Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / Killers Amongst Us: Florida's missing Jennifer Kesse showered and dressed for work, then vanished (part 4)

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Killers Amongst Us: Florida's missing Jennifer Kesse showered and dressed for work, then vanished (part 4) · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

0:04
Speaker 1: Hi guys, Nancy Grace here, Welcome back to Killers amongst Us,
0:08
Speaker 1: a production of iHeart Media and Crime Online. The mysterious
0:15
Speaker 1: disappearance of Jennifer Kessey as always, investigator's first question Jennifer's
0:21
Speaker 1: family and close friends to see if any of them
0:24
Speaker 1: had a reason to kidnap or harm her, or if
0:26
Speaker 1: they knew someone and that did now. Her ex boyfriend,
0:29
Speaker 1: according to reports, was recently upset and wanted to get
0:33
Speaker 1: back together with Jennifer. He was questioned. Her current boyfriend
0:38
Speaker 1: was also questioned. His alibi checked out. He was eliminated
0:42
Speaker 1: as a suspect. He lived at least an hour away
0:46
Speaker 1: from her. As we already know, her home was undisturbed
0:49
Speaker 1: or clothes laying out on the bed, she had taken
0:51
Speaker 1: a shower. Everything seemed to be in place in the home.
0:55
Speaker 1: We all agree that nothing unusual happened inside her condo.
1:01
Speaker 1: The crime scene moves to where her car is found.
1:06
Speaker 1: Nothing is stolen from the car. There's a brand new
1:08
Speaker 1: DVD player in there, and police came up with one
1:12
Speaker 1: latent print and one piece a very tiny fiber DNA.
1:19
Speaker 1: Drew and Joyce Kessie still looking for their gorgeous girl,
1:26
Speaker 1: what happened to Jennifer KESSI are their killers amongst us.
1:37
Speaker 1: We put dogs on the ground bob straight from her
1:42
Speaker 1: car straight back to her build, police said. This bloodhound
1:48
Speaker 1: named bow Tract as sent from Huntington on the Green
1:51
Speaker 1: right back to Jennifer's condo complex a distance at one
1:54
Speaker 1: point two miles, but to go up to her door
1:58
Speaker 1: and just to the kind of men Amran, because we're
2:00
Speaker 1: about a mile away from her her apartments and it
2:03
Speaker 1: seems rather extraordinary to me the dog would go from
2:05
Speaker 1: her car back to the condominiums to order just to
2:09
Speaker 1: the complex right. I was told by the detective when
2:11
Speaker 1: I wanted to confirm about the track that it went
2:14
Speaker 1: to Mosaic Condominiums to the parking lot area where her
2:18
Speaker 1: car would have been parked. There's two reasons for having
2:23
Speaker 1: that track. One is to see if we can figure
2:25
Speaker 1: out maybe the dog can lead us to Jennifer herself.
2:28
Speaker 1: And then the other thing is is perhaps they can
2:31
Speaker 1: find a path that the personal interest took and we
2:34
Speaker 1: can find the person of interest or find evidence I
2:37
Speaker 1: was discarding along their route to wherever they were going.
2:40
Speaker 1: Where is Jennifer Kessie. I'm Nancy Grace. This is killers
2:46
Speaker 1: amongst us and even now Drew A Joyce Kessie. Her
2:50
Speaker 1: parents want answers with me. Drew and Joyce, Cassie, Ashley Willcott,
2:56
Speaker 1: Joseph Scott, Morgan, doctor Bethany Marshall, and Ray could jo
3:00
Speaker 1: to doctor Bethany Marshall, psycho analyst joining us from Beverly Hills.
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Speaker 1: Doctor Bethany, I think this person, the person that kidnapped
3:09
Speaker 1: and killed Jennifer Kessy, is still out there. I also
3:14
Speaker 1: believe this was not their first time at the rodeo
3:18
Speaker 1: and certainly not their last. And other words, I bet
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Speaker 1: you anything the ps DNA is in the databank by now, Nancy,
3:27
Speaker 1: I think so. You know, with so many of the
3:29
Speaker 1: crimes we cover, the perpetrators are not only out there,
3:33
Speaker 1: but they're breaking to family members, or there are clues
3:36
Speaker 1: that they're leaving behind, or they're re offending in ways
3:39
Speaker 1: that they come to the attention of law enforcement. So
3:42
Speaker 1: let's take a look at this perpetrator in particular. He
3:45
Speaker 1: struck during the daytime hours. He knew enough to remove
3:49
Speaker 1: the car, He wiped it down for thirty two seconds,
3:52
Speaker 1: he walked away. This was premeditated. He had been watching
3:57
Speaker 1: Jennifer Kessey's condo and planning this. The type of person
4:03
Speaker 1: who carries out this type of abduction is often a
4:07
Speaker 1: serial offender, and what that means is that they are
4:11
Speaker 1: trolling neighborhoods looking for victims, often living in isolated ways,
4:16
Speaker 1: although sometimes with families. Some serial killers never talk to
4:21
Speaker 1: anybody about their crimes, but others do break about their crimes.
