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foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign garage wherever you are whatever you are
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doing thanks for listening I'm your host Nick and with me as always is a man who
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knows it's very hard to get a table for one at Chuck E cheese he is the captain I prefer Little Caesar Pizza Hut his
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store his storage could be seen and it's good to see you thanks for listening thanks for telling a friend
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[Music] this week we are very happy to be featuring The Carlson Amber ale by the
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Exquisite Brewers over at Elizabeth Brewing Company this medium-bodied Tawny colored ale is brewed with roasted
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barley and Dark Crystal malts creating a Nutty caramel multi-flavor garage grade
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4 out of five bottle caps and let's give some cheers to our good friends right here Captain first up cheers to Courtney
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the Record that's on Stitcher premium and that is enough of the business all right everybody gather round grab a
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chair grab a beer let's talk some true crime [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music]
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a missing person's mystery is a special breed of True Crime Story the lack of answers or closure for most of us is
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enthralling but even if you fall into a different category and you find disappearing stories unappealing
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the case we are discussing will change your mind this is a missing person's case so
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perplexing and so unpredictable thousands around the world have been riveted by the inexplicable
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disappearance of this young woman this is a case with far more questions than answers
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a story in which no one is even sure when it began yet it is a tale Rife with Clues
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Intrigue and evidence in many missing persons cases we discuss there is some foreshadowing in the
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victim's life that something bad is going to happen maybe they were going through personal
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turmoil or they were in abusive relationship maybe they were making questionable
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choices or leading an unsafe lifestyle sometimes a person is unhappy and they choose to run away or maybe they spiral
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into addiction or worse we're going to say this up front none of this was the case here with this
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missing person's case this is true crime garage and this is the case of Jennifer Cassie
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[Music] thank you foreign [Music] was born on May 20th 1981 to loving parents Drew and Joyce kessie she her
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parents and her younger brother Logan were Incredibly Close Jennifer was born in New Jersey but the family moved to
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Tampa Florida when she was a child as a kid Jennifer was always very responsible and well behaved she got
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good grades had a ton of friends and she got along with her parents Jennifer truly was a golden child with blonde
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hair big bluish green eyes she grew up to be five foot seven or five foot eight tall 130 pounds
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she graduated high school and moved on to the University of Central Florida where she majored in finance after
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switching from pre-med Jennifer worked hard and was serious about her schooling and ambitions when
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she 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
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process engineering at the age of 24. right she was the youngest employee to earn a promotion to management
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she was working on streamlining a new Mortgage Debt system installed by the company
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the CFI Westgate owner is David Siegel a somewhat showy I I have to laugh at my own words here a
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very showy individual he's well known he's a multi-millionaire who built a house so large ninety thousand square
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feet that it was featured in the documentary The Queen of Versailles which if you haven't seen that it is
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total like guilty pleasure sit down eat popcorn drink beer watch that documentary Jennifer loved her job and
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had good friends in the division of the huge company she worked in she was a creature of habit many people
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would probably describe her as type A she was the kind of person who left for work at the same time every day who
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planned her outfits in advance who had common sense and who was not afraid to stand up for herself and speak her mind
