The family of a woman who went missing in Florida 15-years-ago this month hope to finally solve the case this year after raising more than $80,000 to pay for private investigations.
Jennifer Kesse, 24, went missing from her newly purchased condo in Orlando, Florida, on January 24, 2006.
A police search was launched after she failed to turn up for work as a finance manager at Central Florida Investments.
But despite extensive searches, few clues to her alleged abduction have ever been found.
Now, on the 15th anniversary of her disappearance, her parents Joyce and Drew claim they are ‘moving forward’ with the case and have ‘great hope’ to solve it.
They maintain an on-going Go Fund Me page that has raised more than $80,000, out of a $200,000 goal, to pay for their private investigations.
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Jennifer Kesse, 24, went missing from her newly purchased Orlando, Florida, condo on January 24, 2006
Jennifer Kesse (pictured left) before her disappearance in 2006. In 2015 police released an updated photo, on the right, of how she may look now
Miss Kesse went missing from her recently purchased condo at the Mosaic At Millenia, a private, gated community in Orlando, Florida
In 2007 police released a grainy photo of an individual seen parking Miss Kesse’s black Chevy Malibu car around midday on the day she disappeared. It is unclear if the person is female or male
Jennifer Kesse’s father, Drew Kesse, said: ‘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’, as reported by My Sun Coast.
The family took over the investigation in 2017 after they successfully sued Orlando Police for Kesse’s cold case files which they said were ‘gathering dust’, with no new information filed since 2010.
After the litigation, Orland Police relinquished 16,000 pages into the hands of the family who are now lead investigators.
Mr Kesse said they family have been ‘fighting through these files’ for the last 22 months, receiving new files two weeks ago.
He added: ‘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. 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.’
He urged people in the know to get in touch and said: ‘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.’
In an open letter to their daughter on the 15th anniversary of her disappearance, the Kesses said they remain ‘relentless’ in their pursuit of answers.
‘We will not cease until we have found her, for the good or the bad. Jennifer is loved by us, her family, so many friends as well as strangers around our country and the world, the family wrote.
‘Jennifer, we love you in a place where there’s no space or time.’
According to a website set up by her family, the 24-year-old Kesse had just spent a long weekend in St Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands with her boyfriend Rob Allen and a group of friends.
Her family said it was completely out of character for Jennifer not to call if she was going to be late for work.
Jennifer Kesse and her boyfriend, who lived several hours away in south Florida and was cleared early on by authorities, would call each other on the drive to work each morning.
The day before she disappeared, Kesse had left Allen’s home to drive to work.
That evening, she left her office around 6pm and wished her boss a good evening.
She chatted to her parents, brother, boyfriend and some friends on the phone at home that evening.
Jennifer, pictured in a photo on social media, with her mother Joyce prior to her disappearance
Jenifer, pictured with her family at her graduation from The University of Central Florida, has been missing since 2006. Her family have not given up looking and took over the case from the police in 2017
The last person to speak to Jennifer was her boyfriend, in a call shortly before 10pm on the Monday night.
The next morning, when her boyfriend called her office, he was told that Jennifer had not arrived.
Her employer then alerted her family, who could not reach her at her home or on her cellphone. Police were informed within two hours.
The family went to their daughter’s new condo and said it appeared ‘normal’ – clean and with everything in place.
She had slept in her bed, taken a shower (as indicated by a wet towel and shower) and left out clothes on the bed.
Kesse appeared to have disappeared after leaving her home around 7.30am.
Her black, Chevy Malibu car was later found a mile away on Thursday, January 26 at a condo complex around a mile down the road from where she lived.
Surveillance footage later revealed a suspect pulling into a parking space in her car around midday on January 24, waiting around 30 seconds, climbing out and walking away.
Despite more than a thousand tips, police have not been able to work out what happened to the missing woman.
In 2007, police released grainy surveillance footage of the suspect who had been driving her car. It was not clear if the person was a man or a woman and no information came from the tape.
The missing woman’s parents, Joyce and Drew Kesse, have never given up searching for her and continually update their website Findjenniferkesse.com and Facebook page.