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Jennifer Kesse /// Part 1 /// 362

January 08, 2020 / 01:06:25

This episode covers the perplexing disappearance of Jennifer Cassie, discussing her background, the timeline of events leading up to her vanishing, and the investigation that followed. Key topics include Jennifer's life in Orlando, her job at CFI Westgate Resorts, her relationship with Rob Allen, and the actions taken by her family after she went missing.

Jennifer Cassie was born on May 20, 1981, in New Jersey and later moved to Tampa, Florida. She was a responsible and well-liked individual who graduated from the University of Central Florida with a degree in finance. At the age of 24, she became the youngest manager at CFI Westgate Resorts, where she was involved in streamlining a mortgage debt system.

On January 18, 2006, Jennifer traveled to St. Croix with her boyfriend Rob Allen. After returning to Orlando, she was last heard from on January 23, 2006, during a phone call with Rob. She was scheduled to attend an important meeting at work the following morning but failed to show up, prompting concern from her family and colleagues.

Upon investigation, her family discovered that her belongings were left behind in her condo, including her luggage and personal items. The police were notified, but initial responses suggested she may have left voluntarily after a disagreement with Rob.

The episode highlights the family's relentless efforts to find Jennifer, including living in her condo, distributing flyers, and engaging with the media. The investigation faced numerous challenges, including a lack of evidence and the complexities of the construction site where she lived.

TLDR

Jennifer Cassie vanished in 2006, sparking a complex investigation and relentless search by her family amid numerous unanswered questions.

