Hold My Sweet Tea
Where True Crime collides with chilling ghost stories and Southern folklore. Join us, sip sweet tea, and uncover shocking tales of murder, mystery, and the supernatural, all with a healthy dose of Southern charm and a touch of sass!
Hold My Sweet Tea
Ep. 79-The Disappearance of Jennifer Kesse
A warm, funny cold-weather check-in pivots into a gripping true-crime journey that spans courtrooms, forensics labs, and one family’s two-decade fight for answers. We start with October case turns, where evidentiary battles in the Morgan Bauer case show how motive, media, and fairness collide. Then a sharp DNA update in the Chandra May investigation illustrates how modern testing can turn doubt into direction—and why process still matters as much as proof.
From there, we go deep on Jennifer Kesse’s disappearance from Orlando in 2006. We trace her final night of calls, the morning routine left in place, the car found a mile away, and the infamous gatepost that hides the face on grainy security video. We revisit the renovations at her condo, the master key rumors, and the uneasy stares that pushed her to keep someone on the phone during repairs. We also confront the hardest truth: how years of stalled documentation and a fight for access to records left a promising investigation adrift, forcing the family to become their own project managers.
Hope, at last, has a shape. FDLE has retested evidence—including items never examined before—using expanded DNA markers and fresh lab approaches. Agents have narrowed the persons of interest to a few, re-interviewed witnesses, and tapped an AI partner to enhance the old video. The Kesse family’s recent update says it plainly: the case is no longer cold. Progress is real, even if answers aren’t here yet. We close by pushing back on rumors and invented “solves,” and we offer a simple test for responsible sharing: verify before you amplify.
Join us for a clear, human look at what it takes to move a long-stalled case forward, and why persistence from families—and accountability from institutions—can change everything. If this story moved you, follow the show, share it with a friend, and leave a review with your theory or question. Your voice helps keep the search alive.
Source Material:
Argueta, Brenda, October 23, 2025, Family of Jennifer Kesse says case 'no longer cold' nearly 20 years after her disappearance in Orlando, https://www.clickorlando.com/news/local/2025/10/23/family-of-jennifer-kesse-says-case-no-longer-cold-nearly-20-years-after-her-disappearance-in-orlando/
Gurley, Alex, January 23, 2025, What happened to Jennifer Jesse? Inside her mysterious 2006 disappearance, https://people.com/jennifer-kesse-disappearance-missing-case-8774071
Photo Credits: 48 Hours/CBS via above People article
ABC Channel 7, October 23, 2025, Jennifer Jesse Case Update: Interview, DNA evidence, documentary in the works, https://www.mysuncoast.com/video/2025/10/23/jennifer-kesse-case-update-interview-dna-evidence-documentary-works/
Jennifer Kessy has been missing for almost 20 years. Her family and law enforcement continue their search. This case may no longer be cold. This is hold my sweet teeth.
SPEAKER_03:And I'm on vacation. I'm Holly. Vacation from work, not like vacation, like I'm on some tropical island somewhere sipping, you know, fruity drinks out of a coconut because I don't be having money to do that. Right. I'm on a staycation.
SPEAKER_04:Not to mention that we have to take our vacation while it's cold while everyone else gets to go to the beach.
SPEAKER_03:Right. But damn it. It's been nice though, because it's it's like cuddly weather.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:And it's felt good for the last two days.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah. Cuddle with your pets weather. Speaking of pets. Uh oh. Mine's been super lovey lately.
SPEAKER_03:Oh. Because it's the weather. It must be. They're like, let's snuggle.
SPEAKER_04:She's well, the boy dog is always a snuggler. He's like, give me your lap. Right. So his chunky butt pushes everything out the way. Like I'm gonna squeeze in here.
SPEAKER_03:So watch my fanny. Watch my fanny. Exactly. And I tell him all the time he has a jump truck, but yeah, he does. That's a solid Pomeranian. He is heavy. He is heavy.
SPEAKER_04:Oh goodness. But no, I was talking about my little girl. She's she's always been kind of more independent. So it's weird when she's like pet me. Yeah. But she's definitely been more pet me, pet me. So she's coming around to the cuddly side. Good, good, good. She actually waited for me outside the shower yesterday. She never does that either. I was like looking out the door, and I was like, I see a little white spot. Yeah. And I was like, oh I see.
