May 21, 2025 • 24 mins
Jennifer Kesse was everything you'd expect from a successful 24-year-old: college graduate, financial manager with multiple promotions, homeowner, and surrounded by loving family and friends. Then, on January 24, 2006, she simply disappeared.
The case quickly unraveled into a web of haunting details that still perplex investigators today.
The disappearance of Jennifer Kesse forces us to confront uncomfortable truths about safety, vulnerability, and how quickly someone's entire existence can vanish without explanation.
If you have information about Jennifer's case, visit the website linked below to help a family still waiting for closure after 19 long years.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Host (00:07):
Welcome to Clue Trail, where every story is a mystery
and every clue pulls you deeperinto the unknown, from unsolved
cases and strange disappearancesto hidden histories and curious
twists of fate.
To hidden histories and curioustwists of fate, we piece
together fragments, searchingfor the truth or uncovering even
(00:31):
bigger questions.
Some clues reveal answers,others lead to greater mysteries
, but one thing is certain Everytrail tells a story.
Are you ready to follow it?
Let's begin, and if you enjoyClue Trail, please take a moment
(00:52):
to leave us a rating or areview.
It helps more curious mindslike yours find the show.
(01:22):
It was a typical Tuesday morningin Orlando, F lorida, on
January 24th 2006.
Jennifer Kesse, a driven,successful 24-year-old woman,
was expected at work.
She had just returned from avacation with her boyfriend,
(01:43):
settled back into her apartment,and that morning she never
showed up.
Her phone went silent wheneveryone called, her car
disappeared and Jennifer wasgone.
What followed became one ofFlorida's most baffling missing
(02:04):
persons cases, a case still opento this day, still unsolved and
still haunting.
There was no crime scene, nowitnesses, just a security
camera with a grainy figurewalking away from her abandoned
car and a family's unrelentingsearch for the truth.
(02:27):
Today, on Clue Trail, werevisit the case of Jennifer
Kesse to explore not just howsomeone could disappear in the
heart of a busy city, but why,nearly two decades later, we
still have no answers.
(02:58):
Jennifer Joyce Kesse was born onMay 20th 1981, in New Jersey
and raised in the close-knitcommunity of Lakeland, Florida.
The people who knew her bestdescribe her as confident,
(03:20):
responsible and fiercelyindependent.
She graduated with honors fromUniversity of Central Florida,
where she studied finance, andshortly after college she
secured a job as a financialmanager at Central Florida
Investments, a solid,well-paying role that gave her a
fast start on her career.
Jennifer didn't just have goalsand dreams, she followed
(03:43):
through.
By 24, she had bought her firstapartment in a newly renovated
complex called Mosaic atMillenia, and by now she has
been promoted several times.
Her family said she loved hernew home and her job.
(04:03):
Jennifer had a serious boyfriendnamed Rob Allen, a British man
who lived in Fort Lauderdale.
The two had just returned froma trip.
The weekend before herdisappearance they talked late
into Monday night.
It was just a normalconversation, no signs of
(04:24):
distress, nothing to raiseconcerns.
That evening Jennifer evencalled her mother, Joyce, to
share every detail of the trip.
She was just so happy on acloud, Joyce later recalled in
an interview.
Jennifer seemed happy, settled,her life was on track.
(04:47):
But then came Tuesday morning,January 24th, and everything
stopped.
The day after Jennifer arrivedback from holiday on January
(05:08):
23rd, she was back at work asusual.
After wrapping up at the officeshe spoke with her parents and
then with Rob.
Their conversation ended ataround 10pm and it would be the
last time anyone ever heard fromher.
(05:35):
The following morning Robnoticed something unusual.
Jennifer hadn't sent her usualgood morning text or called him
like she always did.
He waited for some time toreach out.
The previous night they had aheavy conversation and he
thought maybe Jennifer needssome time to reach out.
The previous night they had aheavy conversation and he
thought maybe Jennifer needssome time.
But when not hearing from herall morning, he was very
concerned and tried calling her.
(05:56):
But her phone went straight tovoicemail.
Rob later explained I knew shehad a busy day ahead so I just
left her a message and went onwith my day.
But when I called again laterand still got the voicemail,
(06:16):
that's when I knew somethingwasn't right.
That Tuesday January 24th shewas supposed to show up for work
.
