FL - Jennifer Kesse, 24, Orlando, 24 Jan 2006 - #13

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At least we can say for sure that the car was moved from somewhere by someone other than Jennifer to the HOTG. That is one of the very few things we can be sure of with this case. And thank goodness for the video, because without it people would be arguing that she hitchhiked to the airport and left because she decided to do so on a whim.

It's important to note that we don't know when Jennifer's car left her condo parking spot in the Mosiac, or even where she parked it when she arrived home on the 23rd. There are rumors but nothing through law enforcement.

It was released in an article by the media that Jennifer filled her gas tank in Ft Lauderdale and after mileage calculations were completed, there wasn't a lot of "missing" fuel. I guess that helps with knowing her vehicle was not driven far. There are, however, a few interesting characters that lived within the latitude of the "missing" fuel range.

When Jennifer's car was discovered at the HOTG (on the morning of the 26th) law enforcement seized it and had it towed to their garage to be inspected by crime scene technicians. So, it was treated as the crime scene. LE didn't release the Malibu until around February 24th. Hopefully, that is some indication they did a thorough job on the forensics.

At the time, not much seemed to have been found in the vehicle.

It would have taken the killer or killers a fair amount of time to do a good cleaning job.

I know now we're talking about 100 fingerprints and a couple of hairs, but he said years ago that all the many fingerprints found were Jennifer's, maybe a few of Rob's. I don't know about the hair. My guess would be it's Jennifer's. (And 100 fingerprints perhaps should make one question the quality of the cleaning job done by the killer or killers).

And I don't want to forget to mention the possible "struggle" visually evidenced on the outside of the hood as well as the large boot print on the floor mat of the driver's side. All were duly noted and most likely properly processed by LE at the time, even though we would not hear of them for years. I've gone back and looked at old pictures of Jenn's vehicle and the "struggle" marks were visible way back when. Just never noted by anyone.

There is a case where a stepmother strangled her young stepson from the backseat of a vehicle while her female friend did the driving. That youngish (7-to-10-year-old) child left deep scrap marks and gouges with his feet on the dash as he fought for his life. I think we would see something like that in Jennifer's case.

Jennifer's father had done a deep clean on Jennifer's vehicle when she was home for Christmas in 2003. Thus he should have been able to point out any recent interior scraping and/or gouging or any types of marks indicating a violent struggle.

I'm rambling, but my point is that I would expect much more evidence to have been found in Jennifer's car were it to have been the actual and only crime scene. I certainly agree that it was part of it.

It's been said in media articles and by the family that a small amount of DNA was found in the trunk of Jennifer's vehicle. Will it be like the partial palm print on the DVD player in the backseat which was later ruled to be Jennifer's? We don't know. Is it enough to be sent to a genealogy lab to find a match? I've heard it doesn't take much--so maybe.

Just maybe that's the only hope if there is any. But will the person be still alive and will they reveal where Jennifer is?
When the story was the car only had one partial print it really threw me off. I didn’t think the car had been that throughly wiped down due to the dust particles on the console between the seats. I didn’t think there was a struggle due to the way the key, aspirin, and sunglasses were still sitting on the console. I didn’t think anything violent happened in it due to the lack of evidence. Now what I’m seeing makes more sense to me. I don’t think he felt the need to clean the car’s interior. He probably got into it with latex gloves on and moved it. I think he had to move it because wherever it was parked would have pointed to him. I think he moved it at noon because he knew the family was on the way. I’ve heard Drew say that he didn’t think she was placed in that car after she was abducted.
That boot print could have been from before she went missing. I think that’s most likely. Her passenger mats are nasty too. Normally when I get that type of stains on my floor mats it’s because of rain or snow mixing with crud on the asphalt. I don’t think it rained during the time we can’t account for the car. It would not surprise me if that boot print was from a male that she let drive her car such as her dad, brother, or boyfriend.
I‘m not sure what I’m seeing with the hood. I don’t see finger or hand prints though. I wish I had a good suggestion of what could have caused those marks. You’re right. No one saw the “struggle” until they were told to see it. I do think it’s possible she could have been attacked while standing beside the car and put into another vehicle. You would think if those marks were caused by an attack there would be some sort of body fluid found on the hood (saliva, mucus, blood). The cops did notice the marks the day it was found. It’s in the police report. I hope they tested the hood for body fluids.
 