SPEAKER_03:I know. Every time I get out of the shower, Lily, my dog, is laying on the mat, and both cats are sitting there staring at me like there's food missing from my bowl.
SPEAKER_04:They were like, refill, please. Refill.
unknown:That's funny.
SPEAKER_04:So I have some updates to a couple of my cases. Oh, okay. We're gonna talk about um the Morgan Bauer case first. So again, this is just going back to the we told you there's a bunch of stuff happening in October. And a bunch of stuff did happen in October. It's Trial Tober. It's Trial Tober. Yes, that's right. Everybody goes to court in October, apparently. So um Caitlin Gobel, the other girl, the girlfriend of Jonathan Warren, who was already in jail for this. She's charged with malice murder, felony murder, aggravated assault, tampering with evidence, and concealing the death of Morgan Bauer in February of 2016. The state would like to present her social media posts about the occult Satanism and her like apparent obsession with serial killers because they want to use it as a way to establish motive in this case.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:Now they argue, prosecutors are like, hey, this is crucial. We need to be able to prove our case against her and uh showing who she is and what she's uh you know involved in, I feel like is is an important point.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, because I mean some of that plays into maybe the motivation of what you know.
SPEAKER_04:Right, which is what they're saying. Like, this is us trying to establish a motive. This is the why she did it. So the thing is, like, now I know she's like changed lawyers a few times, asked for a mental health evaluation, much like Faust over there. Yeah, I guess they all want to try to use their mentals as a reason why they did stuff, which is again why they need to argue, no, no, no, it's this, it's not that. So you knew what you were doing. They're saying that they don't want the judge to approve it because they think it's gonna make the jury prejudicial because they're like, they're gonna all feel some type of way about Satanism and all this other stuff. So it's gonna automatically make them be like, oh, she's guilty because of this. Yeah, like they don't want them to have that as a prejudice against her when they start this whole shebang. And I'm like, but it's they're supposed to be judging this case based on the facts and not their not their feelings towards her beliefs. That's what I said. It is what it is. This is what she was doing, so therefore it is. Do you honestly believe that when they can read the same things I'm reading right now?
SPEAKER_03:Everybody has the interwebs.
SPEAKER_04:And whether said jurors that are chosen decide to to admit that they've seen a lot of stuff. Right. Like, there's stuff that I've read that just make me ill. I told you about it the other week when I told you there was an update and that I was gonna bring it up before my next episode stuff.
SPEAKER_03:Disgusting and disturbing.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, and I I'm not gonna tell you what it is because I don't want to repeat it.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:I mean, you want to repeat it? You're welcome to repeat it right. I don't want to repeat it. But I mean, it had stuff to do with them, like the dismemberment, which we've already talked about, and that he spent several days uh having sex with the torso, yeah. So the necrophilia stuff, and it it actually goes into a piece of of ultimately cannibalism, yeah, yeah, but of a very specific part.
SPEAKER_03:Yes, and only that part, yeah, kind of a Ed Gini part.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, like I don't know, he didn't make any no, that's true. He made nipple belts, not well, he had a box of uh and it wasn't nipples, guys, just so we're clear.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, he had a box of clitoris and he did. So he did, yep, he sure did.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, so there you go. There you go. And I was just like, oh, yeah, no. So they're just now kind of in that limbo where waiting for the judge to decide whether or not that's gonna be admissible. Yeah, um, so any further updates on that, I will definitely watch for and make sure that everybody knows.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, and I think they always try to throw out, um, you know, like my last week case with Diane World, like, oh, well, everybody knows us in this town, and there's just been all this media sensationalism and things like that. It's not, let's move the trial somewhere else. No, yeah, you you did it there, you have your trial there, you have this evidence, you present this evidence. Period. You you did this crime and you posted this stuff or you did this stuff, so therefore, deal with it. Right. Like there shouldn't be moving it somewhere else because that's happened in so many places podcasts, right?
SPEAKER_04:It's everywhere, yeah. Everywhere. Is there anywhere you can go that someone hasn't heard about this?