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right although Jennifer was self-confident independent and didn't take crap from anyone she was also fun
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Jennifer had a lot of friends both from childhood and her sorority in college all of whom describe her as a wonderful
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person who was a great and loyal friend and who could be counted on she was obsessed with the New York
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Giants and insisted on watching every game she loved the Dave Matthews Band shopping and the beach
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Jennifer made an amazing mac and cheese and drank beer and loved to dress up and
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go out at night but she was always in bed at a decent hour and at work on time the next day
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Jen had a tiny tattoo of a shamrock on her left hip I found this interesting I have a couple friends like this
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that have a lot of safety measures that they take some precautions that they take seems like Jennifer was really into
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that yeah she has been described as very cautious and also aware of her surroundings she never walked alone at
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night if she could help it always locked her car doors and carried pepper spray which was purchased for her and all of
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her friends by her father Drew some of this is attributable to her parents who having been mugged at gunpoint years
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earlier they were sure to teach their daughter about safety and awareness some of it
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was because Jennifer was a big fan and watched a lot of Law and Order SVU which will if you watch enough of it will
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scare the crap out of anybody Jennifer's mother even says that Jen knew to deliberately crash her car in
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the event that she was carjacked to set off the airbags and have a chance to escape
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she also knew that in the event she was ever placed in the car trunk that most trunks have internal latches or you can
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kick out the tail lights to attract attention right up until November 2005 Jennifer lived
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with her friend and roommate in Metro West it's a planned Community but her roommate was getting married so she
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needed to move on right around Thanksgiving 2005 24 year old Jennifer purchased her first home for 207
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thousand dollars this was a condo in a complex called Mosaic at Millennia right that was being converted from Apartments
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to condos in the height of the Florida real estate bubble yeah but this area wasn't super great it was located by a
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mall a new mall this is what I call when you have a an area that's trying to be a nicer area
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and it's also kind of surrounded by poopy areas oh that's those are real estate terms yeah
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poopy yeah you don't want to live here it's kind of boopy half of the complex was
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still being constructed and the other half was being converted over from Apartments to updated condos now
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Jennifer's unit number 2226 was in building 22. on the second of three floors Logan Cassie
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described the Mosaic and Millennia as a literal construction zone this complex was located at
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3573 Conroy Road and featured multiple buildings fronted on a very large pond and had an even larger wooded area
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behind the complex Jennifer's parents helped her pick out the place it was right across the street
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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 Millennia as quote upscale gated and fenced but it's
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a fair statement to say that the area was just newly becoming nice and then it bordered on some areas that were not so
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upscale yeah well it's also not gated at the time because there's so much construction going on
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there are Gates they are not being closed or used properly and we'll get into that heavily later right some of
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the neighboring areas have even been described as sketchy or poopy or poopy Mosaic and Millennia is your typical
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pastel colored Florida stucco buildings with open-air hallways leading to the condos this was still a major
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construction zone just like her brother described and this place was not close to maximum capacity news reports from
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2006 indicate that only about 250 of close to 500 units were full and only one other condo on Jennifer's floor was
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even occupied many of the condos were still being renovated and were empty and in fact it came out later that many of
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the workers that were employed in the construction project were permitted to live or stay for a while in these empty
