We're sunsetting PodQuest on 2025-07-28. Thank you for your support!
Export Podcast Subscriptions
cover of episode Mysterious Death of Kenneka Jenkins

Mysterious Death of Kenneka Jenkins

2021/4/26
logo of podcast Forensic Tales

Forensic Tales

AI Deep Dive AI Chapters Transcript
People
C
Courtney Fretwell
Topics
Courtney Fretwell: 本播客详细讲述了肯妮卡·詹金斯于2017年9月在芝加哥奥黑尔皇冠假日酒店神秘死亡的案件经过。肯妮卡与朋友参加完派对后失踪,后被发现死于酒店厨房的冷冻库中。警方调查后认定为意外死亡,死因为体温过低,酒精和药物是促成因素。然而,肯妮卡的母亲和支持者对警方的结论表示质疑,认为警方调查草率,证据不足,忽略了诸多疑点,例如肯妮卡失踪后警方反应迟缓,监控录像中肯妮卡独自一人在酒店走廊徘徊的画面,以及她身上衣物异常等。此外,网络上也流传着各种阴谋论,例如肯妮卡被谋杀、器官被盗等。本播客梳理了案件的来龙去脉,并对各种说法进行了分析,旨在呈现一个更全面、更客观的视角。 Teresa Martin: 作为肯妮卡的母亲,特蕾莎·马丁对警方草率结案深感不满。她认为警方在女儿失踪后反应迟缓,调查不力,没有认真对待她的报警。她指出,冷冻库内有紧急释放按钮,女儿不可能无法自行逃脱。她还质疑警方对监控录像的解释,以及对女儿身上衣物异常的解释。她强烈要求重新调查此案,以找出女儿真正死因。 警方: 警方调查后认定肯妮卡的死因为意外,死因是体温过低,酒精和药物是促成因素。他们认为监控录像显示肯妮卡醉酒后独自一人在酒店内徘徊,最终误入冷冻库。他们排除了他杀的可能性,认为没有证据表明肯妮卡是被他人杀害或强迫进入冷冻库的。他们认为肯妮卡上衣被拉起是由于低温导致的“反常脱衣”现象。 肯妮卡的朋友们: 肯妮卡的朋友们在案发当晚与肯妮卡一起参加了派对。她们在离开派对后发现肯妮卡失踪,并向肯妮卡母亲报告了此事。她们的证词在案件调查中起到了重要作用,但她们的证词也存在一些矛盾之处,例如她们对肯妮卡失踪经过的描述存在差异。

Deep Dive

Chapters
Kanika Jenkins goes missing after attending a hotel party with her friends, who leave her alone in the lobby while they retrieve a forgotten item.

Shownotes Transcript

Translations:
中文

To get this episode of Forensic Tales ad-free, check us out at patreon.com slash Forensic Tales. This episode of Forensic Tales is sponsored by Podcorn. When I first started looking for sponsors to feature on the show, it was really important to me that the brands I worked with were not only a good fit for me, but for my listeners. That's why I choose Podcorn to find sponsorships for Forensic Tales.

Within just a couple short days, I found my first sponsorship. And since then, I found so many more. Podcorn is a marketplace connecting podcasters to amazing podcast sponsorship opportunities, such as host red ads, interview segments, topical discussions, and more.

And because I'm a one-woman show, I need to be able to quickly and efficiently share with you trusted products and services. I just don't have the time to search the dark corners of the internet for trusted sponsors. With Podcorn, there is no middleman, which I love. Podcasters of all sizes can browse and choose opportunities right there on the platform, set their own rates, and collaborate with brands directly.

To learn more about what Podcorn can do for you and your podcast, click the link in my show notes to sign up to Podcorn and start browsing today. If you're like me, then your email inbox is a complete mess. Every single day, I probably get a hundred emails. But the problem is, the important emails always seem to fall through the cracks. That's why I'm so glad I discovered InMote.

InMote is an email extension that helps you gain control over your inbox by stopping email distractions from interrupting your focus. There's nothing to download or install. InMote works with your existing Gmail or Outlook account. Register, set your email priorities, and you're all set.

