FL FL - Jennifer Medernach, 14, Jacksonville, 4 Nov 2001

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“Ma, I’ll be home in a bit,” Jennifer Leigh Medernach told her mother as the 14-year-old girl walked out of their family’s 103rd Street home on Jacksonville’s Westside to accompany a friend to a nearby convenience store.

It wasn’t uncommon for the teenager to go off and stay with friends for a couple of days without telling her mom. But the Joseph Stillwell Middle School student never came back.

Four days later, on Nov. 8, 2001, the teen’s nude body bearing multiple stab wounds was found face down in the shallow water of Long Branch Creek at a small bridge in northwestern Clay County along County Road 217. It seems likely the killer or killers dumped her there.

McKinney said detectives recently obtained some new DNA evidence via new methods of testing that they hope will provide new leads. The DNA came from the screw-top handle of a hunting- or survival-style knife that investigators found in the vicinity of her body. Although the blade has yet to be recovered, detectives think that knife might be the murder weapon.

“We have actually had some suspects over the years that we have talked to. We’ve had some persons of interest that we’ve definitely been interested in,” said McKinney, adding detectives have traveled as far as Georgia to interview people about the murder.

In December 2013, the Sheriff’s Office dive team aided by the new technology of underwater metal detectors, again searched Long Branch Creek where her body was found. Seven months earlier in May, detectives along with Florida Department of Law Enforcement agents searched a home on McClelland Road about two miles away for possible evidence but nothing was found.

Because Medernach’s body was found just across the Duval-Clay County line, they suspect she was killed in Duval County. The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office has been working with Clay detectives on the case, said McKinney, who declined comment about a possible motive.

http://jacksonville.com/news/crime/2015-02-06/story/still-searching-justice
 
This was a brutal crime, dumped off a bridge and the blade of the knife separated from the handle. This poor girl. Glad to hear the DNA is being re-submitted.

UNSOLVED: The murder of Jennifer Medernach

Published: 1:14 PM EDT November 2, 2018

CLAY COUNTY, FL -- It was Nov 8th, 2001. The footage on archived news tapes show Clay County deputies surrounding a small bridge in a desolate area along County Round 217. In the water below, the body of 14-year-old Jennifer Medernach.

"Evidence here at the scene indicates the body was probably dumped off the bridge," an unnamed detective tells reporters in the grainy footage.

It is one of four unsolved murder cases in Clay County. Detective Rob Schoonover with the Clay County Sheriff’s Office primary focus is bringing closure to the cold cases, so he is reopening the 17-year-old cold case.

"With the wounds that you could see during the autopsy, it was very gruesome," says Det. Schoonover.

At 14-years-old, Jennifer lived with her mother in the Woodland Estates mobile home park off 103rd Street in Jacksonville. Det. Schoonover says it was a tight knit community in 2001, many people knew Jennifer and her mother well. In the days leading up to her death, Det. Schoonover says some of the adult men in the mobile home park were seen hanging around her and she was spotted at a party.

"There were parties going on where she was present with illegal drugs," explains Det. Schoonover.

On November 5, 2001 - Jennifer’s mother reported her daughter missing. The initial report lists Jennifer as possibly a runaway. But three days later her body would be found by a couple fishing.

Naked, with multiple stab wounds. Detectives believe she bled to death.

"But the way she died, it was a horrible and tragic death for her to have to go through," says Det. Schoonover.

Underneath her body investigators found the handle of a knife with strands of Jennifer’s hair wrapped around it. They believe it was the murder weapon, but the blade was never found. It was one of several pieces of evidence collected from the scene. Evidence the Clay County Sheriff’s office still has and is going to be re-submitting for DNA testing.

Though there have never been any official suspects in Jennifer’s murder, Det. Schoonover says there are people he is looking at closely.
 
So she was seen by others after she left home.

UNSOLVED CHILD MURDER : JENNIFER LEIGH MEDERNACH

Two teenagers discovered the body when they went to the bridge to fish.
"They saw what they thought was a body lying face down in the water, sort of on her side with her hip up," said Mary Justino, a spokeswoman for the sheriff's office. "They weren't sure if it was something left over from a Halloween prank or a real body."
One of the teens ran home and returned to the bridge with his father, who called the sheriff's office.
After combing wooded areas and creek banks until late Thursday, more officers assembled Friday, including members of a dive team who scoured the creek bottom, to begin the search again.
Medernach was about 5-foot-2, weighed about 115 pounds, had brown eyes and long, dark brown hair. She was wearing a heart-shaped ring and what appeared to be an engagement ring on her right hand.
Medernach's identity came to light during the weekend after a sketch and physical description appeared in The Florida Times-Union Saturday.
"We got about 25 phone calls based on the picture that had been put out," Justino said. "Of the 25 callers, a few were people who thought it was this girl."
Jennifer was last seen walking out of the park on the afternoon of Nov. 5, Clay County Sheriff Scott Lancaster said. Her savaged body was discovered three days later in Long Branch Creek in northwest Clay County.
Lancaster asked anyone who saw Medernach in the interim to call authorities. There are no suspects in the case, which is being investigated jointly by authorities in Clay and Duval counties.
Several neighborhood residents yesterday recalled speaking with Medernach that Monday evening. She told them she had left home after fighting with her mother, they said.
The family declined to comment yesterday beyond issuing a brief statement asking anyone with information to come forward. It was read by an uncle, Matt Jackson, at an impromptu news conference held on the access road where Medernach was last seen.
Jennifer's mother, Angie Medernach, had filed a missing persons report after her daughter left home on that Monday afternoon. Lancaster said she later told investigators her daughter walked past the family home after the report was filed, but they did not speak.
 
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View Jennifer Medernach's Obituary and express your condolences

MEDERNACH Jennifer Leigh Medernach, 14, died November 8, 2001. She was born in Birmingham, AL and had resided in Jacksonville, FL most of her life. Survivors include her parents, James and Angie Medernach; paternal grandparents, Mr. & Mrs. Nicholas Medernach; maternal grandparents, Mr. & Mrs. John Jackson; brother, Chris Ramos; sister, Crystal Donahue; three nephews; a niece; and several aunts, uncles and cousins. Funeral services will be held 11:00 AM Thursday, November 15, 2001 in the Chapel of Town & Country Funeral Home, 7242 Normandy Blvd., with Pastor Joseph Howell officiating. Interment will follow in Riverside Memorial Park. The family will receive friends from 6-8 PM, Wednesday (TODAY) at the Funeral Home.
 

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