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condos while they worked the job one well-known story is that Jennifer who had only been living in her new
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condo for about three months when she vanished had told friends and family that while she loved her new place this
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was a very nice condo by the way with a balcony overlooking a pond granite countertops and her own laundry room she
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did not like the workers she told people that the Workman cat called at her and whistled when they saw her for anyone
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especially a young woman living alone this is quite an uncomfortable situation her parents who lived about two hours
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away encouraged her to report this Behavior to the manager's office but it does not seem that Jennifer ever did so
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Jennifer refused to allow anyone into her condo when she was not home but when she first moved in her condo needed some
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finishing touches like paint and plaster so she would come home from work on her
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lunch break let the workers in and stand there with the door open to the hallway
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on the phone with a friend or her parents while the men worked she always locked up after she left
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there seems to be no way to track who all the workers were on site at the time some of them were undocumented workers
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with no papers who were probably doing a lot of work under the table right there
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were no surveillance cameras in place at the complex just yet well like you said
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some of the workers were permitted to stay and the empty buildings correct but I guarantee you there was other workers
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that were staying that weren't allowed or people didn't even know that they were stained who's to say that this
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worker staying in a condo or in a unit couldn't have friends over or people that that worker knew right you know
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staying for a weekend or a couple of days it's just there's a lot of things going on in this condo complex is what
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we're trying to point out that there's no real checks and balances of these types of activities and movements and
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there was also virtually no security at the armless gate when Jennifer lived at mosaic at Millennia The Unfinished work
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in progress nature of the buildings meant that lots of workers gardeners maintenance workers and so on were
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constantly coming and going no one kept track and according to the cusses when Jennifer disappeared and her story broke
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all over the news many of the workers seemed to just disappear or evaporate they did not want to be under scrutiny
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even if they were not involved in any way in her disappearance Jennifer had been dating someone for
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about a year when she disappeared this was Rob Allen he's an English soccer player who lived in Fort Lauderdale
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almost three hours away they had met at the tiki bar in downtown Orlando in 2005. Rob was eight years
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older than Jennifer but the two seemed to be a good match since Jennifer was somewhat mature for her 24 years of age
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they spoke multiple times every day and the two of them alternated trips to stay
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with each other taking turns every weekend Rob figures heavily into this story Into
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the story of Jennifer's disappearance since he was the last known person to speak with her Rob has grown very close
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with the kessie family and remains so to this day well I'm back to your one point
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it's really hard to have undocumented workers because we don't know what kind of criminal history that they have and
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so in this case too we have the undocumented workers staying in the same complex as
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the owners yeah and the other thing I want to point out too to top all of that off we have the
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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
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and there seems to be no question of what happened to Jennifer Cassie in January of 2006. Jennifer was abducted
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everyone including the Orlando Police Department agrees to this but the remaining questions surrounding her
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disappearance is who took her how did they take her and even when did they take her all of this is unknown even to
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this day let's go through the timeline of The Disappearance of Jennifer Cassie to
