“We have great hope that this year we’re going to know, maybe not exactly what happened to Jennifer but where we need to go and what we need to do,” said Jennifer Kesse’s father, Drew over the phone with ABC7 on Sunday morning 15 years after his daughter went missing.
With the release of the case documents, the PD also relinquished their investigation making the family the lead on this case. Drew Kesse, Jennifer’s father, tells ABC7 on the 15th anniversary of his daughter’s disappearance that they are glad they took the case over with another team of investigators because his daughters case was collecting dust at the police department with no new information or leads filed since 2010.
“We’ve tried demanding answers, it’s in our court now. The ball is in our hands. We’re moving forward with our own investigation. We’ve had about 22 months of having the files for Jennifer’s case,” said Drew Kesse. “And just two weeks ago we received more files. Pretty discouraging to be honest with you. Almost two years later.”
This year the hope is they’ll have a break in the case. “We’re really put ourselves in a good position currently. We’re truly starting to talk to the people we really need to talk to which leads us down many paths. But we’re doing the handwork now and we’re moving forward,” said Kesse. “It’s tedious work, it’s going to be long and hard but we’re at the point now where we can see where we can move ahead and we have moved ahead.”
Surveillance video of Jennifer’s car being moved from her condo to another neighborhood 15 years ago remains a big puzzle piece in this case and to this day the person in the video remains unidentified .
“If you know where Jennifer is and the information is real… name your price, go ahead. We’ll get it. We’ll find it somewhere,” said Drew. Jennifer’s father says the investigation is moving ahead with interviews being done constantly as they inch closer on who may have answers on where she is.
If you know anything about the disappearance of Jennifer Kesse her father asks you privately message him on their social media pages or email through their go fund me. They also say you can call someone you trust like a lawyer to get the information to them to contain your anonymity
“She was in love. She had a great job. She had just gotten promoted,” her mother Joyce Kesse told “48 Hours” correspondent Peter Van Sant.
“She had just bought her first condo with her own money,” said Jennifer’s father, Drew Kesse.
On the morning of January 24, 2006, Jennifer, 24, left her apartment and headed to work — but she never made it there.
“We got a phone call,” said Joyce, “‘Was Jennifer OK?'”Immediately, those who knew her knew something was terribly wrong.
“The Orlando Police Department … they worked it very hard,” said Louis Bolden, an investigative reporter for WKMG in Orlando, who has covered the case since Jennifer Kesse went missing.
After years went by with no breaks in the case, Jennifer’s parents sued the Orlando Police Department to get Jennifer’s case file – and won. Now, Drew and Joyce Kesse hope they will solve their missing daughter’s case.