4:26
Speaker 1: You know, think about the BTK killer where you know
4:29
Speaker 1: he didn't break about his crimes, but he turned in
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Speaker 1: the CD to the church pastor that had evidence of
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Speaker 1: his crime on it. So what if this perpetrator is
4:39
Speaker 1: not only reaffending, but talking to a family member breaking
4:43
Speaker 1: about what happened, engaging in strange behaviors. Let's say there's
4:48
Speaker 1: a family in this community where they have a twenty
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Speaker 1: seven or twenty eight year old son was twenty seven
4:53
Speaker 1: or twenty eight years old at the time, who would
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Speaker 1: just leave at night in random kinds of ways and
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Speaker 1: come back the mid morning. I think the police in
5:01
Speaker 1: the family should have cleaned out to the entire community
5:06
Speaker 1: about these kinds of strange, odd behaviors and do almost
5:10
Speaker 1: like a crowd sourcing exercise where they ask the community
5:14
Speaker 1: to sink back and the police to sink back about
5:17
Speaker 1: odd behavior breaking. And you know, one last thing, with
5:21
Speaker 1: the passage of time, victims are our witnesses to a
5:25
Speaker 1: crime are more likely to come forward because they're less
5:29
Speaker 1: afraid of negative repercussion on the behalf of the perpetrator.
5:33
Speaker 1: With me, doctor Bethany Marshall joining us out of LA
5:37
Speaker 1: to Joyce, Cassie, this is Jennifer's mom, Joyce, I know
5:41
Speaker 1: that a tiny bit of DNA was found in the car.
5:46
Speaker 1: As Jennifer's question to you regarding the DNA, do we
5:52
Speaker 1: know what type of DNA? Is it a skin sale,
5:57
Speaker 1: is it saliva? Is it hair? Do you have any
6:01
Speaker 1: idea what the DNA is? I personally do not. They
6:05
Speaker 1: kept so much close to the desk. I think that's
6:08
Speaker 1: a question perhaps true can answer because he's read the
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Speaker 1: file right What about it race on the DNA that
6:14
Speaker 1: we have currently that the police have currently, I recently
6:20
Speaker 1: had it clarified and it is a partial DNA, so
6:26
Speaker 1: they cannot even begin to use it within a data bank.
6:31
Speaker 1: So if you're asking me as of right now, I
6:35
Speaker 1: don't think technology can complete a piece of DNA, So
6:39
Speaker 1: in my eyes, we don't have DNA, okay, Joseph Scott Morgan.
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Speaker 1: A partial piece of DNA. I mean DNA can be
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Speaker 1: in a slight amount, but DNA can't just be split.
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Speaker 1: It's like splitting an atom. You can't just split it.
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Speaker 1: You may not have enough DNA to work with, but
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Speaker 1: partial DNA. Explain that, Joseph Scott Mario. What we're talking
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Speaker 1: about here is probably something that's that's left behind. The
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Speaker 1: fragment itself is insufficient. And this happens many times in well,
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Speaker 1: insufficient or partial. Well, I understand that there too smart,
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Speaker 1: I mean too small of a sample left behind, an
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Speaker 1: infinite tesmi old piece of DNA you can't work with
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Speaker 1: but a partial DNA, and it can be fragmented many times.
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Speaker 1: Would say, if it's coming from skin, for instance, and
7:39
Speaker 1: we all heard about touch DNA and this sort of thing.
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Speaker 1: The reason, say, for instance, if it is from skin, uh,
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Speaker 1: those are dead sloping skin cells that are falling away.
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Speaker 1: If they've collected it from that, or say a broken
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Speaker 1: hair strand, the strand itself, it's and I'm referring to
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Speaker 1: the strand of DNA is incomplete. But what they can
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Speaker 1: do is they can amplify that, and they can expand it. Yeah,
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Speaker 1: that's what I'm saying because I've worked with so many
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Speaker 1: DNA cases in court when there was a small amount
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Speaker 1: of DNA, and you can you can replicate it, you
8:15
Speaker 1: can increase it to a certain extent, you can amplify it.
8:21
Speaker 1: I guess that's what I'm trying to say, regenerate it.
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Speaker 1: If you have DNA, you can make more of the
8:27
Speaker 1: same DNA based on that tiny bit. Uh Like, have
8:32
Speaker 1: you ever heard of putting a piece of an organ
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Speaker 1: like liver back in and it grows? Okay, that's what
8:38
Speaker 1: I'm talking about with DNA, and I'm speaking in very
8:41
Speaker 1: rudimentary terms. I'm just a lawyer, not a scientist. But
8:46
Speaker 1: when they're telling the catsies, it's partial DNA. And even
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Speaker 1: if it's a strand of hair without the nucle nuclei
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Speaker 1: root from which you get full on DNA, you can
8:56
Speaker 1: still get mitochondrial DNA. And if you got by the
9:00
Speaker 1: condual DNA, then you can look for familial DNA. Yes
9:03
Speaker 1: you can. I mean, am I just dreaming here, Joe Scott? No,
9:07
Speaker 1: you're not. And here's the rub that all of this
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Speaker 1: comes down to. You know, they were talking, Drew mentioned
9:13
Speaker 1: and he was right, and just a moment ago that
9:16
Speaker 1: they have insufficient to marry it up with anything that's
9:19
Speaker 1: in a database. If they can amplify this bit of DNA.
