Join me tonight as The Host of the Dana Pretzer Show- scaredmonkeys radio’s Dana Pretzer and I discuss new developments in the Casey Anthony saga and the disappearance of Kyron Horman.
Orlando, FL- Jennifer Kesse, the newly promoted mortgage process engineering manager for Central Florida Investments, parent company of Westgate Resorts was an upstart.
Recent BOC article coverage can be found here, here and here.
After interviewing with upper management for other advancement roles within the company- her new position was actually created For Her.
Was this a forward and prophetic corporate strategy based on mortgage industry trending data?
Was her promotion a result of Jennifer’s own market analysis and efficiencies recommendations to the suits on the top floor?
Yes and Yes.
At 24 Jennifer Kesse was the youngest new manager among her peers in their respective management roles at CFI.
While she did not have the subordinates they did reporting to her directly, the initiative she was leading and launching was going to save the firm almost $900,000 annually. The installation and rollout of a new debit system interface allowing timeshare owners to pay fees, mortgages and incidentals by ACH automatically was a corporate priority for Westgate Resorts.
Which is why on the morning of Tuesday January 24, 2006, the day after she returned from a brief trip with her boyfriend Robert Allen- when Jenn did not show up to her office in Ocoee, there appeared to be immediate concern.
According to Jennifer’s outlook scheduling calendar she did not have an interoffice meeting until the afternoon.
By 11:15 her parents living two hours away in Bradenton were called to see if she had some sort of family emergency.
The exact escalation of events within CFI leading up to the phone call and who made it are being withheld for investigative reasons.
By noon, a trifecta of calamitous and simultaneous events takes place.
Drew, Joyce and Logan Kesse, speeding from Bradenton to Orlando in a respite from paralytic panic reach the property manager of Jenn’s new condo at Mosaic On Millenia and learn her car is not parked in her spot. She is not inside.
A self-confessed admirer and now CFI lateral management peer, Johnny Campos arrives 4 hours late to the Ocoee office.
The only suspect ever declared to date in Jennifer Kesse’s disappearance is parking her vehicle while captured on 3 separate closed circuit cameras at the Huntingdon Tavern On The Green Condominiums and apartments. It is less than a few blocks from two large CFI warehouses and within a mile of several CFI owned properties.
By late afternoon The Kesse’s, Rob Allen and Jennifer’s closest friends were using her condo as a command center to develop immediate and organized searches for her.
Detectives Julius Glenn Gause II and Joel Wright of the Orlando Police Department respond to the scene.
Detective Gause assures the Kesse’s that Jennifer had a fight with her boyfriend Rob Allen, who is now standing in her living room vehemently disagreeing with his investigative assessment. Who can blame the guy?
Gause’s opinion was reached without ever interviewing a single person who was not on-scene, and was sure she would be back by tomorrow.
In a mandatory meeting called at the request of Central Florida Investments CEO David Siegel and conducted by Chief Financial Officer Tom Dugan, it was announced that Jennifer Kesse, a respected and valued member of the management team had been reported missing.
Dugan adamantly assured all that the company would encourage employees to join any organized search efforts to find her.
Jennifer did not return as Gause predicted.
Her car did however, and on January 26th her case was declared a criminal investigation.
The First 48… Months
Upon the classification of Jennifer’s case as a criminal investigation, J. Glenn Gause told the Kesse’s that his partner Detective Joel Wright asked what he considered a dumb question during a briefing.
As a result, Gause informed- he kicked him off the case and requested new partner Det. Emmett Browning.
While such a move would obviously be outside of Det. Gause’s authority, it is more likely the pair were reeling from the Internal Affairs investigation that ensued after they knowingly interviewed John Evander Couey after his arrest for the murder of Jessica Lunsford.
Shortly after Couey’s confession to Citrus county detectives was thrown out of court because it violated Couey’s Miranda rights, Gause and Wright decided to inform their Orlando PD sergeant that they interviewed Couey following his arrest in Citrus County on the chance he might be a suspect in the Regina Armstrong murder because he grew up in Orange County. They claimed he actually confessed to the Lunsford murder.
The confession was not recorded and at no time did either detective inform the Citrus investigators or their OPD supervisor of the visit itself- let alone Couey’s statements made to them.
That is, until they learned his original confession in the Lunsford case was inadmissible.
Interviewing an incarcerated man who is represented by an attorney with charges pending in a potentially related case without permission, notes, or a recording by veteran detectives is outrageous.
John Cuoey was 5’4”, 125 lbs with a flag tattoo. The suspect composite from direct witnesses in the Armstrong case was a man around 40, 6 ft tall with medium build and a mermaid tattoo on the opposite arm.
They were lucky their actions did not derail the prosecution of both cases. The second alleged confession was also thrown out and reprimands to both detectives remain private in their respective employee records. Regina Armstrong’s murder in 1985 remains unsolved.