Important emails will continue to go to your inbox, while email distractions will be sent to a new at InMote folder to be reviewed at a later time. InMote has become a complete lifesaver for me, and it can be for you too. Check them out at InMote.com. That's InMote.com.

Forensic Tales discusses topics that some listeners may find disturbing. The contents of this episode may not be suitable for everyone. Listener discretion is advised. Your phone rings in the middle of the night. A single drop of cold sweat slides down your back. A yucky feeling in the pit of your stomach tells you something's wrong. Very wrong. Your daughter's in trouble.

You frantically call 911. The police tell you to calm down and call back. Minutes grow into hours, and hours turn into days. Your daughter's missing, and the police have no interest in finding her. Sadly, that's exactly what happened to Teresa Martin.

This is Forensic Tales, episode number 69, The Mysterious Death of Kanika Jenkins. ♪

Thank you.

Welcome to Forensic Tales. I'm your host, Courtney Fretwell. Forensic Tales is a weekly true crime podcast covering real, spine-tingling stories with a forensic science twist. Some cases have been solved with forensic science, while others have turned cold. Every remarkable story sends us a chilling reminder that not all stories have happy endings.

If you're interested in supporting the show, getting early access to weekly episodes, bonus material, ad-free episodes, merchandise, and much more, consider visiting our Patreon page at patreon.com slash Forensic Tales.

Another great way you can help support Forensic Tales is by leaving us a positive rating with a review or telling friends and family who love true crime about us. Now, let's talk a little bit about the mysterious death of Kanika Jenkins. In September 2017, Kanika Jenkins was like any other 19-year-old girl. Kanika lived in Chicago's West Side with her mom, Teresa Martin.

a typical teenager who loved hanging out with her friends. She liked to have fun. Kanika had an unforgettable, big, bright smile. On the night of September 8, 2017, Kanika asked her mom, Teresa, if she could borrow her car for the night. She wanted to go hang out with some friends. Typical teenager stuff.

Since Kanika didn't own a car, Teresa was used to her 19-year-old daughter's request. Like she'd done so many times before, Teresa agreed. Teresa told her daughter to please be safe and kissed Kanika goodbye. That night, Kanika and three of her girlfriends had plans to go to the movies. But sometime during the night, their plans changed. When you're 19 years old, plans always change.

The girls decided to ditch the movie idea and head to a friend's birthday party. The party started around 11.30 p.m. at the Crowne Plaza Chicago O'Hare Hotel in Rosemont, a suburban area of Chicago. Before the party, the girls headed to a liquor store in Kanika's mom's car. They bought a Bluetooth speaker, a bottle of Hennessy, and a couple of energy drinks at the store.

After the stop at the liquor store, they made one more stop to pick up some marijuana from a friend. Then, they made their way to the Crowne Plaza. Kanika and her three girlfriends arrived at the hotel a little after 1 o'clock in the morning. Once they got into the hotel, they headed up to the 9th floor, room 926.

The hotel room was packed with teenagers and 20-something-year-olds just having a good old time. Happy youngsters celebrating a friend's birthday. At 1.36 a.m., someone at the party begins a Facebook Live video, jumping online and showing off just how amazing this hotel party was. Just being a teenager.

In the video, people are seen dancing. Some are drinking. Some are kicking back. They're having a blast. One person seen on the video is Kanika Jenkins. At 2.17 a.m., Kanika opened up her Snapchat and posted a video of herself at the party inside of the hotel's bathroom. Even though the video is only a few seconds long, she looks like a girl who's just having fun.

A little after 3 o'clock in the morning, Kanika and her three girlfriends decided they were over it. They called it a night. The night already ended way later than expected. Plus, Kanika still needed to return her mom's car. So shortly after 3 a.m., the four girls, including Kanika, left the party on the ninth floor and took the elevator down to the lobby.

Once she steps into the lobby, Kanika realizes she's forgot an item in the hotel room. It's unclear what she forgot. Kanika's friends told her, hey, don't worry, wait here, we'll go back and get it for you. Pay special attention. This is key. Kanika's friends, three fellow teenagers, tell her to wait for them in the lobby.