Episode

1:06:25
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chair grab a beer let's talk some true crime [Music] [Music] [Music] a missing-persons mystery is a special
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breed of true crime story the lack of answers or closure for most of us is enthralling but even if you fall into a
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different category and you find disappearance stories unappealing the case we are discussing will change your
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mind this is a missing persons case so perplexing and so unpredictable the thousands around the world have been
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riveted by the inexplicable disappearance of this young woman this is a case but far more questions than
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answers a story in which no one is even sure when it began yet it is a tale rife
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with clues intrigue and evidence in many missing persons cases we discuss there is some foreshadowing in the victims of
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life that something bad is going to happen maybe they were going through personal turmoil or they were in abusive
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relationship maybe they were making questionable choices or leading an unsafe lifestyle
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sometimes a person is unhappy and they choose to run away or maybe they spiral into addiction or worse we're going to
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say this up front none of this was the case here with this missing persons case this is true crime garage and this is a
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case of Jennifer Cassie [Music] Jennifer was born on May 20th 1981 two loving parents Drew and Joyce Cassie she
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her parents and her younger brother Logan were incredibly close Jennifer was born in New Jersey but the family moved
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to Tampa Florida when she was a child as a kid Jennifer was always very responsible and
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well behaved she got good grades had a ton of friends and she got along with her parents
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Jennifer truly was a golden child with blonde hair big blueish green eyes she grew up to be 5 foot 7 or 5 foot 8 tall
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130 pounds she graduated high school and moved on to the University of Central Florida where she majored in finance
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after switching from pre-med Jennifer worked hard and was serious about her schooling and ambitions when she
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graduated in 2003 she had multiple job offers she accepted a job with CFI westgate Resorts in Ocoee this is a
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massive timeshare company where she had interned while in college she recently was promoted to manager of process
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engineering at the age of 24 she was the youngest employee to earn a promotion to
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management she was working on streamlining a new mortgage debt system installed by the company the CFI
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Westgate owner is David Segal a somewhat showy I have to laugh at my own words here a very showy individual he's well
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known he's a multimillionaire who built a house so large 90,000 square feet that
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it was featured in the documentary the queen of Versailles which if you haven't seen that it is total like guilty
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pleasure sit down eat popcorn drink beer watch that documentary Jennifer loved her job and had good friends in the
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division of the huge company she were she was a creature of habit many people would probably describe her as type a
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she was the kind of person who left for work at the same time every day who planned her outfits in advance who had
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common sense and who was not afraid to stand up for herself and speak her mind right although Jennifer was
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self-confident independent and didn't take crap from anyone she was also fun Jennifer had a lot of
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friends both from childhood and her sorority in college all of whom described her as a wonderful person who
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was a great and loyal friend and who could be counted on she was obsessed with the New York Giants and insisted on
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watching every game she loved the Dave Matthews Band shopping and the beach Jennifer made an amazing mac and cheese
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and drank beer and loved to dress up and go out at night but she was always in bed at a decent hour and at work on time
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the next day Jen had a tiny tattoo of a shamrock on her left hip I found this interesting I have a couple of friends
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like this that have a lot of safety measures that they take some precautions that they take seems like Jennifer was
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really into that yeah she has been described as very cautious and also aware of her surroundings she never
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walked alone at night if she could help it always locked her car doors and carried pepper spray which was purchased
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for her and all of her friends by her father drew some of this is attributable to her parents who having been mugged at
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gunpoint years earlier they were sure to teach their daughter about safety and awareness some of it was because
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Jennifer was a big fan and watched a lot of Law & Order SVU which will if you watch enough of it will scare the crap
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out of anybody Jennifer's mother even says that Jen knew to deliberately crash her car in the event that she was
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carjacked to set off the airbags and have a chance to escape she also knew that in the event she was
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ever placed in the car trunk that most trunks have internal latches or you can kick out the taillights to attract
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attention right up until November 2005 Jennifer lived with her friend and roommate in Metro West it's a planned
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community but her roommate was getting married so she needed to move on right around
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Thanksgiving 2005 24 year old Jennifer purchased her first home for two hundred and seven thousand dollars this was a
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condo in a complex called mosaic at millenia reign that was being converted from apartments to condos in the height
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of the Florida real estate bubble yeah but this area wasn't super great it was located by a mall a new mall this
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is what I call when you have a an area that's trying to be a nicer area and it's also kind of surrounded by pupi
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areas that's those are real estate terms now poopy yeah you don't live here it's
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kind of poopy half of the complex was still being constructed and the other half was being converted over from
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apartments to updated condos now Jennifer's unit number 2 2 to 6 was in building 22 on the second of three
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floors Logan Cassie described the mosaic and millennia as a literal construction zone
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this complex was located at 3573 Conroy Road and featured multiple buildings fronted on a very large pond and had an
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even larger wooded area behind the complex Jennifer's parents helped her pick out the place it was right across
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the street as the captain said from a fancy new shopping mall called the mall at millennia which featured retail shops
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and eateries the newspapers at the time described the mosaic at millenia as quote