John Evander Couey died of natural causes on death row awaiting execution for the rape and murder of Jessica Lunsford. (more…)
Orlando, FL- The Lead Investigators in the murder of Caylee Marie Anthony are finally speaking out.
Led by brief words by Orange County Sheriff Jerry Demings, Sgt. John Allen, Cpl Yuri Melich , Cpl Eric Edwards and four other investigators will take questions from the press.
It is also expected that the OCSO ask for privacy for the jurors, and also for citizens to not compromise the safety of it’s officers when Casey is released.
Orlando, FL- 10 days shy of 3 years after the smell of decomposition in her pontiac sunfire prompted her Mother to shriek through a 911 call that something “was wrong” Casey Marie Anthony has been acquitted
She has been convicted of providing false information to a law enforcement officer only
Assistant State’s Attorney Jeff Ashton began the closing arguments with such scalpular precision my mind wandered briefly where I actually pictured him scrubbing in, just before entering court. In approximately 77 minutes, with 2 overruled objection by Jose Baez, Ashton tied up the one thing he is NOT required to present to the jury, Casey’s motive for murdering her toddler, setting the tone for his closing that presented more like an excerpt from a Grisham flick. I say let him play himself.
“..It’s easy to be a parent, sometimes.. It’s easy to be a parent, when your playing with your child, or when your enjoying your child, children are fun… But we all know that being a parent is much more than just playing with your children.. Being a parent is about sacrifice.. Your child becomes your life. This case is about the clash between that responsibility and the expectations that go with it, and the life that Casey Anthony wanted to have… “
Ashton went through the time line of 31 days including details from the elaborate lies Casey Anthony told to avoid detection from her Mother Cindy, her imaginary friend finder chip located in the unallocated sectors of her mind where her conscious should have been, and the fact there is only one reason to duct tape a small child: MURDER. Ashton reminded jurors that the defense theory is asking them to head down rabbitholes that defy reasonable thought. It makes one wonder if that was not exactly the source of inspiration behind Jose Baez Dr. Huntington pigs sans blankets experiment.
Cheshire Cat: By-the-bye, what became of the baby? I’d nearly forgotten to ask.
Alice: It turned into a pig.
The Cat: I thought it would.
Jose was spotted given jurors a parting gift over lunch, which was intercepted by deputies.
Doom and Gloom Loom for Camp Casey
On what is likely to be her day of reckoning, Ms. Anthony was less than thrilled to learn that 2 of the bullseye on her defense’s dart board were permanently removed, I reckon. George and Lee Anthony, the crux of the defense’s failed attempts to blame Casey Anthony’s selective post traumatic stress disorder, will not be allowed to be maligned further based on her allegations of sexual abuse.
As expected, Jose Baez began his closing arguments reminding jurors the defense is not required to “defend” at all. In short, his comments were structured around the trash being altered because it was allowed to dry, and that the state allowed jurors to pass around the velveeta pouch so they could help figure out “Who cut the cheese.” You read that correctly, he actually said that.
He also went on to express his concerns that the State painted his client as a slut, and by doing so, invoking their emotions which will be used to find her guilty, as opposed to actual evidence.
In what I will call flub #3 in less than 40 minutes, Jose Baez inadvertently tells jurors that Casey Anthony’s trunk for the usage ot transportation is not murder. HEH? I thought the defense was quite adamant the junk in the trunk is what stunk. I guess that’s now bunk, whoda’ thunk?
Jose Baez is currently continuing his contribution to the defense’s, and Cheney Mason is on as anchor to complete the allotted 4 hours.
Linda Drane Burdick has had 3 sustained objections and granted one move to strike already. I lost that bet dangit.
Flub #4 flies in, while I am editing. This lawyer just actually admitted Casey searched for chloroform based on Ricardo Morales’s image on his computer. OMG.
..” It should be natural for her to want to know what chloroform was if her boyfriend had the image on his myspace…” Jose Baez
Assistant State Attorney Linda Drane Burdick will complete the State’s rebuttal closing argument.
On an unrelated note, the jury has selected their preference for the order of question during the press conference scheduled following a verdict. It is as follows:
1. CNN 2. WFTV 3. St. Pete Times 4. Reuters 5. People 6. HLN 7. WDBO 8. NBC 9. MSNBC 10.WTSP 11.FOX 12.Orlando Magazine 13.Florida Sun 14.WKMG 15.Dateline 16.WTMY 17.Chathouse 18.CFN 13 19.WOFL 20.Tampa Tribune 21.In Session 22.Orlando Sentinel 23.Univision 24.AP 25.Discovery 26.ABC 27.EFE 28.CBS 29.WESH
If that is not a window to this jury, I don’t know what is.
To Be Continued, Active Blogroll on this thread through today’s session. On the day that Governor Scott signed his first death warrant for Manuel Valle, convicted of killing a Coral Gables police officer a few counties away, I would not hold out any hope that Ann Finnell’s motion for mistrial based on Federal Court’s ruling striking the death penalty in Florida, will be granted. Report Filed 3PM EST