex revealed evidence that would become critical to the case.

What does the video show? It shows someone pulling into a parking spot, very visible in the guest parking spot by the pool, backing out, pulling in to correctly park the car, sat in the car for 32 seconds, walked out. The video recorded the car arriving at 12 noon on Tuesday the 24th, the day Jennifer disappeared. And when we see it in the surveillance footage that we have, you're basically watching the person walk around the outside of the fencing of the pool area.

That's the fencing you see in that film footage. It's incredibly grainy. That shot of the Caribbean parks could have been anybody. We started looking for video cameras because video cameras were becoming more and more prevalent in society. Two surveillance cameras at the complex revealed evidence that would become critical to the case. What does the video show? It shows someone pulling into a parking spot, very visible in the guest parking spot by the pool, backing out, pulling in to correctly park the car,

sat in the car for 32 seconds, walked out. The video recorded the car arriving at 12 noon on Tuesday the 24th, the day Jennifer disappeared. And when we see it in the surveillance footage that we have, you're basically watching the person walk around the outside of the fencing of the pool area. That's the fencing you see in that film footage. It's incredibly grainy. That shot of the car being parked could have been anybody. You're hearing our friends, that's Greta Van Susteren, the disappearance of Jennifer Kessie, to Drew and Joyce Kessie. You know, Joyce, I know you and Drew have looked at that video a million times. What do you make of it?

I think that whoever parked the car knew exactly what they were doing. I do not think that the person who parked her car was the person who actually took Jen. I think they were perhaps just asked to move the car because they're saying that the suspect is 5'3 to 5'5. Jen was, you know, she's 5'8 and she was wearing heels. So she would have towered over someone 5'3 and 5'5. She would have fought with her every last breath in her body. I agree with you.

She would have fought unless she was taken unawares, for instance, from behind or didn't see her attacker coming. Drew, Cassie, Jennifer's dad, Drew and Joyce have worked tirelessly to solve the mystery surrounding their daughter's death. Won't you join us? The tip line, 941-201-4009. It only takes one tip to crack this case. 941-201-4009. Drew Cassie, what do you make of that grainy surveillance video? Nancy, the video, it drives me crazy on a daily basis, to be quite honest with you. I look at it almost every day

and new things come out of it every day. What really drives me crazy is that technology has not caught up. We're very lucky to have it. Jennifer's condo didn't have any film. But someday technology is going to catch up and we are going to be able to do something with that film. But I still say, if anyone looks at that film, excuse me, they'll be able to tell if they know that person. You just don't have to see everything of a person. So we're still trying to touch the heart of someone who's seen that film and said, I know who that is. You know, that's really interesting. Something that he just said to Joseph Scott Morgan. I can tell when, for instance,

my husband comes in the door, in the back door, I don't have to see him. I can tell it's him by the pause in the laundry room. And then on his first footstep, by the sound of it, I can tell it's him. The other night I had to work late, came in and I saw a can of chocolate icing that you put on a cake sitting out on the island. And I immediately said, John David got an icing because that's his thing. I found socks in front of a particular chair and nobody had to tell me those were Lucy's because that's her chair. And as much as I try to

make her wear socks all the time in the house, she always either doesn't or kicks them off. My point is what Drew is saying. You don't have to see the face to know who it is by the way they walk. Something about it. Yeah, you're right. You know, it's them. And this is key, Nancy. You don't have to see somebody's face. And so anybody that's out there that has not seen this image, I beg of you, I beg of you to please watch it because we can pick up on things, identifiers. If we know somebody, if we have a personal relationship with somebody or even a peripheral relationship, we pick up on the gait. That is the strides that people take, how they walk, also their mannerisms. Do they move their shoulders in a particular way? Do they rotate

their head in a particular way? Do they take these pauses, as you mentioned? You know, and hey, going back to the car, listen, some people park a car in a very specific way that might not stand out to you and I because we don't know them. But my God, you know, somebody might know this person and they say, you know, they do this odd thing with the car every single time. And again, this is back to this idea of repetition. It's a learned behavior. It's something that we cannot escape. In forensics, we call this individualization, and that's a tieback for this specific person. So I beg anybody that has not seen this video, please, please watch it. You never know. You might be a person. You might be the person that can solve this case individualization you just taught me something new you just taught me something new joe scott morgan and there's another

aspect of this to dr bethany marshall we need to shrink and boy do we have a good one psychoanalyst dr bethany marshall joining us out of la you know i want to harken back to for instance and it's such a great example for so many criminal law issues, Scott Peterson. Where does Scott Peterson dump Lacey and Connor's bodies? He's a fisher. He dumped them where he goes fishing, San Francisco Bay. How did he do it? He utilized his own boat.

