Going West: True Crime - Kanika Powell // 101

Episode Date: December 30, 2020

*In 2008, a Maryland woman working in government security had a few strange visits to her apartment by unknown men. She never answered the door for them, but after coming back from running errands one afternoon, she was shot to death in the hallway of her complex. Was this murder related to her work, or was is the doing of a local serial killer who was haunting the area at this exact same time? This is the murder of Kanika Powell.* *BONUS EPISODES* patreon.com/goingwestpodcast *CASE SOURCES* https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/41415227/kanika-t-powell https://www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/60zu3b/missing_women_of_color_in_the_united_states/ https://www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/9rmaf9/a_man_was_knocking_at_my_door_the_unresolved/ https://truenoirstories.wordpress.com/2017/02/21/kanika-powell/ https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/45821449/sean-nicholas-green https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/name/sean-green-obituary?pid=146718453 https://murderpedia.org/male.S/s/scott-jason-thomas.htm https://www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/7e0f60/the_murders_of_kanika_powell_and_sean_green/ Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What is going on True Crime fans, I'm your host Heath, and I'm your other host, Daphne, and you're listening to Going West. Happy Holidays everybody, hope everyone had a great week last week. We released episode 100 on my aunt Carol Wolsoncroft. I just want to say that because we also released a Q&A last week. But I had to separate the two because it was too long to post just one episode. So I feel like a lot of people missed the 100th episode and just listened to the Q&A and didn't notice that there was also an actual episode. So if you didn't know, go listen to episode 100 on Carol Wolsoncroft. The new year is rolling around pretty quick so we're excited for that. Hopefully everybody else

is excited after this crazy year everybody's had. By the way, we always talk about this but we do have bonus episodes available for you guys. If you're interested You can head over to patreon.com slash going west podcast and just subscribe We have about 30 bonus episodes on there right now for you guys to binge in their full length and add free And then there's other little perks that you get for joining patreon and I think next month We'll probably post like a clip or like a longer extended clip for one of our episodes You guys can kind of see what it's all about, but it's just like this show except for no ads Exactly, so that's kind of a perk right there. Anyways guys, this is episode

101 of going west, so let's get into it In 2008, a Maryland woman working in government security had some strange visits to her apartment by unknown men. She never answered the door for them, but after coming back from running errands one afternoon, she was shot to death in the hallway of her complex. Was this murder related to her work? Or is this the doing of a local serial killer who was haunting the area at the exact same time? This is the murder of Kanika Powell was born on January 31, 1980 in the small yet safe town of Mitchellville, Maryland, to her mother, Judy Powell, along with her three siblings, Eric, Trina, and

Jamal. And her mom went on to marry a man named David Forrest who would become Kanika's stepfather. Kanika was described by many as someone that everyone just loved. Like she had an incredibly bright smile, a warm and welcoming soul, and she was someone who would always put her best foot forward. So it's kind of no surprise that Keneika grew up to be a very hardworking and ambitious woman, and about two years after graduating from Largo High School in 1998, she enlisted in the army. At age 20, Keneika served in Korea for the next four years, and then

returned home to Maryland in hopes of starting a career in security. And this was just such a perfect professional path for her because she was very intelligent, very cautious, and she wanted to help protect her country in every way that she could. In 2004, Keneika landed her dream job, which was a contract security worker at the John Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, also known as APL in Laurel, Maryland.

This company specializes in research regarding space science, combat systems, air and missile development, homeland protection, national health, and much more. So they require top-level security clearance. So when Keneika would travel for her job or be working on a project, she was not allowed to tell her family or her friends any specific details regarding what she was doing. She would often go to Florida in California but even her mom, who Kineka was incredibly close with, wasn't allowed to know the nature of her daughter's trips. But she would always ask and Kineka would respond with, mom, you know I can't tell you that. Even so, Kanika loved her job, and it really

gave her purpose. On the side she enjoyed hanging out with her close group of girlfriends and either going to restaurants or bars and just doing normal things women in their early 20s would do. In 2006, so two years into working for APL, the company had finally realized Kanika's potential and hired her on as a full-time employee. Although she would be doing essentially the same work, but more, the lab described her job as ensuring the reliability of complex technologies that safeguard the nation's security and advance the frontiers of space. Wow, so that is a lot to take in because just from that sentence,

