Photo: YouTube
She hasn't been seen in almost 15 years.
By Sarah Gangraw — Written on Dec 08, 2020
There's a new development in the case of missing Florida woman Jennifer Kesse, and her family and friends hope that it will help solve the mystery of her 2006 disappearance.
New photos of the crime scene were obtained by Fox News in November 2020, and the photographic evidence suggests that a violent struggle took place near the hood of Kesse's car before her disappearance.
"It looked like someone was thrown down on the top of the hood – arms spread out and then dragged back almost like off the hood to the point where you can almost see fingers scribbling down the hood," Kesse's father, Drew, stated.
Not only does the family hope that the newly surfaced photos will lead to more clues about what happened to Kesse, a podcast called House of Broken Dreams: The Jennifer Kesse Story is sparking renewed interest from the public about Kesse's case.
Who is Jennifer Kesse — and what happened to her?
Here's everything we know about Jennifer Kesse's case, along with new details about the House of Broken Dreams podcast.
Jennifer Kesse vanished from her apartment in 2006.
Jennifer Casey vanished from her Conroy Road apartment in Orlando on Jan. 24, 2006.
The Orlando Police Department has been investigating her disappearance for nearly 15 years, but no arrests have been made and no suspects have ever been named.
According to the civil complaint, the Orlando Police Department has not complied with Florida and Orange County laws regarding public records. It has continued to consider Jennifer Kesse's case "active," although no new leads have been generated.
In 2010, Orlando law enforcement acknowledged it had "exhausted all leads" yet the case has remained open all these years.
Jennifer Kesse's family sued the city of Orlando.
The family of Jennifer Kesse sued the city of Orlando and the police over Kesse's case files.
Jennifer Kesse's family filed a lawsuit against the city of Orlando, the Orlando Police Department and the department’s chief in an effort to make thousands of documents related to her disappearance public.
Her case is still considered an active investigation, so all files in connection to the case had been sealed.
The suit alleged that the case is cold, and the family was seeking the release of all of the documents under Florida's public record laws.
Jennifer Kesse's family had repeatedly requested access to all files pertaining to her case over the past two years, but were only given part of them.
In 2017, an assistant attorney for the city of Orlando provided the Kesse's attorney with an estimated cost of $18,648.24 to review the 14,600 pages of case files, which the lawsuit alleges, “would likely result in the production of nothing but a pile of mostly-blacked out records.”
“The proposed amount cited by the OPD is exorbitant and unreasonable and used solely as an unlawful restriction to deter the Kesses from further pursuing the records," it continues.
The family is determined to pursue Jennifer's case on their own, as the police have not found her after more than a decade.
“We have secured a team of lawyers and investigators; we feel it’s time,” Jennifer's father, Drew Kesse, said in January of 2018. “We have gone through the process of asking for public information, and it comes back completely redacted.”
The family believes it is time for the police to allow them the ability to take matters into their own hands.
"We want to be able to have our own investigator handle the files like it should be," said Jennifer's brother, Logan Kesse.
In 2018, the Orlando Police Department renewed interest in Jennifer's case.
It debuted a Lynx bus wrapped in a missing persons poster of Jennifer quoting a $15,000 for information leading to her whereabouts. But the efforts have still not turned over any stones in the case and Jennifer's family is frustrated.
"This is not at all anyone trying to show up law enforcement or do anything to that regard. That is to give these people what they are entitled to, which is knowledge of what the investigation was involving their daughter back in early 2006 and what's happened since then," said Paul Sisco, the family's attorney.
"The whole purpose of this meeting or of this litigation was to get the records out of OPD's hands and into (the hands of) someone who is not looking at it in a biased manner," he added.
The Kesse family hoped their lawsuit would give them a chance to look at the case with new eyes.
"We understand people make mistakes. I've made mistakes. We're all human," Drew Kesse said. "But it's time to get every resource available."
Although it took a while, the family was finally granted access to Kesse's case files in March 2019, and spent the last year and a half combing through the pictures, videos, and other information in her files.
New photos of the crime scene were obtained in November 2020.
“There are about 150 different photos of the car overall, where we only saw three or four of the car up until that point," Kesse's father said.
Private investigator Mike Torretta, who was hired by the Kesse family and also served as a former federal agent, said, "The photos look suspicious and show what appears to be a hand mark going across the hood."
"We hope that by showing the public these photos, someone will come forward with information they’ve been holding onto for all these years," Torretta added.
A new podcast exploring Jennifer Kesse's case may help find her.
The podcast House of Broken Dreams: The Jennifer Kesse Story explores Jennifer's case and the mystery surrounding her disappearance, and the family hopes it will help solve or bring about new information in her missing persons case.
Sarah Gangraw writes about all things news, entertainment and crime. You can follow her on Instagram and Twitter.