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upscale gated and fenced but it's a fair statement to say that the area was just
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newly becoming nice and that it bordered on some areas that were not so upscale yeah well it's also not gated at the
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time because there's so much construction going on there are gates they are not being closed or used
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properly and we'll get into that heavily later right some of the neighboring areas have even been described as
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sketchy or poo pee or poop mosaic and millennia is your typical pastel colored Florida stucco buildings with open-air
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hallways leading to the condos this was still a major construction zone just like her brother described and this
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place was not close to maximum capacity news reports from 2006 indicate that only about 250 of close to 500 units
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were full and only one other condo on Jennifers floor was even occupied many of the condos were still being renovated
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and were empty and in fact it came out later that many of the workers that were employed in the construction project
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were permitted to live or stay for a while in these empty condos while they worked the job one well-known story is
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that Jennifer who had only been living in her new condo for about three months when she vanished had told friends and
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family that while she loved her new place this was a very nice condo by the way with a balcony overlooking a pond
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granite countertops in her own laundry room she did not like the workers she told people that the workmen can't call
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to her and whistled when they saw her for anyone especially a young woman living alone this is quite an
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uncomfortable situation her parents who lived about two hours away encouraged her to report this behavior to the
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managers office but it does not seem that Jennifer ever did so Jennifer refused to allow anyone into her condo
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when she was not home but when she first moved in her condo needed some finishing
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touches like paint and plaster so she would come home from work on her lunch break let the workers in and stand there
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with the door open to the hallway on the phone with a friend or her parents while
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the men worked she always locked up after she left there seems to be no way to track who all the workers were
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on-site at the time some of them were undocumented workers with no papers who were probably doing a lot of work under
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the table right there were no surveillance cameras in place at the complex just yet
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well like you said some of the workers were permitted to stay and the empty buildings correct but I guarantee you
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there was other workers that were staying that weren't allowed or people to even know that they were stained
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who's to say that this worker staying in a condo or in a unit couldn't have friends over or people that that worker
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knew right you know staying for a weekend or a couple of days it's just there's a lot of things going on in this
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condo complexes of what we're trying to point out that there's no real checks and balances of these types of
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activities and movements and there was also virtually no security at the armless gate when Jennifer lived at
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mosaic at millenia the unfinished work in progress nature of the buildings meant that lots of workers gardeners
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maintenance workers and so on were constantly coming and going no one kept track and according to the cases when
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Jennifer disappeared and her story broke all over the news many of the workers seem to just disappear or evaporate they
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did not want to be under scrutiny even if they were not involved in any way in her disappearance Jennifer had been
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dating someone for about a year when she disappeared this was Rob Allen he's an English
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soccer player who lived in Fort Lauderdale almost three hours away they had met at the tiki bar in downtown
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Orlando in 2005 rob was eight years older than Jennifer but the two seemed to be a good match
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since Jennifer was somewhat mature for her 24 years of age they spoke multiple times every day and
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the two of them alternated trips to stay with each other taking turns every weekend Rob figures heavily into this
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story into the story of Jennifer's disappearance since he was the last known person to speak with her Rob has
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grown very close with the kesi family and remains so to this day long back to your one point it's really hard to have
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undocumented workers because we don't know what kind of criminal history that they have and so in this case - we have
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the undocumented workers staying in the same complex as the owners yeah and the other thing I want to point out - to top
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all of that off we have the the false sense of security that some of the optics provides for the condo owners
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right there's they are sold that this place is gated and secure I'm here to tell you it's neither and there seems to
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be no question of what happened to Jennifer Cassie in January of 2006 Jennifer was abducted everyone including
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the Orlando Police Department agrees to this but the remaining questions surrounding her disappearance is who
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took her how did they take her and even when did they take her all this is unknown even to this day let's go
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through the timeline of the disappearance of Jennifer Cassie to establish what we know and what we do
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not know on Wednesday January 18th 2006 Jennifer drove from Orlando to her boyfriend Rob Allen's and Fort
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Lauderdale this was after work on Thursday January 19th the two of them flew from Fort
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Lauderdale to st. Croix for some are are they stayed in a condo there this is with family friends of Rob's photos of
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the to show them doing the usual vacation type things there at the pool they're relaxing in the sunshine they
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were scheduled to fly back to Fort Lauderdale on Sunday but for whatever reason their flight was canceled so
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after some scrambling around they managed to get a flight to Miami and have a friend to pick them up to make
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the 40-minute drive back to Rob's place Jennifer got up at 6 a.m. on Monday and after Rob filled the gas tank her gas
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tank and her black Chevy Malibu for her she made the three hour drive north all the way up to Orlando and went straight
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to work that day according to Jennifer's work colleagues she had a normal day at
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work she raved about her trip and said she didn't want to leave around 6:00 p.m. she stopped in and said good night
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to her boss this is John Willman she got in her car and drove the 12 miles home her car's transponder said that she went
