The Rosemont public safety department issued a press release offering more details into the death of Kenneka Jenkins, and their investigation of the incident that has caught national attention. This includes the fact that they have interviewed 25 people as part of their investigation.
The press release comes as the police also released surveillance video Friday that shows Jenkins walking through the halls of the Rosemont Crowne Plaza hotel the night of her death. In the videos, Jenkins can be seen walking out of an elevator into the hallway. In another, she’s seen stumbling into a vacant hotel kitchen. The video does not show her walking into a freezer where she died.
In the press release, the police also urged Teresa Martin, the mother of the victim, to contact them with any questions– an apparent response to her frustration with how the case is being handled. Less than an hour before the videos were released to the media, Martin and her attorneys held a press conference imploring the hotel and authorities to release all of the video. They also said they plan to do an independent investigation.
The press release appears to be an attempt to answer some of the many speculations and rumors that have been playing in the public, including the police’s take on how they found her body. Here is what we know from the press release:
– The Rosemont officers were only able to track down Jenkins’ body in the freezer after further inspection of surveillance video. It was an employee who discovered Jenkins’ body in the freezer after a number of failed attempts at tracking her down.
– Martin was able to identify her daughter’s body before it was transferred to the medical examiner’s office. She also observed the kitchen area where Jenkins’ body was found.
– The hotel room used for the party was booked by a black male and female who used a fraudulent credit card. The card was apparently obtained through identity theft.
– It is believed a minimum of 31 individuals were inside the hotel room the night of the incident. With the police having tracked down and interviewed 16 individuals, they are still trying to locate the other 15.
– The Rosemont Public Safety department is following up on over 500 tips that they have received from the public.
– A video recording of the scene that includes the believed path Kenneka Jenkins took from the hotel room to the freezer has been created. They have used surveillance video to support it.
– The two social media videos that have been pored over by the public have also been reviewed by the police and sent to a lab for further analysis. It will take about two weeks to receive results from that analysis.
– As part of that process, two search warrants were sent to Facebook to obtain more information of the two accounts that were associated with the videos.
We’ll keep you updated as more information is released.