That Tuesday January 24th shewas supposed to show up for work
.
Jennifer was extremelyprofessional and took her job
seriously, but that morning shedidn't show up.
Her colleagues noticedimmediately.
(06:39):
Jennifer was never late and shealways called ahead if anything
came up.
They tried calling her phonebut again went straight to
voicemail.
No one had seen her, no oneheard from her.
Alarms were raised straightaway and her boss called her dad
.
They knew each other.
(06:59):
Her dad also tried to call herseveral times but no pick-up.
They had a rule no matter what,answer the phone.
But that afternoon her parents,drew and Joyce, were on the road
from Tampa to Orlando.
They knew something was wrong.
(07:19):
When they arrived at Jennifer'sflat, everything seemed
strangely untouched.
Her car was indeed missing,which was worrying, but inside
(07:39):
her flat all her clothes, hermakeup, all her belongings were
just there.
Her bed looked like it had beenslept in, a wet towel hung in
the bathroom, but her cell phone, ipod, purse all gone.
All looked normal, not chaotic,as she just got up, got ready
(08:05):
and left.
But yet there was no sign ofJennifer.
It's as if she vanished intothin air.
Jennifer's parents acted quickly.
They contacted the police,reached out to nearby hospitals
and began speaking with anyonethey could find at her apartment
(08:25):
complex.
But getting the authorities totake her disappearance seriously
was no easy task.
The family had to push hard toconvince investigators that
Jennifer hadn't simply chosen tolive on her own.
That same night an officialinvestigation was finally
(08:48):
launched.
Investigation was finallylaunched, knowing how crucial
the first days are in missingpersons cases.
Her parents, her brother andeven Rob and his mom wasted no
time.
They contacted local media,distributed missing persons
flyers and soon hundreds ofvolunteers were helping search
(09:16):
the area around Jennifer's home.
Media showed interest straightaway and luckily this helped
massively in those early days infinding her car.
A few days went by before aresident in her building
mentioned seeing it swerve outof the parking lot at around
7.40 am the morning.
She vanished, but they didn'tknow which direction it went.
(09:38):
Then, on January 26th, the carwas found abandoned in a
different apartment complexabout a mile away.
Surveillance footage revealedit had been parked there at
around noon on the day Jenniferwent missing.
It had been sitting there fordays unnoticed.
(09:59):
Unfortunately, there was verylittle inside.
The car has been wiped clean.
There were no fingerprints, noDNA.
But what it did offer was amajor clue.
The grainy footage on CCTVshowed someone exiting the
(10:20):
vehicle and casually walkingaway.
This video became a centralpiece of evidence.
But there was one frustratingproblem.
The camera captured the figureonly between frames, partially
obscured by a fence post.
Each time they moved Like itwas on purpose, their face was
(10:46):
never actually seen.
This was incredibly frustrating.
It makes you wonder did theperson knew where the camera is
Still?
Investigators made efforts toanalyze what they could.
According to Detective JoeWright, they studied the footage
(11:07):
closely, recreating the sceneand measuring height using
individuals or bearing belts.
All investigators could tellwas that a person walked with a
steady gait, not hurried.
It was possibly male.
He was dressed in white,perhaps wearing work overalls or
(11:28):
painter's gear, but no onecould be sure.
The media dubbed the person thePhantom Figure and just like
that the most crucial lead inJennifer's disappearance turned
into another haunting mystery.
(11:57):
As investigators tracedJennifer's Kesse's final
movements, they began circlingin on a theory.
Jennifer had previouslymentioned feeling uncomfortable
around the construction workersrenovating the units in her
apartment complex.
Her family recalled her sayingthat they would often catcall
(12:20):
her or stop and stare.
Enough that she started callingand texting friends as she
walked from her car to the frontdoor just to feel safer as she
walked from her car to the frontdoor.
Just to feel safer.
In fact, in the days before herdisappearance, Jennifer had
(12:42):
reportedly told her parents thatsome of the workers made her
feel so uneasy that she wasconsidering moving.
Police looked into theconstruction crews.
Police looked into theconstruction crews, but many of
the workers were undocumented,with little or no official
identification.
Names changed frequently andrecords were sparse, and so
(13:06):
efforts to track and questionthem, especially after days had
passed ill, did almost nothing.
Many had already moved to newsites, gone without a trace.