9:23
Speaker 1: There are two different databases that you go to. You
9:26
Speaker 1: go to non offenders and then you have what is
9:29
Speaker 1: referred to as the forensic offender database. And what that
9:33
Speaker 1: means is they have unidentified DNA that has been collected
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Speaker 1: at scenes, for instance, all over the country that has
9:42
Speaker 1: not been tied specifically back to a person. And what
9:45
Speaker 1: Bethanie was talking about was serial offenders. This is kind
9:48
Speaker 1: of interesting if you can take that and tie that back,
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Speaker 1: if they amplify it, and they can tie it back
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Speaker 1: to an offender, they say, for instance, they have a
9:57
Speaker 1: grouping of these unidentified DNA A strands that are coming
10:01
Speaker 1: back into Orlando area in Florida. Greater from a greater
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Speaker 1: perspective than that can tie this thing back as opposed
10:08
Speaker 1: to maybe this is just some random transient off of
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Speaker 1: the street that kind of vanished into the night and
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Speaker 1: never being seen again. You can establish a pattern from
10:17
Speaker 1: an investigative perspective. Well, hold on, just a moment right there,
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Speaker 1: and I just got to point out ash Walcott, judge
10:23
Speaker 1: and trial lawyer, court TV anchor Ashley Walcott dot com.
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Speaker 1: You know this guy, whether he was at illegal immigrant, unregistered,
10:34
Speaker 1: or lived there, people act the same way. Behavioral emos,
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Speaker 1: method of operation, motus operandi really don't change. For instance,
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Speaker 1: every time a guy go on the run that I
10:48
Speaker 1: was trying, I go, you know what, First of all,
10:50
Speaker 1: go to mommy's house. He's bunked up, he's under the bed,
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Speaker 1: he's in the closet. Go guarantee you seventy percent of
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Speaker 1: the time that's where they'd be. I don't don't think
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Speaker 1: this guy fled the area, Ashley. That's what I'm saying. Oh,
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Speaker 1: I completely agree with you, Nancy, And let me tell
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Speaker 1: you what I see in port over and over and
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Speaker 1: over again. It's part of what you just said, part
11:10
Speaker 1: of what Bethany said, and that is people who commit
11:13
Speaker 1: these kinds of crimes, they don't keep their mouth shuts.
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Speaker 1: They're not able to. They tell somebody, they tell everybody.
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Speaker 1: They get arrested on something else and tell someone in jail,
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Speaker 1: they tell a friend, they tell a neighbor, they have
11:23
Speaker 1: too much to drink, and they tell everybody. I think
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Speaker 1: it is someone who is still in the area. You're
11:28
Speaker 1: absolutely right. They don't move state to state or move
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Speaker 1: to another country, but rather they're a member of that
11:34
Speaker 1: community and they've talked to somebody. I want to go
11:43
Speaker 1: back to Drew and Joyce Cassie. Drew told me that
11:47
Speaker 1: essentially he fails. There is no DNA. Why do you
11:51
Speaker 1: think that? How do you know that? Did they? Did
11:54
Speaker 1: you tell me you think it was a shaft of hair?
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Speaker 1: What is the DNA? The DNA is fabric and they're
12:03
Speaker 1: supposedly and this is what I'm reading. I mean, this
12:05
Speaker 1: is right out partial to the point that they could
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Speaker 1: not complete the identification of the DNA. It was partial
12:13
Speaker 1: stranded DNA. That's that's what they're using. Okay, oh don't
12:17
Speaker 1: let me. Let me just take that in. Let me
12:18
Speaker 1: take that. Indrew on fabric partial DNA. You know, at
12:25
Speaker 1: the time that she went missing, Jennifer went missing, I
12:30
Speaker 1: don't know that we were even using mitochondria, which is
12:34
Speaker 1: basically partial DNA. You can only on a shaft of
12:38
Speaker 1: hair without the nuclear route. You can only get the
12:41
Speaker 1: mother's DNA. That's partial DNA. You don't have the bio
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Speaker 1: dad's DNA and that which you need for full on DNA.
12:50
Speaker 1: I mean, Joe Scott, is that what it sounds like
12:53
Speaker 1: to you? It's on a piece of fabric. So I
12:55
Speaker 1: didn't know that. That's something new to me that Drew
12:57
Speaker 1: Kessey just told me. It's DNA on a fabric. Partial DNA.
13:02
Speaker 1: Does that sound to you like does mitochondrial? Yeah, it
13:07
Speaker 1: kind of does, Nancy. And my thought is, was it
13:11
Speaker 1: from a piece of fabric that this individual had on
13:14
Speaker 1: their person, and say, for instance, the DNA sluffing DNA
13:18
Speaker 1: attached itself to this piece of fabric as it fell
13:22
Speaker 1: away from this individual as they were in the car.
