Kenneka Jenkins Crime Scene: Footage, Autopsy, and Settlement

The Kenneka Jenkins case involves the September 2017 death of a 19-year-old Chicago woman who wandered, visibly impaired, into a walk-in freezer inside an unused kitchen at the Crowne Plaza Chicago O’Hare Hotel in Rosemont, Illinois. Her body was found more than 21 hours after surveillance cameras last recorded her. The Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office ruled her death an accident caused by hypothermia, with alcohol and topiramate intoxication as significant contributing factors. Rosemont police closed the investigation with the same finding. In 2023, her family settled a wrongful death lawsuit against the hotel and other defendants for $10 million.

The Night at the Crowne Plaza

Jenkins left her West Side Chicago home around 11:30 p.m. on Friday, September 8, 2017, with friends who had changed plans from a movie to a birthday party at the Crowne Plaza in Rosemont. She entered the hotel at 1:13 a.m. with three other young women. Surveillance footage showed her steady on her feet at that point.¹

The party was in a ninth-floor room. A Facebook Live video around 1:36 a.m. showed Jenkins sitting in the background. She posted a Snapchat clip from a hotel bathroom at 2:17 a.m. Her last direct communication was a text to her sister around 1:30 a.m.¹

Around 3:00 a.m., Jenkins was standing near a ninth-floor elevator while friends went back to the room to look for her missing belongings. When they returned ten to fifteen minutes later, she was gone. The friends said they searched for her, then called her mother, Tereasa Martin, around 4:00 a.m. to report that they had lost track of her.¹

What the Surveillance Footage Showed

At 3:25 a.m., cameras recorded Jenkins exiting a lower-level elevator alone, staggering and leaning against a wall. Over the next several minutes, hallway cameras captured her bumping into walls, nearly falling, and appearing to struggle with direction.²

At 3:32 a.m., the final clip showed her stumbling through an empty hotel kitchen and walking out of the frame. That kitchen camera was motion-activated and pointed toward the freezer area, but not aimed directly at the freezer door, so no recording captured her entering it.³⁴

Police reviewed footage from all 47 hotel cameras, covering roughly 36 hours of recordings. Between the time Jenkins entered the kitchen and the time her body was found, the only other person captured entering the kitchen was a security guard on routine rounds, who remained in view and never approached the freezer.⁵

How and When She Was Found

Martin arrived at the hotel around 7:15 a.m. on September 9 and called Rosemont police. Jenkins was entered into the missing persons database at 1:16 p.m., and her sister filed a formal missing persons report at the Rosemont police station at 12:46 p.m. Officers began searching the hotel and reviewing surveillance footage.⁶

Shortly after midnight on September 10, a hotel employee entered the kitchen area and alerted an officer. Jenkins’ body was found inside a walk-in freezer located within a walk-in cooler in the unused kitchen. She was pronounced dead at 12:48 a.m., more than 21 hours after cameras last saw her enter the kitchen.¹⁶

The kitchen had a single entrance, monitored by the motion-activated camera, and was being leased at the time to a group opening a restaurant in the building. The freezer door was self-closing and would latch shut, and it had a white circular release handle on the inside meant to allow anyone trapped to push the door open. A detective who inspected the mechanism shortly after Jenkins was found reported that it appeared to be in working order. The freezer itself was operational, with functioning lights.⁷⁴

Autopsy and Toxicology

The Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office released its findings on October 6, 2017. Cause of death: hypothermia due to cold exposure in the walk-in freezer. Manner: accidental. Alcohol and topiramate intoxication were identified as significant contributing factors.⁸

Her blood alcohol concentration was 0.112, above the legal limit for driving in Illinois. Topiramate, a prescription drug used to treat epilepsy and migraines, was present at therapeutic levels. Jenkins did not have a prescription for it. The medical examiner noted that alcohol and topiramate are synergistic and can together produce dizziness, impaired memory and concentration, poor coordination, confusion, and impaired judgment. The office also concluded that the resulting central nervous system depression, combined with cold exposure, can hasten the onset of hypothermia and death. Comprehensive toxicology testing found no evidence of date rape drugs or other illicit substances.⁸⁹

Why Police Closed the Case as Accidental

Rosemont Public Safety officially closed its investigation on October 20, 2017. Chief Donald Stephens III stated there was “no evidence that indicates any other conclusion.” The investigation generated 135 police reports and involved interviews with 44 people. Of the more than 30 party guests, police identified all but six, who were known only by street names. Six other individuals were not interviewed because associates refused to cooperate.³¹⁰

Police found no evidence of foul play, no evidence that Jenkins was forced to consume alcohol or drugs, and no signs of physical trauma or sexual assault. Their findings were consistent with the medical examiner’s conclusions.⁴

On closing the case, the department released an unusually large collection of investigative materials, including police reports, crime scene photographs, autopsy photos, surveillance footage, and a formal timeline. Anticipating litigation and continued public speculation, it also created a three-dimensional digital model of the kitchen, since the space was subject to possible remodeling.¹⁰

The Conspiracy Theories and What Investigators Found

The case generated enormous attention on social media, where theories of foul play, cover-ups, murder, and organ harvesting spread quickly. A Facebook Live video streamed from the party by Irene Roberts, and posted to Monifah Shelton’s account, became a focal point. Some viewers claimed they could hear Jenkins say “help me” in the background and that a figure was visible in the reflection of Roberts’ glasses.¹¹