like her job is very, very important. It sounds really important, yeah. But, you know, she wasn't allowed to really say anything about it. But also, to make it seem even more important, she was in charge of over 400 projects. But of course, again, that's all we know, because much of her actual day-to-day work was top secret. At this time, Kanika was living alone

in an apartment in Laurel, Maryland, which wasn't far from where she grew up, so she had all of her friends and family very near her, and she was in the same city as her job. And although the city of Laurel had just about 25,000 people in those days, it's pretty much smack dab between Baltimore, Maryland, and Washington, D.C. So she was just like 30 minutes or so either way from a big city. Life was going great for Kineka and she continued to advance in her career.

But in August 2008, so two years into working full-time at APL when she was 28 years old, something really strange happened. On Monday, August 25, 2008, at 804am, Kaniqa sent an email to a group of her family and friends. The subject for this email was Weekend and it read, I just wanted to share with you the scariest thing that happened to me this weekend. Saturday evening around 7pm, a man was knocking at my door, as all of you know I live alone. I asked who it was and he didn't answer. So once I got close to the door and looked out of the people, I

saw a male figure that was not familiar to me at all. I asked who he was and all he stated was that he was from the FBI and that he was looking for Kenika Powell. It freaked me out completely because this man knew my name. He held a shield up but no picture ID and he never gave his name. He told me he was looking for me in regards to an investigation. I told him that I had no idea as to what he was talking about and that he would need to show me documentation as well as a warrant of some sort. So he left and I looked out my bedroom window and saw him walking. I also heard a voice tell him to walk in the opposite direction.

The whole situation was scary and seemed so false. So because of this incident, not only did I get no sleep for the rest of the weekend, but I am now trying to get an alarm system installed in my apartment. I had one in my old apartment, but I just hadn't had it transferred over to my new one. had one in my old apartment, but I just hadn't had it transferred over to my new one. As far as everything that happened with the guy, I did call the FBI, and they told me that it was more than likely bogus, because they never come to your door by themselves, and they always leave a card of some sort so that you can contact them. I called the local police as well to give them a description just in case someone is out there trying to rape or harm single women.

Pass this on, ladies. This is not a fake forward. This happened to me, Kanika. Who knows who these guys are and what they're doing and in what areas other than mine. And this really just tells you how smart Kanika is. Because on the night in question in Laurel, Maryland, the sunset at around 7.50pm, she sees this man was at her apartment door on a Saturday evening as the sun was starting to set, and she was still able to tell that his badge looked fake, and she didn't answer the door. And I'm assuming she knew to be kind of this careful because of her job, you know, because even if you live alone, a lot of women would likely open the door if a man said they were from the FBI stated your full name

Held up a badge to the people and said they wanted to talk to you about an investigation. Oh, yeah, the definitely. I mean, I think probably Nine times at a 10. Well exactly cuz you're like, oh shit. This is the law. They're at my door I'm not gonna not open it and she's like, no, no, no, this is weird. And, you know, not only is she very smart for not opening the door, but the fact that she called the FBI to ask if this was all proper protocol and it wasn't, and the fact that she reported it to police and told all of her family and friends, like she took all the correct and safe steps in this very odd situation. And that FBI also apparently told Kananiqa that

they haven't sent anyone to her home and that she was not under investigation for anything. Okay, so that, that to me is the creepiest part because you're probably thinking in your head before you contact FBI, you're like, okay, maybe they did send somebody and maybe there's something going on, I better double check, but then as soon as you call the FBI and they're like, okay, yeah, we didn't send anybody. That's the moment where I feel like the fear would really set in. Right. And again, so smart of her to even call the FBI because I feel like in some situations,

if a woman didn't answer the door, maybe they were like, oh, I don't know what this is. I'm just going to report it to the police, but she called the FBI and she literally asked them. So that was amazing. And I also will say regarding this email, I did read on Reddit. Some people were like, oh, this does sound like a fake forward. And the fact that she pointed out that it wasn't a fake forward makes me feel even more so like it was. But as we're about to say, she told people on the phone that this was happening. So for anyone right now who's thinking, oh, that was probably a fake email, I guarantee it wasn't. So after talking to relatives about this event that week, she explained that something just didn't feel right. And she was even more glad that she didn't open the door once she heard someone