SPEAKER_03:Because guess what? If I'm a juror, you better believe I'm gonna be on the internet unless they take all my devices away and put me in a hotel somewhere, which I don't think they would, but this one it is, is like you have to be picked before all this.
SPEAKER_04:I mean, and this stuff is out like crazy. So, like, is there a way to I don't know, it's somebody's grandma that lives in a basement, right?
SPEAKER_03:She might not know. I mean, you know, even and even grandma goes and gets the Sunday newspaper and it might be in there, you know?
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, so it's it's hard, it's hard these days to find people who don't know. Yeah. Well, unless you're me and I avoid the no the news.
SPEAKER_03:Not me. I come in every day and go, Did you see this? Did you see that? And and it what's my answer every time?
SPEAKER_04:I don't know. No, I purposely live in the dark sometimes, you guys. Like I go through cycles where I do I pay attention, but then I get like so overwhelmed with how bad everything is that I'm like, you're like, shut down time. Yep, exactly. Because I'm like, my my life is complicated enough without knowing all that, I just need to live under this rock for a few months and then I'll come back out.
SPEAKER_03:But you know, just the other day, a couple days ago, they were transporting test monkeys from Tulane University to so they were supposed to be going to Florida, right? I'm pretty sure. So, what were they doing way up in Mississippi from New Orleans? That's what that was my question. Because the route they took was weird enough. Maybe they were picking up some other test monkeys, maybe, but these poor monkeys were infected with all kinds of stuff.
SPEAKER_04:Well, and then somebody else was saying, like, this is the hard part about the about the news and what irritates me. And it's also something that like we have to be very careful with when we're sharing stuff, which is why I'll come back if I find out something I said was wrong and tell you, hey, that was wrong. There's like, oh, these test monkeys have COVID, herpes, hepatitis C, yeah, blah, blah, blah. And then suddenly some there's another news station that says, uh-uh, they they weren't sick, they didn't have anything, but they were still aggressive towards humans. Right.
SPEAKER_03:Well, I guess so. They've been in cages being poked and prodded.
SPEAKER_04:I'd be aggressive. And then they're like, Oh, all of them have been euthanized because they couldn't catch them and and what they they're like, don't want to be running around tearing people up. Right. And they're like, Oh, there's only one on the loose, and then they'll see another news article that says there's three on the loose. It's like, which one is true?
SPEAKER_03:I saw that too. How many monkeys are jumping on the jumping on the bed? And there was one. He was just sitting out there, like staring at everybody, and everybody's like, I'm so afraid I'm not gonna leave my vehicle and all that. Look, white women ain't scared of shit.
SPEAKER_02:I would have been like, Come here, baby, come here. Oh my god, let me play with your hair. Do you want to pick my hair? It's okay. I'd be on the ground like Jane Gnall. I'd be like, he's fine, he's fine. I got him, don't shoot him. Right. Crazy. Crazy stuff. All right.
SPEAKER_04:So our next update is actually on the it's a very tiny, tiny update for um the Chandra May case. So, you know, in April they had arrested and charged Ruben Weeks. Yes. And uh he's charged with kidnapping, rape, and murder. And remember he had that other case in Missouri where he kept, he like appealed wanting his DNA tested for that case, and all it did was prove him more guilty. Yep. Like crazy. But hey. Well, apparently Sheriff Mike Lee from Scott County told Dark Horse Press and the podcast investigation homicide were both the same people with these two things. And um he says that they can now confirm a positive DNA match to Ruben Weeks. So the guy that is in jail is they're saying this DNA proves it. So they didn't go into mega details on any of that because they're gonna save the details for the grand jury, but remember they had gotten a continuance with the grand jury because they presented some stuff, but they're like, hey, we have this stuff in the works, right? So can we get a continuance on this? Just please don't make a decision right now, right? And so that's what happened.
SPEAKER_03:Cool. I'm looking forward to the next update on that one, right?
