My New Podcast: The Final Hours with Sarah Turney and Kourtney Nichole

15:44Sarah Turney:Yeah, sticks to me too. It's just also heartbreaking to envision in your head, you know. She had a whole life. She planned on coming back to continue her life, yet, you know, something happened that prevented that from happening.

15:56Kourtney Laymance:Yeah.

15:57Sarah Turney:I mean, that mourning is critical. You know, one thing, though, that kind of sticks with me about this, though, is even though there are so many people outside getting ready to go to work and start their days, you know, it's a place where you think you would feel the safest. But sometimes, you know, people can get so in their heads and so focused on getting from point A to point B, that they don't take a second to look up in, in kind of case their surroundings. And so even though you could be surrounded by a ton of people, everybody else is kind of in their own heads and maybe not picking up on something potentially bad happening right in front of them.

16:30Kourtney Laymance:Yeah.

16:31Sarah Turney:It's scary. Typically every morning while she's on her way into the office, Jennifer calls Rob to say hello. But that morning, 8 a.m. comes and goes, and Rob hasn't heard a thing from her. He waits and calls her again after he gets out of his nine o 'clock meeting. Now his calls are going straight to voicemail, which is not usual. At the same time, Jennifer's co-workers are also getting worried. It's not like her to not call or show up for work. So around 11 a.m., the company's CFO dials Jennifer's parents to see if they've heard from her. Immediately, panic sets in for Joyce and Drew. Within minutes, they're hopping in the car to make the drive from the Tampa Bay area to Jennifer's condo in Orlando.

17:15Sarah Turney:Her brother Logan and his friend Travis also meet them there.

17:18Kourtney Laymance:When Joyce and Drew first arrive, the apartment's locked. Luckily, they do seem to have a spare key. But when they get inside, they don't find Jennifer. Or anything out in the ordinary for that matter. In fact, Joyce says her condo looks how it always looks. A bit messy, hair and makeup, products all over the counter, the towel is still wet, so she clearly took a shower that morning and got ready for work. Her other outfits are still laid out on the bed. Her purse, keys, briefcase, iPod, and both her cell phone and the one left by Travis are all gone. And her car isn't in the parking lot. So now her parents are thinking, okay, maybe she got into an accident on her way to work.

17:57Kourtney Laymance:They start calling hospitals and police stations in the area. But none of them have gotten a report of a woman matching Jennifer's description. At this point, they do what I would encourage any family to do. They file a missing persons report with local police.

18:11Sarah Turney:Except the police fail to take Jennifer's case seriously at first, especially after they speak with Rob, who says he and Jennifer had a little spat the night before. The police say it's likely she just stormed off somewhere to cool down and she'll probably resurface soon.

18:27Kourtney Laymance:This is something I could talk about forever, how police departments sometimes don't take these cases seriously. And it's a hard thing, right? Because most people who go missing do come back. But how do you balance that with a small percentage that don't? Like, this is a family who truly did everything they could to make, you know, to try to find Jennifer right away.

18:48Sarah Turney:And they knew immediately that something was wrong. And, you know, that goes to show how close they were with Jennifer and how much they knew her. Yeah.

18:55Kourtney Laymance:And I just want to say, like, if there's any family out there that's listening, if somebody in your life goes missing and the police refuse to take a report, keep insisting. Keep being annoying for your loved one.

19:05Sarah Turney:Yes, 100 percent. There's there's a huge misconception around reporting a loved one missing and and that window of time that says you have to wait. There's actually no legal requirement that says you have to wait 24 to 48 hours to file a missing persons report. You know, if you think something is wrong, it probably is. And speak with police immediately. Don't wait.

19:25Kourtney Laymance:Yeah, because, I mean, you know, those first few hours are so critical.

19:29Sarah Turney:Yeah, you know, in disappearance cases, the first 48 hours are crucial. So when investigators aren't taking a case seriously right away, it is precious time wasted. Witnesses disappear, evidence degrades, and memories fade. In this situation, the family takes matters into their own hands, which we've seen time and time again. They begin questioning other people at Jennifer's complex, including the construction workers and day laborers who are on site that day. Logan actually speaks to a few of them, and he says none of them are very cooperative. Actually, he sensed they knew something they weren't sharing.