outside tell the man who had walked up to her door to walk in the opposite direction. As if someone else was standing by and directing this man on what to do and what to say. Which is crazy that she caught that, that she had literally heard someone say no walk the other way. She's like what? Yeah, that's creepy. Kanika made sure to inform her apartment complex about what happened as well. And either she got a security system installed in her apartment or she had scheduled to get one installed because we don't really have

that information because the reports are a little bit conflicting. But either way, she was really taking all the precautions to ensure that if this happened again, she would be ready and everyone would know about it. And by the way, we couldn't find exactly what her apartment looked like, but apparently it was a garden-style apartment, so the front door of her home was outdoors. Whether or not the building had a gated entryway, we couldn't find. But just four days after the first incident occurred, another man came to Kanika's door. On Wednesday, August 27th, 2008, a man knocked on Kanika's front door. He was different than the one who had come the previous Saturday, but he also asked if she

was Kanika Powell. He told her he had a package he needed to deliver to her, but she refused to open the door. The man then said he was going to get the package, but he never came back. And he didn't ever leave a package nor a note that stated where she could pick up the package herself, which we all know that delivery services leave those little pink slips when you don't answer the door, which happened to me like two weeks ago. So they do that, that is the protocol. Delivery people also don't usually ask for a specific person by their name and say that they have a delivery for them while they're not holding a box. And that's why the

whole situation threw Kineka off. Because this kind of thing never happened and now it happened twice in one week. She had a really bad feeling about it. So luckily, again, she didn't open the door or even say whether or not her name was Keneke Powell. That's a smart move. She's a smart lady. The following morning on Thursday, August 28th, 2008, it happened yet again. Keneke was asleep when she suddenly heard knocking at her front door. When she went up to the door and asked to it was, the man said that he had a package for her. Again, the man wasn't holding one and asked for K was, the man said that he had a package for her. Again, the man wasn't

holding one, and asked for Kanika by name. After the man left, she immediately called her mom and told her about the incident, and they were both incredibly confused by it considering it was just past 7 o'clock in the morning, which is too early for packages to be delivered anyway. And we even checked up on this for a few different male delivery services here in the US, USPS, UPS, FedEx, etc. And the earliest is usually 8.30am, but most don't deliver until 9am and end at 5pm. So someone coming to her door that early doesn't make any sense. And not to mention the man wasn't holding a package this time either and never brought a package to her door And I will say really quick the first time a man came to her door regarding a package

aka the day before I couldn't find anywhere what time of day that happened So I know she was at work that day, so I'm assuming it was probably after she got home from work Which then would be after hours. So again, weird. Yeah, just the timing is just off. So this second incident made Keninkafil very sure that she was being set up for something. So she called the police to explain that this was the third time something like this had happened that week, and she was very scared. An officer came to her complex shortly after she called them

and he did a perimeter check of the building, but apparently he didn't find anything suspicious, so he just left. And this is what's so frustrating about this kind of situation is that's really all the police can do. They can come and check it out, and if they don't see anything, it's like how can they ensure that someone is not going to come back? I mean, the best they can do is have a squad car waiting, but again

She's just saying someone's knocking on my door saying they have a package for me and not bringing a package and the police are probably like Okay, that's not weird. It was probably a delivery dude, you know Yeah, exactly and also not having other witness accounts of this person or any physical evidence It's basically just coming from the word of Kaniqa who is obviously incredibly frustrated and worried at this point. And we've talked about this in other episodes where if someone's not threatening your life, then the police are kind of like, okay, well, let us know if they do. You know what I mean? Yeah, right. There's no like, there's no like, there's no threat really. There's no measures taken before The crime itself would happen which is so tough because to her she's like I'm scared someone keeps coming to my door

But because this person didn't threaten her and all they said was that they had a package The police can't really do anything about it, which just sucks. Yeah, it's definitely frustrating especially in this case So just after the officer left after doing a perimeter check, Keneika went out to run some errands since she was supposed to leave for a work trip the next day. And she wanted to make sure that she did these errands in the daytime, so she didn't have to come back to her apartment when it was dark because she was scared. So she took the day off work and ran her necessary errands that morning. And remember again, this is a Thursday.