13:26
Speaker 1: One more thing about this, Nancy that I think is
13:28
Speaker 1: very crucial that the Kessie's had brought up, and that
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Speaker 1: is this idea that this guy's wiping the inside and
13:36
Speaker 1: the outside. I don't know what it was of this
13:39
Speaker 1: vehicle down. This goes to a level of sophistication and
13:43
Speaker 1: awareness that this person had that he's leaving potentially a
13:46
Speaker 1: trace of himself around. He's taking the time, This is
13:50
Speaker 1: not a frenzied event. He's wiping down the car to
13:53
Speaker 1: eradicate any kind of trace. That again gives me an
13:57
Speaker 1: indication that this person has an ease with this as
14:00
Speaker 1: opposed to somebody that's just in some kind of frenzy
14:03
Speaker 1: that may have attacked this precious girl. Well, it also
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Speaker 1: tells me they may have done it before, yes, because
14:11
Speaker 1: they're wiping away the evidence. When it's your first time,
14:14
Speaker 1: you don't even know to do all that. Then we
14:18
Speaker 1: think we have a break. Listen to WKMG clay Leopard.
14:23
Speaker 1: We've learned from the Orange County Sheriff's Office that it
14:26
Speaker 1: was a tip from the Kessi family investigator that led
14:29
Speaker 1: them here and led them behind these homes to search
14:33
Speaker 1: a concentrated area on Lake Fisher. For the past two days,
14:38
Speaker 1: dive crews have been out on the water here in
14:41
Speaker 1: Gotha searching for any clues that could help them in
14:43
Speaker 1: Jennifer Kesse's disappearance. New six was their Thursday as crews
14:48
Speaker 1: with the Sheriff's office began their search, clearing out weeds
14:52
Speaker 1: as the Kessi family watched on. Obviously, it was a
14:54
Speaker 1: good enough tip that you see the actions of how
14:58
Speaker 1: many divers and what have you? I think had eight
15:00
Speaker 1: divers at one time. The twenty four year old went
15:03
Speaker 1: missing back in January of two thousand and six, when
15:05
Speaker 1: she never showed up for work. As the search intensified,
15:09
Speaker 1: her car was found at a condo complex page about
15:13
Speaker 1: a mile away from where she lived, the signs on
15:15
Speaker 1: the side of the road. Since then, her family and
15:17
Speaker 1: friends have not given up the search. She is our child. Ultimately,
15:21
Speaker 1: I'm responsible for finding my child, Drew Cassie Joyce, Cassie
15:26
Speaker 1: never giving up the thought to find their daughter or
15:30
Speaker 1: what happened to their daughter, Jennifer. It's amazing to me
15:37
Speaker 1: that Cassie's had to actually sue the police department in
15:42
Speaker 1: Orlando to get the file. It's practically unheard of. To Drew,
15:51
Speaker 1: did you ever get the full file? We're still working
15:57
Speaker 1: through that. Almost a year later. We have gotten about
16:00
Speaker 1: I would say, ninety five percent of files, and we
16:03
Speaker 1: are working still with redactions on certain files, clarifying them
16:09
Speaker 1: as well as I guess about a month ago now
16:14
Speaker 1: through a news report, the chief stepped up and said,
16:18
Speaker 1: we found some more files we didn't give the Kessie,
16:21
Speaker 1: so we're going to have to get them do them.
16:23
Speaker 1: So we are. We don't know if we're getting the
16:26
Speaker 1: full file. Oh, to think what you've been through already
16:29
Speaker 1: and now you have to sue the police department to
16:32
Speaker 1: get the file. Listen to our friend WFTV nine Shannon
16:37
Speaker 1: Butler to Enjoyce Kessie. You know that they may never
16:39
Speaker 1: see their daughter alive again, but that hasn't stopped them
16:42
Speaker 1: from pushing to find her. It's been twelve years of
16:45
Speaker 1: pain that has turned from debilitating sadness to rage and
16:48
Speaker 1: on a daily basis, everything in between. Today seemed to
16:52
Speaker 1: be a day filled with anger. There's a lot of
16:54
Speaker 1: things that were done wrong and they need to be
16:56
Speaker 1: held accountable for it. The family has hired an attorney
16:59
Speaker 1: to fight to get the file, to have a private
17:01
Speaker 1: investigator find Jennifer. They say Obed has had more than
17:04
Speaker 1: a decade and their time is up. It's okay, Orlando,
17:08
Speaker 1: It's okay. We understand how hard it is. We understand
17:13
Speaker 1: people made mistakes. I've made mistakes, all human, but it's
17:18
Speaker 1: time to get every resource available and we feel that
17:22
Speaker 1: we have the right to it. Drew Joyce, what was
17:26
Speaker 1: the final straw? Let me go to you, Joyce, this
17:31
Speaker 1: is Jennifer's mother that made you realize you had to
17:34
Speaker 1: sue the darned police to get the file. Because Nancy
17:39
Speaker 1: the final straw was the fact that then they stopped
17:42
Speaker 1: communicating with us and stopped responding to emails and kept
17:48
Speaker 1: and all through the probably the better part of two
17:51
Speaker 1: years that we we're campaigning if you will, to have
17:57
Speaker 1: them release the record. Eight I don't. It was double talk.