20:06Sarah Turney:For the rest of the day, there's no word from Jennifer. and while friends and family members are already handing out missing person posters, the local police don't start investigating until later that evening, which is so sad. One of the first things they look for is security footage, which the building doesn't have. Since the condo is still fairly new and under construction, cameras haven't been installed yet. It's a frustrating dead end. So they start questioning potential witnesses. There's not a ton of neighbors though and a lot of the units are still vacant. Luckily, there is one person in the building who says they saw something.

20:42Kourtney Laymance:Yeah, at around 7.40 in the morning of Jennifer's disappearance, someone saw her Chevy Malibu leaving the parking lot. All they really say is that it was driving erratically, and they found that to be unusual. But they apparently didn't get a good look at who was inside the car. And when police examined her apartment and realized there was no sign of an altercation, a break-in, or a robbery, that's when they realized Jennifer must have been abducted in her parking lot in broad daylight. The question was, by who?

21:11Sarah Turney:And where did they take her? Yeah, it's especially hard in cases like this, you know. Sometimes in these cases, all investigators can do is wait if, you know, the evidence is as limited as it is. Especially if they've already followed up on things like cell phone records and previous communications and ruled that out as well.

21:30Kourtney Laymance:I don't know. I guess we, I guess Logan did talk about like having an instinct about the guys.

21:37Sarah Turney:Well, two days after Jennifer's disappearance, police get their first huge clue. On January 26th, someone finds Jennifer's black 2004 Chevy Malibu. It's sitting in a parking lot at a different condo complex about a mile away, parked in a visitor space. But this complex isn't someplace Jennifer's been known to visit before. In fact, the complex has a reputation for being a place where people ditch stolen vehicles. Interestingly, one of the first things police do when they find Jennifer's car is they call Rob to the scene. At this point, they've heard Rob's airtight alibi. He was over 200 miles away when Jennifer disappeared.

22:16Sarah Turney:But they want to see his reaction when they open the trunk. Investigators lead him to the rear of the car and with his heart racing and stomach churning, they pop it open. But Jennifer's not inside like the police were anticipating. There's actually nothing unusual about the car at all. There's no immediate sign of a struggle. Plus, at first glance, it doesn't look like a robbery since a DVD player and a few other things of Jennifer's are still inside, like her phone charger and a couple pairs of shoes. So afterwards, the car is taken to the station and there detectives find a few other key pieces of evidence.

22:53Sarah Turney:Like a few strands of hair, other latent fingerprints and a partial palm print on the hood, which was actually pretty significant. Police didn't share this detail publicly at the time, but Jennifer's dad Drew later said, quote, 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, end quote. So there appears to be signs of a struggle after all. What they don't find is Jennifer or Travis' cell, her keys, purse, iPod, or briefcase for work. And when they run those prints through local and national databases, they can't find a match.

23:35Sarah Turney:They also say the DNA is too degraded to get a read on it. However, the discovery of the car does lead to maybe the biggest piece of evidence this case has yet to see, that security

23:46Kourtney Laymance:footage of the parking lot. Courts talking about the security footage we mentioned of the beginning of the episode, the one showing a male between 5 '3 and 5 '5, parking Jennifer's car, getting out, and walking back along a fence in the direction he came. Jennifer's nowhere to be found in that footage, but it was captured at 12.59pm the day she disappeared. If Jennifer was taken from her complex between 7.30 and 8am, what happened in that five-hour block of time? The big issue here is the quality of the video. The footage of the man in the parking lot is super far away and blurry. The images of him walking along the fence are a little bit better, but as we mentioned, his face is blocked by the fence in every frame.

