The Mysterious, Highly Suspicious, Disappearance of Jennifer Kesse in 2006
Enhanced image of the person dumping Ms Kesse's car.
Jennifer Kesse was just 24 years old when she disappeared in Florida on January 24th 2006. She had just returned from a vacation, she had everything to live for. As far as the world knows she stepped out to go to work and vanished into thin air. However, there is a video that cannot be neatly placed into a tale of a consenting adult running off to start a new life.
Brief Circumstances
This young woman left her Orlando apartment in a normal state. The sort of state you could find any home of any working person. When police examined her place it looked as if the owner had got up and prepared for a working day. Any mess would be cleared away later on. It was a scene of morning dash and none of it indicated Jennifer Kesse had not intended to return.
She apparently got as far as her Black Chevy Malibu in the car park of the Mosaic At Millenia condo complex. The time was around 7.30am, after that anyone who knows what happened is not talking. The car was later found abandoned about a mile from her home. A frustratingly grainy and obscured image shows a person parking it and walking away. It was not Jennifer Kesse and it has not been identified as anyone else.
In later developments the family obtained the full police file. In it were many pictures of the car. The bonnet ( hood) showed signs that there may have been a struggle around the front of the vehicle, hence the theory that Jennifer Kesse got no further than the car park.
This video was timed at around midday on 24th January. It was known that Ms Kesse had filled up her car with petrol the previous night. What was left in the tank suggest that if she had been abducted using her own vehicle it had not been driven far before being abandoned.
The figure in the video unfortunately is obscured from full view by the posts of some metal gates. At the time of writing it is not certain if it was a woman or a rather short man. The FBI and even NASA were asked to help enhance and develop leads from the images.
There is no police agency looking for Ms Kesse though the FBI will still take any interesting information if called. According to the family the case had not been worked on by the local cops for many years. They sued the PD for the release of the full file and have been privately funding the investigation ever since.
At the time of her disappearance Ms Kesse had no-one that was identified as wanting to harm her. Her boyfriend lived several hours drive away and he has been totally cleared of involvement. They had been away to St Croix for a long weekend, all had been well. When they returned Ms Kesse had stayed at her boyfriend’s place and gone straight to work on 23rd January. At 6 pm she left work and went home to her newly acquired condo. She chatted with her boyfriend and family that night and there were no indications of any issues. That’s about all that is in the public domain.
My Take
Ms Kesse was a creature of habit and it is from her rather ordered routine that they get the estimate of 7.30 am. At that time or shortly after she should have been going to her car. Then just over four hours later we have a man or a woman dumping her car a mile away.
The person in the image is not tall. Ms Kesse was/is 5ft 8 inches tall. So knowing the predator mentality if this person acted alone a weapon would have been highly likely. There were no reported sounds of a struggle from the car park of Ms Kesse’s home. That would suggest an abduction at gun or knife point to me. Of course there is the possibility that the abduction occurred on the road or at her door, but as there is no evidence of that I will go with the theory as it stands.
She had been away from home for a while and tended to stay with her boyfriend a lot. So her routine varied within degrees. The sort of routine that would only be known to someone relatively close. A friend, a work colleague, neighbour, trades person etc. Unless this was purely random, ie a car jacking, the killer is within the circle of people that knew Ms Kesse.
Nothing of any great value was taken. What was missing were the clothes she wore, a cell phone, IPod, brief case and keys. Her financial accounts have not been accessed since she disappeared and the cell phone was dead by the time cops tried to locate it.
The marks on the front of the car are sort of made in the film of dust that a car gets when on the road. I suggest that if those marks came from some sort of struggle the incident happened once the offender had driven her wherever they wanted to go. Forensic examination of the tyres etc has not yielded any idea where that place was. It is said that the interior of the car had been wiped down.
A massive search was undertaken and divers etc were used to try and find this lady. No stone was left unturned as it were. It is likely dumb luck that the offender has not been traced. Luck that a disturbance was not heard, that the car was not further sighted and that no clear image of them was recorded. These days with an explosion of CCTV they would have been bang to rights by now, no question.
There was construction work going on and the only issue of note was that Ms Kesse had said she had been cat called by some workers and it made her feel uncomfortable. Also many of the workers did not speak English and it is said they were not all traced after the event.
I could only venture that the person who took her either lived at the complex or was often within sight of her apartment. I mean the car was dumped a mile away at another complex and the person walked away. They did not get into another vehicle for example.
It was likely planned for sometime and I doubt the person would have been able to contain their interest in Ms Kesse from being noticed. The image is strange. A smaller person, a young man as in 16 years old? As I see them walk across the screen and look at the still I get the impression of a young masculine looking female. What do you think? The estimate of height by NASA and FBI experts is between 5 ft 3 inches and 5ft 5 inches.
Of course the person in the video may well not have been the same person who abducted Ms Kesse.
What is your take on it?
The family FB is: https://www.facebook.com/groups/FindJenniferKesse
A similar case when it comes to confusing video might interest you. Try the case of Missy Bevers.
Take Care
Tim
