As many of you following blinkoncrime.com are aware, S. Christina Stoy spent several weeks investigating Jennifer Kesse’s disappearance in January of 2006. In March 2012, Stoy published an explosive new look into the investigation that remains with the Orlando Police Department to this day. Previous publications in Jennifer’s case can be found here and here.
This Friday, April 18th at 7PM, Greta Van Susteren will be re-visiting Jennifer’s disappearance in a one hour special dedicated to her case on her show “ON THE RECORD”.
While none of us who were interviewed for the show can predict what the final piece will reflect, we are enthusiastic for Jennifer, Drew, Joyce, Logan and Katie Kesse to have Greta review the case she covered from the beginning.
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…)
Last evening, 6 Years ago at 10:40 PM, Jennifer Kesse’s cell phone battery was removed.
Experts from the newly formed SMART panel concur it was likely removed by the person or persons responsible for her disappearance.
As chronicled in an expose last week by www.blinkoncrime.com, current leads are pointing to further investigation of Jennifer’s professional associations and colleagues at Central Florida Investments.
On November 15, 2005, Jennifer’s promotion to Manager of Mortgage Process Engineering was announced.
Kesse Family Photo
While there is no known indication her responsibilities included corporate real estate acquisition and divestitures, www.blinkoncrime.com’s investigation into her disappearance has uncovered a very notable corporate transaction worthy of a Made-off* award.
Is this the meeting Jennifer missed that prompted the call by a colleague to her Mother Joyce?
The very morning Jennifer disappeared, under the direction of CFI’s CEO- David Siegel- the company sold an undeveloped parcel of commercial land for 4.7million dollars on GrandNational Drive . The financing agreement was finalized on January 24th and the sales contracts were signed two days later.
Joyce , Don & Associates agreed to pay interest-only installments of 10% on the 4.2million balance monthly until the third year anniversary; at which time a balloon payment for the entire remaining amount was due and payable. That is like the zeppelin of balloons in commercial real estate without so much as a plat plan or wetland study.
Who agreed to fund the acquisition for JD&A? Central Florida Investments.
Why CFI would to carry that amount of debt with no “win” on the balance sheet at the start of the decline in home sales leading to lack of funds for time shares, I have no idea. Why CFI would agree to such a proposal without appropriate due diligence is the next head scratcher. As the new process improvement specialist- did this come under Jennifer Kesse’s review?
The short version: After the dirty duo bought up 2 remaining parcels on International Drive they did not have funds for, Decoteau & Daniels were indicted in 2008 for wire fraud. Both were accused of bilking investors, landowners and residents of over $20million dollars for properties in Brooklyn, California and Florida.
What started out as the slum-lord version of ponzi worked so well the Trinidad native decided to migrate South and rip off wealthier folks in a warmer climate. Makes sense if the villagers are crossing the Brooklyn bridge with torches and you have been unsuccessful in selling it thus far.
Decoteau is currently in Federal prison awaiting an order for the govt to forcibly medicate him to be competent to stand trial.
Bernie Madoff walks past his cell and mutters “underachieving slacker” under his breathe on his way to Canasta in the rec lounge.
Daniels is free on a $500K bond and is believed to be cooperating with prosecutors. An unsuccessful hand-written bankruptcy filing was dismissed. Deconteau set up his family members to buy the property at a loss under the now defunct Ambeeka Holding Corp.
In the end CFI got the property back by default.
Members of Decoteau’s extended family also own a timeshare in Westgate’s Sand Lake Resort; the sale of which was processed during Jennifer’s tenure at CFI.
NOT THE VALET
Just about the same time Jenn’s enrapt co-worker Johnny Campos arrives at the CFI offices in Ocoee, the mystery suspect , the only named suspect in her disappearance to date, is parking her car next to the pool at the Huntington On The Green apartments.
He pulls in, quickly reverses and straightens the wheel, waits about 32 seconds and makes his way past 3 separately angled security cameras making no attempt to hide his appearance.
Theories abound about his attire. Cook, painter, security patrol, bike runner or messenger.
New leads acquired in Jennifer’s case by www.blinkoncrime.com have presented a new possibility.
Is the video a break or a bumper? We are talking cricket-speak.
While it is not known if she was alone or with a friend, Jennifer visited the Cricketers Arms 2 month prior to her disappearance.
Could the man parking Jennifer’s car at noon on January 24th, 2006 be wearing a cricket uniform?
Cricket is a major fave among the younger Euro-set in Orlando as well as the pub named in their honor- The Cricketers Arms. In 2006 “Cricketers” was located on Industrial Drive and recently re-opened on W. Sand Lake Rd, adjacent to the Sand Lake Resorts owned by Westgate.
Additional cricket garb:
Images by Klaasend
Contributing Editors Jacqueline Beaufort, Jason Mateos
* Made-off. Get it, like made off with cash? Nobody laughed when I said he was born into it. Not remotely funny, but the irony is there. I am referring to irony as in, the bars that keep him in prison, locked up.
…”Your daughter seems to have vanished. We do not know how or why, and we really have nothing to go on.”
If you can possibly imagine hearing those words, which is exactly what Drew and Joyce Kesse were told about their missing daughter Jennifer in 2010. After an exhaustive and fruitless 4 + years searching for the 24 year old enterprising analyst for Central Florida Investments, the very agency tasked with reviewing the case gave the Kesse’s their latest emotional contusion.
…”I begged for an FBI review of the case, but at the time, I did not know that only meant that they would review the case and provide recommendations. I had always been told that the FBI was the best investigators out there. Those words rendered us despondent yet again.”- Drew Kesse
Island Girl
Jenn Kesse was in love. At 24, she owned her condo, made an excellent living just 2 years out of college and was contemplating the “big step” with her boyfriend of one year, Rob Allen.
Rob, an Englishman, lived in South Florida about two hours away from Jennifer. He had his own career successes and a prior marriage that left him gun shy.
The couple was at a crossroads, and the impromptu trip to St. Croix spent with friends and members of Rob’s family was an important one for the relationship.
Jenn phoned her family from the island, and was jubilant.
“…Dad, what kind of rum do you drink- I am in the shop and I don’t and I am in the store here and I want to bring you back something ..”
“Why are you calling me on your vacation and you do not need to bring us anything go enjoy yourself..”, Drew told his thoughtful first born.
While she was away, with her permission, Jennifer’s younger brother Logan Kesse was enjoying a male bonding endeavor at big sisters new condo in Orlando. Jenn gave Logan a set of keys over Christmas.
Logan’s posse et al traveled from the family home in Bradenton and arrived Friday January 20th.
The weekend was a great time had by all, the condo was restored to its pre-frat status and the worst kerfuffle was that Travis Bourguignon, childhood friend of both Jennifer and Logan, absently left his new work- issued cell behind.
Jenn and Rob returned to his home via Miami due to flight cancellations Sunday evening.
Jenn left Ft. Lauderdale straightaway Monday morning at 6am for the commute to her job in Ocoee.
She arrives by 8 , works a full day and is walking out of the building with her supervisor, John Willman, when she rings her family from her cell.
At 6:15 PM Jenn is on her cell with Mom and Dad while leaving the office. Logan chimes in to ask sis to FedEx Travis’s phone as he needs it for work. Jenn commits to sending it overnight the following day, she reminds him she had not even been back to the condo to locate it yet.
Enroute to her condo at Mosaic at Millenia Jenn was gushing about her trip as each family member passed the phone.
This conversation will be the last time Jennifer’s family heard her voice. (more…)