18:07
Speaker 1: It was double talk that we were getting, and we
18:09
Speaker 1: were just so frustrated with the fact that we knew
18:15
Speaker 1: that they weren't moving forward on her case that we
18:19
Speaker 1: just felt as a family we had to take this
18:23
Speaker 1: action to get the records. Well, Drew Cassie, is kind
18:27
Speaker 1: of like you got the tiger by the tail. You
18:29
Speaker 1: can't hold on, you can't let go. You don't want
18:32
Speaker 1: to antagonize the police, but yet you're not getting answers.
18:35
Speaker 1: You don't know what's happening with the case. They won't
18:37
Speaker 1: communicate Quinn answering calls and emails. So at some point
18:41
Speaker 1: you got to make a decision when you can't hold
18:43
Speaker 1: on and you can't let go. Drew Cassie, what was
18:47
Speaker 1: the final straw for you that made you know you had, to,
18:51
Speaker 1: of all things, sue the police department to get the file.
18:55
Speaker 1: It just became quite evident to everyone involved that they
18:59
Speaker 1: were ever going to as an agency do that to
19:03
Speaker 1: anyone at any time, under any circumstance. So I personally
19:08
Speaker 1: knew that the legal system had to become involved to
19:13
Speaker 1: sort things out. So it's a shame that it took
19:16
Speaker 1: twelve years. We knew that when we brought legal into
19:23
Speaker 1: the fringe that we would lose a lot of power
19:27
Speaker 1: sort to say, and I don't want to say power,
19:29
Speaker 1: but when you give up to legal, the whole game changes.
19:33
Speaker 1: And the whole game did change, and it has changed.
19:36
Speaker 1: So we walked foot in hand and step with for
19:41
Speaker 1: almost twelve years. They became our adversaries. And think about that.
19:46
Speaker 1: I want people to think about that. Law enforcement, and
19:48
Speaker 1: I'm saying specifically Orlando Police Department. Law enforcement turned the
19:55
Speaker 1: people that are supposed to help you in the hardest
19:58
Speaker 1: times of your life, especially as something as abduction turned.
20:03
Speaker 1: They gave up about seventy five, which was what was
20:07
Speaker 1: in the Orlando PD files, like timelines, photos, most of
20:13
Speaker 1: them anyway, But as the interviews police did with construction
20:16
Speaker 1: workers employed at the condo complex, then they are really
20:20
Speaker 1: pouring over why is that? Drew Kessy, because it's important
20:26
Speaker 1: to look at all of everything happened if you really
20:31
Speaker 1: look at it and it's logic. I guess it's logical
20:37
Speaker 1: sense that who had access to Jennifer at the time,
20:41
Speaker 1: where was she that people had access to her. We
20:45
Speaker 1: know it didn't happen and the condo, so it had
20:48
Speaker 1: to be had to happen around the car or her
20:52
Speaker 1: getting into the car. Did you learn in the files
20:56
Speaker 1: that there are polygraph test results? Oh, I've read many
21:00
Speaker 1: polygraph test results and I've read many polygraph test results
21:04
Speaker 1: that are absolutely false. That we're past is true, absolutely false.
21:08
Speaker 1: You even went so far is to hire your own
21:11
Speaker 1: private investigator. What have you learned from the PI? I've
21:17
Speaker 1: learned from our our investigative team is it's an incredible
21:21
Speaker 1: process when you have fourteen thousand pages of sixty seven
21:25
Speaker 1: hours of film to process and process properly, because you know,
21:31
Speaker 1: we're being told we got one shot at whoever we're
21:34
Speaker 1: going to go after and the people we go after,
21:37
Speaker 1: So we have to make it informative, we have to
21:40
Speaker 1: make it factual, and we have to make it work.
21:43
Speaker 1: When we finally truly do become very aggressive, and I
21:47
Speaker 1: think we're coming to that point. It's in my eyes,
21:51
Speaker 1: it's taken two years too long, but we're coming to
21:53
Speaker 1: that point where we need to be very aggressive. But
22:00
Speaker 1: it's an oxy moron. We don't have the resources financially
22:05
Speaker 1: to move forward in the manner in which were take
22:08
Speaker 1: a listen to this police presser at the Orlando Police Department.
22:11
Speaker 1: We never stop searching for missing persons, but today we're
22:16
Speaker 1: announcing an enhanced focus the Jennifer Kesse investigation and renewing
22:21
Speaker 1: our plea for anyone with information to come forward and
22:26
Speaker 1: help us solve this case. Through the years, the public's
22:30
Speaker 1: interest in this case has not waned. That is due
22:33
Speaker 1: in large part to Drew and Joyce and who have
22:37
Speaker 1: been committed to keeping this case in the public eye,
22:43
Speaker 1: and it's worked. This case continues to generate tips. So
22:48
Speaker 1: I'm announcing today that Orlando Police Departments Detective Teresa Sprague
22:53
Speaker 1: will focus exclusively on this case. She's going to pour
22:58
Speaker 1: through the thousands of pages of documents and case files
23:01
Speaker 1: and the hundreds of tips with a fresh set of eyes.