I've posed this over the years.
How many unsolved crimes have a video of the perp parking the victim's car and then walking away to..........where exactly? We all know the face was obscured but there's the clothes and a 'look'. My opinion is Bo the bloodhound tracked him back to Mosaic where he slipped through a hole in a side fence. What Bo did was discredited by several but to my mind he did what Bloodhounds do best.
Delphi is one that sticks out. I know they recently made an arrest, but that was better footage. He lived close, worked close, and interacted with the victims family. No one suspected him.
I think if those bars wouldn’t have obstructed the poi’s face, we would still be in the same boat. The footage would have been bad. Much worse than bridge guy.
If I had to guess the poi continued walking south or either got on the bus at the bus stop. Bo’s handler said he was tracking Jennifer. Personally I dropped the idea that the poi walked back to Mosaic after I read the police report.
 
I always found the idea Bo tracked Jennifer perplexing. How often did Jennifer walk that route and why would she anyway.?
Can dogs track people driving cars?
Wouldn't BO have sniffed the seat where the POI sat?
I'd welcome any enlightenment.
 
Such a sad case. I'll throw my guess out there, she was abducted in the parking lot by her car and immediately put into another vehicle. After that just just poof. Nothing
 
What strikes me about that site is it was very accessible and some areas were very secluded. You could have driven a vehicle down one of those paths and had a lot of privacy. Bill Moore said she is buried deep. I wonder what made him say that. If this was some type of hit, I wonder if the perp(s) had a predug grave.
I agree with you. If she is there and not in some sort of container, her remains may go unnoticed.
I doubt a grave was dug, beforehand or afterward. In Florida there are plenty of places where you can leave a body where the alligators will take care of it for you.
 
I always found the idea Bo tracked Jennifer perplexing. How often did Jennifer walk that route and why would she anyway.?
Can dogs track people driving cars?
Wouldn't BO have sniffed the seat where the POI sat?
I'd welcome any enlightenment.
Bo started on the passenger side of her car. His handler stated that the dog was tracking Jennifer‘s scent and it was capable of tracking her scent to her condo without Jennifer having to walk the route. The dog’s handler is going to know best what the dog was tracking and it’s capability. Dogs can’t talk though so we will never know for sure. I have to go with the handler’s thoughts though when making assumptions about the poi.

The poi never walked in the direction of the Mosaic on the video. He went north east, east, then south. Mosaic is west.
 

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I doubt a grave was dug, beforehand or afterward. In Florida there are plenty of places where you can leave a body where the alligators will take care of it for you.
Bill Moore put that thought in my head with his comments on ”The Search.” He was on the case in 2006. His name is mentioned in the police report. Just going off his body language, I think he knows more. Watch the segment if you haven’t. It was chilling to me.
There are a lot of small lakes around Orlando but most aren’t that accessible. A lot don’t have roads going to them. The ones that do aren’t very private. The ones that have boat ramps aren’t very private either.
 
What strikes me about that site is it was very accessible and some areas were very secluded. You could have driven a vehicle down one of those paths and had a lot of privacy.
It sounds eerie and menacing. Google maps and Google earth are amazing tools but they can't beat personal observations.

It strikes me as another place Jennifer would never go near. Yet, just as her vehicle was found at the HOTG, she was connected to this area by the final ping of her cell phone.