SPEAKER_04:So cool. I'm I'm excited. I know there are a lot of people who are like, oh, is this mean he's gonna go ahead and just plead guilty, or do we think he's gonna fight it? I mean, he pled guilty to the last one. Yeah, like I told you in our update episode before, that he pled guilty and then he backtracked and wanted all this stuff done on millions of appeals. Like, no, I didn't actually do it. Do uh and that's why I said I don't think he's gonna plead guilty. I don't think so because he uh learned from his mistake because he thinks guilty, yeah. In some magical land, he can approve the DNA. Right. I I don't know, it's crazy, but we'll see. Yep, we'll wait and see. So that's cool. That's that little update. Not a whole lot. No, but it's an update. A very important update. All right, and you have stayed with us this far.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, we're moving right along. It's an update and an episode, it's a bonus on top of a bonus. That's right. Extra content today. And escaped monkeys, and escaped monkeys, yeah.
SPEAKER_04:So our big focus today is on the Jennifer Kessie case. She has literally been missing for 19 years, almost 20. In January, it will be 20 years that she has been missing. And it was deemed a cold case for the longest. Right. Um, her family fought to get this case turned over to the FDLE. She's in this is from Orlando, so it's Florida. Sorry, I forgot to say that, just in case anybody didn't know. If you're living under that rock like I do. Right. Uh Patrick. So, you know, they've they've like just stayed the course, been still searching, still trying to find leads. Like her dad's very um out there on their Facebook and just kept pushing, kept pushing. And the FDLE took it over, and they are now re-examining the whole thing. Yep. So we'll get into that a little further after we talk about what happened. And we always want to start with who these people are. Okay. So Jennifer Kessie, big family, lots of friends, great job. Just very loving boyfriend, you know, she's having a good life in her 20s. And all that comes to a very abrupt end in 2006. She was 24 years old and was a graduate of the University of Central Florida. She was working for a timeshare company and had actually bought her first home, which is the condo she was living in when she went missing. And it actually became her last known location. Okay. On January 24th, 2006, it was a few days post a trip to St. Croix that she took with her boyfriend. His name's Rob. And she just doesn't show up to work. Co-workers knew it was kind of not in her character to just not show up and to not reach out when she wasn't going to show up. So they call her parents, and her um, her dad's name is Drew and her mother's name is Joyce. And they try to get in touch with her, but also crickets. And so they immediately drive to her house because they're like, what is going on? Why is she not answering us? When they get there, she's nowhere to be found. Her car was not there, but her condo was left in a manner that looked like she had gotten up and gotten ready for work, and maybe just left, but didn't make it to work. There was like a damp towel in her bathroom, all the stuff she would use to fix her hair and put on her makeup, like everything's out. Right. Her pajamas are on the floor. So she's changed clothes. She's changed clothes, she got ready. It looks like she literally was getting ready for work. The only thing missing, her keys, her cell phone, her purse, and her iPod. Now, none of these things have ever been found. And her car actually gets discovered a mile down the road outside of another apartment complex that same day. That's suspicious. Right.
SPEAKER_03:Right. Like why would she just abandon her car?
SPEAKER_04:Right. Well, when they go digging, there's their surveillance video, but 2006. Right. It's crap. Yeah. It's grainy. You can't see anything. And there is a person that is seen like exiting the her car, like leaving her car there and walking. But there's like the the close-up footage they have of this person. There's like a gatepost in the way. Everything else is like grainy, far away, and they can't really even clearly see the body of the person. But her parents, especially, and her brother, they like they've never given up. And they're like, it doesn't matter how many times a lead leads to nowhere. We're gonna we're gonna keep trying. Right. We're trying forever, if that's what it takes. And of course, her her parents were in their forties when she initially went missing. So they're now in their 60s, and there's like, you know, health concerns. They've battled things. Her dad's had cancer twice. And you know, they're just he's just like, I'm I'm just hoping to get all of this sorted before I die. Like I need to know what happened. Whether, whether it's she has amnesia and still living somewhere and doesn't know who she is, or she's gone. Something, yeah, something we need, yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Like that would be me. I need to something.
SPEAKER_04:Right. Her dad actually told People Magazine, we don't care when, we don't care how, and frankly, we don't care who. We just want our daughter back for the good or the bad. We miss her every day.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:Which I watched an interview with him, and it's like heart-wrenching because he tells you like how he's had to deal with this through life over the last almost 20 years. He's like, it's hard. He said, I don't I don't spend time imagining what she would be like today or the potential of what could have been.
