Source: Chicago Tribune / Getty/Kenneka Jenkins’s mother Tereasa Martin
UPDATE: After community activist Andrew Holmes held a press conference claiming authorities let him view footage of Kenneka Jenkins allegedly walking into the hotel freezer before her death, Keneeka’s mom denounced the announcement saying it misrepresented her family.
As of Thursday, Tereasa Martin, the mother of the deceased, had not viewed the footage, but was waiting to review it with her attorney, Larry Rogers.
We previously reported a Chicago community activist believes he has seen the proof of what exactly happened to the 19-year-old.
According to the Chicago Tribune, on Thursday a local advocate who works with police, Andrew Holmes, told the newspaper that surveillance video from a Rosemont hotel shows Jenkins entering a walk-in freezer alone. Apparently the authorities showed him the video when he went to the precinct asking questions on the behalf of Kenneka’s family.
Holmes told the Tribune that the video he watched consisted of the following:
- Jenkins waiting in the lobby of the Crowne Plaza Chicago O’Hare Hotel after her friends went back up to the room where they had been partying in.
- Jenkins then takes the elevator to a lower level and staggers around, visibly disoriented.
- She then opens two doors to a kitchen and just walks right into the freezer.
- The doors close behind her and Jenkins isn’t seen again on tape.
Since then, several clips of the video have surfaced online and are currently making the rounds on social media. In the clips, Jenkins is seen stumbling around the halls of the hotel and into the kitchen by herself.
Holmes stressed to the paper that he strongly believes that NO ONE forced the teenager into the freezer, but that the family is waiting for the toxology report to see if she had been drugged prior to her tragic death.
“The important part is we all wanted to know: Did anybody call her down there?” he said. “Did anybody force her down there? Was there anybody on the other side of the room when she got down there? And the answer to that is no.”
Since news hit of Kenneka’s death there has been a lot of online chatter and theories about happened, including her own friends being behind her death and even luring her into a gang rape.
However Holmes’ account of what happened contradicts a lot of that. Meanwhile, Chicago Police will not confirm or deny whether the activist saw the video. They only thanked Holmes for his assistance “on behalf of the family and community pursuant to this investigation.”
Surprisingly, Kenneka’s own mother Tereasa Martin told the Tribune that she has yet to see the video, but plans on doing so soon with her lawyer by her side. From early on, Martin was very vocal that Chicago police were not doing enough to investigate her daughter’s death.
As HELLO BEAUTIFUL previously reported, Jenkins left home around 11:30 pm on September 9 to attend a kickback with friends at the Crowne Plaza Chicago O’Hare Hotel & Conference Center. She was found dead in a freezer and was pronounced dead just before 1 a.m. on Sunday.
This is a developing story and we will provide updates as they become available.
RELATED NEWS:
Here’s Everything We Know About The Mysterious Death Of Kenneka Jenkins
Mother Of Teen Found Dead In Freezer:’Someone In This Hotel Killed My Child’