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establish what we know and what we do not know on Wednesday January 18 2006. Jennifer drove from Orlando to her
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boyfriend Rob Allens and Fort Lauderdale this was after work on Thursday January 19th the two of them
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flew from Fort Lauderdale to Saint Croix for some r r they stayed in a condo there this is
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with family friends of robs photos of the two show them doing the usual vacation type things they're at the pool
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they're relaxing in the sunshine they were scheduled to fly back to Fort Lauderdale on Sunday but for whatever
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reason their flight was canceled so after some scrambling around they managed to get a flight to Miami and
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have a friend pick them up to make the 40-minute drive back to Rob's place Jennifer got up at 6am
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on Monday and after Rob filled the gas tank her gas tank and her black Chevy Malibu for her she made the three-hour
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Drive North all the way up to Orlando and went straight to work that day according to Jennifer's work colleagues
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she had a normal day at work she raved about her trip and said she didn't want to leave around 6 PM she stopped in and
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said good night to her boss this is John Willman she got in her car and drove the 12
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miles home her car's transponder said that she went through the usual toll at 6 15 PM that day doing how many miles it
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is from her boyfriend's house to her house it's a little over 200 miles now while she was in her car on her way
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home from work she did call her parents Drew and Joyce to tell them about her trip
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she also spoke with her brother Logan who was living with their parents at the time right Jennifer had given Logan a
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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
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with Logan at Jennifer's place that weekend was Travis borgonyan a long time family friend of the kessies and joining
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the two of them was a guy named Matt this is Jennifer's ex-boyfriend Logan and Matt remained friends despite
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Matt and Jennifer breaking up Matt didn't actually stay at Jen's condo he lived in Orlando so he's very close only
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about 30 minutes away he just hung out there with the other two guys the family says that Matt took the
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breakup with Jennifer very hard and he continued to pursue Jennifer for quite some time yeah it's not clear where
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things stood in January of 2006 because we know that Jennifer had been dating Rob for
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it seems like years or over a year and rumors are that Matt had moved on to a new girlfriend right on the phone with
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Jennifer Logan told Jen that Travis his buddy had inadvertently left his work cell phone at her condo and he needed it
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for work ASAP Jennifer agreed to find it at her place and she was going to FedEx it or UPS it
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to Travis the next day the family is unequivocal about this Jennifer planned to bring Travis's cell
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phone to her work with her on Tuesday and send it out at that time right again Jennifer's family says she was a
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creature of habit so they can predict or they say they can predict what she did next
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she arrived at home at the condos at Millennia and parked in her designated spot this is number
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2226 the same as her condo unit that was very near the bottom of the stairwell that went up to the second
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floor where her condo was it's literally a matter of maybe 30 feet to her spot from the stairs yeah it was
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dark out when she arrived home she brought in her luggage from her trip which was later found still packed in
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her condo she checked her mail which was also found in her condo at the main office on
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her way in it isn't known whether she ate anything her parents say that there were no
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takeout containers in the trash so perhaps she just ate something from the fridge which did have food in it right
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and it likely changed into her sweats which she always wore at night went home then got on the phone yeah Jennifer's
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going to get on the phone but her condo had notoriously bad cell phone service according to her parents the phone or
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her cell phone only really worked and this would be sporadically when she was out on the balcony
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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
00:23:33
