Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Killers Amongst Us: Florida's missing Jennifer Kesse showered and dressed for work, then vanished (part 4)

Episode Date: August 25, 2020

Jennifer Kesse goes missing after a vacation with her boyfriend. Her apartment shows no signs of a struggle. Then her black Malibu is found in an apartment complex about a mile away. DNA evidence is found. Fingerprints are found, but are they any help in identifying who took Jennifer? What do the Kesses, Joyce and Drew, know about the other evidence found? Very little, they say, because the police department will not turn what they found over to the parents. In fact, the Kesses had to sue. Where do we go from here in finding Jennifer Kesse? Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You're listening to an iHeart Podcast. Hi guys, Nancy Grace here. Welcome back to Killers Amongst Us, a production of iHeartMedia and Crime Online. The mysterious disappearance of Jennifer Kessie. As always, investigators first questioned Jennifer's family and close friends to see if any of them had a reason to kidnap or harm her or if they knew someone that did. Now, her ex-boyfriend, according to reports, was recently upset and wanted to get back together with Jennifer. He was questioned. Her current boyfriend was also questioned. His alibi checked out.

He was eliminated as a suspect. He lived at least an hour away from her. As we already know, her home was undisturbed, her clothes laying out on the bed. She had taken a shower. Everything seemed to be in place in the home. We all agree that nothing unusual happened inside her condo. The crime scene moves to where her car is found. Nothing is stolen from the car. There's a brand new DVD player in there. And police came up with one latent print and one piece of very tiny fiber DNA. Drew and Joyce Kessie still looking for their gorgeous girl. What happened to Jennifer Kessie? Are there killers amongst us?

We put dogs on the ground. Dogs went straight from her car, straight back to her building. Police said this bloodhound named Bo tracked a scent from Huntington on the Green right back to Jennifer's condo complex, a distance of 1.2 miles. But did it go up to her door or just to the condominium area? Because we're about a mile away from her apartments, and that seems rather extraordinary to me. The dog would go from her car back to the condominiums, but to her door or just to the complex?

Right. I was told by the detective when I wanted to confirm about the track that it went to Mosaic Condominiums, to the parking lot area where her car would have been parked. There's two reasons for having that track. One is to see if we can figure out maybe the dog can lead us to Jennifer herself. And then the other thing is, is perhaps they can find a path that the person of interest took and we can find the person of interest or find evidence that was discarded along the route to wherever they were going. Where is Jennifer Kessie? I'm Nancy Grace. This is Killers Amongst Us.

And even now, Drew and Joyce Kessie, her parents, want answers. With me, Drew and Joyce Kessie, Ashley Wilcott, Joseph Scott Morgan, Dr. Bethany Marshall, and Ray Caputo. To Dr. Bethany Marshall, psychoanalyst, joining us from Beverly Hills. Dr. Bethany, I think this person, the person that kidnapped and killed Jennifer Kessie, is still out there. I also believe this was not their first time at the rodeo. And certainly not their first time at the rodeo and certainly not their last. In other words, I bet you anything the perp's DNA is in the data bank by now. Nancy, I think so. You know, with so many of the crimes we cover, the perpetrators are not only out there, but they're breaking to family members or there's

clues that they're leaving behind or they're reoffending in ways that they come to the attention of law enforcement. So let's take a look at this perpetrator in particular. He struck during the daytime hours. He knew enough to remove the car. He wiped it down for 32 seconds. He walked away. This was premeditated. He had been watching Jennifer Kessie's condo and planning this. The type of

person who carries out this type of abduction is often a serial offender. And what that means is that they are trolling neighborhoods, looking for victims, often living in isolated ways, although sometimes with families. Some serial killers never talk to anybody about their crimes, but others do brag about their crimes. You know, think about the BTK killer where, you know, he didn't brag about his crimes, but he turned in the CD to the church pastor that had evidence of his crime on it. So what if this perpetrator is not only reoffending,

but talking to a family member, bragging about what happened, engaging in strange behaviors? Let's say there's a family in this community where they have a 27 or 28-year-old son, who was 27 or 28 years old at the time, who would just leave at night in random kinds of ways and come back in the mid-morning.