But the idea that Jennifermight have been taken by someone
she passed every day rightoutside her door was chilling.
(13:31):
Still other theories emerged.
There were reports of a manseen loitering near her complex
in the days prior.
Others speculated she mighthave been followed or abducted
during her regular morningroutine, possibly taken before
she even made it to her carmorning routine, possibly taken
(13:51):
before she even made it to hercar.
Her phone keys, purse and workID badge were never found.
Her ATM card showed no activity.
No one tried to use her creditcards.
It was as if the person whotook Jennifer wanted to erase
(14:14):
her presence completely toeliminate every trace.
When investigators reviewedsurveillance footage from
Jennifer's flat complex, theyhit yet another dead end.
There were no cameras installedon the property at the time of
her disappearance.
A security guard tasked withlogging all visitors turned over
(14:36):
incomplete and unreliablerecords.
Then, in another unsettlingrevelation, Jennifer's family
discovered through their ownresearch that a full set of
master keys for the complex hadbeen reported stolen just a
month before she vanished, adetail that raised even more red
(15:00):
flags.
Efforts to collect forensicevidence from Jennifer's flat
also fell short.
By the time authorities arrived, the scene had been compromised
.
Family and friends, in theirurgency and grief, had used the
(15:22):
flat as a gathering space,unknowingly disturbing what
could have been a critical crimescene, unknowingly disturbing
what could have been a criticalcrime scene.
And so the investigationdragged on for years, with
countless leads going nowhere.
No further evidence emergedfrom the vehicle and the case
(15:42):
remained unsolved.
And despite national coverage,televised interviews and
tireless efforts from her family, the case slowed and leads
dried up.
The phantom figure on thesurveillance tape renamed
unnamed, the construction theoryunresolved and Jennifer Still
(16:18):
missing.
Jennifer's family never stoppedsearching for her, even when the
investigation stalled.
They refused to let her becomeyet another cold case buried in
a filing cabinet, and so herparents, drew and Joyce, turned
their grief into motion.
(16:39):
They organized search teams,walked the streets, knocked on
doors, tried to chase down everysingle lead.
Knocked on doors, tried tochase down every single lead.
They handed out flyers, spoketo the media, even pleaded with
officials Anything to keepJennifer's name alive.
(17:00):
But as the time passed and nofurther efforts from the police
to find Jennifer were made,their frustration grew.
The Orlando Police Department,overwhelmed and under-resourced,
had struggled from thebeginning.
From her car that was left in atow yard for two days before
(17:23):
being processed, to leads thatthey were never followed up
properly, Jennifer's familybegan to lose faith in the
system.
Eventually, in 2018, nearly 12years after Jennifer's
disappearance, her family tookthe extraordinary step of suing
(17:45):
the Orlando Police Departmentfor access to her case file.
This was a necessary step, asthe case was not closed.
Therefore, information couldn'thave been released to them, and
so, after a long battle, theywon.
They received over 16,000 pagesof documents and they began
(18:08):
piecing together what they could.
They hired privateinvestigators and retraced old
steps, and while the police hadruled out people early on,
Jennifer's family questionedwhether those dismissals had
been too hasty, whether someonehad slipped through the cracks.
(18:28):
Missiles had been too hasty,whether someone had slipped
through the cracks WhilstJennifer's family was trying to
decipher the year's worth ofdocuments.
In 2019, police finally receivedthe tip, which led to a search
in Lake Fisher, not far fromJennifer's home.
Not far from Jennifer's home, awitness had come forward,
(18:52):
claiming they saw a pickup truckdump what appeared to be a
large rolled-up carpet, roughlysix to eight feet in length,
into the lake.
Around the time Jenniferdisappeared.
Dive teams combed the watersfor two days, but nothing was
found.
In 2024, a sonar companyscanned the area again with the
(19:17):
same result no sign of thecarpet.
Another chilling piece ofpotential evidence came from
photographs of Jennifer'sabandoned car.
Of potential evidence came fromphotographs of Jennifer's
abandoned car.
According to her father,markings on the hood suggested
(19:39):
they might have been a violentstruggle.
It looked like someone had beenthrown down on the top of the
hood, arms spread out, thendragged back like off the hood,
to the point where you couldalmost see fingers scraping down
the metal, he said in aninterview, but again, nothing
came out of that.