Bill Moore said she is buried deep. I wonder what made him say that. If this was some type of hit, I wonder if the perp(s) had a predug grave.
I had to Google to find out who Bill Moore was in connection to Jennifer's case. I ended up watching the special again. :)

I liked what he had to say, actually. I think he was thinking outside the box and offering the possibility that this case has other paths to be followed. If only someone would.


I agree with you. If she is there and not in some sort of container, her remains may go unnoticed.
And motive becomes essential when considering this. Which goes directly toward finding Jennifer.
 
I always found the idea Bo tracked Jennifer perplexing. How often did Jennifer walk that route and why would she anyway.?
Can dogs track people driving cars?
Wouldn't BO have sniffed the seat where the POI sat?
I'd welcome any enlightenment.
I'm taking comments out of order here, but I just wanted to jump in and say I will never believe that Jennifer ever walked that route. Not one single time. Everyone who knew Jennifer was shocked that her vehicle was found there.

I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings, but that area was known for drugs, etc.

While Jennifer had only moved to the Mosiac two months prior, she was not "new" to the city and was cautious and aware of her surroundings.
 
At least we can say for sure that the car was moved from somewhere by someone other than Jennifer to the HOTG. That is one of the very few things we can be sure of with this case. And thank goodness for the video, because without it people would be arguing that she hitchhiked to the airport and left because she decided to do so on a whim.

It's important to note that we don't know when Jennifer's car left her condo parking spot in the Mosiac, or even where she parked it when she arrived home on the 23rd. There are rumors but nothing through law enforcement.

It was released in an article by the media that Jennifer filled her gas tank in Ft Lauderdale and after mileage calculations were completed, there wasn't a lot of "missing" fuel. I guess that helps with knowing her vehicle was not driven far. There are, however, a few interesting characters that lived within the latitude of the "missing" fuel range.

When Jennifer's car was discovered at the HOTG (on the morning of the 26th) law enforcement seized it and had it towed to their garage to be inspected by crime scene technicians. So, it was treated as the crime scene. LE didn't release the Malibu until around February 24th. Hopefully, that is some indication they did a thorough job on the forensics.

At the time, not much seemed to have been found in the vehicle.

It would have taken the killer or killers a fair amount of time to do a good cleaning job.

I know now we're talking about 100 fingerprints and a couple of hairs, but he said years ago that all the many fingerprints found were Jennifer's, maybe a few of Rob's. I don't know about the hair. My guess would be it's Jennifer's. (And 100 fingerprints perhaps should make one question the quality of the cleaning job done by the killer or killers).

And I don't want to forget to mention the possible "struggle" visually evidenced on the outside of the hood as well as the large boot print on the floor mat of the driver's side. All were duly noted and most likely properly processed by LE at the time, even though we would not hear of them for years. I've gone back and looked at old pictures of Jenn's vehicle and the "struggle" marks were visible way back when. Just never noted by anyone.

There is a case where a stepmother strangled her young stepson from the backseat of a vehicle while her female friend did the driving. That youngish (7-to-10-year-old) child left deep scrap marks and gouges with his feet on the dash as he fought for his life. I think we would see something like that in Jennifer's case.

Jennifer's father had done a deep clean on Jennifer's vehicle when she was home for Christmas in 2003. Thus he should have been able to point out any recent interior scraping and/or gouging or any types of marks indicating a violent struggle.

I'm rambling, but my point is that I would expect much more evidence to have been found in Jennifer's car were it to have been the actual and only crime scene. I certainly agree that it was part of it.

It's been said in media articles and by the family that a small amount of DNA was found in the trunk of Jennifer's vehicle. Will it be like the partial palm print on the DVD player in the backseat which was later ruled to be Jennifer's? We don't know. Is it enough to be sent to a genealogy lab to find a match? I've heard it doesn't take much--so maybe.

Just maybe that's the only hope if there is any. But will the person be still alive and will they reveal where Jennifer is?
I appreciate your post.
 