Upon returning to her apartment complex a few hours later, at around 11.50 a.m., someone who had likely been waiting in the hallway just outside of her unit opened fire and shot 28-year-old Keneke Powell several times with a handgun. Someone nearby heard the shots and immediately called 911. And when police in medics arrived, Kanika was still alive but unconscious. After being rushed to the hospital

in hopes of saving her life, ultimately, nothing could be done and she died the following day from her injuries. Police were absolutely dumb-founded after discovering her body because one of the officers had done a check there earlier that day and Kaniika had called them about this issue twice that week. So they were shocked that something actually happened to her. Her wallet and keys were next to her body when they found her so they knew this wasn't

a robbery. But rather that someone had been At the time that Keneka was murdered, she wasn't dating anyone and didn't have any recent or volatile relationships, so please felt truly baffled as to who wanted her dead. Everyone in her life loved her and she was known to have a heart of gold. So why go to so much effort to seemingly assassinate her? There were no signs at all that Kaniika was involved in anything sketchy or legal by any means, and she lived a fairly quiet and simple life alone. And even after searching her apartment, which the killer had not gone into, they didn't find anything that could help paint this picture.

But of course, since Kaniika worked a government security job, police wondered if her murder could be related to something that she was doing at work. Since Kanika told her mom and others close to her that multiple different men had come to her door that week, her death seemed almost like some sort of operation. After looking further into Kanika's work, police couldn't find any motive for someone wanting her dead regarding what she did. No one has released anything to the public on why her murder is not believed to be work related, but Keneke's mom Judy told an interviewer once that all she knew about her daughter's job was that it had something to do with the military.

Now let's explore the possibility that someone had, for whatever reason, put a hit out on Kaniika. Why were there multiple men involved, and why didn't they shoot her while they knew she was on the other side of the door when they came to her apartment? I mean, that could have definitely been risky, but all this happened during broad daylight, where Kaniika could visibly see the men's faces through her front door's people. And the murder itself took place before noon on a bright summer day, yet whoever killed her somehow wasn't seen by anyone and was able to safely flee the scene of the crime completely undetected. And this doesn't make sense to me at all,

because again it would be a lot easier to speculate on this if we knew what her exact apartment looked like, but it's a a lot easier to speculate on this if we knew what her exact apartment looked like. But it's a pretty bold thing to do in daylight either way. And not only is that bold, but these men could have been seen the other three times that they went to Knieke's door. Yet to our knowledge, they weren't. And for some reason, there's not a ton of information about this case online. So there's some details that I'm curious about that it couldn't find. Like, for example, we know the first supposed delivery guy was different from the first guy who came originally, who said he was in the FBI.

But was the first delivery guy the same as the second one? And I also wonder if police have descriptions of the men, which I mean you would assume they could have since she called them after each incident, but this information wasn't available and it's super crucial stuff to know when investigating a murder. So I do hope that she gave a valid description. Yeah, this whole thing is so strange to me because like you're saying, you know, why were three different men involved in this murder or this assassination? I should say. Like what, what is the reasoning for that? Because typically when we see a homicide happen,

it's usually one person, and a lot of times the M.O. is usually like strangulation or stabbing or something like that. So the fact that she was shot also really throws things off for me as well. Well, Anne, because she was shot so many times, and like, it's almost like this person just wanted her dead.

It wasn't like an intimate murder where someone came into her apartment and stabbed her. This was like someone just wanted her to end her. Yeah, and also considering the fact that she didn't really have a dating life, she wasn't in any relationships or anything like that. So, that's another piece of this puzzle that just doesn't make sense to me. Yeah, I agree. And I just, I can't get over the fact that these men,

whether it was two or three different guys, made themselves known to her front door in broad daylight when somebody could have said, oh yeah, I saw a guy walking, you know, in the area of her apartment around that time and this is what he looked like or I caught him on this camera. Like that is bold as hell.