Instead of one of the girls waiting with Kanika, all three of them go back up to the hotel room, leaving Kanika completely alone. Let that sit in the back of your mind for a moment. After Kanika's friends come back down to the lobby, they can't find her anywhere. Kanika is no longer standing where they left her when they went back up to the room. She's gone.

The girls searched everywhere throughout the Crowne Plaza for Kanika. Why would she just run off? Strange. They only left for a couple of minutes. Where could she have gone? Kanika's friends continued to search the hotel, going up and down every floor for a little over an hour, but no sign of their friend anywhere.

Finally, by 4 o'clock a.m., the girls thought that Kanika maybe just grew tired and decided to drive home herself. But the girls got to the hotel party in Teresa's car, Kanika's mom. Or maybe Kanika got a ride with someone else. Nothing about either scenario made sense to the girls. But they couldn't find her anywhere at the hotel, so she must have left.

The girls finally decided to call Kanika's mom. They asked Teresa if Kanika was home. They wanted to make sure their friend was safe and sound before they left the hotel. When Teresa picked up the phone, she was surprised to hear Kanika's friends and not from her daughter directly. This was odd. Why did her friends call her but not her?

Teresa told the girls, no, Kanika's not home yet. I thought she was with you guys. That's when the teenagers tell Teresa Martin that they're at a hotel party in Rosemont and they can't find Kanika anywhere. Teresa Martin tells the girls to have a little patience, to search the hotel some more. As she's telling one of the friends to keep looking for Kanika, Teresa hears something troubling.

One of the girls is losing her patience. She's annoyed. She doesn't want to keep looking for Kanika. About an hour later, the girls took Kanika's mom's car back to her house without Kanika. They took Kanika's cell phone and keys, the items that they claim they went back up to the room for.

After they dropped off the car at the house, Teresa and the three friends went back to the hotel to look for her, this time for the second time. Teresa couldn't understand where Kanika could have gone, especially without her keys, without her cell phone, and without her car. Once they arrive at the hotel, the search begins all over again.

Teresa and the friends searched up and down. They looked everywhere for any sign of Kanika somewhere inside the hotel. But the search turned up nothing. Kanika was still missing. A little over two hours later, at 7.15 a.m., Teresa picked up the phone and dialed 911. At this point, no one had seen Kanika in over four hours, and nobody saw her leave the hotel.

This 911 call to the police is troubling for more than a couple reasons. Teresa tells the 911 dispatcher that her 19-year-old daughter went to a hotel party that night and hasn't been seen since. She explains her daughter went with friends, and her friends don't know where she went.

She's basically asking for advice. She tells him she doesn't know what to do. They've searched the entire hotel looking for her and nothing turned up. The dispatcher's response is concerning. He tells Teresa her daughter is a teenager. She's free to do as she pleases. But Teresa disagrees. No, something's just not right here. This is completely out of character for my daughter.

During the phone call, Teresa expresses her concerns that she doesn't think Kanika's friends were telling the truth about what happened. First, she pointed out that, according to the friends, her daughter left her cell phone behind. So, if Kanika was okay, why would she leave her cell phone behind? At first, the dispatcher kind of agreed with Teresa that it's possible that the friends aren't telling the truth about what happened.

But even though he agrees with her, he doesn't take it seriously. He thinks this call is a waste of time. Another phone call with a mom who's upset that her 19-year-old daughter didn't return home on time. So, the dispatcher ends up telling Teresa to go home and see if her daughter shows up by 10 or 11 a.m. If she doesn't come home by then, then she's free to call back and report her as a missing person.

Teresa hangs up the phone with 911. She's crushed as she goes home to anxiously await for her daughter to return home. When we first meet someone, our smile is often the first thing people notice about us, whether that's on a first date or at a job interview. A smile can tell a lot about a person, but you can't just trust your smile with any teeth whitening company.

That's why I turn to Smile Brilliant for my teeth whitening needs. Smile Brilliant and their teeth whitening system is backed by decades of research and is created by hygienists and dental professionals. So I know what I'm putting on my teeth is both safe and effective.

Made right here in the U.S., Smile Brilliant is a leading lab-direct oral care company that specializes in custom-fitted teeth whitening trays done from the comfort of your own home. And right now, Smile Brilliant is offering the listeners of my show a very special offer. You receive 30% off your entire order.