23:09
Speaker 1: If through Orlando Police Department. We never stopped searching for
23:12
Speaker 1: missing persons, but today we're announcing an enhanced focus on
23:17
Speaker 1: the Jennifer Kesse investigation and renewing our plea for anyone
23:22
Speaker 1: with information to come forward and help us solve this case.
23:28
Speaker 1: Through the years, the public's interest in this case has
23:30
Speaker 1: not waned. That is due in large part to Drew
23:34
Speaker 1: and Joyce and who have been committed to keeping this
23:38
Speaker 1: case in the public eye, and it's worked. This case
23:44
Speaker 1: continues to generate tips. So I'm announcing today that Orlando
23:49
Speaker 1: Police Department Detective Teresa Sprague will focus eve exclusively on
23:55
Speaker 1: this case. She's going to pour through the thousands of
23:58
Speaker 1: pages of documents, case files, and the hundreds of tips
24:02
Speaker 1: with a first set of eyes to Drew and Joyce.
24:05
Speaker 1: Cassie joining me right now, Jennifer's parents, what do you
24:08
Speaker 1: make the new focus on Jennifer's case? Is it real? Now? Nancy,
24:14
Speaker 1: I will tell you that that's probably that's third time
24:16
Speaker 1: they said that, And that's probably the third time they
24:19
Speaker 1: said that about Detective Teresa Sprague. I think we were
24:24
Speaker 1: there day one when Teresa came on board with absolutely
24:30
Speaker 1: zero percent missing person's experience. In fact, I brought her
24:35
Speaker 1: to the Department of Dressice Training seminar I was attending
24:39
Speaker 1: at the time to get her training. What we have
24:43
Speaker 1: found out through files and receiving the files that Detective
24:48
Speaker 1: Sprague had not written one note in a computer or
24:53
Speaker 1: on page that we see for the past seven years
24:57
Speaker 1: of the investigation. So late twenty twelve was the last
25:02
Speaker 1: anything was written in a computer about Jenifer Kessie's investigation.
25:08
Speaker 1: And nothing has been written in seven plus years, almost
25:12
Speaker 1: eight years from Detective Teresa Sprague that we have in
25:16
Speaker 1: our hands. And we asked about that through legal of
25:20
Speaker 1: Orange County and we were told that she did not
25:24
Speaker 1: write anything in the past seven and a half years. Oh,
25:27
Speaker 1: my stars, make what you want of it. I put
25:30
Speaker 1: so much faith and hope and the naming of Sprague.
25:36
Speaker 1: Hadn't she been a homicide detective prior to this? Yeah,
25:41
Speaker 1: Joscout Morgan, you know, I've represented the state my whole life,
25:46
Speaker 1: and to hear this is just a kick in the teeth.
25:51
Speaker 1: Joe Scott. Yeah, it is Nancy that were the case
25:55
Speaker 1: such as this, that they would put this into the
25:59
Speaker 1: hand to someone who has no experience whatsoever. And obviously,
26:06
Speaker 1: well she is a homicide detective. Yeah, but there's there's
26:09
Speaker 1: a bit of a difference here. Uh. You know, when
26:12
Speaker 1: you're trying to track down a missing person, those those
26:16
Speaker 1: kinds of investigations work differently. When you're trying to piece
26:20
Speaker 1: these things together. You as a homicide detective, you start
26:24
Speaker 1: off from the perspective of I have a body, and
26:28
Speaker 1: in this particular case, she does not. And so that's
26:32
Speaker 1: a completely different way of looking at the world and
26:35
Speaker 1: looking at the investigative context of this thing. And that's
26:40
Speaker 1: a problem. And the fact that what Kessie's have stated
26:43
Speaker 1: that there's not a note, there's there's not a follow
26:47
Speaker 1: up report there, there's nothing there of substance. It's absolutely heartbreaking,
26:53
Speaker 1: absolutely heartbreak. Well, I know she's still with the Orlando
26:57
Speaker 1: PD because she just had a press sir as light
27:01
Speaker 1: as February twenty twenty, okay, and that was about the
27:05
Speaker 1: body forty six year old Daniel Everett being found and
27:12
Speaker 1: she was speaking about that. So she's still in homicide,
27:15
Speaker 1: she's still at Orlando. But according to the Cassie's has
27:19
Speaker 1: done nothing on the Jennifer Kessi case. Ray Caputo, anchor
27:24
Speaker 1: Orlando's The Morning News WDBO, why are you guys screaming
27:29
Speaker 1: on the courthouse steps if nothing is being done about
27:32
Speaker 1: this case? Nanty. We've been talking about this in the media.
