Theories #1: What Happened to Jennifer Kesse?

[Truth Prevails]

One thing that always comes to my mind when I think about things that could have caused Jennifer to leave her condo that night, is the DVD player. I think it could be possible that she may have decided on the spur of the moment to run out and bring it in. Or, maybe even in the morning, she thought she would take a minute to run it up to her condo, dropped her purse and briefcase in the front seat, and she was overcome by the abductor as she went to open the back car door and unstrap it?

It doesn't offer any plausible reason for the perp to move her car, but I always ponder on this.

 

[Myserty64]

I too have never understood what could have lured Jennifer out of her condo that night.
It is accepted that she was tucked up in bed when her phone call to boyfriend Rob concluded about 9:57 pm.
It must have been a tiring day, even for a 24 year old.

There may have been more than one perpetrator and they had a key to her condo.
If she was abducted in the condo she must have been ordered to take her purse and I assume the missing car keys and ipod were in the purse.

These thoughts are dependent upon the cell phones being powered off at 10:40pm.
Mr Kesse has stated this happened.
The only question I have regarding this is where did Mr Kesse get this information from? LE or another crime site?

A morning abduction appeals as the more plausible scenario.

I am simply thinking aloud here. This always has been a frustrating mystery where 2 + 2 seems to equal 5.

 

[JnRyan]

I too have never understood what could have lured Jennifer out of her condo that night.
It is accepted that she was tucked up in bed when her phone call to boyfriend Rob concluded about 9:57 pm.
It must have been a tiring day, even for a 24 year old.

There may have been more than one perpetrator and they had a key to her condo.
If she was abducted in the condo she must have been ordered to take her purse and I assume the missing car keys and ipod were in the purse.

These thoughts are dependent upon the cell phones being powered off at 10:40pm.
Mr Kesse has stated this happened.
The only question I have regarding this is where did Mr Kesse get this information from? LE or another crime site?

A morning abduction appeals as the more plausible scenario.

I am simply thinking aloud here. This always has been a frustrating mystery where 2 + 2 seems to equal 5.

More recently I've leaned toward an evening abduction. BUT there are parts of this that do fit a morning abduction. The wet shower and towel. Jennifer's clothes laid out on the bed. Her briefcase missing. And lastly, if someone was trying to lure Jennifer out of the condo that evening after 10PM at the end of a long day that as not a sure thing as waiting for her when she leaves the condo. And if the abduction occurred between her condo and her car, the suspect would likely have his own vehicle in the condo parking lot. Hence, the need to walk back to condo after parking her car at HOTG.

In the morning? That had to be a quick, brazen attack. A blitz attack. Something to overpower her quickly. Even if the attacker threatened her with a gun, he would have to drive her through Orlando morning traffic and that is risky. No, I believe if it happened in the morning then when she was driven out of the lot she was likely incapacitated - probably from blunt force to the head. Still it would seem to be more risky than at night.

 

[hec60504]

I don't think she was abducted in that traditional sense at all - I think she voluntarily met up with someone and the foul play occurred after that. I mentioned once that if it were in the morning, I think someone she knew and trusted was walking outside, and she offered them a ride. Remember too that Jennifer was young, pretty tall, and fit - and I get the sense that she was a serious and determined woman; when I was in Law Enforcement a woman like her probably would have required myself and at least 1, if not 2 other male officers to take her down and get her under control had she decided to fight - and I just cannot see Jennifer qing along quietly with an abductor. I think she was deceived, and then surprised.

 

[Myserty64]

Thanks for the sound info hec60504.

Well that leaves two suspects for mine.

I won't name them here but one is an ex-boyfriend who followed Jennifer to Orlando.
The other is a workplace acquaintance.

Of course it could be neither.
It is quite possible there is someone else she knew lurking in the background. A person whose existence we are unaware of.

With the two people I mentioned above I would have thought a tough interview by detectives would have cracked the case open.

This is one tough case. No crime scene, no body, no witnesses.

 

[Myserty64]

The trouble with 'the person she knew' as the perpetrator theory is this:

Where does the POI fit in? The POI obviously isn't one of the people she knew.

If the POI was innocently parking the car as a favor why hasn't this person come forward?

As a final thought just what do LE have in the murder book? There were at least seven folders overflowing with papers in a documentary I saw.

 

[hec60504]

I've always thought that the POI who returned her car was an employee or acquaintance of the subject. I think the subject may have said something like, "hey, can you return my GF's car - but bring it to this other lot instead because her parents may be at her house and they would just kill me if they knew I was driving her car". I think the POI did not come forward because he may not have known that JK was the subject's GF.

The trouble with 'the person she knew' as the perpetrator theory is this:

Where does the POI fit in? The POI obviously isn't one of the people she knew.

If the POI was innocently parking the car as a favor why hasn't this person come forward?