Simply enter the code tails at checkout and you'll save 30% off your order and get wider teeth. To check them out and start achieving a wider, brighter smile, visit smilebrilliant.com.

That's Smile Brilliant. Teeth whitening for everyone. Shop today. SmileBrilliant.com. And don't forget to use the promo code TAILS for 30% off. After calling 911, Teresa went home and waited for Kanika to arrive, exactly as the police advised. But as she sat at home waiting, something just didn't sit right in the pit of her stomach.

She's a mom. She knew her daughter. Her maternal instincts took over, telling her something isn't right. She needs to go find her daughter. 10 a.m. comes and goes. 11 a.m. passes, followed by 12. By 1 o'clock p.m. on September 9th, Kanika still wasn't home. Teresa had enough. She picked up the phone to demand that a missing persons report be done on her daughter.

On the second phone call to the police, she finally gets what she wanted. At 1.16 p.m. on September 9th, Kanika is entered into the law enforcement agency's data system, or LEADS, as a missing person. LEADS is Illinois' statewide system run by the Illinois State Police Department.

It's a law enforcement tool created to provide police departments across the state of Illinois with shared data and information. With leads, a police department anywhere in the state could log on and search for relevant data on any crime they're investigating. Think of it like this. A string of burglaries happens in Chicago's West Side.

A police department in the city's west side can log on to Leeds and see if there's been similar burglaries committed in another city within the state. In the case of a missing person, the missing person data can be uploaded into the system and law enforcement agencies across the state are made aware and they can be on the lookout for the individual. But this is a problem in Kanika Jenkins' case.

Her case wasn't uploaded into Leeds for over 10 hours. This setback cost them 10 crucial hours of looking for her. The most important thing in any investigation is time. Time was ticking to find her safe and sound. And thanks to one 911 operator, they had to wait 10 hours. After Kanika was entered into Leeds, not much happened in the case.

I say not much happened because police really didn't do much to find her. The only people who seemed to be looking for her were Kanika's family. In fact, after she was reported missing, it was Kanika's own family members who went back to the Crowne Plaza Hotel to look for her. Kanika's family spent almost the entire day on September 9th looking for any sign of her around the hotel.

They went from floor to floor, knocking on doors, asking the hotel guests if they had seen or heard from Kanika. After knocking on hotel guests' doors for hours, hotel employees finally called the police back to the hotel. They weren't necessarily called back to help look for Kanika or anything. The police came to the hotel after receiving complaints that Kanika's family was disturbing some hotel guests.

So just before 8 p.m., officers are dispatched to the hotel. The officers arrive and tell the Jenkins family that they can't just go knock on everyone's doors. They can't just invade the hotel's guest privacy like that. It was okay for them to search the hotel's public areas, but they couldn't just keep disturbing the guests like that, especially when there isn't any evidence to believe that Kanika is even still at the hotel.

So after the police arrived, the officers decided to check out the hotel's surveillance videos to see maybe if they could spot Kanika in any one of the videos. Maybe they could figure out what time and what exit she used to leave. Based on the time Kanika's friends told the police that they arrived at the hotel for the party the night before, the officers started combing through the surveillance tapes. Bingo! They spot Kanika!

At 1.13 a.m. on September 9th, the night of the party, a surveillance camera set up outside the hotel captured Kanika arriving at the hotel with three of her girlfriends. In the video, the girls seemed completely normal. They just looked like teenage girls excited to be going to a hotel birthday party.

At approximately 3.30 a.m., Kanika Jenkins' image on the surveillance tapes changed, and not for the better. The police spot Kanika on several more of the hotel's surveillance tapes recorded between 3.25 a.m. to 3.32 a.m. At 3.25 a.m., a little over two hours after Kanika and her friends got to the hotel party,

She's captured on another surveillance tape inside of the hotel. She's seen on a camera recording one of the hotel's hallways. At 3.25 a.m., Kanika is seen staggering around the hotel hallway completely by herself. When I say staggering, she can barely stand on her own two feet.