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through the usual toll at 6:15 p.m. that day do you know how many miles it is from our boyfriend's house to her house
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it's a little over 200 miles now while she was in her car on her way home from work she did call her parents Drew and
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Joyce to tell them about her trip she also spoke with her brother Logan who was living with their parents at the
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time right Jennifer had given Logan a set of keys to her condo he was just 21 at the time and Jen had given permission
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for him to stay at her place while she was away this is with some of his buddies with Logan at Jennifer's place
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that weekend was Travis bourguignon a longtime family friend of the Cassie's and joining the two of them was a guy
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named Matt this is Jennifer's ex-boyfriend Logan and Matt remained friends despite Matt and Jennifer
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breaking up Matt didn't actually stay at Jen's condo he lived in Orlando so he's very close
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only about 30 minutes away he just hung out there with the other two guys the family says that Matt took the break-up
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with Jennifer very hard and he continued to pursue Jennifer for quite some time yeah it's not clear where things stood
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in January of 2006 because we know that Jennifer had been dating Rob for seems like years or over a year and rumors are
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that Matt had moved on to a new girlfriend right on the phone with Jennifer Logan told
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Jen that Travis his buddy had inadvertently left his work cell phone at her condo and he needed it for
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work ASAP Jennifer agreed to find it at her place and she was going to FedEx it or UPS it to Travis the next day the
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family is unequivocal about this Jennifer planned to bring Travis's cellphone to her work with her on
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Tuesday and send it out at that time right again Jennifer's family says she was a creature of habit
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so they can predict or they say they can predict what she did next she arrived at
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home at the condos at millenia and parked in her designated spot this is number 22 26 the same as her condo unit
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that was very near the bottom of the stairwell that went up to the second floor where her condo was it's literally
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a matter of maybe 30 feet to her spot from the stairs yeah it was dark out when she arrived home she brought in her
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luggage from her trip which was later found still packed in her condo she checked her mail which was also found in
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her condo at the main office on her way in it isn't known whether she ate anything her parents say that there were
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no takeout containers in the trash so perhaps she just ate something from the fridge which did have food in it
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right and it likely changed into her sweats which she always wore at night when home then got on the phone
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yeah Jennifer's gonna get on the phone but her condo had notoriously bad cell phone service according to her parents
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the phone or her cell phone only really worked and this would be sporadically when she
00:23:09
was out on the balcony so when at home Jennifer would usually use her landline the Orlando police have all of her phone
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records but have never released or discussed them in fact the Orlando Police Department has been incredibly
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tight-lipped about this entire case releasing virtually no information this has resulted in a major legal dispute
00:23:35
now that night Jen spoke with her best friend from childhood this is Lauren McCarthy the two were as close as
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sisters and shared everything Lauren told IDs disappeared that Jennifer told her on the phone that she had a great
00:23:51
time on her trip but this she and Rob were actually having some trouble mainly with the distance that they live from
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one another the distance between was providing this trouble and neither one of them wanted
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to move to correct this right this of course anybody's a problem yeah anybody that's been in a long-distance
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relationship understands that this is a very common situation Jennifer may have talked to other friends at night but we
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don't know for sure as said they've not released the call records but we do know
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that Rob told the police and Jen's family that the two of them had a phone conversation on Jen's landline as they
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did basically every night this one was at 9:57 p.m. Jen told Rob that she was in bed when they spoke the two argued on
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the phone a bit it isn't known exactly what they discussed but Lauren told Greta Van Susteren they
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Jen was quote feeling the distance and quote Rob and Jen wanted to be together but neither was willing to commit to
00:25:03
moving Rob later said that he wished that he had told Jennifer he loved her in the year that they were dating since
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he hadn't it's possible that she was questioning his commitment and it sparked an argument in any event Rob was
00:25:21
the last known person to speak with Jennifer and this is the last of the concrete facts for that night again this
00:25:30
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[Music] all right we are back cheers mates Cheers now the next morning Tuesday January
00:30:08
24th 2006 Jennifer had an important meeting at work this was scheduled for 11:00 a.m. her typical routine was to
00:30:18
leave for work between 7:30 and 7:45 she may have left early on that morning if she intended to stop at a FedEx to send
00:30:28
off Travis's phone but it is more likely that she intended to do as she said and
00:30:34
make use of the FedEx services at work Rob and Jennifer always spoke by phone in the mornings when they were apart
00:30:43
Jennifer would call him from the phone on her way to the office here's what Rob told Nancy Grace quote every day she
00:30:53
would either call me just to say good morning have a great day or just text me to wish me to you know have a good day
00:31:01
love you that type of thing and when I didn't receive it Tuesday morning I thought it was odd and quote Rob chalked
00:31:10
Jen's being m.i.a up to being busy just getting back into the swing of things after this short little vacation right
00:31:19
but after a while he called her cell this was before his 9:00 a.m. meeting at work and he got her voicemail he tried
00:31:29
again a little later but got the same result Jennifer didn't show up for her 11:00 a.m. meaning not only was this
00:31:39
totally out of character it was completely unheard of Jennifer was known for her punctuality and if she had
00:31:47
planned on missing work at all she would have called in to say so after calling her cellphone and repeatedly getting her
00:31:55
voicemail her boss John Willman had the IT department check her computer calendar
00:32:01
and it showed that she knew about the meeting that day and had planned on attending it was so unusual for her to
00:32:10
be absent without any explanation at all right that her boss ended up calling Jennifer's parents and sometimes in
00:32:18
cases we see that people not taking action right away and you gotta applaud her boss for doing so I I do applaud her
00:32:26
boss for doing so but I do want to point out it seems to me like look with with these very popular cases the ones that
00:32:35
are more well-known right you know there's hundreds of thousands of eyes and ears on these things I've noticed
00:32:42
though it seems like the employers or whoever notifies whomever or does not notify anyone they're like vilified
00:32:49
either way right because I've seen especially in this case where they're like well after only a few hours why are
00:32:56