Yeah, definitely. And then also the fact that the first guy says that he was from the FBI, that's also very strange to me. The whole situation just doesn't make any sense. Since Kanika's place of work was so tight-lipped about her murder, a lot of people speculate that,

regardless of what the police think, it's highly likely that Kenika was a victim of something work related. It's almost too big of a coincidence that someone posed as an FBI agent at her door and asked for her by name when Kenika herself worked in government security. Also since she lived in an apartment, her mailbox wasn't outside of her door like it would be if she lived in a house, meaning that whoever killed her was specifically looking for Kanika and was able to find out where she lived. So, if it was someone who worked with her or someone who worked for the government, they could have either followed her home or found her address from their system. And maybe they

said that they were from the FBI hoping that that would trigger Kanika to answer the door, thinking that they wanted to question her about her job. Yeah, that's what I was thinking too, that maybe saying they're from the FBI, she would trust it more and she would say, oh, like, I work in government security, maybe this is something important. Right. Since she worked in a governmental job, like, it's easy for her to be like, or to assume that this is something important. When somebody says, hey, we're from the FBI, she's probably thinking, oh, this is something that I need to address.

And as we said, too, like that seems like an easier way to get someone to open the door if they think that the law is at their door and they have to. But she was smarter than that and even she didn't buy it. So I don't know. Yeah. Well, this really reminds me of, there's a couple cases out there where people serial killers have posed as police officers and pulled people over and said, hey, I'm a police officer and then they end up tying them up and kidnapping these people.

And this whole thing kind of has that feeling to it. Yes, and that's what's so scary is you read those things where someone puts sirens on their car and then, but they didn't have all the police detailing on their car. You're just supposed to trust that. Yes, because you're like, oh, well, it's the law. They're pulling me over. I'm just following over.

They're an authority figure. Yeah, which is so terrifying. So another possible work connection theory is that whoever killed Canika had gone on to kill another security employee, a man named Sean Green. Sean Green was born on August 19th, 1977, so he was about three years older than Canika.

In 2008, he was working as an IT professional at the National Counterterrorism Center in McLean, Virginia, which is just outside of Washington, DC, so it's also close to Laurel, Maryland. Less than three months after Canika was murdered, on Wednesday, November 12, 2008, Sean Green was sitting in a line of cars at a traffic light just a block or so from his home in Oxenhill, Maryland Which is about 30 minutes away from where he worked in Virginia And by the way, I know we've been talking about like Maryland and Virginia and Washington DC But they're all next to each other and all the towns and cities that we've mentioned are right by the state's borders and

Very close to one another. So anyway, while Sean was sitting in his car at the light, a masked gunman shot at his car and hit Sean nine times. The reason why some speculate that Kineke and Sean's murderers could have been committed by the same person is because they were both shot many times and they both worked top secret government jobs. And Sean was killed just a few short months after Kanika less than 30 minutes away from where she lived.

They both were unmarried and lived alone and had no criminal backgrounds whatsoever. It's unknown to the public if Sean had any strange visits like Kanika did prior to his murder, but the fact that he was shot nine times makes it fair to say that someone was specifically trying to murder Sean. Yeah, it's not like a bullet hit him and it was just one and it also hit other people. Right.

He was shot nine times in his car. Yeah. And maybe after many attempts to come to his door or follow him, this was the killer's best opportunity to get the job done, so to speak. But like Keneke's murder, this seems like a very specific killing, like someone just wanted Sean dead. This wasn't an intimate killing, it was straight to the point. There isn't any known connection between Sean Green and Keneke Powell, and police have

stated that there is no indication that the two cases are connected, but they very well maybe. And while I was reading some theories on Reddit, I saw a couple comments about people saying that having a security clearance job doesn't mean that much because over 1 million people have top secret clearances. Also, it being the Washington DC area,

these jobs and companies are a lot more common than other areas. So why would someone want Kaniika dead and employee of just four years who didn't seem to have any special like obvious no one can know this information? Since we don't know exactly what she and Sean were doing, it's really hard to speculate that it could be work related, but like Heath said, it just seems like two strange of a coincidence, not to be work-related. Especially because there's really no other possible explanation.

Unless, she discovered something at work that was really intense and someone wanted her dead for it, but considering she seemed genuinely confused why these men were coming to her door and didn't mention anything along the lines of, I think someone's after me because of what I discovered at work, yet she gave her family other details of these events that just seems odd to me. Like, as far as we know, she didn't mention to her mom or police that someone could be after her because of her job. And if she really did know something she shouldn't have known,

I bet that would have come to her mind. And to quote Kanika in her last call to her mom after the third visit, why are these people bothering me, Ma? So it doesn't seem like she had any idea. Yeah, and it's kind of strange to me because I'm curious to know if possibly the FBI guy, the guy, the first one, was the actual killer, but possibly the second and third guys were just actually delivery guys. And maybe it's possible that she was just so nervous that she thought that the second two guys were related to what was going on, but really weren't.