27:35
Speaker 1: In fact, like almost every year when her disappearance comes around,
27:38
Speaker 1: when we talk about it again. And you know, I'm
27:40
Speaker 1: not a fan of bashing a law enforcement officers. They
27:43
Speaker 1: have hard me they are a hard jobs. But I'm
27:45
Speaker 1: a bigger fan of the truth, right right, And you know, Nancy,
27:47
Speaker 1: this past week and I took all the actually a
27:49
Speaker 1: couple of weeks who I took all the kids to
27:50
Speaker 1: the Orlando Magic Even I spent a lot of money,
27:53
Speaker 1: but I, like my parents did for me, I pour
27:55
Speaker 1: my heart out to my kids because I want them
27:57
Speaker 1: to have a better life than me. And Joyce and
27:59
Speaker 1: Drew they're the same kind of parents. And Jennifer was
28:02
Speaker 1: one of the most prized possessions. And when something wasn't
28:05
Speaker 1: right with her, they knew it. They drove all the
28:07
Speaker 1: way to our Orlando at a moment's notice, they called police.
28:10
Speaker 1: But to the Jennifer was an adult, and moreover, she
28:13
Speaker 1: had a fight with her boyfriend. It was like her
28:14
Speaker 1: story was on the back burner in a critical time,
28:17
Speaker 1: those first forty eight when all that evidence is there
28:20
Speaker 1: to be taking. What we're left with, Nancy is we
28:22
Speaker 1: got this piece of a part, We got small pieces
28:24
Speaker 1: of a puzzle, and we're trying to put it together.
28:27
Speaker 1: But there are these large pieces that we missed early on.
28:30
Speaker 1: Where are all those workers? You know, what are they
28:32
Speaker 1: doing now? We're all potential witnesses. This is information now
28:36
Speaker 1: that Orlando police are trying to get after the fact.
28:38
Speaker 1: They're putting in an effort. They're searching lakes, people's following
28:42
Speaker 1: up on leads. But it's just all too little, too late,
28:44
Speaker 1: too Ashley Walcot, you're the judge, you're the trial lawyer.
28:48
Speaker 1: What if anything can they do now? You can't make
28:51
Speaker 1: the police do something. Well, they need to pursue and
28:54
Speaker 1: continue with the lawsuit. But I have to tell you,
28:56
Speaker 1: you know, I think outside of the box, and it's
28:58
Speaker 1: a judge I see attorney with really creative ideas and motions.
29:02
Speaker 1: Why not if there's a court case still subpoena all
29:06
Speaker 1: the records from law enforcement, or use some other legal
29:09
Speaker 1: mechanism it may have already been done to try to
29:12
Speaker 1: get them to do it. And then I wonder, you know,
29:15
Speaker 1: sometimes mediation And here's why I suggest it, because, yeah,
29:19
Speaker 1: police departments don't want to admit maybe they didn't handle
29:22
Speaker 1: it fourteen years ago they would have handled it today.
29:25
Speaker 1: Maybe they haven't kept a fine eye on where their
29:28
Speaker 1: evidence files are in their office. That sounds crazy, but
29:32
Speaker 1: that's the reality of people and turnover and the things
29:35
Speaker 1: that can happen. So sometimes I suggest mediation. Why so
29:38
Speaker 1: everybody can sit down. It's not as flatitious to say,
29:41
Speaker 1: oh man, Ashley, I mean, take off those rose colored glasses.
29:45
Speaker 1: This is way past mediation that Cassie has had to
29:49
Speaker 1: sue they Orlando PD to get the file. They still
29:53
Speaker 1: don't have everything. I know, they're basically trying to strong
29:57
Speaker 1: arm them to do DNA tests. In fact, this point,
30:00
Speaker 1: I would do my own DNA test. Joe Scott help
30:04
Speaker 1: me out. I mean, Ashley is right, that would be
30:07
Speaker 1: the normal next step. I see these guys sitting down
30:12
Speaker 1: to mediate. I mean, not one note written in the
30:14
Speaker 1: file in seven years, according to the katsis oh hubl. No.
30:19
Speaker 1: They gotta get that evidence and they got to have
30:21
Speaker 1: it tested theirselves. Joe Scott, Yeah they do. And you know,
30:24
Speaker 1: I think another interesting perspective, Nancy, is the fact that
30:28
Speaker 1: the Flargia flee the Flarida Department of Law Enforcement actually
30:32
Speaker 1: has and this is statewide, they have their own cold
30:35
Speaker 1: case investigative squad. They even now have their own DNA
30:41
Speaker 1: genetic investigative squad. So I think I would really liked
30:47
Speaker 1: somebody shock him out. Yeah, I'm sorry, Yeah, Fdlee, I'm
30:50
Speaker 1: really hoping that maybe they could be appealed to at
30:54
Speaker 1: this point in tim since Orlando doesn't seem let's let's see.
30:58
Speaker 1: Hold on, what about it, Drew? I enjoy to you, Drew.
31:01
Speaker 1: What about the FDLI and is it your hope the
31:05
Speaker 1: FBI will take the case. Well, I tried to get
31:09
Speaker 1: FDLI to take the case, to do exactly what was
31:13
Speaker 1: stated there. One must understand FDLI has not one piece
31:19
Speaker 1: of power in this state. They can only do what
31:22
Speaker 1: is specifically asked of them from the particular police department.