24:29Kourtney Laymance:That's why the police turned to an unexpected resource, NASA, yes, the NASA, to see if they can use their advanced technologies to improve the quality of the video. But as it turns out, this is a problem even NASA can't solve. They've improved the resolution a bit, but it still wasn't clear enough to make out the potential suspect. I'm sure that this has stuck with Jennifer's family forever. It's things like this, again, where you think about the what ifs. What if we just had that security footage? What if it was just a little bit more clear? It feels like the answers are right there, but they just can't physically see them in that video.

25:07Kourtney Laymance:And I can't even imagine how that makes them feel.

25:10Sarah Turney:It is kind of like a little sliver of hope that you do have the potential suspect caught on camera, you know, but it is just frustrating that they, you know, they can't narrow down the face. And, you know, I want to point out that it's not unusual to see a suspect abandon a victim's car so close to the abduction point or crime scene. This actually makes for an easier getaway, or if they want to switch into a new vehicle, maybe parked nearby.

25:33Kourtney Laymance:I think it makes it even harder to understand if this was meticulously planned out or just kind of done last minute, if this was a crime of opportunity.

25:41Sarah Turney:You know, his face was always perfectly blocked by something. And again, I'm sure this is, you know, even today, a really haunting thing to look at because it's the only real suspect that this case has, yet you just can't figure out who it is. Well, regardless of what was going through the suspects ahead of the time, one thing was certain. Police were now pulling out all the stops to find Jennifer Kessie, and it was only a matter of time before they began narrowing down their suspect list. leading to a guy known only as Chino.

26:25Kourtney Laymance:It's January 26th, 2006, 8, 10 a.m. Jennifer Kessie's car is found in the parking lot of the Huntington-on-the-Green condominium complex, less than a mile from her home. A bloodhound named Bo is dispatched that day. He pulls the smell from the driver's seat and follows a trail. It leads police back to Jennifer's complex. The trail actually bypassed the complex's main gated entrance and led to a stretch of fence that separated the private property from the public sidewalk. The dog followed that scent through the fence, onto the property, and directly to the rear staircase leading to Jennifer's condo.

27:00Kourtney Laymance:So police think the assailant went back on foot after dropping off the vehicle to Jennifer's condo. What the dog can't tell them is who the scent belongs to or why they'd go back to the scene of the crime.

27:12Sarah Turney:By February, police are canvassing the area with more dogs, horses, and helicopters to see if they can find Jennifer Kessie. They search nearby lakes, ponds, all wooded areas, but it leads nowhere. After about three to four polygraphs, 12 interviews, and his full cooperation, they rule out Jennifer's boyfriend Rob as a suspect. Instead, they focus on what that scent trail has been telling them, and what Jennifer was telling her loved ones in the weeks before her disappearance. That they might be looking for someone who works at the Mosaic, particularly a construction worker, a day laborer, and it's possible more than one of them is involved.

27:52Sarah Turney:Many of these day laborers disappeared before the police could speak with them. Joyce Kessie told CBS that this may be because they weren't U.S. citizens and were afraid of being sent home. Because after speaking with other residents at the building, many of whom are Jennifer's age, single, young women living alone, please hear a few more unsettling details. Like the fact that many of the workers slept in the unoccupied condos overnight after their shifts, and they would reportedly drink and party there after hours too. Some of the women said they were harassed, that the workers would catcall and whistle at women, including Jennifer.

28:27Sarah Turney:At least one resident claimed that 25 % of the time, the security guard was missing from the gatehouse, and they left it unattended. Some residents complained to the leasing office manager about this, but they said there was nothing they could do about it. One woman even said she was pretty sure the workers let themselves into her apartment when she wasn't home. She said she noticed little things, like her underwear drawer had been rummaged through or that her shower was wet when she hadn't used it. There was even a night when she saw a man standing on her patio, pleasuring himself. So this gets investigators thinking, with no signs of a body and potentially more than one suspect involved, could it be possible that Jennifer was a victim of human trafficking?

29:11Kourtney Laymance:It's such a hard situation. I mean, I think all families want to have hope, right? But it's also horrific to think about somebody going into human trafficking. It's just impossible.