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
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had a great time on her trip but that she and Rob were actually having some trouble mainly with the distance that
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they live from one another the distance between was providing this trouble and neither one of them wanted to move to
00:24:04
correct this right this of course anybody's a problem yeah anybody that's been in a long distance relationship
00:24:10
understands that this is a very common situation Jennifer may have talked to other
00:24:17
friends that night but we don't know for sure as said they've not released the call records but we do know that Rob
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told the police and Jen's family that the two of them had a phone conversation on Jen's landline as they did basically
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every night this one was at 9 57 PM Jen told Rob that she was in bed when they spoke the
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two argued on the phone a bit it isn't known exactly what they discussed but Lauren told Greta Van
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cistern that Jen was quote feeling the distance end quote Rob and Jen wanted to be together but neither was willing to
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commit to moving Rob later said that he wished that he had told Jennifer he loved her in the
00:25:09
year that they were dating since he hadn't it's possible that she was questioning his commitment and it
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sparked an argument in any event Rob was the last known person to speak with Jennifer and this is the last of the
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concrete facts for that night again this call this conversation ends around 9 57
00:25:33
pm foreign [Music] [Music] we are back cheers mates cheers now the next morning Tuesday January 24th 2006.
00:26:13
Jennifer had an important meeting at work this was scheduled for 11 A.M her typical routine was to leave for work
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between 7 30 and 7 45. she may have left early on that morning if she intended to stop at a FedEx to
00:26:30
send off Travis's phone but it is more likely that she intended to do as she said and make use of the FedEx services
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at work Rob and Jennifer always spoke by phone in the mornings when they were apart
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Jennifer would call him from the phone on her way to the office here's what Rob told Nancy Grace quote
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every day she would either call me just to say good morning have a great day or just text me to wish me to you know have
00:27:03
a good day love you that type of thing and when I didn't receive it Tuesday morning I thought it was odd end quote
00:27:11
Rob chocked Jen's being M.I.A up to being busy just getting back into the swing of things after this short little
00:27:20
vacation right but after a while he called her cell this was before his 9 A.M meeting at
00:27:28
work and he got her voicemail he tried again a little later but got the same result
00:27:35
Jennifer didn't show up for her 11 A.M meeting Not only was this totally out of character it was completely unheard of
00:27:45
Jennifer was known for her punctuality and if she had planned on missing work at all she would have called in to say
00:27:53
so after calling her cell phone and repeatedly getting her voicemail her boss John Willman had the IT department
00:28:02
check her computer calendar and it showed that she knew about the meeting that day and had planned on attending
00:28:09
it was so unusual for her to be absent without any explanation at all right that her boss ended up calling
00:28:17
Jennifer's parents and sometimes in cases we see that people not taking action right away and he gotta applaud
00:28:25
her boss for doing so I I do applaud her boss for doing so but I do want to point out it seems to me
00:28:32
like look with with these very popular cases the ones that are more well known right you know there's hundreds of
00:28:40
thousands of eyes and ears on these things I've noticed though it seems like the employers or whoever notifies
00:28:48
whomever or does not notify anyone they're like vilified either way right because I've seen especially in this
00:28:55
case where they're like well after only a few hours why are they reaching out to
00:29:00
her parents um they saying that it seems unusual no and I feel like look we you and I and
00:29:09
all these other people that are questioning this Behavior they do not know Jennifer kessie they do not know
00:29:15
the relationship between her and her employer and the people she worked with the co-workers we don't know that we're
00:29:22
going off of reports so I bring that up only because I don't find it to be strange
00:29:28
and I think that it might given this situation and what we're told about Jennifer and about this
00:29:35
company and her co-workers it might be more strange that they didn't call anybody and and keep in mind this is
00:29:40
after repeated attempts of trying to reach Jennifer herself right and I think if I was working with people in general
00:29:49
and opposed to animals as opposed to you you feel the animal or even you know if
00:29:56
we're supposed to get together to record in the garage and you didn't show up and you didn't call
00:30:04
and then I called you and it went right to voicemail multiple times I tried to get hold of somebody in your family well
00:30:11
some Reports say that this call to the parents was either because Joyce kessie was listed as Jen's
00:30:20
emergency contact and some say it was because John Willman was a friend of Drew kessie's either way
00:30:29
Jennifer's parents were notified that she had not shown up for work or for this meeting right and this was reason