As a final thought just what do LE have in the murder book? There were at least seven folders overflowing with papers in a documentary I saw.

 

[hec60504]

A boyfriend who followed Jennifer to Orlando? That's pretty obsessive! I wonder if the police ever put the screws to him and turned them hard. When I went for my forensic interviewing training, I watched a video of a police detective who was questioning a man who they suspected killed his wife. The investigator kept asking the suspect, "you killed you wife because you didn't love her, right"? The suspect answered each time with a resounding, "NO!". Another investigator came in and asked the suspect, "let me guess; you loved your wife very very much - you guys got into an argument, it got heated, and you killed her". The suspect paused for a moment, and then said, "I loved my wife so much, and yeah I killed her". I've seen so many detectives just do terrible forensic interviews - I mean like they didn't even plan them out. Just look at when the detective interviews Burke Ramsey - watch that video. Burke controlled the entire interview; he was crawling all over the couch, etc. The detective never set any ground rules with him. Sometimes this kind of poor police work just makes me want to cry - a bad interview can spoil the entire case.

Thanks for the sound info hec60504.

Well that leaves two suspects for mine.

I won't name them here but one is an ex-boyfriend who followed Jennifer to Orlando.
The other is a workplace acquaintance.

Of course it could be neither.
It is quite possible there is someone else she knew lurking in the background. A person whose existence we are unaware of.

With the two people I mentioned above I would have thought a tough interview by detectives would have cracked the case open.

This is one tough case. No crime scene, no body, no witnesses.

 

[Truth Prevails]

The trouble with 'the person she knew' as the perpetrator theory is this:

Where does the POI fit in? The POI obviously isn't one of the people she knew.

If the POI was innocently parking the car as a favor why hasn't this person come forward?

As a final thought just what do LE have in the murder book? There were at least seven folders overflowing with papers in a documentary I saw.

BBM--this is interesting to contemplate.

I think they let crucial time pass in the very beginning of this case, but I do believe they eventually got around to investigating as thoroughly as they could.

From what I can gather, they did seriously interview her current boyfriend and even her brother and the two friends who stayed the weekend at Jenn's condo. Then there was the guy from the gym and as many of the workers at the condo as they could track down; people from her work place--and it went on and on.

Also all the tips and all the searches. Paper work really grows like a bad weed, and maybe they even beefed it up a bit for the documentary. Or maybe not.

I'm curious as to whether anything we have comes from LE, other than the video of the POI.

For example, I would like to know if Jenn's brother thought to get the license plate of that vehicle he pounded on. I think I read recently where some of the windows were tinted, so he may not have seen all the occupants. But even if LE could have found one person who had been inside that vehicle that day, they could have really applied pressure in an interview. They are tough guys that know how get the results they seek--they are not always the nice guys we see during a trial.

So, maybe they did and it amounted to a big zero. If there was anything at all to that, though--I would say the chances of Jennifer never leaving the complex are very high. However, that leads right back to--why would they need to remove her vehicle from it's parking spot?

I'm hopeful, but I'm even wondering what the new podcast can bring to light; or, will it just amount to underlining how fruitless this all is. I believe there is a tiny thread somewhere--in a tip or in a piece of evidence that was at first overlooked--that will begin an unraveling. That's what keeps me here, I guess.

 

[Myserty64]

The original detectives never even took any notes.
They were due to retire.

 

[Myserty64]

If the reason Jennifer's car was moved to Huntington on the Green apartments was to cause confusion it certainly worked.

Not only that the driver reversed the car into into the parking lot.
If I remember correctly he even made two attempts to get the car nice and straight.
Often people reverse park cars so they can make a quicker getaway when they leave. That didn't apply here.

I wonder what he did with the keys? Dumpster?
He didn't appear to be carrying Jennifer's briefcase either.

 

[Myserty64]

The ex-boyfriend.

He not only followed Jennifer to Orlando he desperately wanted them to get back together.

He was one of the group who stayed in Jennifer's condo the weekend she was away with her boyfriend.
I wonder if he saw any photos of Jennifer with her new boyfriend?

On the Monday night he was drinking heavily in a bar across the road from Jennifer's condo.
The next day Jennifer was missing.

See any red flags here?

 

[hec60504]

OMG. And yeah, I'm sure he saw some pics, or things Jennifer's current BF had bought her! Ugh...

The ex-boyfriend.

He not only followed Jennifer to Orlando he desperately wanted them to get back together.

He was one of the group who stayed in Jennifer's condo the weekend she was away with her boyfriend.
I wonder if he saw any photos of Jennifer with her new boyfriend?

On the Monday night he was drinking heavily in a bar across the road from Jennifer's condo.
The next day Jennifer was missing.

See any red flags here?

 

[Valiant]

If the reason Jennifer's car was moved to Huntington on the Green apartments was to cause confusion it certainly worked.

