Listen Live
Fantastic Voyage Generic Graphics Updated Nov 2023
Black America Web Featured Video
CLOSE

Here’s the latest on Kenneka Jenkins the young lady from Chicago whose body was found in a hotel walk-in freezer last Sunday.

According to a Chicago community activist on Thursday, surveillance video at the hotel in Rosemont, Illinois  shows Jenkins entering a walk-in freezer … alone.

That activist, Andrew Holmes, who has worked with many police agencies during his years of anti-violence activism, told the Chicago Tribune that detectives let him see the video on Wednesday. He was at the Rosemont police Dept. on behalf of Kenneka Jenkins’ family who looking for answers in the wake of Kenneka’s death.

Holmes says the video shows 19-year-old Jenkins at one point waiting in the Crowne Plaza Chicago O’Hare Hotel’s lobby. Her friends apparently went up to the room in which they had been partying to get some items. Jenkins then takes the elevator to a lower level and wanders around, opening doors in what appears to be a disoriented manner, he said.

Finally, he said, Jenkins opens two doors in a kitchen area and enters the walk-in freezer. The doors close behind her and Jenkins is seen no more, he said.

Holmes said he was convinced no one else forced Jenkins into the area where she died. But he said the family is awaiting toxicology tests to see whether narcotics had been put into her drink.

“The important part is we all wanted to know: Did anybody call her down there?” he said. “Did anybody force her down there? Was there anybody on the other side of the room when she got down there? And the answer to that is no.”

Interestingly, Holmes’ account counters online speculation in recent days that the Chicago teen was murdered. He said the circulating theories are “just something they made up on social media,” and urged people with hard information to call authorities.

Rosemont police spokesman Det. Joe Balogh said the department has released the surveillance video to Jenkins’ family and to the Cook County Medical Examiner, which has yet to rule on the cause and manner of Jenkins’ death.

However, Jenkins’ mother, Tereasa Martin, said that she has not seen the video but was planning to review it with her attorney, Larry Rogers.

Background:

Authorities say Jenkins went to a party at the Crowne Plaza Friday night, and that she went missing early Saturday morning. Jenkins’ mother, Teresa Martin, came to look for her, but said hotel staff and Rosemont police declined to search for hours.

Jenkins was finally found in the walk-in freezer and pronounced dead just before 1 a.m. Sunday. The medical examiner’s office has performed an autopsy but has said more tests are needed before it can pronounce a cause of death — a finding that could be weeks away.

Jenkins’ death became the focus of fevered online conjecture, with thousands of people using Facebook videos evidently taken at the hotel room party to spin theories about what happened. Many contended that Jenkins had been murdered.

Like BlackAmericaWeb.com on Facebook. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram

Share your email below to receive our daily newsletter!