Whilst I appreciate Bo's handler's comments and also the comments posted here to me the explanations just don't make sense.
First up if the POI drove the car why do you have the dog get the scent from the passenger seat?
Second up; that dog could have headed anywhere but he went back to Mosaic. Why? Because that where the POI came from and returned to.
Why was the car dropped at HOTG? Because it seemed a good idea at the time.
The confusion about the tracking dog is just one of the many reasons this case has not been solved.
 
It sounds eerie and menacing. Google maps and Google earth are amazing tools but they can't beat personal observations.

It strikes me as another place Jennifer would never go near. Yet, just as her vehicle was found at the HOTG, she was connected to this area by the final ping of her cell phone
Another thing I will add is some of the wooded areas are covered with thick undergrowth. I doubt I could walk thru it.

They may have been trying to stay off the interstate. Idk, just a thought.
Whilst I appreciate Bo's handler's comments and also the comments posted here to me the explanations just don't make sense.
First up if the POI drove the car why do you have the dog get the scent from the passenger seat?
Second up; that dog could have headed anywhere but he went back to Mosaic. Why? Because that where the POI came from and returned to.
Why was the car dropped at HOTG? Because it seemed a good idea at the time.
The confusion about the tracking dog is just one of the many reasons this case has not been solved.
I don’t think they had watched the surveillance yet when they brought in the dogs.

There was a second dog that went to Park Central Apartments. It’s handler said it was tracking the poi or someone that walked by the car. I honestly don’t understand the way dogs track either.
 
Whilst I appreciate Bo's handler's comments and also the comments posted here to me the explanations just don't make sense.
First up if the POI drove the car why do you have the dog get the scent from the passenger seat?
Second up; that dog could have headed anywhere but he went back to Mosaic. Why? Because that where the POI came from and returned to.
Why was the car dropped at HOTG? Because it seemed a good idea at the time.
The confusion about the tracking dog is just one of the many reasons this case has not been solved.
I agree it doesn't make sense. Why did they wait so long to say there were 2 dogs? We only found that out in 2020, IIRC. Why just talk about Bo who sniffed the passenger seat and followed the scent to the pond side of Jennifer's condo and whose trainer believed it was Jennifer's sent he followed? They certainly never openly said that at least not to my recollection.

And what about the other dog? The one who sniffed the passenger seat and whose trainer thought he followed the scent of the POI or, perhaps, someone who walked by Jennifer's vehicle? I wonder if they made any attempt to check that area in any manner.

Talk about confusion.

Anyway, I'm going to add a screenshot from Google maps with the areas highlighted of the possible routes of both dogs. Bo's route is in blue and the other dog's route is in yellow. Notice I said possible. I believe Bo's is correct but I'm not so sure about the other dog.

Jennifer Kesse Paths of scent dogs highlighted.jpg
 
I agree it doesn't make sense. Why did they wait so long to say there were 2 dogs? We only found that out in 2020, IIRC. Why just talk about Bo who sniffed the passenger seat and followed the scent to the pond side of Jennifer's condo and whose trainer believed it was Jennifer's sent he followed? They certainly never openly said that at least not to my recollection.

And what about the other dog? The one who sniffed the passenger seat and whose trainer thought he followed the scent of the POI or, perhaps, someone who walked by Jennifer's vehicle? I wonder if they made any attempt to check that area in any manner.

Talk about confusion.

Anyway, I'm going to add a screenshot from Google maps with the areas highlighted of the possible routes of both dogs. Bo's route is in blue and the other dog's route is in yellow. Notice I said possible. I believe Bo's is correct but I'm not so sure about the other dog.

View attachment 398271
How much did le actually talk about the dogs? I don’t recall them commenting on it. If they have it wasn’t much. Members of the media were there when the dogs did their track, and perhaps that is just what they latched onto. It is interesting that we didn’t know about the second dog until the news released those few pages of the police report. Very early on there was a story about a scent being picked up in the woods and that was one of the most important clues. I’m wondering if that second dog went thru the woods on the way to Park Central.