To this day, they believe theanswer is still out there that
(20:02):
someone somewhere knows whathappened to Jennifer and through
every passing year, throughevery silent birthday, they
persist Because to them,Jennifer isn't a mystery.
She's their daughter, theirsister and friend, and they're
(20:23):
still waiting for her to comehome.
Waiting for her to come home.
It's now been over 18 yearssince Jennifer Kesse vanished.
There have been no confirmedsightings, no new suspects, no
arrests.
(20:44):
In 2019, after years of legalpressure, Jennifer's case was
officially handed over to aprivate investigator hired by
her family.
They hoped that fresh eyescould find what had been missed,
maybe re-interview a forgottenwitness, revisit evidence with
(21:08):
new technology, shake somethingloose.
Some experts have suggestedthat Jennifer's abduction might
have been a crime of opportunity, that perhaps she was washed,
followed and taken, maybe bysomeone working in or around her
building, and the securityfootage of the unidentified man
(21:29):
still haunts the case To thisday.
The man in the grainy videowalking away from Jennifer's car
has never been identified.
The FBI calls him the case'smost critical witness.
Sadly, despite national mediacoverage, documentaries and
(21:50):
ongoing community attention, noconclusive evidence has ever
emerged.
She was 24, thriving in her newjob, building a future
surrounded by people who lovedher.
(22:11):
She had dreams and a laugh thatfilled the room.
She mattered and she still does.
What makes this case sohaunting isn't just a lack of
answers.
It's how ordinary the day was Aregular morning, a secure
department and then nothing,just absence.
(22:42):
Her story is a reminder thatmissing doesn't mean forgotten
and unsolved doesn't meanhopeless, because every poster,
every podcast, every voice thatsays her name is a call for the
truth, and sometimes all ittakes is one person and one
memory, one brave step forward.
So if you know anything,anything at all, please speak up
(23:04):
.
We will leave the link toJennifer's website in the show
notes.
That's a wrap for today'sepisode.
Thanks so much for tuning in.
We appreciate every single oneof you.
If you enjoyed the show, don'tforget to follow us on social
media to stay updated on allthings ClueTrail.
(23:25):
You can find us on Instagram,facebook and TikTok on ClueTrail
Podcast.
And if you want to support thepodcast and get even more
content, check out our PatreonMembers.
Get access to an exclusivebonus episode every month.
Just head over to Patreon andlook for Cloutrel.
Thank you.
Welcome to Clue Trail, where every story is a mystery
and every clue pulls you deeperinto the unknown, from unsolved
cases and strange disappearancesto hidden histories and curious
twists of fate.
To hidden histories and curioustwists of fate, we piece
together fragments, searchingfor the truth or uncovering even
(00:31):
bigger questions.
Some clues reveal answers,others lead to greater mysteries
, but one thing is certain Everytrail tells a story.
Are you ready to follow it?
Let's begin, and if you enjoyClue Trail, please take a moment
(00:52):
to leave us a rating or areview.
It helps more curious mindslike yours find the show.
(01:22):
It was a typical Tuesday morningin Orlando, F lorida, on
January 24th 2006.
Jennifer Kesse, a driven,successful 24-year-old woman,
was expected at work.
She had just returned from avacation with her boyfriend,
(01:43):
settled back into her apartment,and that morning she never
showed up.
Her phone went silent wheneveryone called, her car
disappeared and Jennifer wasgone.
What followed became one ofFlorida's most baffling missing
(02:04):
persons cases, a case still opento this day, still unsolved and
still haunting.
There was no crime scene, nowitnesses, just a security
camera with a grainy figurewalking away from her abandoned
car and a family's unrelentingsearch for the truth.
(02:27):
Today, on Clue Trail, werevisit the case of Jennifer
Kesse to explore not just howsomeone could disappear in the
heart of a busy city, but why,nearly two decades later, we
still have no answers.
(02:58):
Jennifer Joyce Kesse was born onMay 20th 1981, in New Jersey
and raised in the close-knitcommunity of Lakeland, Florida.
The people who knew her bestdescribe her as confident,
(03:20):
responsible and fiercelyindependent.
She graduated with honors fromUniversity of Central Florida,
where she studied finance, andshortly after college she
secured a job as a financialmanager at Central Florida
Investments, a solid,well-paying role that gave her a
fast start on her career.
