The FBI will not join the Rosemont Police Department’s investigation into the mysterious death of a Chicago teenager.
Kenneka Jenkins, 19, 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.
Jenkins’s mother, Teresa Martin, asked the FBI to step in and take over the case after a series of missteps by the Rosemont police.
“I’m not a professional, but the FBI, from what I heard, they are professionals,” Martin said. “I’m just looking for help — that’s all I’ve been asking for since day one.”
But in a statement released Wednesday night, Rosemont Police Chief Donald E. Stephens III said the FBI will not be asked to join the investigation.
“I am fully confident in the ability of each and every one of the officers, detectives, and leadership team charged with this case. At no time have I doubted the work that is being done,” Stephens wrote in the statement.
He added that “this investigation has been and remains the utmost priority for us.”
SEE ALSO: Kenneka Jenkins’ Mother Asks FBI to Investigate Mysterious Death
Stephens’s statement came a day after about 100 people marched to the FBI building on Chicago’s Near West Side.
“We’re here at the FBI building asking for a second look,” activist Mark Carter told reporters at the front gate of the FBI’s Chicago field office on Saturday.
Martin and Carter say they want the FBI to investigate hotel surveillance videos released by the Rosemont police on Friday.
The videos show the intoxicated teenager staggering off an elevator and stumbling down hallways and through an unused kitchen on the lower Conference level of the hotel.
The videos have now been altered and re-uploaded to Youtube.com by dozens of amateur Internet detectives offering their sometimes flawed analysis and wild conspiracy theories.
Rosemont Village Mayor Brad Stephens said the online conspiracy theories are slowing down the investigation into Jenkins’ death.
“It’s unfortunate that some of that stuff is convoluting the investigation because all those leads have got to be followed up on,” Stephens told the Chicago Tribune on Wednesday.