She's swaying side to side. She's bumping into the walls. At one point in the video, you see her run into the railing of a stairway. Surprisingly, she didn't fall to the ground.

When I look at the video, which I'll post to our website, it seems like she's drunk. She looks like a teenage girl who has maybe had one too many drinks or possibly smoked too much marijuana at the party. She's wasted. She's either bumping into the walls or just trying to keep from tripping over her own feet.

So the police see her on video for a little under 10 minutes from multiple different camera angles. Again, all angles of the camera show her staggering down the hotel's hallways, completely alone. No one is with her. One camera closer to 3.32 a.m. showed Kanika walking through the hotel's empty kitchen.

From my research on the case, the hotel's kitchen was not operational at the time. If you watch the tapes, the kitchen is empty and spotless. There's no one else in the video, nothing. All you see is Kanika staggering through the hotel's kitchen and heading towards the top left side of the camera's video.

Once she gets to the top of the camera's frame, she turns the corner and is never seen on the surveillance tapes again. After the police reviewed all of the hotel surveillance videos, they checked on room 926, the room of the party. But they don't find anything suspicious. Everything seemed completely normal.

The only evidence they possessed is digital forensic evidence showing Kanika entering the hotel's kitchen but not leaving from the same entrance. That's it. Once the police finished their search of the hotel, as well as review the surveillance tapes, they left. They told the Jenkins family to call them if they had any additional evidence or had heard from their daughter.

The police didn't really seem concerned about what they saw on the tapes. To the police, Kanika looked like a teenager who got drunk at a party and walked out on her own. They weren't concerned about her walking into the hotel's kitchen. The police figured the drunk girl just got out another way. A couple hours after the police left, shortly after midnight, this is now September 10th, a hotel employee walked through that same kitchen.

There's no information about exactly why this employee was in the kitchen. The surveillance video shows this hotel employee is maybe some sort of security guard. He's making his rounds around the hotel, including the empty kitchen.

The employee is seen on camera entering the kitchen at 12.23 a.m. He's seen walking across the kitchen towards the same direction where Kanika was recorded, an area of the kitchen where a big walk-in freezer is located. Just like Kanika, the employee walks towards the upper left-hand corner of the video and disappears out of view.

A few minutes later, the same employee is seen walking back across the empty kitchen in the same direction. Then, a few minutes later, the hotel employee is caught on tape walking back into the kitchen, this time escorting a police officer. The hotel employee and police officer headed in the direction of the kitchen's walk-in freezer.

Inside the freezer, they made a shocking discovery. Lying on the freezer's floor was a female body. After almost 24 hours of searching, Kanika Jenkins was found. After discovering Kanika's body in the kitchen's freezer, additional officers, including the forensic pathologist, were called to the scene. At 12.48 a.m. on September 10th, Kanika was pronounced dead.

The police notified Kanika's mom, Teresa Martin, and other family members that Kanika had been found dead in the Crown Plaza's kitchen freezer shortly after 1 o'clock in the morning. Kanika was no longer missing. She was dead. Did you know that big tech companies make a lot of money from your data? Well, they do. And the worst part is, you aren't getting your fair share of their profits.

Introducing Tiki. Tiki believes it's your data and you should be paid for it. Tiki is an app that allows you to see what data companies are collecting from you. And the best part is, Tiki helps you monetize your data. With Tiki, you get paid your fair share for granting buyers access to your data. It's that simple.

To start getting your fair share of your data, check them out at mytiki.com slash ForensicTales. That's Tiki, T-I-K-I, mytiki.com slash ForensicTales. It's your data. Get paid for it. Let's talk a little bit about this freezer where Kanika was discovered. Remember, this is in a hotel's kitchen that, by all accounts, is not operational at the time.

Inside the kitchen, there's a walk-in freezer inside of a walk-in cooler. Even though the kitchen was empty and not in use at the time, the freezer was still on and fully operational. So this particular freezer was able to maintain a temperature of a chilling 34 degrees Fahrenheit, extremely cold.

So when the police discovered Kanika inside the freezer, she lay face down with her left arm underneath of her. She only had one shoe on. Her right shoe was off and lying next to her on the floor. And she had a small bloody cut on the side of her right foot, kind of between her ankle and smallest toe.