Jennifer didn't just have goalsand dreams, she followed
(03:43):
through.
By 24, she had bought her firstapartment in a newly renovated
complex called Mosaic atMillenia, and by now she has
been promoted several times.
Her family said she loved hernew home and her job.
(04:03):
Jennifer had a serious boyfriendnamed Rob Allen, a British man
who lived in Fort Lauderdale.
The two had just returned froma trip.
The weekend before herdisappearance they talked late
into Monday night.
It was just a normalconversation, no signs of
(04:24):
distress, nothing to raiseconcerns.
That evening Jennifer evencalled her mother, Joyce, to
share every detail of the trip.
She was just so happy on acloud, Joyce later recalled in
an interview.
Jennifer seemed happy, settled,her life was on track.
(04:47):
But then came Tuesday morning,January 24th, and everything
stopped.
The day after Jennifer arrivedback from holiday on January
(05:08):
23rd, she was back at work asusual.
After wrapping up at the officeshe spoke with her parents and
then with Rob.
Their conversation ended ataround 10pm and it would be the
last time anyone ever heard fromher.
(05:35):
The following morning Robnoticed something unusual.
Jennifer hadn't sent her usualgood morning text or called him
like she always did.
He waited for some time toreach out.
The previous night they had aheavy conversation and he
thought maybe Jennifer needssome time to reach out.
The previous night they had aheavy conversation and he
thought maybe Jennifer needssome time.
But when not hearing from herall morning, he was very
concerned and tried calling her.
(05:56):
But her phone went straight tovoicemail.
Rob later explained I knew shehad a busy day ahead so I just
left her a message and went onwith my day.
But when I called again laterand still got the voicemail,
(06:16):
that's when I knew somethingwasn't right.
That Tuesday January 24th shewas supposed to show up for work
.
That Tuesday January 24th shewas supposed to show up for work
.
Jennifer was extremelyprofessional and took her job
seriously, but that morning shedidn't show up.
Her colleagues noticedimmediately.
(06:39):
Jennifer was never late and shealways called ahead if anything
came up.
They tried calling her phonebut again went straight to
voicemail.
No one had seen her, no oneheard from her.
Alarms were raised straightaway and her boss called her dad
.
They knew each other.
(06:59):
Her dad also tried to call herseveral times but no pick-up.
They had a rule no matter what,answer the phone.
But that afternoon her parents,drew and Joyce, were on the road
from Tampa to Orlando.
They knew something was wrong.
(07:19):
When they arrived at Jennifer'sflat, everything seemed
strangely untouched.
Her car was indeed missing,which was worrying, but inside
(07:39):
her flat all her clothes, hermakeup, all her belongings were
just there.
Her bed looked like it had beenslept in, a wet towel hung in
the bathroom, but her cell phone, ipod, purse all gone.
All looked normal, not chaotic,as she just got up, got ready
(08:05):
and left.
But yet there was no sign ofJennifer.
It's as if she vanished intothin air.
Jennifer's parents acted quickly.
They contacted the police,reached out to nearby hospitals
and began speaking with anyonethey could find at her apartment
(08:25):
complex.
But getting the authorities totake her disappearance seriously
was no easy task.
The family had to push hard toconvince investigators that
Jennifer hadn't simply chosen tolive on her own.
That same night an officialinvestigation was finally
(08:48):
launched.
Investigation was finallylaunched, knowing how crucial
the first days are in missingpersons cases.
Her parents, her brother andeven Rob and his mom wasted no
time.
They contacted local media,distributed missing persons
flyers and soon hundreds ofvolunteers were helping search
(09:16):
the area around Jennifer's home.
Media showed interest straightaway and luckily this helped
massively in those early days infinding her car.
A few days went by before aresident in her building
mentioned seeing it swerve outof the parking lot at around
7.40 am the morning.
She vanished, but they didn'tknow which direction it went.
(09:38):
Then, on January 26th, the carwas found abandoned in a
different apartment complexabout a mile away.
Surveillance footage revealedit had been parked there at
around noon on the day Jenniferwent missing.
It had been sitting there fordays unnoticed.
(09:59):
Unfortunately, there was verylittle inside.
The car has been wiped clean.
There were no fingerprints, noDNA.