29:22Sarah Turney:You know, a lot of people think it is, and a lot of people think it happens in these faraway places that aren't, you know, in everybody's everyday life. But, you know, in reality, it can take place anywhere.

29:33Kourtney Laymance:Oh, yeah. I mean, it can happen right in front of you. I think that's, you know, I think we've all been to the airport and seen those signs, you know, about human trafficking. Like, it happens right in front of us, right under our noses.

29:43Sarah Turney:Years ago, I used to work at the front desk of a hotel in Seattle. And one of the big things that they honed in was that everybody working at the front desk or basically interacting with any guest at any given point, you would have to complete, you know, an online course for recognizing human trafficking. It was that big of a deal. And so it's really important to know the signs. That's amazing that they did that, though. We need more hotels to do that. Good on them. Like, do they appear to be controlled by another person and can't be left alone? Do they have poor hygiene or show signs of neglect?

30:17Sarah Turney:And do they have any tattoos that signify branding, like names, barcodes, or money symbols? and can they share with you where they are from and where they are going in a way that seems genuine. You know, if you know the signs, it can be easy to spot. And, you know, I urge everyone to pay close attention when you're out in public. And especially workers in the public, like, you know, front desk employees at a hotel.

30:40Kourtney Laymance:And if you do suspect something, call the U.S. National Human Trafficking Hotline or 911.

30:47Sarah Turney:And actually, you know, human trafficking is a shockingly underreported crime in the U.S. and the real number of victims is a lot more than we actually think. The U.S. National Human Trafficking Hotline recorded 10 ,359 trafficking situations involving over 16 ,000 different victims in 2021 alone. And they say this is only a fraction of the real data.

31:10Kourtney Laymance:Because disappearances in human trafficking cases can be so hard to investigate, Jennifer's case started to slow over the next few years. During that time, there were a few suspicious details that kept the family guessing. Like in August 2007, Jennifer's photo was found on several dating sites. But authorities were convinced the user had nothing to do with her disappearance. That same month, the family also received threatening phone calls from a 28-year-old named Tyler Green. These calls went on for years, saying Logan was next, along with harassing messages on the webpage the family started for Jennifer.

31:46Kourtney Laymance:Later, Tyler would be charged with aggravated stalking, among other things. But he was apparently never considered a suspect in the case. However, around 2009, three years after Jennifer disappeared, a promising new lead did emerge. Detectives had gone back to the complex to re-interview potential witnesses. And this time, they found a housekeeper who looked at the security footage and said the guy in it looked a lot like someone named Chino. Chino was a maintenance worker on the property who'd been staying in another building at the complex. In fact, he'd gone into Jennifer's apartment to fix something the week before she disappeared.

32:23Kourtney Laymance:So detectives run Chino through the system and learn that they actually received a tip about him during the first week of the investigation suggesting he was involved. And it wasn't hard to track him down because by March 2009, he was doing time in a Florida prison for the statutory rape of a teenage girl, which was committed two years after Jennifer's disappearance. Plus, there were a few suspicious details about Chino, like the fact that he'd supposedly had keys to every condo in the complex, and that he'd apparently approached other women in the parking lot late at night. And just nine months after Jennifer vanished, he did too.

33:00Kourtney Laymance:He moved out of the complex and was never seen by anyone there again. However, Chino was a bit taller than the suspect in the footage. He was around 5 '9", and he was cooperative with the police. He denied having anything to do with Jennifer's disappearance, and even agreed to do a polygraph, which he passed. Police were never able to find any direct connection between him and Jennifer's case. So eventually, they moved on.

33:26Sarah Turney:By 2011, there was only one detective left working Jennifer's case full-time. Meanwhile, the Kessies asked the police to make Jennifer's case cold. Mainly because there's more resources available for cold cases, like additional funding, specialized programs, priority access to modern forensics methods, to name a few. But for some reason, the Orlando Police Department refused.