I think the police and the families should plea out to the entire community about these kinds of strange odd behaviors and do almost like a crowdsourcing exercise where they ask the community to think back and the police to think back about odd behavior, bragging. And you know, one last thing, with the passage of time, victims or witnesses to a crime are more likely to come forward because they're less afraid of negative repercussions on behalf of the perpetrator. With me, Dr. Bethany Marshall, joining us out of LA to Joyce Kesey. This is Jennifer's mom. Joyce, I know that a tiny bit of DNA was found in the car. As Jennifer's question to you regarding the DNA, do we know what type of DNA? Is it a skin cell? Is it saliva? Is it hair? Do you have any idea what the DNA is?

I personally do not. They kept so much close to the vest. I think that's a question perhaps Drew can answer because he's read the file. Right. What about it, Drew? On the DNA that we have currently, that the police have currently, I recently had it clarified. And it is a partial DNA, so they cannot even begin to use it within a data bank. So if you're asking me, as of right now, I don't think technology can complete a piece of DNA. So in my eyes, we don't have DNA. Okay, Joseph Scott Morgan, a partial piece of DNA. I mean, DNA can be in a slight amount, but DNA can't just be split.

It's like splitting an atom. You can't just split it. You may not have enough DNA to work with, but partial DNA? Explain that, Joseph Scott Morgan. Yeah, what we're talking about here is probably something that's left behind. The fragment itself is insufficient. And this happens many times in forensics.

Whoa, whoa, insufficient or partial. I understand that their could be too small of a sample left behind, an infinite tesmanal piece of DNA you can't work with. But a partial DNA? Yeah, and it can be fragmented. Many times would say if it's coming from skin, for instance, and we all heard about touch DNA and this sort of thing. The reason, say, for instance, if it is from skin, those are dead, sloughing skin cells that are falling away. If they've collected it from that or say a broken hair strand, the strand itself, and I'm referring to the strand of DNA, is

incomplete. But what they can do is they can amplify that and they can expand it. Yeah, that's what I'm saying, because I've worked with so many DNA cases in court when there was a small amount of DNA and you can replicate it. You can increase it to a certain extent. You can amplify it, I guess is what I'm trying to say. Regenerate it. If you have DNA, you can make more of the same DNA based on that tiny bit. Have you ever heard of putting a piece of an organ like a liver back in and it grows? Okay, that's what I'm talking about with dna

and i'm speaking in very rudimentary terms i'm just a lawyer not a scientist but when they're telling the kessies it's partial dna and even if it's a strand of hair without the nuclear nuclei root from which you get full-on dna you can still get mitochondrial DNA. Yes, you can. And if you got mitochondrial DNA, then you can look for familial DNA. Yes, you can. I mean, am I just dreaming here, Joe Scott? No, you're not. And here's the rub that all this comes down to. You know, they were talking, Drew mentioned, and he was right just a moment ago,

that they have insufficient to marry it up with anything that's in a database. If they can amplify this bit of DNA, there are two different databases that you go to. You go to known offenders, and then you have what is referred to as the forensic offender database. And what that means is they have unidentified DNA that has been collected at scenes, for instance, all over the country that has not been tied specifically back to a person. And what Bethany was talking about with serial offenders, this is kind of interesting. If you can take that and tie that back, if they amplify it and they can tie it back to an offender, say, for instance, they have a grouping of these unidentified DNA strands that are coming back in the Orlando area, in Florida, from a greater perspective,

then that can tie this thing back as opposed to maybe this is just some random transient off of the street that kind of vanished into the night, never being seen again. You can establish a pattern from an investigative perspective. Well, hold on just a moment right there you know i just got to point out ashy wilcott judge and trial lawyer court tv anchor ashywilcott.com you know this guy whether he was a illegal immigrant unregistered or live there people act the same way. Behavioral MOs, method of operation, modus operandi, really don't change. For instance, every time a guy go on the run that I was trying, I go,