Here’s the quote from the article (Media thread post #2):
”Police officers in Orlando, Fla., continued a search of a heavily wooded area Monday near the location where 24-year-old Jennifer Kesse's abandoned car was discovered last week after a scent was picked up in the area, according to a Local 6 News report. (snip)

"One of the two strongest clues that the Orlando Police Department is sharing with the media is the scent that was picked up in the woods," Local 6 News reporter Samantha Knapp said.”
 
I wonder what LE are holding back?
I very much doubt they gave Mr Kesse every single file they have of this investigation.
We all know that information known only to the perpetrator is held back to avoid false confessions. There might not be much in this particular case but there must be something.
And even if there is a suspect their guilt has be proven beyond reasonable doubt in a court of law.
 
How much did le actually talk about the dogs? I don’t recall them commenting on it. If they have it wasn’t much. Members of the media were there when the dogs did their track, and perhaps that is just what they latched onto. It is interesting that we didn’t know about the second dog until the news released those few pages of the police report. Very early on there was a story about a scent being picked up in the woods and that was one of the most important clues. I’m wondering if that second dog went thru the woods on the way to Park Central.

Here’s the quote from the article (Media thread post #2):
”Police officers in Orlando, Fla., continued a search of a heavily wooded area Monday near the location where 24-year-old Jennifer Kesse's abandoned car was discovered last week after a scent was picked up in the area, according to a Local 6 News report. (snip)

"One of the two strongest clues that the Orlando Police Department is sharing with the media is the scent that was picked up in the woods," Local 6 News reporter Samantha Knapp said.”
I was never sure where that "heavily wooded area" was. Oh, could it be? I notice the location is near Holden Ave.

Back in the beginning, and for quite a few years, the route Bo took was heavily discussed, and hard to confirm. Nary a mention of a second dog, though. If you've seen the "old" special Greta VanSusteren did, you can see that she even tried to get Bo's route confirmed with LE on camera.
 

9 things to know about the disappearance of Jennifer Kesse​

In December, WFTV reported that cold case detectives with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement are now looking over evidence to see if they can solve the mystery of her disappearance.

Kesse is one of three high-profile, unsolved missing person cases involving women who vanished from the Orlando area between 2006 and 2011.

 
I wonder what LE are holding back?
I very much doubt they gave Mr Kesse every single file they have of this investigation.
We all know that information known only to the perpetrator is held back to avoid false confessions. There might not be much in this particular case but there must be something.
And even if there is a suspect their guilt has be proven beyond reasonable doubt in a court of law.
On House of Broken Dreams, Rich Ring with Opd stated that they were only getting 95% of the files to protect the investigation (Episode 9). That’s a lot of information if you do the math. The Kesse’s received almost 16,000 pages according to Drew so they withheld approximately 800 pages. We know what they got was redacted, and Drew obviously didn’t agree with some of what was redacted. He’s complained a lot in his updates over the past couple of years.
 
I was never sure where that "heavily wooded area" was. Oh, could it be? I notice the location is near Holden Ave.

Back in the beginning, and for quite a few years, the route Bo took was heavily discussed, and hard to confirm. Nary a mention of a second dog, though. If you've seen the "old" special Greta VanSusteren did, you can see that she even tried to get Bo's route confirmed with LE on camera.
It’s somewhere near hog according to the article. I think there were more woods around hog in 2006 than there is now, but I’m not certain about that. I can’t find the google earth image from 2006 atm. It could be Holden Ave search.

I’ve seen people assume that it’s the woods around mosaic, but I think they’re wrong. I think they searched the woods around mosaic just because of the proximity of where she lived. The article specifically says hog.

I really think Bo got all the attention because of the media. I doubt there was any media at Park Central Midtown to see the second dog. There is footage of Bo at Mosaic. Sometimes le doesn’t care what the media or public thinks/says.
 
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