they reaching out to her parents they saying that it seems unusual no and I feel like look we you and I and all
00:33:07
these other people that are questioning this behavior they do not know Jennifer Casey they do not know the relationship
00:33:14
between her and her employer and the people she worked with the co-workers we don't know that we're going off of
00:33:20
reports so I bring that up only because I don't find it to be strange and I think that it might given this situation
00:33:29
in what we're told about Jennifer and about this company and her co-workers it might be more strange that they didn't
00:33:36
call anybody and keep in mind this is after repeated attempts of trying to reach Jennifer herself right and I think
00:33:43
if I was working with people in general and opposed to animals as opposed to you
00:33:50
you feel the animal or even you know if we're supposed to get together to record
00:33:55
in the garage and you didn't show up and you didn't call and then I called you and that went right to voicemail
00:34:05
multiple times I try to get ahold of somebody in your family well some reports say that
00:34:12
this call to the parents was either because joyce cassie was listed as Jen's emergency contact and some say it was
00:34:21
because John Willman was a friend of Drew Cassie's either way Jennifer's parents were notified does she had not
00:34:30
shown up for work or for this meeting right and this was reason enough for them to go into panic mode
00:34:38
Joyce Cassie was at a Kinkos at the time copying materials for her work presentation that day when she got the
00:34:48
call she walked out immediately leaving everything behind to be shredded Jennifer's parents called both her cell
00:34:57
phone and her home phone and of course we know that they're receiving no answers her cell phone went directly to
00:35:05
voicemail drew Cassie told Nancy Grace that this was the first time in eight years that Jen had a cell phone that she
00:35:14
did not answer his call right drew was stuck at home waiting for Travis to get back from the gym with Drew's car Travis
00:35:24
hadn't taken his phone and drew didn't know the name of the gym so drew made some phone calls first to the Orlando
00:35:32
Police Department then to the property manager at mosaic at millenia the property manager reported that
00:35:39
Jennifer's car was not in its parking spot at the Cassie's request he knocked on Jen's door and then opened it and
00:35:48
looked around and said he didn't see anything unusual when he reported this the Cassie's became very alarmed drew
00:35:57
and Joyce and Logan and their friend Travis and two separate cars set out for Orlando which would be a
00:36:06
two-hour drive on the way Joyce called Rob and some of Jennifer's friends who had not heard from her either and she
00:36:15
also called hospitals in the area thinking perhaps Jennifer was in an accident well think about what her
00:36:21
brother's going through at this moment - you're really close with your sister and your dad is saying hey look we're
00:36:27
gonna be taking a drive cuz your sister's missing I'd be frightening stuff right and he had just stayed there
00:36:35
at her place that weekend right Travis and Logan arrived at mosaic at Millenia around 3:00 p.m. and the Cassie's
00:36:43
arrived around 3:15 Rob also arrived on the scene they convened in Jennifer's condo where this is what they found
00:36:53
okay they found the door was locked when they arrived it was also reported to be
00:36:59
locked when the complex manager checked on it right from what I can gather one needs a key to lock the door from the
00:37:07
outside so either Jen locked it or someone used her key to do so right but just to be clear I'm assuming her
00:37:16
parents had a key I don't know if her parents had a key I think they may have but we do know that Logan had a key
00:37:23
frankish he stayed there that last weekend the lights were off Jennifer's bed was unmade now laid out
00:37:31
on the bed were to work out fits in the tan and black color scheme her new Nine West alligator pumps were missing this
00:37:42
is interesting and this is this could be key here this is a pair of shoes that her mother was well aware of these are
00:37:50
shoes that they had discussed on the phone many times remember Joyce and Jennifer have a daily phone call her
00:37:58
luggage from her trip was still in the hallway remember it's still packed at this time she had not unpacked her
00:38:04
luggage from that short weekend trip her mail was on the counter and some of the
00:38:09
junk mail was in the trash which was otherwise empty other than this junk mail there was no evidence that Jen had
00:38:17
ate anything for dinner was not obvious that that took place but we would later learn that she had not used her credit
00:38:24
or debit cards and there were no containers or dishes lying about the clothes she wore to work on Monday were
00:38:33
hanging over the back of a chair her t-shirt and underwear which her family says she normally wore this
00:38:41
type of thing to bed they were on the bathroom floor and our contact case was empty and they found her glasses I'm
00:38:48
assuming on the bathroom counter yes they were on the bathroom sink counter in the contact lenses case was found to
00:38:55
be empty her makeup and hair dryer were on the bathroom sink as well and you know it's thought that where these items
00:39:05
were left that someone had possibly recently used them or use them that morning in the shower there were still
00:39:12
puddles of water this is in the corner shelf areas surrounding the shampoo and cleanser bottles there was a damp towel
00:39:21
draped over the washing machine in the laundry room a portable can of pepper spray was on
00:39:27
the kitchen counter remember we discussed earlier that she carried pepper spray on her keychain this was
00:39:35
purchased for her by her father but he is guessing that Jennifer had to leave it at home since she could not bring it
00:39:45
on the airplane on the flight to st. Croix right that would make sense take it off the keychain and for whatever
00:39:51
reason it's still sitting there which is it's got to be driving the parents nuts
00:39:57
she's missing they're checking out her apartment pepper spray on the countertop the evidence we have right now you can
00:40:04
go well she talked to her boyfriend at night she probably slept in her bed it seems like then she woke up she got
00:40:11
ready for work we have the puddles in the shower got the wet towel it seems as if everything would add up that she left
00:40:22
the apartment my mind would immediately go to in this makes sense as to why Joyce called the area hospitals with her
00:40:32
car not being there and the appearance that she got ready for work and probably kept to her routine my mind would
00:40:39
immediately go to either we're just missing something here and she arrived incredibly late at work for some reason
00:40:46
or she was involved in a vehicle accident on her way to work and we can't find her get a hold of her
00:40:54
that's where my mind would go to in that that instance well again this is why I think people need to jump into action
00:41:01
because let's say it was some thing where Jennifer was going to work and her phone was messed up and she decided to
00:41:09
stop and get a new phone before she got to work and she was running late so she couldn't call because let's say the
00:41:17
phone stopped working on the way to work or whatever that eventually you're gonna
00:41:21
find her safe and you're gonna go well maybe we overreacted but it's better than to under act right right exactly
00:41:30
well the there was a bottle of rum then apparently Jennifer told her father she had purchased for him in st. Croix they
00:41:39
find this as a daughter on the counter and the condo directly across from Jennifer's was found to be unlocked
00:41:48
logan her brother found this and went inside and he said that it was empty and found that the condo unit had no
00:41:58
carpeting according to her parents Drew and Joyce Jennifer was a morning shower person she always showered before work
00:42:06
and never showered in the evening so after seeing what we just said they observed in the condo they came to the
00:42:15
conclusion that Jennifer probably woke up for work on the morning of the 24th showered as usual got ready for work we
00:42:23
talked about what was there at the con of what they found in the condo but let's talk about what was missing
00:42:29
because what's missing from the condo clinched this belief for them that she got up performed her normal morning
00:42:36
routine and then something happened here's what was missing Travis's nextel cellphone which Jennifer had told Logan
00:42:46
she would FedEx from work the next day Jennifer's cell phone this is a Verizon LG flip phone Jennifer's purse which
00:42:55
included her driver's license her iPod which apparently she took this with her everywhere her car keys
00:43:04
there are car keys are on the same ring as her house key and her male key Jennifer's briefcase was also missing
00:43:11
which is often left in her car or even in her car trunk sometimes overnight this is according to her friends and her
00:43:21
car is missing this is a Chevy Malibu right and I would bet that everyone is kind of thinking the same thing here