But what it did offer was amajor clue.
The grainy footage on CCTVshowed someone exiting the
(10:20):
vehicle and casually walkingaway.
This video became a centralpiece of evidence.
But there was one frustratingproblem.
The camera captured the figureonly between frames, partially
obscured by a fence post.
Each time they moved Like itwas on purpose, their face was
(10:46):
never actually seen.
This was incredibly frustrating.
It makes you wonder did theperson knew where the camera is
Still?
Investigators made efforts toanalyze what they could.
According to Detective JoeWright, they studied the footage
(11:07):
closely, recreating the sceneand measuring height using
individuals or bearing belts.
All investigators could tellwas that a person walked with a
steady gait, not hurried.
It was possibly male.
He was dressed in white,perhaps wearing work overalls or
(11:28):
painter's gear, but no onecould be sure.
The media dubbed the person thePhantom Figure and just like
that the most crucial lead inJennifer's disappearance turned
into another haunting mystery.
(11:57):
As investigators tracedJennifer's Kesse's final
movements, they began circlingin on a theory.
Jennifer had previouslymentioned feeling uncomfortable
around the construction workersrenovating the units in her
apartment complex.
Her family recalled her sayingthat they would often catcall
(12:20):
her or stop and stare.
Enough that she started callingand texting friends as she
walked from her car to the frontdoor just to feel safer as she
walked from her car to the frontdoor.
Just to feel safer.
In fact, in the days before herdisappearance, Jennifer had
(12:42):
reportedly told her parents thatsome of the workers made her
feel so uneasy that she wasconsidering moving.
Police looked into theconstruction crews.
Police looked into theconstruction crews, but many of
the workers were undocumented,with little or no official
identification.
Names changed frequently andrecords were sparse, and so
(13:06):
efforts to track and questionthem, especially after days had
passed ill, did almost nothing.
Many had already moved to newsites, gone without a trace.
But the idea that Jennifermight have been taken by someone
she passed every day rightoutside her door was chilling.
(13:31):
Still other theories emerged.
There were reports of a manseen loitering near her complex
in the days prior.
Others speculated she mighthave been followed or abducted
during her regular morningroutine, possibly taken before
she even made it to her carmorning routine, possibly taken
(13:51):
before she even made it to hercar.
Her phone keys, purse and workID badge were never found.
Her ATM card showed no activity.
No one tried to use her creditcards.
It was as if the person whotook Jennifer wanted to erase
(14:14):
her presence completely toeliminate every trace.
When investigators reviewedsurveillance footage from
Jennifer's flat complex, theyhit yet another dead end.
There were no cameras installedon the property at the time of
her disappearance.
A security guard tasked withlogging all visitors turned over
(14:36):
incomplete and unreliablerecords.
Then, in another unsettlingrevelation, Jennifer's family
discovered through their ownresearch that a full set of
master keys for the complex hadbeen reported stolen just a
month before she vanished, adetail that raised even more red
(15:00):
flags.
Efforts to collect forensicevidence from Jennifer's flat
also fell short.
By the time authorities arrived, the scene had been compromised
.
Family and friends, in theirurgency and grief, had used the
(15:22):
flat as a gathering space,unknowingly disturbing what
could have been a critical crimescene, unknowingly disturbing
what could have been a criticalcrime scene.
And so the investigationdragged on for years, with
countless leads going nowhere.
No further evidence emergedfrom the vehicle and the case
(15:42):
remained unsolved.
And despite national coverage,televised interviews and
tireless efforts from her family, the case slowed and leads
dried up.
The phantom figure on thesurveillance tape renamed
unnamed, the construction theoryunresolved and Jennifer Still
(16:18):
missing.
Jennifer's family never stoppedsearching for her, even when the
investigation stalled.
They refused to let her becomeyet another cold case buried in
a filing cabinet, and so herparents, drew and Joyce, turned
their grief into motion.
(16:39):
They organized search teams,walked the streets, knocked on
doors, tried to chase down everysingle lead.
Knocked on doors, tried tochase down every single lead.
They handed out flyers, spoketo the media, even pleaded with
officials Anything to keepJennifer's name alive.
(17:00):
But as the time passed and nofurther efforts from the police
to find Jennifer were made,their frustration grew.
The Orlando Police Department,overwhelmed and under-resourced,
had struggled from thebeginning.