00:30:38
enough for them to go into panic mode Joyce Cassie was at a Kinkos at the time copying materials for her work
00:30:47
presentation that day when she got the call she walked out immediately leaving everything behind to be shredded
00:30:56
Jennifer's parents called both her cell phone and her home phone and of course we know that they're receiving no
00:31:04
answers her cell phone went directly to voicemail Drew Cassie told Nancy Grace that this was the first time in eight
00:31:13
years that Jen had a cell phone that she did not answer his call right Drew was stuck at home waiting for Travis to get
00:31:22
back from the gym with Drew's car Travis hadn't taken his phone and Drew didn't know the name of the gym
00:31:31
so Drew made some phone calls first to the Orlando Police Department then to the property manager at mosaic
00:31:39
at Millennia the property manager reported that Jennifer's car was not in its parking spot
00:31:45
at the kessie's request he knocked on Jen's door and then opened it and looked around and said he didn't see anything
00:31:53
unusual when he reported this the kessies became very alarmed Drew and Joyce and Logan
00:32:01
and their friend Travis in two separate cars set out for Orlando which would be a two-hour Drive
00:32:10
on the way Joyce called Rob and some of Jennifer's friends who had not heard from her either and she also called
00:32:18
hospitals in the area thinking perhaps Jennifer was in an accident well think about what her brother's going through
00:32:24
at this moment too you're really close with your sister and your dad is saying hey look we're going to be taking a
00:32:30
drive because your sister's missing that'd be frightening stuff right and he had just stayed there at her place that
00:32:38
weekend right Travis and Logan arrived at mosaic at Millennia around 3 P.M and the Cassie's arrived around 3 15. Rob
00:32:48
also arrived on the scene they convened in Jennifer's condo where this is what they found
00:32:56
okay they found the door was locked when they arrived it was also reported to be
00:33:02
locked when the complex manager checked on it right from what I can gather one needs a key to lock the door from the
00:33:09
outside so either Jen locked it or someone used her key to do so right but just to be clear I'm assuming her
00:33:18
parents had a key I don't know if her parents had a key I think they may have but we do know that
00:33:24
Logan had a key because he stayed there that last weekend the lights were off Jennifer's bed was unmade now laid out
00:33:34
on the bed were two work outfits in the tan and black color scheme her new Nine West alligator pumps were
00:33:43
missing this is interesting and this is this could be key here this is a pair of shoes that her mother
00:33:51
was well aware of these are shoes that they had discussed on the phone many times remember Joyce and Jennifer have a
00:33:58
daily phone call her luggage from her trip was still in the hallway remember it's still packed
00:34:04
at this time she had not unpacked her luggage from that short weekend trip her mail was on the counter and some of
00:34:11
the junk mail was in the trash which was otherwise empty other than this junk mail
00:34:17
there was no evidence that Jen had ate anything for dinner was not obvious that that took place but we would later learn
00:34:25
that she had not used her credit or debit cards and there were no containers or dishes lying about
00:34:32
the clothes she wore to work on Monday were hanging over the back of a chair her t-shirt and underwear which
00:34:41
her family says she normally wore this type of thing to bed they were on the bathroom floor and our
00:34:47
contact case was empty and they found her glasses I'm assuming on the bathroom counter yes they were in the bathroom
00:34:54
sink counter in the contact lenses case was found to be empty her makeup and hair dryer were on the bathroom sink as
00:35:02
well and you know it's thought that where these items were left that someone had
00:35:09
possibly recently used them or used them that morning in the shower there were still puddles
00:35:15
of water this is in the corner shelf areas surrounding the shampoo and cleanser bottles there was a damp towel
00:35:23
draped over the washing machine in the laundry room a portable can of pepper spray was on the kitchen counter
00:35:30
remember we discussed earlier that she carried pepper spray on her keychain this was purchased for her by her father
00:35:40
but he is guessing that Jennifer had to leave it at home since she could not bring it on the airplane on the flight
00:35:49
to Saint Croix right that would make sense take it off the keychain and for whatever reason it's still sitting there
00:35:56
which is it's got to be driving the parents nuts she's missing they're checking out her apartment pepper spray
00:36:03
on the countertop the evidence we have right now you can go well she she talked to her boyfriend at night she probably
00:36:10
slept in her bed it seems like then she woke up she got ready for work we have the puddles in the shower got the wet
00:36:18
towel it seems as if everything would add up that she left the apartment my mind would immediately
00:36:26
go to and this makes sense as to why Joyce called the the area hospitals with her car not being there and the
00:36:36
appearance that she got ready for work and probably kept to her routine my mind would immediately go to either we're
00:36:43
just missing something here and she arrived incredibly late at work for some reason or she was involved in a vehicle
00:36:51
accident on her way to work and we can't find her or get a hold of her that's where my mind would go to in
00:36:59
that that instance well again this is why I think people need to jump into action because let's say it was some
00:37:06
thing where Jennifer was going to work and her her phone was messed up and she decided to stop and get a new phone
00:37:12
before she got to work and she was running late so she couldn't call um because let's say the phone stopped