33:52Kourtney Laymance:2016 marked 10 years since Jennifer's disappearance. It was also the year she was officially declared dead by a Florida court. But the search was far from over. In 2018, the Kessies sued the Orlando Police Department for a copy of the case file. In 2019, they were successful. In fact, they were the first Americans to ever successfully sue for an open case file. The city charged the family more than$18 ,000 for those files, but at least they were able to go through them all on their own now. And they hired their own private team to help, which they probably needed, because there's more than 16 ,000 pages of documents and 67 hours of interviews and audio tapes.

34:33Kourtney Laymance:But those files also led to a disturbing realization. There'd been no investigative work done on Jennifer's case since 2012. Seven years had passed of the family begging the case to run cold, while detectives just sat on it anyway. I think access to case files in true crime cases is such an important topic, especially after so much time has passed. Like, I get it. If there's sensitive information that needs to be held back, hold it back. But why not let the family look at it. It's just another pair of eyes. I mean, usually multiple pairs of eyes from someone who knew this person best.

35:10Sarah Turney:Right. At that point, I mean, it can't really hurt, right? When a case has, you know, long since gone cold, it can't really hurt to have a pair of fresh eyes looking at it. And I, you know, I personally do agree that families should have more access to case files. And it's really, really sad to think that a lot of them, including Jennifer's family, had to pay to access them.

35:30Kourtney Laymance:Yeah, I was stunned. I was stunned when we found out that they were the first to sue for these documents and win. Like, so many families have tried to get these documents and have been denied. And it's just the worst. That's all I can really say about it, right? It's you want this information because you want to help. And I think police departments might be a little scared of, you know, what's in there and the repercussions. And I just think all families should get, you know, whatever they can from these police departments.

35:57Sarah Turney:Especially in this case, when there has been no work done on the case since 2012. I mean, And all that time, it feels like it's almost wasted when the family could be combing through the case files and all the evidence themselves and seeing what they can do to help as well. You know, I feel like it can be, you know, a tough conversation. But personally, I do feel like going through case files, whether it's, you know, an unsolved case or a solved case, in my personal experience, it can be very helpful. It can almost be, even if nothing comes from it, maybe a sense of closure in a way. And I'm not sure with, I don't want to take too much away from this case, but, you know, in my own personal experience in the true crime case, you know, somebody in my family that I was very, very close with committed a really brutal crime.

36:38Sarah Turney:And, you know, growing up, I wasn't told very much information about it. And online, there were literally like maybe two news articles about it. So there really wasn't much to come to grips with, so to speak. So years later into adulthood, I decided to track down the case files myself. And once I got them, it was like six to seven bins full of information. And it really opened my eyes and kind of helped me process, you know, the situation. And I feel like more families should have that ability.

37:08Kourtney Laymance:Yeah, well, and it helps the case too. Like when I got my sister's case file for the first time, you know, 20 years after she went missing, I remember going through and reading it and it sparked new memories. And then I was able to go tell the detectives that. And, you know, it's hard to know if it moved the case forward. word, but we know how these things work, right? It's like the smallest piece of information leads to another piece, leads to another piece, and that can lead to a big clue sometimes.

37:33Sarah Turney:Every little tiny thing, it does help whether you think it will or not. Yeah. In 2019, the family forced the police to follow up on a lead from those original files. Apparently, 10 months after Jennifer's disappearance, police had received a tip. Someone in a pickup truck had dumped a six to eight foot piece of rolled up carpet into a lake not far from Jennifer's complex. What really struck them was the workers were laying carpet in a unit across from Jennifer's around the time she vanished. I mean, that's huge. It's also really scary to think about. So five years later, a sonar team was dispatched to the lake to search for any anomalies.

38:11Sarah Turney:Then they sent divers down to examine them. But the carpet in question was never discovered.

38:17Kourtney Laymance:Finally, in 2022, the case was officially turned over from the Orlando PD to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement's Cold Case Unit. In October 2025, Jennifer's father Drew posted on Facebook that they discovered DNA in her file that had never been tested. Which is hopeful news, especially considering that the previous efforts to test DNA didn't lead to any results. Still, the family does believe that the most likely scenario is that Jennifer was abducted by one of the workers at her complex. I feel like we see this in true crime all the time. And again, going back to why it's so important to give these families these case files, it's a fresh set of eyes and they found something.

