Chicago area officials are investigating a Facebook Live video that appears to show a 19-year-old woman in a hotel room with a group of people before she went missing.
Kenneka Jenkins’ body was found inside a walk-in freezer over the weekend. In the footage, a woman wearing mirrored sunglasses is seen smoking and speaking on film. That other side of the room can be partially seen through her glasses.
The the reflection a woman, who appears to be Jenkins, can be seen sitting on a bed.
The video has been viewed millions of times, with people taking to social media to speculate what happened regarding the teen’s death.
Some believe Jenkins’ death is a result of foul play, but police have yet to confirm how they’re investigating the incident.
Gary Mack is a spokesman for the Rosemont Police Department. He told the Chicago Tribune investigators are reviewing the footage and that most of the people seen in the video have been identified.
“Yes, they’ve looked at it and continue to look at it and all the other social media videos and posts,” Mack said. “They are leaving no stone unturned as far as trying to corral everyone they can and talk to them and interview them about what happened and what was going on that night.”
Jenkins was found dead early Sunday morning inside a walk-in freezer at the Crowne Plaza Hotel. She checked into the hotel late Friday night to attend a party with friends before she went missing early Saturday morning.
Jenkins’ mother, Tereasa Martin, said police told her Kenneka was intoxicated and let herself into the freezer and died inside.
However, Martin does not believe the police’s account.
When speaking with reporters on Monday, she said that members of the hotel’s staff and police waited hours before they started their search for Jenkins. The teen’s body was discovered almost a full day after she went missing.
“If they had taken me seriously and checked right away, they could have found my daughter much sooner and she might have been alive,” she told.
The freezer where Jenkins was found was located in a construction area of the hotel, and was not currently being used to store food. Mack said he’s unsure if the freezer had been turned on. Investigators have also not disclosed who found the body.
Martin also said her daughters friends’ accounts of what happened aren’t adding up, and that they’ve changed their stories “over and over.”
“I believe someone in this hotel killed my child,” Martin told WGN-TV.
Police spokesman Gary Mack told the Tribune that it may take weeks to determine what happened and the medical examiner’s office is still awaiting toxicology tests. An autopsy performed Sunday failed to determine her cause of death.
“I don’t think anything has been ruled in or ruled out at this point,” Mack said. “It’s just considered a death investigation at this point.”