She was wearing the same ripped jeans and jean jacket the police saw her wearing earlier in the hotel's surveillance tapes. What was interesting was that besides the cut to her foot and one missing shoe, was that the shirt she was wearing underneath the jean jacket had been pulled up. I mean, someone had pulled up her shirt practically all the way up to her neck, exposing both of her breasts.

Initially, it appeared as though someone tried to take her top off and failed, or was able to take it off and then put it back on. Besides the condition of Kanika's body, the police also made several observations of the freezer itself. When they first arrived, the lights were both off in both chambers, meaning the lights in the cooler were off, as well as the lights inside of the walk-in freezer section.

For someone to get inside this part of the cooler, you would have had to open the latch, but there wasn't a lock on the freezer. To get inside, anyone could just lift the latch on the front door and go inside. It wasn't locked. It didn't have an alarm or anything like that. So once you got inside the freezer by opening the latch, there was a white circular handle inside of the freezer.

This handle was the way out of the freezer. When police first arrived inside of the freezer, this handle on the inside appeared to be working. In other words, there wasn't any evidence to suggest the handle to open the freezer was broken or wasn't working at the time. The medical examiner transported Kanika's body out of the freezer at 4.52 a.m.,

I think the question on everyone's mind was, how did this happen? How did Kanika end up inside this industrial kitchen walk-in freezer? Her body's discovery only seemed to prompt more questions than it did answers. Like, besides the question on how she got there, other questions were, why? Why did she only have on one shoe? How did she get that cut on her right foot?

And why was her shirt pulled up? Did someone lock her inside? While Kanika's body waited for an autopsy, her funeral was held at Chicago's House of Hope. Kanika's family and friends mourned, along with hundreds of complete strangers who showed up to pay their respects. Nobody could understand how something like this could happen. How could a 19-year-old girl end up dead inside of a freezer?

Many people who showed up were upset with how the police had handled the case. From the delay in responding to the case to the initial investigation, Kanika's family and friends were angry. When they showed up to her funeral, many were wearing purple t-shirts that read, People wanted to know, was this a tragic accident or did someone force her into that freezer?

About a month after Kanika's death and funeral, the family anxiously awaited the autopsy findings. And when the report was finally released, it only brought more heartache to the family. After a four-week investigation, the Cook County Medical Examiner's Office announced the cause of death in Kanika's case. The forensic pathologist ruled Kanika's death an accident due to hypothermia.

The forensic pathologist also noted drugs and alcohol in Kanika's system and listed them as contributing factors in her death. At the time of her death, Kanika's blood alcohol level was 0.112 higher than the driving limit of 0.08. Depending on Kanika's weight, that could be anywhere from four drinks to maybe six or seven, as well as depending on her tolerance level.

But besides the alcohol, the forensic pathologist found a drug called topiramate in her system. Topiramate is a type of prescription drug known to treat conditions like migraines and epilepsy. At least, that's what it's commonly used for.

But Kanika didn't have either of those conditions. According to Kanika's family, she didn't suffer from epilepsy and she didn't suffer from migraines and certainly wasn't prescribed those types of drugs.

This is undoubtedly a cause for an alarm because the level of this prescription drug found in Kanika's blood at the time of her death was within, quote, therapeutic range, meaning she ingested an average-sized dose. The forensic pathologist also found a type of lesion suggesting she died from hypothermia and the abrasion on her right foot.

A scan of her brain revealed some swelling, which is a bit unusual. A person dying of hypothermia doesn't typically display brain swelling. But in Kanika's case, the forensic pathologist didn't believe that the swelling to her brain had anything to do with her cause of death.

When I hear this, what comes to mind is maybe the brain swelling could possibly be attributed to her falling once she got inside of the freezer. Of course, that's total speculation on my part, but it could be the reason why the forensic pathologist decided to not attribute the brain swelling to her cause of death. After the forensic pathologist published his report,

Rosemont police announced that they were officially closing the case. Kanika's death had been ruled an accident. No evidence existed to believe that foul play was involved. Investigators thought Kanika just had too much to drink that night, ingested the prescription medication voluntarily, and then accidentally wandered into the hotel's freezer that night.