38:58Kourtney Laymance:Like, this is the exact proof of why these families need these case files. Again, they don't have to be, you know, completely unredacted. Redact what you need to, release what you can, and see what you can come up with.

39:11Sarah Turney:And it's really unfortunate in this case that so many years have passed that they could have followed up, that the police could have followed up on these leads, yet no one did. The evidence could have potentially been destroyed.

39:22Kourtney Laymance:Yeah, the carpet in the lake. I mean, I don't know exactly the science of what happens to a carpet in a lake, but I imagine that, you know, the more time that passes, the less opportunity you have to collect things like DNA and any forensic evidence.

39:35Sarah Turney:The one thing that time can bring to an investigation like this is new technology, including new ways to test forensic evidence like DNA. Nowadays, we have things like genetic genealogy, which can link DNA profiles to potential relatives or suspects through public databases. There's more cross-collaboration between private labs for matching data sets. There are also ways to test smaller samples while gathering more information on a suspect.

40:02Kourtney Laymance:I think the part that keeps us all up at night wondering over and over again about these cases is those last final moments. What changed? Where did things go wrong? Was there fear, pain? Did they fight back? We know that Jennifer Kessie woke up on Tuesday, January 24th, 2006, feeling hopeful for the future. She got ready for work that day, did her hair and makeup, packed her brother's friend's phone in her bag to send back to him. She was responsible, caring, generous. She was also probably a little uncertain. She just had this beautiful vacation with her boyfriend. But would the relationship last forever?

40:41Kourtney Laymance:They were long distance, it was tough on them. But Jennifer didn't let that stand in the way of her own success. She put on a brave face, grabbed her purse, her phone, and her iPod. She closed the door behind her that day, ready to get in her car. She probably even planned to call Rob like she always did on her way to work, just to hash it out. Or maybe she did just take some time for herself, listen to her favorite song on repeat that day until she pulled into the office parking lot, ready for what she was sure would be just another day at work. Instead, Jennifer Kessie lost everything that morning.

41:15Kourtney Laymance:No one heard her scream. No one heard her cry out. And to this day, no one has any idea what happened after she locked her door behind her. But we do know that she was loved. And there are a lot of people who won't accept, I don't know, for an answer.

41:32Sarah Turney:This past January marked 20 years since Jennifer's disappearance. She'd be 44 years old as of this recording. She has sandy blonde hair, is Caucasian, and about five foot eight or nine. She has a tattoo of a shamrock on the right side of her buttocks, a cleft chin, and a surgical scar on the left side of her arm near the elbow. If you have any information about Jennifer Kessie, you can visit the Find Jennifer Kessie Facebook page or contact your local FBI office. And if you wish to support the Kessie family, you can go to their GoFundMe or visit the link on our socials and in our show notes.

42:17Kourtney Laymance:Thank you for listening to The Final Hours. If you have any more information on Jennifer Kessie, share it with us on social media. We want to hear from you. Your thoughts, condolences, and feedback are what make this community so special.

42:30Sarah Turney:At Crime House, we value your support. Share your thoughts on social media and remember to rate, review, and follow The Final Hours to help others discover the show.

42:40Kourtney Laymance:And to enhance your listening experience, subscribe to Crime House Plus on Apple Podcasts. You'll get every episode of The Final Hours ad-free, along with early access and exciting bonus content.

42:51Sarah Turney:The Final Hours is hosted by Sarah Turney and me, Courtney Nicole, and is a Crime House original powered by Pave Studios. This episode is brought to life by the Final Hours team. Max Cutler, Ron Shapiro, Alex Benidon, Lori Marinelli, Natalie Pritzofsky, Sarah Camp, and Joanna Powell.

43:11Kourtney Laymance:We'll be back next week. Thank you for listening. If you want to hear more, you can follow The Final Hours on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or wherever you listen to podcasts. There's also a link in the episode description. New episodes drop every Monday.

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