Investigators determined that the “help me” audio actually came from a Chief Keef music video playing in the background. A rumor that Jenkins had been killed over $200 turned out to reference a parking fine at the hotel. Both were addressed in the police reports released when the case was closed.¹²

Social media users accused Shelton and Roberts of involvement in Jenkins’ death. Roberts deactivated her Facebook page after the accusations began, and Shelton posted messages denying any involvement. The online harassment extended to other party attendees, some of whom reported death threats that forced them to leave the city.¹²

Community activist Andrew Holmes, who said police had shown him additional footage, described Jenkins appearing lost in the basement area, trying doors as if looking for a way back to the lobby, and possibly mistaking the walk-in freezer for an exit. Police never confirmed that Holmes had seen the video, and Jenkins’ family said they had not authorized him to view footage on their behalf.¹³

Martin herself publicly expressed distrust of the official investigation, noting that the accounts from her daughter’s friends “changed over and over.”¹⁴ No criminal charges were ever filed in connection with Jenkins’ death.

The Wrongful Death Lawsuit and $10 Million Settlement

Martin filed an initial lawsuit in late 2017 but moved to dismiss it after changing attorneys. In 2018, she filed a new negligence and wrongful death suit in Cook County Circuit Court, seeking more than $50 million. The case was docketed as Teresa Martin v. CPO Hospitality LLC et al., case number 2018L013273.¹⁵

The defendants included CPO Hospitality LLC and F&F Realty Ltd., the owners and operators of the hotel; Capital Security and Investigations, the hotel’s security company; and Murray Bros. Caddyshack, a restaurant that had been leasing the kitchen space containing the freezer.¹⁶

The lawsuit alleged that the defendants were negligent for failing to secure the walk-in freezer, failing to properly monitor security cameras, and failing to conduct a proper search when Jenkins was reported missing. Martin’s attorney, Geoffrey Fieger, advanced the theory that someone had inadvertently locked Jenkins inside the freezer by engaging a button on the door handle that could override the interior release mechanism. He also argued the kitchen itself should have been locked off, pointing to plywood doors equipped with padlocks.¹⁷

The hotel disputed the claims. Spokesperson Glenn M. Harston II called the lawsuit “meritless.” The defense argued the freezer did not lock from either the inside or the outside and was functioning properly that night. The Chicago Tribune reported that police footage of the actual freezer door contradicted the photo Fieger displayed: the door in the police video lacked the lock button Fieger described and featured a patterned metal panel absent from his image. The motion-activated kitchen camera also showed that no one else entered the area after Jenkins.¹⁶

The case settled in August 2023, shortly before a scheduled October trial. The total was $10 million, made public that December after Circuit Judge Thomas Cushing denied requests by both sides to seal the terms. The parties had argued that publicity and threats against witnesses and defendants justified confidentiality.¹⁸¹⁹

Roughly $3.5 million went to attorney fees and costs, more than $6,000 covered funeral expenses, and about $6.4 million was divided among family members. Martin received more than $3.7 million, with two other relatives receiving $1.5 million and $1.2 million.²⁰

The settlement resolved the civil claims without any admission of fault by the hotel, the security company, or the restaurant. The Rosemont police investigation remained closed with its original finding of accidental death.

1
Chicago Tribune. Kenneka Jenkins Freezer Death Timeline Comes Into Focus With Audio, Video, Police Reports
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CNN. Teen Found Dead in Hotel Freezer
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Daily Herald. Rosemont Police: Kenneka Jenkins Death Was Accidental
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ABC 7 Chicago. Police Close Investigation Into Death of Woman Found in Rosemont Hotel Freezer
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Patch. Kenneka Jenkins Case Closed: Death Was Accidental
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NBC Chicago. Rosemont Releases Photos From Teen’s Freezer Death Investigation
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NBC Chicago. Kenneka Jenkins Hotel Freezer Death Investigation Police Reports
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CBS Chicago. Kenneka Jenkins Autopsy Results
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DNAinfo. Kenneka Jenkins Death in Rosemont Hotel Freezer Ruled Accident
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Chicago Sun-Times. Rosemont PD: Kenneka Jenkins Case Closed, Teen’s Death an Accident
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International Business Times. Who Is Irene Roberts? Kenneka Jenkins’ Friend Who Filmed Facebook Live Video
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Chicago Sun-Times. New Details Undermine Conspiracies in Kenneka Jenkins Death
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NBC Chicago. Surveillance Video Shows Teen Walk Into Freezer Alone, Activist Says
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ABC 7 News. Friends, Family of Woman Found Dead in Hotel Freezer Demand Federal Investigation
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Chicago Tribune. Settlement Reached in Kenneka Jenkins Wrongful Death Lawsuit
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Chicago Tribune. Lawyer Claims Kenneka Jenkins Might Have Been Locked Inside Hotel Freezer
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NBC Chicago. Kenneka Jenkins Family Lawsuit Against Rosemont Hotel
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Chicago Sun-Times. Family of Kenneka Jenkins Reaches $10 Million Settlement
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CBS Chicago. Kenneka Jenkins Wrongful Death Lawsuit Settlement
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New York Times. Kenneka Jenkins Death Settlement