31:28
Speaker 1: So they very much wanted to do more for Jennifer
31:31
Speaker 1: and take over I believe in the long run, but
31:35
Speaker 1: OPD would not do that. What do I feel? I
31:38
Speaker 1: truly feel that Jennifer's case does need to go to
31:41
Speaker 1: the will You know, I want to say, FBI, what
31:45
Speaker 1: I have learned by going through this process and getting
31:49
Speaker 1: the legal documents and having to do an investigation on
31:52
Speaker 1: our own is a normal regular family like ourselves, the Kessies.
31:57
Speaker 1: You can't do it, we can and not do it.
32:01
Speaker 1: It takes an incredible amount of money, resources, and expertise
32:07
Speaker 1: of which our government has within our legal and investigative system,
32:12
Speaker 1: not the cassies. So as much as we've moved forward,
32:17
Speaker 1: it breaks our hearts even more because we can't do
32:20
Speaker 1: what's truly needed. Okay, let me ask you another question, Drew.
32:23
Speaker 1: What about the Florida Attorney General. I'm sure you've contacted them,
32:27
Speaker 1: not the current one. Life is difficult. I have not.
32:31
Speaker 1: I did go to the Attorney General before Pam Bandi
32:36
Speaker 1: and she said, honestly, there's nothing I can do to
32:40
Speaker 1: help you. You're doing what would need to be done
32:44
Speaker 1: from my end, which would be going into getting records.
32:48
Speaker 1: But it's it's it's a very difficult fight. And I
32:52
Speaker 1: see after fourteen years, just mentally it's well. I understand
33:00
Speaker 1: that the current Florida Attorney General is Ashley Moody. Is
33:08
Speaker 1: that correct? Yes, she is. When we have not met
33:11
Speaker 1: with her with the governor, and we usually do all
33:14
Speaker 1: that on their first day. It's taken a toll on
33:17
Speaker 1: it for those of you that care about Jennifer Kessey
33:21
Speaker 1: as we do. That number is eight five zero four
33:26
Speaker 1: one four thirty three hundred repeat eight five zero, four
33:32
Speaker 1: one four thirty three hundred or eight hundred nine five
33:36
Speaker 1: five eight seven seven one toll free eight six six
33:41
Speaker 1: nine six six seven two two six. What we need
33:46
Speaker 1: is the Florida Attorney General to assign this to a
33:49
Speaker 1: coal case division or to put a new investigative team
33:55
Speaker 1: on it and take it away from the Orlando PD.
33:58
Speaker 1: What about it, Joe Scott, I'm completely on board with it.
34:01
Speaker 1: As a matter of fact. You know, I think that
34:04
Speaker 1: there's a lot of us in the forensic community. They're
34:07
Speaker 1: out here. You hear about crowdsourcing, crowdsourcing cases relative to
34:11
Speaker 1: armchair detectives. I think that there are a lot of
34:14
Speaker 1: people in forensics that would, you know, would like to
34:17
Speaker 1: crowdsource a case like this if we could have access
34:21
Speaker 1: to that, to that data, to that evidence that they're
34:24
Speaker 1: not doing anything with. At least give me and my
34:28
Speaker 1: colleagues a shot at it. Okay, whoa right there? Right there,
34:33
Speaker 1: Drew and Joyce, would you be willing to copy all
34:36
Speaker 1: the files and hand them over to Joe Scott, to
34:40
Speaker 1: a mass A team? Yeah? Any chance? I mean, I mean,
34:46
Speaker 1: I mean, hey, I'm just trying to think of anything
34:49
Speaker 1: we can do to help I'm trying to think of
34:51
Speaker 1: anything at all. Number one, I personally will write the
34:56
Speaker 1: Attorney General and ask thank you for her to intervene.
35:02
Speaker 1: But I would be happy, more than happy to work
35:07
Speaker 1: with Joe Scott to look at the file to just
35:12
Speaker 1: see did anybody miss anything that you guys maybe missed.
35:17
Speaker 1: I don't know, Maybe you didn't miss anything, but maybe
35:20
Speaker 1: you did. And when you get a team of experts
35:23
Speaker 1: on it. And I don't want any money, and Joseph
35:26
Speaker 1: Scott Morgan doesn't want any money. Just let us help you.
35:32
Speaker 1: Let us help you in any way that we can.
35:35
Speaker 1: For those of you that hear us now, the tip
35:39
Speaker 1: line is nine four one two zero one four zero
35:43
Speaker 1: zero nine. Please help us nine four one two zero
35:49
Speaker 1: one four zero zero nine. You can go to crime
35:53
Speaker 1: online dot com for all the necessary links. If you
35:57
Speaker 1: have an idea, if you have a tip, please help
36:01
Speaker 1: the Cassie's help Jennifer. Yes, you're right and help Jennifer.
36:10
Speaker 1: Nancy Grace Crime Stories signing off goodbye for member