Not only that the driver reversed the car into into the parking lot.
If I remember correctly he even made two attempts to get the car nice and straight.
Often people reverse park cars so they can make a quicker getaway when they leave. That didn't apply here.

I wonder what he did with the keys? Dumpster?
He didn't appear to be carrying Jennifer's briefcase either.

Florida has only a rear license plate. Backing the car in makes it harder for a police cars driving through the lot to ID the car.

 

[megmac22]

One thing that always comes to my mind when I think about things that could have caused Jennifer to leave her condo that night, is the DVD player. I think it could be possible that she may have decided on the spur of the moment to run out and bring it in. Or, maybe even in the morning, she thought she would take a minute to run it up to her condo, dropped her purse and briefcase in the front seat, and she was overcome by the abductor as she went to open the back car door and unstrap it?

It doesn't offer any plausible reason for the perp to move her car, but I always ponder on this.

I never even thought about that possibility. Have the Kesses ever given a reason for why that DVD player was in the car? Or does no one really know? You're right - what if she ran her briefcase, etc. down to the car first and then ran back up to the condo to grab the DVD player and was overcome the second time she came downstairs to her car? I do this all the time (make two trips) if I forget something in my apartment or don't want to carry a bunch of stuff to my car wearing heels. I'm not sure where she could take the DVD player after 10 at night, but then again I don't even know if it belonged to her. Do we know if it was a friend's and she was supposed to return it (much like Travis' cell phone)?

 

[megmac22]

I'm hopeful, but I'm even wondering what the new podcast can bring to light; or, will it just amount to underlining how fruitless this all is. I believe there is a tiny thread somewhere--in a tip or in a piece of evidence that was at first overlooked--that will begin an unraveling. That's what keeps me here, I guess.

Sometimes I wonder too what a podcast, TV show, etc. can even bring to the case as it seems we are just rehashing the scant details we have about Jennifer's disappearance, but then I always think of how Drew Kesse said it's her family's job to make sure everyone in Orlando and beyond know about her so that one day that one person who knows something will talk. I say one person because I personally believe that, unlike in Tara Grinstead's case where about a dozen people apparently knew what had happened but never spoke up, the only person who knows what happened to Jennifer is the POI parking her car. I have zero hope that that person will come forward at this point, but I do have hope that he'll slip up at some point and tell someone else (or has already slipped up), or give enough details that whoever he tells can piece it together based on the publicity given to the case.

 

[kemo]

The ex-boyfriend.

He not only followed Jennifer to Orlando he desperately wanted them to get back together.

He was one of the group who stayed in Jennifer's condo the weekend she was away with her boyfriend.
I wonder if he saw any photos of Jennifer with her new boyfriend?

On the Monday night he was drinking heavily in a bar across the road from Jennifer's condo.
The next day Jennifer was missing.

See any red flags here?

There seems to some question as to the facts of the case.

Was it the ex-boyfriend or the brother of the ex-boyfriend who stayed in the condo while Jennifer was away?

From what I can tell from google maps, The Blue Martini, where the ex-boyfriend was said to have been drinking, is at least 3 miles from Jennifer's condo. Am I missing something. Then, there is the issue of him "drinking" there. Was he really slamming down drinks alone or was he hanging out with friends or whatever?

I have read references to the "fact" that the ex-boyfriend "followed" Jennifer to Orland. This sounds like stalking behavior and would be very ominous. Orlando, however, is a growing city with a lot of jobs and young people very often go there to advance their careers.

We are really not supposed to sleuth anyone who has not been identified as a POI and my understanding is that he was cleared pretty early in the investigation.

For what it is worth, I think there is little doubt that the POI from the CCTV is "involved". Some have speculated that he isn't the perpetrator, he is just "helping" the real perp. I find this highly unlikely. The only reason I can see for anyone returning to the scene of the abduction would because they "need to be there" ; either they live, work or have left their vehicle there. Otherwise, it would be foolhardy to go anywhere near there.

Moving, or having someone else move Jennifer's car long after the crime has been committed makes no sense. It entails risks and offers no obvious tactical advantage. Criminals do stupid things so just because something " makes no sense" doesn't rule it out but it does make it an unlikely explanation. I think the most likely explanation is that the perpetrator used Jennifer's car for the abduction and was returning to the Condo where he either worked, lived, or most likely, left his car.

 

[Truth Prevails]

Florida has only a rear license plate. Backing the car in makes it harder for a police cars driving through the lot to ID the car.

I thanked your comment, but I felt it just wasn't enough. So again, thanks so much for this--I was really, really wondering.