you know what, first of all, go to mommy's house. He's bunked up. He's under the bed. He's in the closet. Go. Guarantee you, 70% of the time, that's where they'd be. I don't think this guy fled the area, Ashley. That's what I'm saying. Oh, I completely agree with you, Nancy. And let me tell you what I see in court over and over and over again. It's part of what you just said, part of what Bethany

said. And that is people who commit these kinds of crimes, they don't keep their mouth shut. They're not able to. They tell somebody, they tell everybody to get arrested on something else and tell someone in jail. They tell a friend, they tell a neighbor they have too much to drink and they tell everybody. I think it is someone who is still in the area. You're absolutely right. They don't move state to state or move to another country, but rather they're a member of that community and they've talked to somebody. I want to go back to Drew and Joyce Kessie. Drew told me that essentially he feels there is no DNA. Why do you think that?

How do you know that? Did you tell me you think it was a shaft of hair? What is the DNA? The DNA is fabric. you tell me you think it was a shaft of hair what is the dna the dna is um fabric and they're supposedly and this is what i'm reading i mean this is right out partial to the point that they could not complete the identification of the dna it was partial stranded dna that's what they're using okay hold on let me just take that in. Let me take that in, Drew. On fabric, partial DNA. You know, at the time that she went missing, Jennifer went missing,

I don't know that we were even using mitochondrial, which is basically partial DNA. You can only, on a shaft of hair, without the nuclear root, you can only get the mother's DNA. That's partial DNA. You can only, on a shaft of hair without the nuclear root, you can only get the mother's DNA. That's partial DNA. You don't have the bio dad's DNA in that, which you need for full-on DNA. I mean, Joe Scott, is that what it sounds like to you? It's on a piece of fabric. See, I didn't know that. That's something new to me that Drew Kelsey just told me.

It's DNA on a fabric, partial DNA. Does that sound to you like just mitochondrial? Yeah, it kind of does, Nancy. And my thought is, was it from a piece of fabric as it fell away from this individual as they were in the car. One more thing about this, Nancy, that I think is very crucial that the Kessies have brought up, and that is this idea that this guy is wiping the inside and the outside, I don't know what it was, of this vehicle down. This goes to a level of sophistication and awareness that this person had that he's leaving potentially a trace of himself around. He's taking the time. This is not a frenzied event. He's wiping down the car to eradicate any kind of trace. That, again, gives me an indication that this person has an ease with this,

as opposed to somebody that's just in some kind of frenzy that may have attacked this precious girl. Well, it also tells me they may have done it before. Yes. Because they're wiping away the evidence. When it's your first time, you don't even know to do all that. Then we think we have a break. Listen to WKMG Clay Leppard. We've learned from the Orange County Sheriff's Office that it was a tip from the Kessie family investigator that led them here and led them behind these homes to search a concentrated

area on Lake Fisher. For the past two days, dive crews have been out on the watr searching for any clues t Jennifer Kessy's disappea there thursday as crews w began their search, cleari the Kessy family watched was a good enough tip tha of how many divers and what have you.

I think we had eight divers at one time. The 24-year-old went missing back in January of 2006 when she never showed up for work. You guys are doing a Walmart. As the search intensified, her car was found at a condo complex about a mile away from where she lived. There's signs on the side of the road. Since then, her family and friends have not given up the search. She is our child. Ultimately, I'm responsible for finding my child. Drew Kessie, Joyce Kessie, never giving up the fight to find their daughter or's had to actually sue the police department in Orlando to get the file.

It's practically unheard of. To Drew, did you ever get the full file? We're still working through that almost a year later. We have gotten about, I would say, 95% of files, and we are working still with redactions on certain files, clarifying them, as well as, I guess, about a month ago now, through a news report, the chief stepped up and said, we found some more files. We didn't give kessie so we're gonna have to get them through that so we don't know we don't know if we're getting the full file oh to think what you've been through already and now you have to sue the police department to get the file listen to our friend wftv9 shannon butler drew and joyce kessie know that they may never see their daughter alive again. But that hasn't stopped them from pushing to find her. It's been 12 years of pain that has turned from debilitating sadness to rage and on a daily basis, everything in between.