Authorities believe this theory is backed by digital forensic evidence, specifically the hotel's surveillance tapes showing Kanika very intoxicated. It's hard to watch this video and not believe that she wasn't under the influence of drugs or alcohol or maybe both.

In the minds of Rosemont police, this is an open and shut case. They've got video evidence of Kanika arriving at the party. The same video evidence suggested she was intoxicated. No one else is seen entering or leaving the kitchen before or after Kanika. The only problem with the surveillance video is there wasn't one video positioned in the freezer's direction.

Other than the video showing Kanika entering the kitchen and walking in the freezer's direction, there is no tape actually showing her getting inside. But I think what the police find compelling is that there isn't anyone else seen entering or leaving the kitchen. Other than the employee, of course, who's seen walking in the following night, the employee who found Kanika's body.

And now they have an autopsy report finding that the cause of death is hypothermia. The report also showed no evidence of a sexual assault. Other than the small amount of brain swelling and the cut to her right ankle, there was no other evidence on assault, at least as far as the body could tell. There's a piece of evidence that I want to revisit that wraps up the police's accident theory.

The discovery of Kanika's shirt pulled up over her chest towards her neck. Kanika's family pointed to the shirt as evidence that could suggest foul play was involved or at the very least indicate a sexual assault occurred. But here's what the police's forensic expert had to say about the pulled up shirt.

According to their expert, Kanika's shirt is actually evidence that points more towards an accident than a homicide. And here's why. It's a phenomenon called paradoxical undressing. This happens when a person is freezing and they actually take their clothes off instead of reaching for something to keep them warm.

So right before death, a freezing person will oftentimes remove their clothes as if they were burning up when in reality, they're freezing to death. Now, if you're like me, you hear that and you're like, what? How could someone freezing think that they're burning up and remove their clothes when they're about to die? Well, no.

This is common in many hypothermia cases and people freezing to death. Most of the time, these victims are found naked and almost naked. This happens because when our bodies experience a cold-induced paralysis in our nerves, this paralysis of the nerves in the vessel leads to what is called vassalization, in other words, a feeling of warmth.

Instead of feeling cold when this happens, we feel warm, hence our desire to want to take our clothes off. So according to the forensic expert in Kanika's case, this is likely what happened and could absolutely explain why her shirt was found pulled up towards her neck. Kanika likely experienced paralysis of the nerves and instead of feeling cold inside of the freezer, she started getting warm.

And then moments before she would have died due to hypothermia, she tried taking her shirt off. The police's announcement of closing the case came as a shock to Kanika's family and supporters, specifically Kanika's mom, Teresa Martin. Kanika's family had many questions for the police. She believed investigators rushed to judgment in the case.

Some criticism came from the beginning, like why did it take the police so long to take this missing person's case seriously? It took the family at least three separate visits to the Crowne Plaza Hotel before the police even decided to get involved. Something that troubled Kanika's family was the freezers themselves. I mentioned earlier that Kanika's body was found inside of a double freezer unit, which

There's an outer freezer and another freezer inside of that. So the Rosemont police told Kanika's mom that they believed she wandered into the freezer, closed the door behind her, trapped herself inside, and then froze to death.

Well, what the police probably didn't know was that Kanika's mom worked in a cafeteria herself. She knew a lot about these types of freezers. She knew that unless someone locked Kanika inside of the freezer from the outside, she would have been able to escape herself. So after Kanika's body was removed from the freezer, the police allowed Kanika's mom to look at the freezers, not go inside, but just to look.

And the first thing she noticed was the big glow-in-the-dark release button on the inside of the outer freezer. And the second thing she noticed was the big white release button on the inside of the inner freezer. She thought to herself, there's no way she couldn't get out. She wasn't buying the police's theory that Kanika went inside and then just couldn't figure out her way to get out.

With two release buttons right there in front of her? One that glows in the dark and one that's big and white? That theory just didn't make sense. Kanika's mom also noticed a camera above the freezer itself, something the police denied. This camera could have captured the moments right when Kanika went inside and anyone else who may have been with her.