I never even thought about that possibility. Have the Kesses ever given a reason for why that DVD player was in the car? Or does no one really know? You're right - what if she ran her briefcase, etc. down to the car first and then ran back up to the condo to grab the DVD player and was overcome the second time she came downstairs to her car? I do this all the time (make two trips) if I forget something in my apartment or don't want to carry a bunch of stuff to my car wearing heels. I'm not sure where she could take the DVD player after 10 at night, but then again I don't even know if it belonged to her. Do we know if it was a friend's and she was supposed to return it (much like Travis' cell phone)?

What I have gathered from a few videos is that the DVD player was a gift of sorts from her boyfriend, Rob. I have heard both that it was new and/or that it was slightly used. Apparently it was Rob who strapped it in the backseat of Jenn's car just before she left his apartment to travel directly to work that Monday morning, before she went missing.

I'm totally guessing here, but my thoughts are if she went out for the DVD player after she spoke with Rob that evening--intending to quickly bring it in rather than leaving it in her vehicle for another night--she never made it back inside. However, I find that theory doesn't sit well because it doesn't address why her briefcase, purse, the cell phones, etc. are missing; not to mention the wet shower, nightgown on the bathroom floor, clothes laid out and anything else I missed.

From what I understand the DVD player was still strapped in the vehicle when it was found, and I think Rob said it seemed exactly as he had placed it.

But the idea of her leaving her apartment that morning with all her things and then deciding she had enough time to run the DVD player back up to her condo but got struck from behind as she turned to retrieve it, kind of works. (This could work with why her condo alarm wasn't set, too--if she had planned to bring it up before leaving.)

It doesn't answer why both phones (or just her phone--both have been said), was/were turned off at 10:40 pm the night before--remembering that she used her cell phone as her alarm clock.

 

[Truth Prevails]

Sometimes I wonder too what a podcast, TV show, etc. can even bring to the case as it seems we are just rehashing the scant details we have about Jennifer's disappearance, but then I always think of how Drew Kesse said it's her family's job to make sure everyone in Orlando and beyond know about her so that one day that one person who knows something will talk. I say one person because I personally believe that, unlike in Tara Grinstead's case where about a dozen people apparently knew what had happened but never spoke up, the only person who knows what happened to Jennifer is the POI parking her car. I have zero hope that that person will come forward at this point, but I do have hope that he'll slip up at some point and tell someone else (or has already slipped up), or give enough details that whoever he tells can piece it together based on the publicity given to the case.

I hope that a fresh look and new discussion, will bring new awareness. I think the person who is doing the podcast said he is from the Orlando area, but had never heard of this case until recently. I can't help wondering if new interest will bring forward new eyes which might finally recognize the POI in the video. I know it's a long, long shot, but it is worth the shot in my opinion.

There seems to some question as to the facts of the case.

Was it the ex-boyfriend or the brother of the ex-boyfriend who stayed in the condo while Jennifer was away?

From what I can tell from google maps, The Blue Martini, where the ex-boyfriend was said to have been drinking, is at least 3 miles from Jennifer's condo. Am I missing something. Then, there is the issue of him "drinking" there. Was he really slamming down drinks alone or was he hanging out with friends or whatever?

I have read references to the "fact" that the ex-boyfriend "followed" Jennifer to Orland. This sounds like stalking behavior and would be very ominous. Orlando, however, is a growing city with a lot of jobs and young people very often go there to advance their careers.

We are really not supposed to sleuth anyone who has not been identified as a POI and my understanding is that he was cleared pretty early in the investigation.

For what it is worth, I think there is little doubt that the POI from the CCTV is "involved". Some have speculated that he isn't the perpetrator, he is just "helping" the real perp. I find this highly unlikely. The only reason I can see for anyone returning to the scene of the abduction would because they "need to be there" ; either they live, work or have left their vehicle there. Otherwise, it would be foolhardy to go anywhere near there.

Moving, or having someone else move Jennifer's car long after the crime has been committed makes no sense. It entails risks and offers no obvious tactical advantage. Criminals do stupid things so just because something " makes no sense" doesn't rule it out but it does make it an unlikely explanation. I think the most likely explanation is that the perpetrator used Jennifer's car for the abduction and was returning to the Condo where he either worked, lived, or most likely, left his car.

BBM - Agreed but I hope no-one feels anyone sleuthed anyone--all the things we mentioned have been in msm articles or videos.

It was an ex-boyfriend of Jennifer's and Jen's father can be quoted as saying he was "stinking drunk" at the Blue Martini on the Monday evening. I have never heard if he was alone or what time he left or where he ended up that evening. It has been said he was cleared, but it has also been said that no-one has been totally cleared and that likely won't happen until Jennifer is found.

(I think it is the Jacob Wetterling case where the person finally arrested was investigated by LE not long after he went missing.)

 

[British99]

Florida has only a rear license plate. Backing the car in makes it harder for a police cars driving through the lot to ID the car.

The POI did not back the car into the parking spot