‘Where is Jennifer Kesse?’ CBS show investigates Orlando woman’s mysterious disappearance

‘48 Hours’ reporter Peter Van Sant talks to PI hired by Kesse’s parents

ORLANDO, Fla. – It’s been nearly 15 years since Jennifer Kesse vanished from her Orlando condominium.

Kesse, then 24, was last seen January 24, 2006. Since then, there have been no arrests and no suspects have been named.

But her parents have never stopped looking for her.

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Now, CBS' “48 Hours” is investigating Kesse’s disappearance, raising new theories and going inside her parents' search for answers.

Kesse’s parents sued the Orlando Police Department for a copy of their daughter’s case file. They got it and hope to solve the case of their missing daughter on their own.

The Kesses have hired a private investigator and there are now some new theories about what may have happened to her.

“48 Hours” correspondent Peter Van Sant recently spoke to Drew and Joyce Kesse, Jennifer’s parents, about where the case stands right now.

Van Sant also spoke to the investigator hired by the Kesses.

Van Sant says the investigator has spoken with people who lived in Kesse’s condo complex. He learned Jennifer Kesse lived at the complex while it was being renovated. There was still work being done and construction workers were living near her unit.

“She complained to her parents of leering looks and ‘cat calls’ and whistling, (which) made her feel very uncomfortable," the private investigator told Van Sant.

The PI also told Van Sant that Kesse informed her parents that her greatest fear in life was to be abducted, so she used to get on her cellphone when she would go from her car to her condo or from her condo to her car.

But on January 24, 2006, she didn’t do that. The private investigator believes Kesse had left her condo and was locking the door when she was grabbed by the workers. Van Sant said the investigator believes the workers were laying carpet the day Kesse disappeared. That’s important because about a month after her disappearance, someone was reportedly seen dumping a rolled up piece of carpet into a small lake near her condo.

Van Sant says investigators never talked to the workers, but he says it’s believed they were day workers or perhaps even been undocumented workers who disappeared after Kesse vanished.

Police searched part of the lake but didn’t find anything. The Kesses were financially limited in getting the entire lake searched, but they hope to accomplish that in the coming months.

Van Sant says the Kesses are hoping that after this edition of “48 Hours” airs someone in the Orlando area will come forward with information about what happened to their daughter.

You can watch “Where is Jennifer Kesse?” at 10 p.m. Saturday on News 6.


About the Author:

Ginger Gadsden joined the News 6 team in June 2014 as an anchor/reporter. She currently co-anchors the 4 p.m. 5:30 p.m. and the 7 p.m. newscasts.

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