The mother of Kenneka Jenkins, the 19-year-old Chicago woman who was found dead in a hotel freezer last Sunday, is asking the FBI to step in and take over the investigation.
Jenkins was found dead in a freezer in the lower level of the Crowne Plaza O’Hare & Conference Center in Rosemont, Illinois on Sunday, Sept. 10. Her family reported her missing about 12 hours after she attended a party in a room on the hotel’s 9th floor late Friday and into Saturday morning.
Jenkins’s friends, Irene Roberts and Monifah Shelton, called Jenkins’ mother, Teresa Martin, around 4:30 a.m. and told her they could not find Jenkins.
The two women returned Martin’s car and Jenkins’s cell phone to her a short time later. They told her they left Jenkins in the hotel lobby while they went back upstairs to retrieve her cell phone and car keys.
They said when they returned to the lobby, Jenkins was gone.
About an hour later, Martin showed up at the hotel begging the staff to review surveillance video to determine where Jenkins had gone.
Time was of the essence, she told the desk clerk. But the clerk refused the frantic mother’s request, saying she would need a warrant to review the surveillance video.
Jenkins reportedly said that her daughter had a low tolerance for alcohol. “One cup is too much for her,” Martin said, indicating that she knew Jenkins was drinking at the party.
Jenkins’ family filed a police report at 1:15 p.m. Saturday. Her body was not found until after midnight on Sunday.
Continued on next page…