SPEAKER_00:Right.
SPEAKER_04:I spend most of my time being grateful for the time we did have with her because a lot of people don't even get 24 years. He said, There are so many children that go missing and everything else at a very young age that I'm grateful we got the 24 years that we did because they were amazing 24 years. Good, bad, ugly. I he's like, I appreciate every minute of it. And he's like, mentally, I don't think it would be healthy or a good way for me to deal with this if I lived in the what ifs.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:He said, those things get lived out in my granddaughters and her friends and sorority sisters. I could see exactly like what life would have would have been unfolded too. Yeah. But I'm not, I can't dwell in that. Can't live in it. So on the day that she went missing, of course, they they want to review everything that happened before the trip, during the trip, because gotta rule out the boyfriend naturally. And she had only been home for like two days at this point. Like they had gotten home on the 22nd, and she went back to her house. Rob went back to his house in Fort Lauderdale, so they didn't live like super duper close to one another. And she like called and talked to her mom about every last detail of the trip, like naturally, right? And she said that her daughter was just really happy, like she was on a cloud, like she was just like this is the greatest thing ever, you know, whatever. So she's super happy, nothing to to lead anyone to believe there was a problem with Rob. So she did actually go to work the day after that and did all her normal stuff, nothing was weird at work. Um, after leaving her office, she spoke to her parents on the way home. She called her boyfriend and was on the phone with him until like 10 o'clock at night. That's the last anyone ever heard from her. Now, they do say, like, you know, the boyfriend mentioned how he didn't get a the usual text or call in the morning beyond work not knowing. He said, you know, I thought it was weird, but I wasn't like in panic mode. He's like, I I tried to call her on my way to work, it went straight to voicemail, but I didn't like and put a lot of stock in.
SPEAKER_03:And sometimes you're like, oh, maybe she was just running late or something like that.
SPEAKER_04:I know she has a lot on her plate and a very busy schedule. We just got back from here, you know. So there's like naturally when you're not at work, stuff builds up. And so he's like, I just left her a message and moved on with my day because I don't know what was going on. He's like, you know, later I tried to call again and still got the voicemail, and I was like, huh, it's a little odd. Yeah, seems a little suspicious. But that's when we the employer calls the parents and is like, she didn't come to work today. And it was just like, you know, the the strewn about things in the apartment, like no real signs of any kind of struggle anywhere. Right. So it's just the car. And what are they getting from the car?
SPEAKER_03:And was her keys and purse and all that in the car or no?
SPEAKER_04:So I don't think I don't think so. I think maybe, maybe her keys, because dude was driving her car, but I don't know if he took them with her, with him. Him. It is a him in the video, you can tell that much. So I don't know if it took it, took the keys or what the deal is. So those very well may still be list missing. Um obviously getting police involved when her parents go to her apartment and can't. There's nothing weird. Like, how do they prove that she left in a struggle or in some sort of yeah? Like she didn't just disappear on her own. So, you know, they're they're trying to get them to understand that be and this was before finding the car, obviously. Um they just know, like, you know, time is of the essence here. Let's let's get on it. Yeah, but they ended up getting in touch with like media outlets and handing out missing person flyers like normal. Hundreds of people helped and they just kind of searched, right? You know, you guys take this area, you know, separated everybody out, and they all just kind of searched. And they say that her, like it's mixed because I keep reading, oh, it was found later that day, her car. But then there's other places where it says it was several days before they found the car. But she was driving a 2004 Chevy Malibu. There was a witness in her condo that said they believed they saw her car swerve out of the parking lot around 7:40 that morning, but didn't know what direction it was headed in. Like, you know, it's not one of those things you really pay super attention to. You just like notice somebody's in a hurry, you know, whatever, and you go on about your day.
SPEAKER_03:Somebody's late for work.