What I'm saying is very often, almost always, you see a suspect, a perp, go back to somewhere they're familiar. They know, hey, that's a good place to dump a car. I guarantee you it's somebody that lived or worked right around there, Dr. Bethany Marshall, and knew of this parking lot. Explain, you put the right verbiage onto what I'm trying to say. Well, first of all, we know that Jennifer was a woman of routine, right? She called her parents every morning and every night. She called her boyfriend. And the good thing is that kept her in contact with her family.

The bad thing is that if you have a Scott Peterson type or somebody who is really looking for a victim, they are going to look for women who have routines, who traverse the same terrain every day, where they can watch that person and see their comings and goings. And who is going to be looking for a victim in a particular place? A person who is familiar with that environment, as you're talking about. There were workers in the area. There were multiple apartment complexes. I understand that the car was parked 1.2 miles away. I agree with you. Whoever took Jennifer knew the area, was fond of the area, may have grown up in the area or worked in the area, was fond of the area, may have grown up in the area,

or worked in the area, was looking at multiple victims in the area, and had already either prepared a dump site for the body, a place to park the car, some getaway, or even had a community of people there to work in concert with him or her, but probably him. As Mr. Cassie said, they're not sure if the person who parked the car is the same person who may have abducted her. So not only was there a familiarity of environment, but a familiarity of community. There's not just video of the perp, whether they acted alone or with somebody else in Jennifer's disappearance. But they're a perp nonetheless. There's more surveillance other than the perp, one of them leaving her car in a parking lot. Take a listen to this. The second piece of video, we thought this is much better.

There is a figure, a person who is still a person of interest, walking. It seemed perfect until you really start looking at that piece of videotape. And it's heartbreaking. The figure who is walking down the fence line is actually snapped behind a pole in almost every single shot. This is where we catch the best, even though his face is behind the fence posts of the door. This is where we catch the best pictures of the person who dropped Jennifer's car and walked away. It was just a side profile with pretty much half the face just blocked. The luckiest person of interest ever. Are you certain this is a man? I mean,

I'm certain it's a man. I mean, it looks like a male. That was probably one of the most perplexing and frustrating parts of the investigation. I made contacts myself with enhancement experts, and that was taken immediately to them to be examined. That film, by the way, was enhanced by NASA. The second piece of video, we thought this is much better.

There is a figure, a person who is still a person of interest, walking. It seemed perfect until you really start looking at that piece of videotape. And it's heartbreaking. The figure who was walking down this fence line is actually snapped behind a pole in almost every single shot. This is where we catch the best, even though his face is behind the fence posts of the door, this is where we catch the best pictures of the person who dropped Jennifer's car and walked away. It was just a side profile with pretty much half the face just blocked.

The luckiest person of interest ever. Are you certain this is a man? I mean... I'm certain it's a man. I mean, it looks like a male. That was probably one of the most perplexing and frustrating parts of the investigation. I made contacts myself with enhancement experts and that was taken immediately to them to be examined. That film, by the way, was enhanced by NASA. Wow. Enhanced by NASA. You're hearing our friends,

Greta Van Susteren, the mysterious disappearance of Jennifer Kessie. Talk about the luckiest person, the luckiest perp in the world. Man, to Joyce Kessie, I know you've reviewed that video over and over and over. The face of the person obscured, obscured by a fence line and a pole. But what can you tell from it? My initial reaction was it was like a teenager because he looked lanky, and it does look like a male to me, long arms, big feet, typical of like a teenager during a growth spurt. And it sickens me to this day that this person actually walked their gate stride with such that their face is obscured.

But like Drew said, I am a strong believer. If you know this person, if this was a neighbor, a friend, a co-worker, you do not need to see their face to be able to identify who this is. And that's the most frustrating and heart-wrenching of this situation. This is the only real piece of video that we have. And the luckiest cretin in the world you know it's amazing to me ray caputo with me lead news anchor for for orlando's morning news 96.5 wdbo i know you've seen this video describe for me that fence line in that pole well the fence line it's you know it's the poles are just positioned like you normally would see them on a fence i think it's just really bad coincidence

in the timing of the camera but every step this person takes in that camera i believe which snaps a shot every three seconds um every shot on that fence line happens to be right in front of the big pole now you again you see fences and every uh several um fence posters a larger pole kind of anchoring the fence in it it's just extremely bad luck one of my colleagues shannon butler who had reported on the story was the one who had said that this is the luckiest you know suspect ever i i'm not sure if lucky is the best way to describe it but certainly serendipitous that they didn't have their face captured. I mean, it was just really awful coincidence. And, you know, another heartbreaking twist in this story. You know, Ray Caputo, I just keep thinking and thinking about the person walking along that fence. Joyce,