The police have claimed that there was a camera where Kanika's mom claimed, but the camera didn't take any footage. Therefore, according to the Rosemont Police Department, it's useless in the investigation. If there's a camera, but it's not working and it's not recording, then, well, again, it's useless.

Kanika's family wanted the FBI to get involved. They wanted another law enforcement agency outside of the Rosemont Police Department to take a second look at the case. Through the family's attorney, they argued that right from the get-go, the police rushed to conclude that this was an accident. Basic cop school will tell you that you go into a crime scene or investigation with an open mind.

You don't go in with opinions or your mind already made up. And that's what Kanika's family thought happened here. Once the Rosemont police finally took the case seriously, they were then quick to rule it an accident. They never once considered it to be foul play.

According to the family and their attorneys, this is evident because the police took no fingerprints either from Kanika's body or anywhere else surrounding the freezer or the kitchen. The police did no DNA tests to determine if there was evidence of a possible suspect. Again, either on the body or the freezer handle itself.

For the Rosemont Police Department, Kanika's death was an open and shut case. So what are the possible theories here? If Kanika's death wasn't an accident, like the Rosemont Police said, then what happened to her? Well, Kanika Jenkins' story is one where you can go down so many different crossroads. There are many other conspiracy theories about what happened the night of her death on the internet.

One theory speculates it wasn't really Kanika on those hotel surveillance tapes. It was another girl who someone staged to look like Kanika. Another theory is that Kanika was murdered. Her murder was a part of an organ harvesting ring. All of those theories have paved the way for several protests over the years.

protesters demanding the Kanika Jensen's case be reopened because of the shoddy job that investigators did from the start. Another theory, which hasn't quite sparked as many protests, is the theory that Kanika was drugged. Because she wasn't prescribed the drugs found in her system for migraines and epilepsy, many believe she may have been drugged at the hotel party.

People further speculate Kanika's friends may have been involved and planned to leave her by herself in the hotel lobby. Kanika's case reminds me so much of Kendrick Johnson.

We covered the story of Kendrick Johnson in episode number 44 of the show. And just a quick rundown. Kendrick Johnson was a high school student who was found dead, rolled up inside of a gym mat back in 2013. His death was ruled an accident after the forensic pathologist believed that he got stuck inside the mat after trying to reach the gym shoes that he had at the bottom.

But like Kanika's case, many think there's more to Kendrick Johnson's story, that it wasn't an accident. So if you haven't listened to that episode yet, I highly, highly recommend you do. It's an extremely fascinating case that actually has been recently reopened. Kanika Jenkins' death raises concerning questions. Why did the police take so long to look for her?

Why was Kanika unable to escape the freezer? What really happened to her? And lastly, why did the 911 dispatcher blatantly disregard a Black mother's instinctual panic? Whether you're white, Black, brown, or Asian, you have to wonder if your desperate 911 call would have been handled differently. For the sake of today's America, I hope not.

To share your thoughts on Kenneka Jenkins' case, be sure to follow the show on Instagram or Facebook at Forensic Tales. Let me know if you think this was an accident or not. Also, to check out photos from the case, as well as clips of the hotel surveillance cameras, be sure to head to our website, ForensicTales.com. Don't forget to subscribe to Forensic Tales so you don't miss an episode.

We release a new episode every Monday. If you love this show, consider leaving us a positive review or tell friends and family about us. You can also help support the show through Patreon. Thank you so much for joining me. Please join me next week. We'll have a brand new case, a brand new tale to discuss. Until then, remember, not all stories have happy endings.

Thank you.

Or, if you simply want to support my show, head over to our Patreon page, patreon.com slash forensic tales. You can also help support the show by leaving us a positive review and telling friends and family about us.

Forensic Tales is a podcast made possible by our Patreon producers, Tony A, Nicole L, William R, David B, Sammy, Paula G, and Selena C.

If you'd like to become a producer of the show, head over to our Patreon page or shoot me an email at Courtney at ForensicTales.com to find out how you can become involved. For a complete list of sources used in this episode, please visit ForensicTales.com.

Please join me next week. We release a new episode every Monday. Until then, remember, not all stories have happy endings.