Today seemed to be a day filled with anger. There's a lot of things that were done wrong and they need to be held accountable for it. The family has hired an attorney to fight to get the case filed to have a private investigator find jennifer they say opd has had more than a decade and their time is up it's okay orlando it's okay we understand how hard it is we understand people make mistakes i've made mistakes we're all, but it's time to get every resource available. And we feel that we have the right to. Drew, Joyce, what was the final straw? Let me go to you, Joyce. This is Jennifer's mother that made you realize you had to sue the darn police to get the file. Because, Nancy, the final straw was the fact that then they stopped communicating with us and stopped responding to emails. And all through probably the better part of two years that we were campaigning, if you will, to have them release the record,

it was double talk. It was double talk that we were getting, and we were just so frustrated with the fact that we knew that they weren't moving forward on her case that we just felt as a family we had to take this action to get the records. Well, Drew, Cassie, it's kind of like you got the tiger by the tail. You can't hold on. You can't let go. You don't want to antagonize the police, but yet you're not getting answers.

You don't know what's happening with the case. They won't communicate. Quit answering calls and emails. So at some point, you've got to make a decision when you can't hold on and you can't let go. Drew Kessie, what was the final straw for you that made you know you had to, of all things, sue the police department to get the file? It just became quite evident to everyone involved that they were never going to, as an agency, do that to anyone at any time under any circumstance. So I personally knew that the legal system had to become involved to sort things out. So it's a shame that it took 12 years. We knew that when we brought legal into the fringe that we would lose a lot of power, so to say. And I don't want to say power, but when you give up to legal, the whole game changes. And the whole game did change, and it has changed.

So what we walked foot and hand and step with for almost 12 years, they became our adversaries. And think about that. I want people to think about that. Law enforcement, and I'm saying specifically Orlando Police Department, law enforcement, turned. The people that are supposed to help you in the hardest times of your life, especially in something as abduction, turned. They gave up. About 75%, which was what was in the Orlando PD files, like timelines, photos, most of them anyway. But it's the interviews police did with construction workers

employed at the condo complex that they are really pouring over. Why is that, Drew Kessie? Because it's important to look at all of everything that happened, if you really look at it. And I guess it's logical sense that who had access to Jennifer at the time? Where was she that people had access to her? We know it didn't happen in the condo, so it had to happen around the car or her getting into the car. Did you learn in the files that there are polygraph test results? Oh, I've read many polygraph test results, and I've read many polygraph test results that are absolutely false, that were passed as true.

Absolutely false. You even went so far as to hire your own private investigator. What have you learned from the PI? What I've learned from our investigative team is it's an incredible process when you have 14,000 pages and 67 hours of film to process and process properly because, you know, we're being told we got one shot at whoever we're going to go after and the people we go after. So we have to make it informative. We have to make it factual and we have to make it work when we finally truly do become very aggressive. And I think we're coming to that point. It's in my eyes, it's taken two years too long,

but we're coming to that point where we need to be very aggressive. But as an oxymoron, we don't have the resources financially to move forward in the manner in which we need to. Take a listen to this police presser. At the Orlando Police Department, we never stop searching for missing persons. But today we're announcing an enhanced focus on the Jennifer Kessy investigation and renewing our plea for anyone with information to come forward and help us solve this case. Through the years, the public's interest in this case has not waned. That is due in large part to Drew and Joyce, who have been committed to keeping this case in the public eye. And it's worked. This case continues to generate tips.

So I'm announcing today that Orlando Police Department Detective Teresa Sprague will focus exclusively on this case. She's going to pour through the thousands of pages of documents and case files and the hundreds of tips with a fresh set of eyes. At the Orlando Police Department, we never stop searching for missing persons. But today we're announcing an enhanced focus

on the Jennifer Kessy investigation and renewing our plea for anyone with information to come forward and help us solve this case. Yet through the years, the public's interest in this case has not waned. That is due in large part to Drew and Joyce, and who have been committed to keeping this case in the public eye. And it's worked. This case continues to generate tips.