I feel like that probably would have come forward though, like if somebody was trying to, if you're really trying to attempt to delivery though, you wouldn't say all go get the package and never come back, like you're trying to get your job done. Right, but here's one thing that we do know. We do know that the FBI guy is a liar. And so that's something in this case that we do know. We don't know that about the delivery guys,

but we do know that about the FBI guy, because she had called the FBI and asked them and they said, nope. But what if the FBI guy, let's say there's like at least two guys involved, right? The FBI guy and then the delivery guy or the guy who told the FBI guy to go in the other direction. Remember? Yeah.

So we know there's at least two people involved. So what if the first guy, the FBI guy tried it and they're like, okay, this FBI front isn't working? Then the other guy tries to be a delivery man in hopes of her opening the door with this new tactic. That makes sense. Because I just feel like the fact that he never left a slip for her, he was operating outside of general delivery service hours. And he never dropped off a package nor left her any kind of no. Like, it's hard for me to believe he was a legit delivery dude.

I guess I'm just going off of the fact that we do know that this was paranoid. Yeah, we do know that and we also do know that this FBI guy, whoever he says he is, lied and wasn't there from the FBI. Right. And by the way, guys, we posted photos of both Kanika and Sean Green on our socials, by the way, as we always post photos. I mean, Kanika was so beautiful and Sean just had such a contagious smile.

And so you guys should totally go look at those photos. Our Instagram is at going West Podcast and then Twitter is at going West Pod. And then we're also on Facebook, Facebook.com slash going West Podcast. Yeah, and if you guys want to give us a follow, that would be awesome as well. Another popular theory regarding Keneke Powell's murder is that she was the victim of a serial killer dubbed as the mother daughter killer. He was active between June 2008 and March 2009 in the Prince George's County, Maryland area, which covers the area

Kanika grew up in as well as where she lived in Laurel, Maryland. The killer was discovered to be a 25 year old man named Jason Thomas Scott, who worked part-time as a UPS delivery man and murdered five women, so that could be a connection right there. Well, it could be. Carry on. And the reason he's called the mother daughter killer is because from two of the women he murdered, he also killed each of their daughters. And as terrifying as it is, Jason Thomas Scott used his job at UPS to access records on his victims, track them down and study their patterns so that he could efficiently rob and murder them. so this guy is

a psychopath yeah like you would he would find people and then be like okay because i'm gonna come by their house every day i'm gonna see how many people live there how many cars are usually there like you did all this research because he was a ups driver which is so fucking creepy yeah very very scary He was known to shoot his victims, which remembers how Kanika died, but he never admitted to killing Kanika and police haven't been able to find any connections that he did. Jason Thomas Scott is currently serving a hundred-year prison sentence, and he's just nine years into that sentencing. I mean, I think this sounds like a really interesting lead considering this killer was active in her exact area at the time she was killed.

And considering someone came to her door twice saying they had a package for her and this dude worked part time at UPS. Like that just seems like a wild connection. Oh yeah, and the fact that he shot his victims. Exactly. However, the fact that someone had also come to the door stating that they were from the FBI makes me think this wasn't Jason Thomas Scott because an article I read said that he wasn't known to impersonate anybody at all and he also wasn't even known to state that he had a package to deliver to the women that he murdered. He just kind of used his UPS job to track their schedules.

So I'm not sure about this one, but it's definitely interesting. I mean, part of me is like, well, he could have said he was a delivery man so that he could gain access to her apartment and kill her and then rob her, but she wasn't robbed. She was just murdered in her doorway. So that doesn't really,

like he has more of a robbery motive. Yeah, that doesn't really add up in that way. Yeah, I mean, he's an evil killer too. So murder was also a motive, but it was first and foremost robbery, and she was not robbed. All the men who came to Keneka's door asked her if she was Keneka,

which proves that they didn't specifically know her, and the fact that she didn't recognize them either says so too. Between this and the fact that there were multiple men involved, points us to the most likely scenario being that this was in some way probably a contracted killing. But why did the men come to her apartment door and ask for her? Like were they trying to get into her apartment?