00:37:20
working on the way to work or whatever that eventually you're going to find her safe and you're going to go well maybe
00:37:27
we overreacted but it's better than to under act right right exactly well the there was a bottle of rum that
00:37:36
apparently Jennifer told her father she had purchased for him in Saint Croix they find this daughter on the counter
00:37:44
and the condo directly across from Jennifer's was found to be unlocked Logan her brother found this and went
00:37:54
inside and he said that it was empty and found that the condo unit had no carpeting according to her parents Drew
00:38:03
and Joyce Jennifer was a morning shower person she always showered before work and never showered in the evening so
00:38:11
after seeing what we just said they observed in the condo they came to the conclusion that Jennifer probably woke
00:38:19
up for work on the morning of the 24th showered as usual got ready for work we talk about what was there at the condo
00:38:28
what they found in the condo but let's talk about what was missing because what's missing from the condo clinched
00:38:34
this belief for them that she got up performed her normal morning routine and then something happened
00:38:42
here's what was missing Travis's Nextel cell phone which Jennifer had told Logan
00:38:48
she would FedEx from work the next day Jennifer's cell phone this is a Verizon LG flip phone Jennifer's purse which
00:38:58
included her driver's license her iPod which apparently she took this with her everywhere
00:39:05
her car keys their car keys are on the same ring as her house key and her mail key
00:39:11
Jennifer's briefcase was also missing which is often left in her car or even in her car trunk sometimes overnight
00:39:20
this is according to her friends and her car is missing this is a Chevy Malibu right and I would bet that
00:39:29
everyone is kind of thinking the same thing here everything that was missing Jennifer would have taken with her to
00:39:37
work that day but as we know she never made it there so what the hell happened yeah what happened and when did it
00:39:44
happen yeah and that's really a big piece of this case I believe it's I mean it's a huge missing puzzle piece really
00:39:53
what we have here Captain is we have a 9 57 PM phone call that ends and we have an 11 A.M meeting that she
00:40:04
was scheduled to attend that meeting seems to set off all these alarm bells that she is not where she is supposed to
00:40:11
be right and that there's something going on so that gives us a 13-hour window of time when something went wrong
00:40:20
now right but we can start assuming with the evidence that she slept in our bed and she woke up at some point and she
00:40:28
was heading to work possibly the other thing you can do here is instead of working with the 13-hour window of time
00:40:34
we can assume that maybe we could minus three hours or so off of that because her regular time to arrive at
00:40:43
work would be roughly 8 A.M right so you know now we're working with a 10 hour window and yeah but don't you think the
00:40:51
evidence and her condo suggests that she one slept there and then two got ready for work
00:40:58
yes I lean I certainly lean that way there are plenty of people that make good strong Arguments for something
00:41:05
could have happened late that night and I think it's worth examining but I'm with you I feel like the evidence that
00:41:13
we see points to everything was normal up until the time she was supposed to leave for work or just before yeah and I
00:41:21
think maybe he it's a I don't know if they did this but clean just test the towel and if it's her DNA then
00:41:30
you would start assuming again that she took a shower in the morning and not at at 10 pm I can say that was not done
00:41:38
right so we just don't know now is probably a good time to discuss Jennifer's parents Drew and Joyce Cassie
00:41:47
it's safe to say they were not the typical powerless family members of victims that sometimes we see in these
00:41:54
cases who have no choice but to put their faith in law enforcement and wait patiently for answers as far as the
00:42:02
Cassis are concerned Jennifer's disappearance understandably so was an unmitigated disaster and they
00:42:10
were not going to take it lying down they immediately became activists outspoken Advocates outspoken advocates
00:42:19
for their daughter's case as Drew told a CNN reporter in 2009 quote we both had big mouths
00:42:27
we know how to use them and we will do everything within our power to give her the best chance of being found
00:42:34
Drew and Joyce are both smart articulate motivated and in Drew's case somewhat intense people
00:42:41
being realistic about why people abduct women Drew said they abduct them to rape
00:42:47
them and kill them they sprang into action immediately yeah I mean one of these one of the things I heard him say
00:42:55
was they don't kidnap out a female to just put her in the corner and look at her yeah
00:43:02
yeah but at least he's being real at least he's being honest and I think that's also a cry out to the public if
00:43:08
somebody took her the chances are the the reasons they took her for very bad reasons yeah and that's and this needs
00:43:16
to be some this needs to be important right and it's in it's important that he remind the public of
00:43:24
what the likely actions were by the offender because somebody may have knowledge there's just no victim's name
00:43:31
attached to that knowledge sometimes people brag or tell stories and they tell of their actions but they
00:43:39
don't say who they did that to right and this is a case where we need help from the public
00:43:45
the Cassis immediately dropped everything in their lives this is an interesting move but I think it shows
00:43:53
the level of their commitment to finding their daughter finding out what happened
00:43:56
to their daughter and their intelligence as well they moved into Jennifer's condo they