So I'm announcing today that Orlando Police Department Detective Teresa Sprague will focus exclusively on this case. She's going to pour through the thousands of pages of documents and case files and the hundreds of tips with a fresh set of eyes. To Drew and Joyce Kesey, joining me right now, Jennifer's parents, what do you make of the new focus on Jennifer's case? Is it real? No. Nancy, I will tell you that that's probably the third time they said that, and that's probably the third time they said that about Detective Teresa Sprague. We were there day one when Teresa came on board with absolutely zero percent missing persons experience. In fact, I brought her to the Department of Justice

training seminar I was attending at the time To get her training what we have found out through files and receiving the files That detective Sprague had not written one note in a computer Or on page that we see for the past Seven years of the investigation so late 2012 was the last anything was written in a computer about Jennifer Kesey's investigation, and nothing has been written in seven plus years, almost eight years, from Detective Teresa Sprague that we have in our hands. And we asked about that through legal of Orange County, and we were told that she did not write anything in the past seven and a half years.

Oh, my stars. Make what you want of it. I had put so much faith and hope in the naming of Sprague. Hadn't she been a homicide detective prior to this? Yes. Joe Scott Morgan, you know, I've represented the state my whole life. And to hear this is just a kick in the teeth. Joe Scott. Yeah, it is, Nancy, that with a case such as this, that they would put this into the hands of someone who has

no experience whatsoever. And obviously... Well, she is a homicide detective. Yeah, but there's a bit of a difference here. You know, when you're trying to track down a missing person, those kinds of investigations work differently when you're trying to piece these things together. As a homicide detective, you start off from the perspective of, I have a body. And in this particular case, she does not. And so that's a completely different way of looking at the world and looking at the investigative context of this thing. And that's a problem. And the fact that what the Kessies have stated, that there's not a note, there's not a follow-up report, there's nothing there of substance.

It's absolutely heartbreaking. Absolutely heartbreaking. Well, I know she's still with the Orlando PD because she just had a presser as late as February 2020. OK, and that was about the body of 46 year old Daniel Everett being found. And she was speaking about that. So she's still in homicide. She's still at Orlando. But according to the Cass cassies has done nothing on

the jennifer cassie case ray caputo anchor orlando's morning news wdbo why are you guys screaming on the courthouse steps if nothing is being done about this case we've been talking about this in the media in fact like almost every year when her disappearance comes around we talk about it again and you know i'm not a fan of bashing our law enforcement officers they have hard me either hard job but i'm a bigger fan of the truth right right and you know nancy this past weekend i took all the or actually a couple weeks ago i took all the kids to the orlando magic game and i spent a lot of money but i i like my parents did for me i pour my heart out to my kids because i want them

to have a better life than me and Joyce and Drew, they're the same kind of parents. Jennifer was one of their most prized possessions. When something wasn't right with her, they knew it. They drove all the way to Orlando at a moment's notice. They called police, but since Jennifer was an adult, and moreover she had a fight with her boyfriend, it was like her

story was on the back burner. In a critical time, those first 48, when all that evidence is there to be taken. What we're left with, Nancy, is we got this piece of a puzzle. We got small pieces of a puzzle, and we're trying to put it together. But there are these large pieces that we missed early on. Where are all those workers? What are they doing now?

Where are all the potential witnesses? This is information now that Orlando police are trying to get after the fact. They're putting in effort. They're searching lakes. People are following up on leads. But it's just all too little too late. To Ashley Wolcott, you're the judge. You're the trial lawyer.

What, if anything, can they do now? You can't make the police do something. Well, they need to pursue and continue with the lawsuit. But I have to tell you, you know, I think outside of the box and as a judge, I see attorneys with really creative ideas and motions. Why not, if there's a court case, still subpoena all the records from law enforcement or use some other legal mechanism, it may have already been done, to try to get them to do it. And then I wonder, you know, sometimes mediation, and here's why I suggest this, because, yeah, police departments don't want to admit maybe they didn't handle it 14 years ago.

They would have handled it today. Maybe they haven't kept a fine eye on where their evidence files are in their office. That sounds crazy, but that's the reality of people and turnover and the things that can happen. So sometimes I suggest mediation. Why? So that everybody can sit down. It's not as litigious to say. Oh, man, Ashley. I mean, take off those rose-colored glasses. This is way past mediation. The Cassies had to sue the Orlando PD to get the file.