Cassie, you describe them as maybe a teenager. Why? You know, I'm a nurse and I've been a nurse for 41 years. And that was just my instinct when the detective showed us the still photos. They asked, what struck you? And my immediate answer was a gawky, lanky teenager. Look at how big the feet are are look at how long the arms are and I don't know why but that just jumped out it's like when we got the phone call my instinct wasn't that Jen was in an accident it was like oh my god we have to find her and I don't know, mother's intuition. I don't know. I don't know, Nancy. This is just

the most heart-wrenching 14 years that I would ever have imagined to be living. And my heart is just so broken. And we have to find Jennifer. We have to. We have no alternative but to find her. Bethany, I just, you know, when I'm listening to them speak, I just play back a million things in my mind about my twins, John, David, and Lucy. And it's just breaking my heart that here they are trying so hard. And it seems like everybody is against them.

The police haven't cooperated with them. I don't understand it. They can't get the video of the perp leaving the car magnified enough, enhanced enough. And they're just struggling. They're struggling so hard and they've never given up that just when she says mother's intuition, I got to tell you something, Bethany. I don't think there's anything more powerful than a mother's intuition. You just know things like this. Here's an example. This morning, for some reason, John David, we don't drink soda, but for some reason, he saved a bunch of liter bottles that he found at school and he put them in the car and they're in the front seat. And he got

in the front seat this morning and he kicked one. And just one time that's so unlike him, he would never kick. I mean, he's a gentle giant. Now, Lucy, she'll definitely kick something, but not him. And I looked over at his face. I'm like, honey, what's wrong? I mean, just that one kick. And it was like three inches because we were sitting in the car and I knew something was wrong. And in fact, it was when she says that she knows something. I guarantee you she's right, Bethany. You all can laugh if you want out there in the scientific world, Joe Scott Morgan. But I know that she's right, Bethany. Nancy, I know she's right too. Mothers do have intuition. We have all kinds of intuition. We know when our loved ones are okay and when

they're not, we kind of track with them psychologically. You know, I was thinking not only is there the parent's intuition that something really horrible happened, but there's this very traumatic visual cue that the parents have to see. It just, it was horrifying for me to hear that and the parents have to reimagine what might have happened to their daughter. And here they're in a community of people who are not pulling together in a loving way to help the family. The fact that it's taken them so long to get the police files, this family has been victimized again and again in an agonizing way over the last 14 years. I had an experience a

few years ago where my stepdaughter was mad at me and wouldn't talk to me for a month. And I died a thousand deaths every day, wondering where she was and what she was doing and what she called me. And it was a very, very minor spat we had and everything worked out. I cannot imagine 14 years of not knowing where your daughter is. You know, how does one survive? How does one go through their day? And I think that to encourage the listeners to your listeners to go to the Facebook site that the Kessies have set up to kind of see how they can cooperate. One more quick thing, Nancy, the fact that this is a teenager potentially on the surveillance tape, that tells me a lot. It tells me that there may be a lot of people who know who the perpetrator is. Not only are the Kessies intuitive about their daughter, but whoever is listening to this show or in this community who may be a family member of that teenager, they're intuitive too.

You know when your son's done something wrong. You know when there's something off about the family member. And I hope that those people have the courage to come forward. Joyce, do you ever feel that Jennifer is trying to tell you something? Oh, I do. I do. I do. I, Jennifer, it's the strangest thing, but I feel Jennifer's presence. And whenever I feel her presence, she it's always my left side and that's closest to your heart. And I just, I mean, I, I feel her. I don't, on any given day, I may change my mind, but I am pretty consistent in thinking

that Jennifer is out there and she is still needing to be rescued. I do not feel strongly that Jennifer is dead. I'm not stupid. I'm not delusional. I know what the statistics are, but I also know that there are more and more people being found alive than ever that have been held in captivity for years. So my hope and what keeps me getting out of bed and putting one foot in front of the next is the hope that one day we will be reunited. And what a joyous, joyous moment that would be. With me, Drew, and Joyce Kesey, please help us find Jennifer.

941-201-4009. The search goes on. Nancy Grace, Killers Amongst Us, signing off. Goodbye, friend. This is an iHeart Podcast.