And if not, why interact with her at all instead of just waiting until she leaves her apartment to go to work or to run an errand? Because ultimately this is how they killed her. But not until after the reattempts at coming to her door. So like, why even make yourself known at all, you know? Yeah, also, why not try and sneak in through a window or something?

Obviously, I don't know what the apartment looks like, but if you were that type of person, you could maybe work your way into her apartment somehow, whether you have to like, Jimmy, Jimmy her door to get it open or something like that. I mean, just the fact that they ended up killing her in her doorway or not her doorway outside her door, rather, and didn't enter her apartment, like, I don't know why they didn't just do that in the first place, because by the time that she was murdered, she had called police about this three times. So why even make themselves known and put more attention on them instead of just killing

her while she's walking to her car, you know what I mean? And the other part of this that I have to question is the fact that it's possible she could have known something about work that she wasn't supposed to know, but she didn't want to tell any of her family or friends in fear of Then their lives being endangered. You know what I'm saying. Oh, I mean, it's definitely possible and I mean knowing that Keneke was cautious enough not to open the door The men could have assumed that Keneke would be on high alert and that she was taking steps to ensure her safety So again, I just don't get why they approached her door three separate times in daylight,

because that's just so risky. And if this was a hit, like why would two to three men be working together to kill one woman? Yeah, that really doesn't make any sense to me. None of it really does. A bit after Kanika's murder, her mom commented, she was just living a normal life.

It doesn't add up. Somebody knows something and they're holding onto it. And we don't know why. Keneka's murder occurred over 12 years ago, and police don't have any known leads. Many of the articles featuring Keneka's case have, for some reason, been removed from the internet. So a lot of information is missing

and unknown to the public. Which just screams government conspiracy to me. Yeah, it's a little strange. If you have any information regarding what happened to Keneke Powell, please call the Prince George's County homicide unit at 301-772-4925. Or if you'd like to remain anonymous, please call 866-411-TIPS. Thank you so much everybody for listening to this episode of Going West. Yes, thank you guys so much. This was a really strange episode. And next week we'll have an all new episode for you guys to dive into.

It's so sad because I was looking her up on the internet and trying to find any like family information I found her legacy page, which there's just so many comments from her family members like every year it seems that they're just saying we miss you so much. We went to your favorite restaurant on your birthday like all these things and this poor family just doesn't have any answers, especially because this case is so weird. Like, why did someone want her dead? It doesn't make any sense. So, if you have any information, please, please, please tell someone. Or any theories that you guys have about this case? Let us know, contact us, we'd love to talk about it. Yeah, we do have a discussion group on Facebook, it's just called

Going West Discussion Group, if you just type that into the search. That's where we really love to kind of deep dive into cases and talk about them and everybody comments on each other's posts and it's really fun. So please go join that and then let us know what your theory is. All right guys, it's time to give thanks to those who joined our Patreon account this week. Again, Patreon is where you can get full length ad free bonus episodes. We have over 30 on there right now.

And we're about to release another one this week. So it's also the best way you can support the show other than telling a friend. Yeah, absolutely. Make sure you tell a friend. Yeah, so thank you so much everybody who joined. Thank you so much to Courtney, Zach, Kaitlyn, Rebecca, Nicole, Lisa, and Karina.

Big things going out to Erica, Brienne, Melissa, Jen, Lauren, Courtney, and Erin. Thank you so much to Laura, Megan, Julie, Lindsay, Rebecca, Marissa, and Faith. And then we have a thanks going out to Elise, Kyle, Mary, Jasey, Teresa, and Megan. And thank you so much to Jean, Josh, Nikki, Jen, Kate, Waldemar, Kelly, and Terry. And last but not least, thank you so much to Nicole, Jen, Sarah, Tess, Natalie, Eliza, Michaela, Laurie, E.E. and Amy. Thank you guys so much.

You guys are amazing. We love having you over on the Patreon community. We love your support. Thank you. Yes, thank you guys so, so much. We love the shit idea. And as always, thank you so much everybody for listening to this episode. It means the world that we have your support and your ears.

Alright guys, so for everybody out there in the world... Cheerio, don't be a stranger and happy new year! you