00:43:30
everything that was missing Jennifer would have taken with her to work that day but as we know she never made it
00:43:38
there so what the hell happened yeah what happened and when did it happen yeah and that's really a big piece of
00:43:45
this case I believe it's I mean it's a huge missing puzzle piece really what we have here captain is we have a 9:57 p.m.
00:43:55
phone call that ends and we have an 11:00 a.m. meeting that she was scheduled to attend that meeting seems
00:44:04
to set off all these alarm bells that she is not where she is supposed to be right and that there's something going
00:44:11
on so that gives us a 13 hour window of time when something went wrong now right
00:44:19
but we can start assuming with the evidence that she slept in our bed and she woke up at some point and she was
00:44:25
heading to work possibly the other thing you can do here is instead of working with the 13 hour window of time we can
00:44:33
assume that maybe we could - three hours or so off of that because her regular time to arrive at work would be roughly
00:44:42
8 a.m. right so you know now we're working with a 10-hour window and about don't you think the evidence and our
00:44:50
condo suggests that she once slept there and then - got ready for work yes Eileen
00:44:57
I certainly lean that way there are plenty of people that make good strong arguments for something could have
00:45:03
happened late that night and I think it's worth examining but I'm with you I feel like the evidence that we see
00:45:11
points to everything was normal up until the time she was supposed to leave for work or
00:45:17
just before yeah I think maybe he it's a I don't know if they did this but clean
00:45:24
just test the towel and if it's her DNA and then you would start assuming again that she took a shower in the morning
00:45:31
and not at at 10:00 p.m. I can say that was not done right so we just don't know
00:45:39
now is probably a good time to discuss Jennifer's parents Drew and Joyce Cassie it's safe to say they were not the
00:45:48
typical powerless family members of victims that sometimes we see in these cases who have no choice but to put
00:45:54
their faith in law enforcement and wait patiently for answers as far as the Cassie's are concerned Jennifer's
00:46:01
disappearance understandably so was an unmitigated disaster and they were not going to take it lying down they
00:46:11
immediately became activists outspoken advocates outspoken advocates for their daughter's case as drew told a CNN
00:46:20
reporter in 2009 quote we both have big mouths we know how to use them and we will do everything within our power to
00:46:28
give her the best chance of being found drew and Joyce are both smart articulate
00:46:34
motivated and in Drew's case somewhat intense people being realistic about why people abduct women drew said they
00:46:44
abduct them to rape them and kill them they sprang into action immediately yeah I mean from one of these things I heard
00:46:52
him say was they don't kidnap Oh a female to just put her in the corner and look at her yeah yeah but at least he's
00:47:01
being real least he's being honest and I think that's also cry out to the public
00:47:05
if somebody took her the chances are the the reasons they took her for very bad reasons yeah and that's and this needs
00:47:14
to be some this needs to be important right and it's an it's important that he remind the public of what the likely
00:47:23
actions were by the offender because somebody may have knowledge there's just no victim's name attached
00:47:30
to that knowledge sometimes people brag or tell stories and they tell of their actions but they don't say who they did
00:47:37
that to right and this is a case where we need help from the public the Cassy's immediately dropped
00:47:45
everything in their lives this is an interesting move but I think it shows the level of their commitment to finding
00:47:53
their daughter finding out what happened to their daughter and their intelligence
00:47:57
as well they moved into Jennifer's condo I actually lived there full-time for several months while they pushed law
00:48:07
enforcement to find their girl this is good for many reasons I really believe that the the condo complex is at the
00:48:15
center of this whole case so if there was any knowledge to learn about that condo complex or who may be going in and
00:48:23
out of there one could gain that knowledge by living there by being there after hours being
00:48:30
there on the weekends so on and so forth but on top of that they live in Tampa mmm it's gonna be a mess to try to keep
00:48:38
law enforcement on top of their daughter's case and be two hours away from 2006 until the present day
00:48:47
they have been constant a constant thorn in the side of the Orlando Police Department they hired private
00:48:55
investigators they put flyers everywhere they held press conferences they got Jennifer's
00:49:01
face on the sides of buses in Orlando they handed out playing cards with Jennifer's face two prisoners to try to
00:49:09
drum up tips and I wasn't just her face they ended up taking a a bunch of different missing people and putting
00:49:18
them on the cards it shows the level of their just the goodness in their hearts well yeah they're trying to help their
00:49:26
daughter's case and other missing persons case right but also the sophistication that their brains can
00:49:32
think hey we we have heard that sometimes by this is a tactic that people use and then why prisoners are
00:49:40
playing with the cards somebody comes out and says hey I know this person drew even got miked up and went into
00:49:48
death row to meet with a prisoner who claimed he had information sadly it turns out this was just a hoax well was
00:49:58
this the guy that he he was on death row but he claimed to know things about a lot of different cases and and I think
00:50:09
this is the guy that they said if he brings up whoever mm-hmm that you'll know right away that it's
00:50:17
the whole story is bullsh he had nothing to do with it or has no not right but sing it again put your brain and to the
00:50:25
the mind of the the Father you have this beautiful daughter she's gone missing he
00:50:31
have no answers hey there's this guy on death row he might know something you know this guy is a bad manage Amma right
00:50:39
and you have to get miked up and go into a room with them and then knowing if he
00:50:45
brings up so-and-so that the whole story is [ __ ] and so you're hopeful that you get some kind of information or some
00:50:53
kind of lead and you're sitting across the table from this creep oh and then he brings up that name and then it be want
00:51:02
to talk about roller coaster of emotions the whole time and it's been going on for many years
00:51:07
they set up a Facebook page or Facebook pages and established the Jennifer Cassie calm website which is still very
00:51:16
active today if anybody wants to look that up it's it's Jennifer J E and n I fer Cassie is ke SSE calm they contacted
00:51:28
every consulate in the United Nations as a result jen is listed as missing on Interpol and ViCAP the Cassie's
00:51:39
documented everything they came across in their search for their daughter and they participated in countless TV
00:51:46
specials news stories and podcasts to raise awareness of their daughter's disappearance
00:51:52
eventually the Cassie's would be forced to sue the Orlando Department before we get too far along
00:52:01
captain I want to make sure that we do our due diligence here we have to give credit for much of the information the
00:52:08
good information anyway in this case this is due to some of the sources we have already mentioned but a big garage
00:52:17
cheers has to go out to the podcast unconcluded so to Sean and Scott over unconcluded cheers mates we have relied
00:52:26
heavily on the unconcluded podcast and the help find Jennifer Casey Facebook page which discusses the case and
00:52:34
maintains a database of timelines and facts of course we recommend both by late afternoon on the day that Jennifer
00:52:44
was discovered to be missing the Cassie's had already printed off hundreds of flyers with Jennifer's
00:52:50
picture and a photo of her car and the license plate number they robbed Lauren and 12 of Jen's sorority sisters stood
00:53:00
on street corners near her condo and handed out these flyers to rush hour drivers they also posted flyers all over
00:53:08
the area including at her condo complex the Cassie's of course had called the Orlando Police and they met with
00:53:16
detectives Goss and right at the condo that evening along with Rob Travis and Logan I do want to point out here though
00:53:25
the detective right was almost immediately replaced by detective browning so for anybody looking into
00:53:32
this case just be aware of that drew and Joyce were not really impressed by the detectives and with this meeting
00:53:41
although they took the report the missing persons report and said they would look into the case true and Joyce
00:53:48
said that the Orlando Police Department's opinion was that Jennifer simply took off after a fight with her
00:53:55
boyfriend and eventually she would turn up yeah that's what we're told almost every time right captain yeah it's a