They still don't have everything. I know. They're basically trying to strong-arm them to do DNA tests. In fact, at this point, I would do my own DNA test. Joe Scott, help me out. I mean, Ashley is right. That would be the normal next step. So see these guys sitting down to mediate.

I mean, not one note written in the file in seven years according to the Cassies. Oh, H-E-L-L, no. They got to get that evidence and they got to have it tested themselves. Joe Scott. Yeah, they do. And, you know, I think another interesting perspective, Nancy, is the fact that the Florida FBLE, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, actually has, and this is statewide, they have their own cold case investigative squad.

They even now have their own DNA case investigative squad. They even now have their own DNA genetic investigative squad. So I think I would really like the FDLE. Is that what you're talking about? Yeah, I'm sorry. Yeah, FDLE. I'm really hoping that maybe they could be appealed to at this point in time, since Orlando doesn't seem so. Let's see. Hold on. What about it, Drew? And Joyce, to you, Drew, what about the FDLE? And is it your hope the FBI will take the case? First of all, I tried to get FDLE to take the case, to do exactly what was stated there.

One must understand, FDLE has not one piece of power in this state. They can only do what is specifically asked of them from the particular police department. So they very much wanted to do more for Jennifer and take over, I believe, in the long run. But OPD would not do that. What do I feel? I truly feel that Jennifer's case does need to go to the well, you know, I want to say FBI. What I have learned by going through this process and getting the legal documents and having to do an investigation on our own is a normal, regular family like ourselves, the Kessies. You can't do it. We cannot do it. It takes an incredible amount of money, resources, and expertise of which our government has within our legal and investigative system, not the Kessies. So as much as we've moved forward,

it breaks our hearts even more because we can't do what's truly needed. OK, let me ask you another question, Drew. What about the Florida attorney general? I'm sure you've contacted them. Not the current one. Life is difficult. I have not. I did go to the attorney general before, Pam Bondi, and she said, honestly, there's nothing I can do to help you.

You're doing what would need to be done from my end, which would be going into getting records. But it's a very difficult fight, Nancy, after 14 years, just mentally. Well, I understand that the current Florida Attorney General is Ashley Moody. Is that correct? Yes, she is, and we have not met with her or the governor, and we usually do all that on their first day. It's taken a toll on them. For those of you that care about Jennifer Kessie as we do, that number is 850-414-3300. Repeat, 850-414-3300 or 800-955-8771. Toll free, 866-966-7226.

What we need is the Florida Attorney General to assign this to a cold case division or to put a new investigative team on it and take it away from the Orlando PD. What about it, Joe Scott? I'm completely on board with it. As a matter of fact, you know, I think that there's a lot of us in the forensic community that are out here. You hear about crowdsourcing, crowdsourcing cases relative to armchair detectives. I think that there are a lot of people in forensics that would, you know, would like to crowdsource a case like this. If we could have access to that, to that data, to that would, you know, would like to crowdsource a case like this. If we could have

access to that, to that data, to that evidence that they're not doing anything with, at least give me and my colleagues a shot at it. Okay. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Right there. Right there. Drew and Joyce, would you be willing to copy all the files and hand them over to Joe Scott to amass a team? Yes. Any chance? I mean, we have to. Hey, I'm just trying to think of anything we can do to help. I'm trying to think of anything at all.

Number one, I personally will write the attorney general and ask for her to intervene. But I would be happy, more than happy, to work with Joe Scott to look at the file, to just see, did anybody miss anything that you guys maybe missed? I don't know. Maybe you didn't miss anything, but maybe you did. And when you get a team of experts on it, and I don't want any money, and Joseph Scott Morgan doesn't want any money.

Just let us help you. Let us help you in any way that we can. For those of you that hear us now, the tip line is 941-201-4009. Please help us. 941-201-4009. You can go to CrimeOnline.com for all the necessary links. If you have an idea, if you have a tip,

please help the Kessies. Help Jennifer. Yes, you're right. And help Jennifer. Nancy Grace, Crime Stories, signing off. Goodbye, friend. you're listening to an iHeart podcast