SPEAKER_04:And then, like I said, her, it was like a mile away, the other apartment complex where they found her car. And it had been parked there since about noon on that day, on the day she had gone missing. They said no forensic evidence was found inside the car, which they believe is because it had been cleaned. Yeah. While no one in the area knew about the car or its driver, it did provide one of the biggest leads in the case because of the security camera. And then, but unfortunately, it being like what it is, you can't see anything. So they're saying that they've come up with a height of between 5'3 and 5'5, and their their clothes, which I don't know how they determine this, because I saw it and I'm just going, okay. Yeah, they're saying the clothes look to maybe be someone who is a painter or I guess some type of construction worker, like cargo pants, maybe, and a t-shirt. I don't know if they were able to see something and they couldn't, but um there's no security footage from Kessie's condo, unfortunately, because they had not installed cameras at that point. There was a security guard who was hired to keep a log, but the records he gave police were not, they were like very incomplete.
SPEAKER_03:He wasn't logging like you should have been logging.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah. I bet he logs now. Right. There was some something on their the family's go fund me page that said that they had found a com that a complete set of keys for their the apartment complex had been stolen a month before she went missing.
SPEAKER_00:Hmm.
SPEAKER_04:Not sure how true or false that could be. It was just it was just out there.
SPEAKER_03:Like all the master keys.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah. When the police attempted to find forensic evidence in Kessie's condo, the scene had been compromised.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:Because her family went there first. Yeah. So they all Also, had used that as a gathering point at one point. Like, so lots of family, lots of friends, lots of people touching stuff at this apartment. Um, they had lots of tips, lots of leads. Everything was coming up pretty inconclusive. There's like bodies of water around that dive teams went into, not finding anything. They're saying that a witness saw a pickup truck dump a six to eight foot piece of rolled up carpet into the lake, which is why they decided to search it. Yeah, they did not find carpet or anything else.
SPEAKER_03:Why do people have to give false tips and waste precious time?
SPEAKER_04:You know, I mean, maybe they didn't think it was, but I I don't know. Yeah. There were markings on Kessie's car that could indicate that there was a violent struggle before she was taken somewhere. In the photos taken of the car, there's hand prints across the hood. And I guess they're saying this like is could be proof of an altercation occurring. They say it looked like someone was thrown down on top of the hood, and like their arms were spread out and then like dragged back almost like off the hood, and you could actually see like they say finger scribbling, I guess.
SPEAKER_03:Like trying to like catch on to something, yeah, like grab onto something.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, but those photos have not led to any further leads. I think NASA had tried at one point to help clean up the footage back in the day. Um, so that was really interesting. Now, at the time that she had gone missing, there were renovations going on, and there were a lot of workers, like guys wearing clothes that looked like their painters. Yeah. Um, and they had moved into like vacant condos around the property, I guess, like while they stayed there while they worked. And she had obviously admitted to her parents that she felt uncomfortable when these guys were around, would like get on the phone if there was something being worked on in her apartment and stay on the phone the entire time. It was just a way to make herself feel more comfortable, right?
SPEAKER_03:And they would have been had access to the keys, the keys, yeah.
SPEAKER_04:And of course, you're gonna cross paths with these people in in walking to your car anywhere else in the complex. And her dad had said, she told him, you know, there's a lot of workers here, and they just tend to stop when I'm walking by or go into my car and they just stare.
SPEAKER_00:Ugh.
SPEAKER_04:I mean, typical construction workers, right? They're like sorry guys, I'm I'm totally throwing out that stereotype, but they just do that.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, don't make it creepy googling people. Like you can look, but don't be creepy about it.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, you don't you don't have to be that way. Um, in the days after her going missing, her brother Logan had actually tried to speak to some of the laborers on the property. Uh, he said they were pretty uncooperative, and since he felt like somebody knew something.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_04:I mean, they're out there watching everybody every day. He's he also said that many of the construction workers had actually left before police could talk to them. And those that did speak with authorities had a communication barrier. So tough. Um, they did hire a private investigator, and that private investigator maintains that he feels like a worker was involved.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, that's what I'm thinking. Like it had to have been.
SPEAKER_04:After being on this case for many years, he claims that at least 10 construction workers were living in the condo across the hall from her. So he feels like it was one of them. That's that's his thought. Because he's like, I'm thinking scenario-wise, she comes out, locks the door, of course, she has her back to this other apartment, and then she's abducted by one of them.
SPEAKER_03:Right.