00:54:03
bunch of lazy people so of course the Cassie's flat-out refused to believe this they were incensed at the
00:54:11
implications there was no way that Jennifer had left she loved her life Drew enjoys vowed to find their daughter
00:54:20
no matter what it took but there was very little to go on the Orlando Police Department issued a be on the lookout
00:54:28
for Jennifer and her vehicle this went out around 9:00 p.m. that evening the Orlando Police spent 13 years
00:54:38
investigating Jennifer's case and captain you are more than well annually in Orange County Florida during
00:54:59
that time the detectives initially assigned to the case retired a year into the investigation and new detectives
00:55:08
came and took over the investigation they too left and new ones were assigned this is a 13 year old investigation I'm
00:55:17
not faulting Orlando Police Department for assigning new detectives we when we have people retire that's what has to
00:55:24
happen it's a 13 year investigation right you can't force them to stay on the force so a lot of work was done hmm
00:55:32
I was just going to say there's a episode of disappeared it's called Girl Interrupted aired in 2016
00:55:41
and they had some detectives I I don't know which detectives they were right but they had some detectives on that
00:55:49
show talking about the case again they they make the claim hey well we know that she's got an argument with the
00:55:55
boyfriend so maybe you just took off very unimpressed with these detectives the thing here is to with the switching
00:56:03
of detectives so the new detectives are only left with what the old ones provide
00:56:07
them with right and there was a lot of work done in this case and the files number tens of thousands of pages one
00:56:18
thing that was obvious to be a problem and extremely unfortunate was that the original detectives
00:56:25
were old-school they didn't use computers they didn't really even take any notes so when they were retiring and
00:56:35
moving on put out the pasture and the new detectives come in they're left with with almost nothing and I think that
00:56:44
they were that the original detectives were forced or at least asked and did so like write down everything you can
00:56:52
remember about the case before you you're done and you're out of here right that's awesome right right that
00:56:59
basically says yeah we know your daughter went missing but we don't give a [ __ ] I'll tell you what man I cannot
00:57:05
tell you I don't watch the show anymore but remember the like the first 48 and then there's I think there's another
00:57:11
show that's the 72 hours whatever anyway I'm talking about these these cases where you you can watch a unit homicide
00:57:20
detective robbery detective whomever and they're interviewing people and they're
00:57:26
I cannot tell you how many times that I've seen what I call like old-school detective work work in a case and I love
00:57:35
it like that's one of my favorite things these are guys and women that are interviewing people and taking down
00:57:43
notes they're writing things down even [ __ ] that doesn't seem important at the
00:57:47
time they write it down and multiple times there's something that happens a week later or some vehicle is spotted
00:57:56
elsewhere a week later and they can flip back through their notes and go oh yeah
00:58:01
I remember I thought I remembered something like that I wrote down a blue Lincoln was spotted here and then all of
00:58:08
a sudden now they've got the lead that they needed so I get that not everybody was raised around computers and to use
00:58:17
them I don't understand computer school I don't understand the fact that they it's been reported that these guys
00:58:24
didn't even take notes that seems to me to be the most basic and simplistic portion of detective work and recording
00:58:34
your work along the way yeah you wonder if that's [ __ ] or if they took some notes and
00:58:38
and the department can't find them I mean you start by the obvious we have this girl that went missing let's try to
00:58:46
figure out did she stay there that night roughly what time do we think this happened is there any eyewitness that
00:58:52
saw her car there at night start there now we go to the boyfriend now we go to the ex-boyfriend now we go to anybody
00:59:00
else that maybe she had any romantic ties to now let's go to the family and and at the same time then you go to
00:59:07
every staff member and that condo complex and then you go to the different staff members of the construction but
00:59:16
that lies a big problem when you don't have a list of those workers now you have any of those workers plus any of
00:59:28
their immediate contacts that possibly worked with them at some point so now the pool is becoming so big to try to
00:59:36
investigate well in anyone that's experienced one of these renovation the large-scale renovations or construction
00:59:44
projects on on housing sites and residential areas and even in commercial areas understands that it's not as easy
00:59:54
as just going to one big company and going give me a list of all the workers that are working on this property it
01:00:01
doesn't work that way because there's multiple multiple companies some of them big some of them small some of them
01:00:08
one-man owner-operated operations properties so I write because they can be difficult right because they could
01:00:14
hire one contractor that is only there to do tile one contractor that's only there to do drywall the problem is is
01:00:21
when you're able to contact that contractor and they're not gonna give you the proper names of the people that
01:00:29
work for them because they're undocumented that becomes an issue that becomes a safety issue for others and
01:00:36
and that's where yeah maybe I cannot be so impressed with these detectives from this TV series or maybe not impressed
01:00:45
with some of the rumors that I heard the stacks you know but the cards are stacked up against these detectives
01:00:53
anyways especially the newer ones because they're left with very little information from the original detective
01:00:59
detective so for whatever reason or however you want to slice it much about the early months of this investigation
01:01:08
is lost or unknown there is virtually nothing in the case file from the first 16 months of the investigation we do
01:01:18
know that the falling was done or was not done by the Orlando Police Department Jennifer's condo was never processed the
01:01:27
handrails on the two sets of stairs leading from Jennifer's for the second floor to street level were not dusted
01:01:35
for prints Jennifer's credit cards were checked there was no activity after the abduction the Orlando Police Department
01:01:43
has never commented on her bank records or phone records the Orlando PD checked closed-circuit TV
01:01:53
and traffic cameras near all relevant locations Jen's condo did not have surveillance cameras at that time the
01:02:02
Orlando Police Department checked pawn shops in the area they also took Jennifer's laptop into evidence the
01:02:10
police visited Jennifer's workplace about a week after she went missing and did some cursory interviews with her
01:02:19
colleagues and took her work computer into evidence as well the Orlando police ordered a ping study
01:02:27
to try to see where Jennifer's cell phone was on January 23rd and 24th the discussion of the pings and Jennifer's
01:02:37
phone is probably one of the most debated and confusing pieces about Jennifer's case drew Cassy addressed the
01:02:48
pings in the in an episode on unconcluded and in one entry in the guestbook on the family's web site as
01:02:55
well and we will revisit this issue further a little later for now remember the cassie's said that Jennifer
01:03:03
had terrible cell service in her condo in addition they have said that one of the cell towers near the mosaic at
01:03:12
millenia was damaged or down at the time implying that Jen's phone had to ping off a further away tower when the
01:03:21
Orlando Police Department looked at 11 pings related to Jennifer's phone according to Drew and Joyce the police
01:03:29
believed that Jennifer was out and about late on the night of Monday the 23rd moving away from her condo after her
01:03:39
9:57 p.m. conversation with Rob further they believed that she had gone to a shady area of town it's not known where
01:03:49
this was the Cassie's absolutely denied that there was any way Jennifer would go
01:03:55
out that late on a work night after getting up at 5:00 a.m. that day and they said once she was in for the night
01:04:03
and in her sweats and glasses she would never have redressed and gone back out the Orlando Police Department detectives
01:04:11
said to the Cassy's quote you don't know your daughter as well as you think you do one more thing that the Orlando
01:04:18
Police Department seems to have told the Cassie's was that both Jennifer's phone
01:04:22
and Travis's phone were powered off at some point that night around 10:40 p.m. but the Cassie's knew that Jennifer used
01:04:31
her phone as an alarm clock and didn't turn it off that night [Music] [Music] whatever struggles you are facing from
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[Music]