From her car that was left in atow yard for two days before
(17:23):
being processed, to leads thatthey were never followed up
properly, Jennifer's familybegan to lose faith in the
system.
Eventually, in 2018, nearly 12years after Jennifer's
disappearance, her family tookthe extraordinary step of suing
(17:45):
the Orlando Police Departmentfor access to her case file.
This was a necessary step, asthe case was not closed.
Therefore, information couldn'thave been released to them, and
so, after a long battle, theywon.
They received over 16,000 pagesof documents and they began
(18:08):
piecing together what they could.
They hired privateinvestigators and retraced old
steps, and while the police hadruled out people early on,
Jennifer's family questionedwhether those dismissals had
been too hasty, whether someonehad slipped through the cracks.
(18:28):
Missiles had been too hasty,whether someone had slipped
through the cracks WhilstJennifer's family was trying to
decipher the year's worth ofdocuments.
In 2019, police finally receivedthe tip, which led to a search
in Lake Fisher, not far fromJennifer's home.
Not far from Jennifer's home, awitness had come forward,
(18:52):
claiming they saw a pickup truckdump what appeared to be a
large rolled-up carpet, roughlysix to eight feet in length,
into the lake.
Around the time Jenniferdisappeared.
Dive teams combed the watersfor two days, but nothing was
found.
In 2024, a sonar companyscanned the area again with the
(19:17):
same result no sign of thecarpet.
Another chilling piece ofpotential evidence came from
photographs of Jennifer'sabandoned car.
Of potential evidence came fromphotographs of Jennifer's
abandoned car.
According to her father,markings on the hood suggested
(19:39):
they might have been a violentstruggle.
It looked like someone had beenthrown down on the top of the
hood, arms spread out, thendragged back like off the hood,
to the point where you couldalmost see fingers scraping down
the metal, he said in aninterview, but again, nothing
came out of that.
To this day, they believe theanswer is still out there that
(20:02):
someone somewhere knows whathappened to Jennifer and through
every passing year, throughevery silent birthday, they
persist Because to them,Jennifer isn't a mystery.
She's their daughter, theirsister and friend, and they're
(20:23):
still waiting for her to comehome.
Waiting for her to come home.
It's now been over 18 yearssince Jennifer Kesse vanished.
There have been no confirmedsightings, no new suspects, no
arrests.
(20:44):
In 2019, after years of legalpressure, Jennifer's case was
officially handed over to aprivate investigator hired by
her family.
They hoped that fresh eyescould find what had been missed,
maybe re-interview a forgottenwitness, revisit evidence with
(21:08):
new technology, shake somethingloose.
Some experts have suggestedthat Jennifer's abduction might
have been a crime of opportunity, that perhaps she was washed,
followed and taken, maybe bysomeone working in or around her
building, and the securityfootage of the unidentified man
(21:29):
still haunts the case To thisday.
The man in the grainy videowalking away from Jennifer's car
has never been identified.
The FBI calls him the case'smost critical witness.
Sadly, despite national mediacoverage, documentaries and
(21:50):
ongoing community attention, noconclusive evidence has ever
emerged.
She was 24, thriving in her newjob, building a future
surrounded by people who lovedher.
(22:11):
She had dreams and a laugh thatfilled the room.
She mattered and she still does.
What makes this case sohaunting isn't just a lack of
answers.
It's how ordinary the day was Aregular morning, a secure
department and then nothing,just absence.
(22:42):
Her story is a reminder thatmissing doesn't mean forgotten
and unsolved doesn't meanhopeless, because every poster,
every podcast, every voice thatsays her name is a call for the
truth, and sometimes all ittakes is one person and one
memory, one brave step forward.
So if you know anything,anything at all, please speak up
(23:04):
.
We will leave the link toJennifer's website in the show
notes.
That's a wrap for today'sepisode.
Thanks so much for tuning in.
We appreciate every single oneof you.
If you enjoyed the show, don'tforget to follow us on social
media to stay updated on allthings ClueTrail.
(23:25):
You can find us on Instagram,facebook and TikTok on ClueTrail
Podcast.
And if you want to support thepodcast and get even more
content, check out our PatreonMembers.
Get access to an exclusivebonus episode every month.
Just head over to Patreon andlook for Cloutrel.
Thank you.
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