SPEAKER_04:They know what car she drives because they've been watching her.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, they've been watching her, yeah.
SPEAKER_04:So she's locking the door and doesn't see it coming. She's dragged maybe into that apartment. Who knows? Yeah, like something could have happened in there. And then they took her to the car and whatever may have happened at that point. While that's the private investigator's theory, that unit was actually searched, and they used dogs in there as well, and it came up negative. Nothing. Nothing. So in 2010, the original detective was taken off the case, and with very little movement or progress, obviously, it becomes a cold case. That also makes I say there's other resources available at that point because you have the option to try to move this case somewhere else, you know, whatever, because it's stagnant.
SPEAKER_03:Um yeah, for somebody else to look at and go, well, maybe this, this, and this.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah. Yeah. And and it so they're like, you know, please make this a cold case so that we can do what we need to do to get other people to look at this, you know, use those other resources. But the police department actually declined, stating it was still an extremely active case. So they were they were making that difficult. Right. In 2016, she was officially declared dead by the state of Florida, and her parents actually decided that they were just gonna go ahead and sue the Orlando police department in order to get access to her case files. The police chief gave his department six months to work on the case, and when they were unable to come up with any new leads, he agreed to go ahead and hand the files over.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, you had no choice at that point.
SPEAKER_04:They literally hand over 16,000 pages of documents, 67 hours of video and audio, and yeah. That's a lot. Getting this file cost the family over$18,000. Wow. Crazy. The files obviously came with the stipulation that the police department would no longer lead the investigation. So upon receiving those files, they learned that there had actually been no record, no recorded documentation of any investigation efforts between 2012 and 2019.
SPEAKER_03:But they were actively working on it. It was extremely actively so they could have like went ahead and closed it and had somebody else look at it, but no.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah. Of course, the family and their private investigator spend months going over all these documents. No real quarterback on the case, you know, no real person heading this other than the family and the investigator themselves. And there was a lot of information that they all felt like could have been developed, wasn't in the most critical time of that investigation. So in 2022, the family enlisted the help of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, which is FDLE for short. They are retesting all the old evidence, and they actually found some other stuff that had never been tested at all. Oh. Now there is talks of DNA, which they try not to linger on too long. But, you know, back in that day when they did DNA testing, it like only showed they use like 19 markers. Now it's like 26. So there's a lot of things that have advanced. So who knows, maybe you know, something will come of some of that new testing. So recently, as of recently, I'm saying like between May and now.
SPEAKER_03:So okay, so recent, recently, like mine.
SPEAKER_04:Recent, recently, the FDLE is able to say that this case is no longer cold. The reason they say that is not solved. No, not solved, but they've got some. However, through all the interrogation that they've been going through with re-interviewing all these witnesses, interviewing new people that have they've been led to by asking other questions that maybe weren't asked the first time. Um maybe somebody remembered something they didn't remember back then. Who knows? But they've gotten so much new information and so many new leads that they like are full steam ahead. Good, good. Going through it. They've been able to actually uh eliminate some of the people that were persons of interest, so now it's narrowed down to a few is the the word they use. No specific number, just a few. A few. And that grainy surveillance video, they have decided to enlist the help of an AI company to see if some way, somehow, they can work some magic on this. Which would be cool.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, it would be.
SPEAKER_04:There's also going to be a documentary done on her case that is slated to probably come out in January. That's what their plans are. But like I said, they're hoping like all this evidence and the the DNA stuff that has never been tested, or the items that have never been tested for DNA or any of that stuff, hopefully they lead to more factual information, which will eventually lead to finding out where she is, what happened to her, something of that nature. So hopefully this gets figured out.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, I definitely look forward to an update on that one for sure.
SPEAKER_04:And of course, you know, like I'm sitting here going, you know, this family has accused the Orlando Police Department of negligence, which duh. Duh. I mean. Um, I feel like a lot of times the smaller departments go, I mean, and I can't imagine how small an Orlando police department is. But it's not as big as the FDLE. Yeah. But it's like, if you're over if you're overworked and can't handle this, like why not be honest?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, and hand it off to somebody else that can handle it so somebody's child can get some kind of justice, you know, for their killer, or be found, you know. Human trafficking happens every day. I mean.