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Episode Highlights

  • The Disappearance of Jennifer Cassie
    A perplexing missing persons case that has captivated many.
    “This is a missing persons case so perplexing and so unpredictable.”
    @ 03m 39s
    January 08, 2020
  • Jennifer's Life and Personality
    Jennifer was a responsible and well-liked individual with a bright future ahead.
    “Jennifer was a golden child with blonde hair and big blueish green eyes.”
    @ 05m 31s
    January 08, 2020
  • Rob's Regret
    Rob Allen, Jennifer's boyfriend, reflects on his feelings of regret regarding their relationship.
    “Rob wished he had told Jennifer he loved her.”
    @ 25m 06s
    January 08, 2020
  • Jennifer's Unusual Absence
    Jennifer's absence from work was completely out of character, raising alarms among her loved ones.
    “It was so unusual for her to be absent without any explanation.”
    @ 32m 10s
    January 08, 2020
  • The Cassies Take Action
    Jennifer's parents immediately became advocates for her case, refusing to wait for answers.
    “They dropped everything in their lives to find their daughter.”
    @ 47m 45s
    January 08, 2020
  • The Cassies' Fight for Jennifer
    Drew and Joyce Cassie refuse to believe their daughter simply left, vowing to find her.
    “There was no way that Jennifer had left; she loved her life.”
    @ 54m 17s
    January 08, 2020
  • Miscommunication with Police
    The Orlando Police Department's assumptions about Jennifer's disappearance frustrate her family.
    “You don't know your daughter as well as you think you do.”
    @ 01h 04m 15s
    January 08, 2020

Episode Quotes

  • This is a missing persons case so perplexing and so unpredictable.
    Jennifer Kesse /// Part 1 /// 362
  • Jennifer was a golden child with blonde hair and big blueish green eyes.
    Jennifer Kesse /// Part 1 /// 362
  • Every day she would either call me just to say good morning.
    Jennifer Kesse /// Part 1 /// 362
  • They were incensed at the implications.
    Jennifer Kesse /// Part 1 /// 362
  • You don't know your daughter as well as you think you do.
    Jennifer Kesse /// Part 1 /// 362

Key Moments

  • Introduction00:40
  • Cheers to Listeners01:30
  • Jennifer's Background05:04
  • Jennifer's Cautious Nature08:26
  • Last Known Conversation25:21
  • Parents' Panic34:33
  • Activist Parents46:14
  • Police Missteps54:32

Words per Minute Over Time

Vibes Breakdown