SPEAKER_04:And and the thing of it is like her her dad actually said, and I quote this from um News 6 in Florida. Now imagine over the over that time that they had this case fighting for unredacted copies with the city's lawyers and trying to have our private investigator find Jennifer from all those files. Then finding out that the lead detective on Jennifer's case did not write a single report or any document since 2010. That's 12 years at the time that they got this, they actually got the files. I would have been mad, mad. He's like, we firmly believe the department's negligence and lack of competency cost Jennifer the chance to be found. Absolutely. And of course, they say, you know, we were we're committed to finding answers. But were you? But were you? That's what I'm saying. But but were you? Um, there was like some false post on social media, which I actually saw while I was looking for all of this. So, like I said before, her dad updates social media. And so on October 21st, he he made a post, realizing he had not posted since her birthday in May. And I'm just gonna read it verbatim and then I'll link to it, obviously, in our show notes. It says, hello to all, and thank you for visiting Jennifer's page. We wanted to share a brief update with you on the latest developments concerning Jennifer's case. As many of you know, we are approaching 20 years since Jennifer was last seen or heard from in or around her Orlando home. That is an incredibly long time. However, we, her family and friends, have never given up on finding Jennifer. We've not backed down, if anything, we've always ratcheted things up in hopes of finding the right lead or clue to bring us to Jennifer. With that said, a few important things have happened since our last update in May. We recently met with FDLE special agents who lead Jennifer's case. First, they have advised us that Jennifer's case is no longer cold. This is huge. We are told that work has presented itself through nonstop investigations by the team. A lot has opened up for the investigation through active work being done on this case. We are thrilled at the news, yet guarded as we have been here many times before. However, this seems different. With this renewed focus, we were also informed that there was DNA found within evidence that was never tested. Again, huge for this investigation. Hopefully that lead that will lead to more factual information leading to Jennifer. We were also told that the list of people of interest has been greatly reduced and down to a few individuals they are working heavily on. We knew this would happen once a team truly started to investigate the case. This again is great news. We can hear it and see it in our investigative team at FDLE. They are definitely hyped up and moving forward quickly. It's exciting to see and we are letting them do their work uninhibited by us. We simply don't want to get in the way at this point. Finally, all good things are happening. On another note, recently we were approached by a few production companies in an effort to bring a documentary of Jennifer's story to the television market. We are now working with this documentary team to bring Jennifer's story to the world in a meaningful way through a television series. Please stay tuned for more as the production company continues their work. So even though almost 20 years has passed, we still fight the good fight on a daily basis to bring Jennifer home. We thank those who have supported our efforts for so long and continue to. We are grateful, thankful, and humbled by your continued love and support for Jennifer and our family. We are blessed to have so many on our side, helping in any way you can. We have always said together we will bring Jennifer home. Thank you for all you have done to help this family try and find their loved one. More to come, please check back soon, Drew and Joy, Kessie. I love that. But there was literally a post on social media that said the DNA evidence led to a construction worker who was in South America and is being extradited back.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:And all this stuff. And I'm just like, Where did they come up with this stuff? Calm down. Yeah. Quit spread, quit spreading crap. He literally has said that they've had so many like false leads on stuff like that, like misinformation put out. And even he says there's been threats to their lives before they've had people trying to extort them. Like, I can tell you who it was if you give me this money. You know, like it's insane the amount of crap that people go through when all they're trying to do is find out what happened to their daughter. It's like, what is wrong with y'all?
SPEAKER_01:Right. What is wrong with these people?
SPEAKER_04:I mean, they they literally are taking advantage. Yeah. It's crazy. Yeah, crap people in this world. You know who's not a crap person? Who? Patty Stephen. And she created our not crappy theme music. We love our theme music. We love it. It's great. Yes. But yeah. So if if you guys have any inputs you'd like to add in here, you're welcome to message us on social media or at our new email, our new free email, hold my sweet tea podcast at gmail.com.
SPEAKER_03:Yes. And as always, Hold My Sweet Tea is a drunken bee production. And you guys remember to stay safe out there, check your surroundings, be aware. And just because we're dipping doesn't mean you can't keep it dipping.