00:44:04
actually lived there full time for several months while they pushed law enforcement to find their girl this is
00:44:11
good for many reasons I really believe that the the condo complex is at the center of this whole case
00:44:19
so if there was any knowledge to learn about that Kano complex or who may be going in and out of there one could gain
00:44:28
that knowledge by living there by being there after hours being there on the weekends so on and so forth but on top
00:44:35
of that they live in Tampa it's going to be a mess to try to keep law enforcement
00:44:41
on top of their daughter's case and be two hours away from 2006 until the present day they
00:44:50
have been constant a constant thorn in the side of the Orlando Police Department
00:44:56
they hired private investigators they put flyers everywhere they held press conferences they got Jennifer's face on
00:45:04
the sides of buses in Orlando they handed out playing cards with Jennifer's face to prisoners to try to
00:45:12
drum up tips and I wasn't just her face they ended up taking a a bunch of different missing people and putting
00:45:20
them on the cards that shows the level of their just the goodness in their hearts well
00:45:27
yeah they're trying to help their daughter's case and other missing persons cases right but also the
00:45:32
sophistication that their brains can think hey we we have heard that sometimes by this is a tactic that
00:45:40
people use and then why prisoners are playing with the cards somebody comes out and says hey I know this person
00:45:47
Drew even got miked up and went into death row to meet with a prisoner who claimed he had information
00:45:56
sadly it turns out this was just a hoax was this the guy that um he he was on death row but he claimed to
00:46:06
know things about a lot of different cases and and I think this is the guy that they said if he brings up
00:46:15
whoever that you'll know right away that it's the whole story is [ __ ] she had nothing to do with it but again put your
00:46:26
brain into the the mind of the the father you have this beautiful daughter she's gone missing
00:46:33
you have no answers hey there's this guy on death row he might know something you
00:46:38
know this guy is a bad mama jama right and you have to get miked up and go into a room with them
00:46:45
and then knowing if he brings up so and so that the whole story is [ __ ] and so
00:46:52
you're hopeful that you get some kind of information or some kind of lead and you're sitting across the table from
00:46:58
this creepo and then he brings up that name and then it'd be I want to talk about roller
00:47:06
coaster of emotions the whole time and it's been going on for many years they set up a Facebook page or Facebook
00:47:13
pages and established the Jennifer cassie.com website which is still very active today if anybody wants to look
00:47:20
that up it's it's Jennifer j-e-n-n-i-f-e-r Cassie is k-e-s-s-e.com they contacted every Consulate in the
00:47:32
United Nations as a result Jen is listed as missing on Interpol and VI cap the Cassie's documented everything they
00:47:43
came across in their search for their daughter and they participated in countless tv specials news stories and
00:47:51
podcasts to raise awareness of their daughter's disappearance eventually the Cassis would be forced to sue the
00:47:59
Orlando Police Department before we get too far along Captain I want to make sure that we do our due
00:48:06
diligence here we have to give credit for much of the information the good information anyway in this case this is
00:48:14
due to some of the sources we have already mentioned but a big garage cheers has to go out to the podcast
00:48:21
unconcluded so to Sean and Scott over at unconcluded cheers mates we have relied
00:48:28
heavily on the unconcluded podcast and the help find Jennifer kessie Facebook page which discusses the case and
00:48:37
maintains a database of timelines and facts of course we recommend both by late afternoon on the day that
00:48:46
Jennifer was discovered to be missing the Cassis had already printed off hundreds of Flyers with Jennifer's
00:48:52
picture and a photo of her car and the license plate number they rob Lauren and 12 of gen sorority sisters stood on
00:49:02
street corners near her condo and handed out these flyers to rush hour drivers they also posted Flyers all over the
00:49:10
area including at her condo complex the Cassis of course had called the Orlando Police and they met with detectives
00:49:19
gauze and Wright at the condo that evening along with Rob Travis and Logan I do want to point out here though that
00:49:27
detective Wright was almost immediately replaced by detective Browning So for anybody looking into
00:49:35
this case just be aware of that Drew and Joyce were not really impressed by the detectives and with this meeting
00:49:43
although they took the report the missing persons report and said they would look into the case true and Joyce
00:49:50
said that the Orlando Police Department's opinion was that Jennifer simply took off after a fight with her
00:49:58
boyfriend and eventually she would turn up yeah that's what we're told almost every time right Captain yeah it's a
00:50:05
bunch of lazy people so of course the Cassie's flat out refused to believe this they were
00:50:11
and sensed at the implications there was no way that Jennifer had left she loved her life Drew and Joyce vowed
00:50:21
to find their daughter no matter what it took but there was very little to go on
00:50:27
the Orlando Police Department issued a be on the lookout for Jennifer and her vehicle this went out around 9pm that
00:50:36
evening the Orlando Police spent 13 years investigating Jennifer's case and Captain you are more than well aware of
00:50:45
this because of your work on the Tyler Davis case but I found this to be just an interesting little stat over 3 000
00:50:55
missing persons reports are filed annually in Orange County Florida during that time the detectives
00:51:04
initially assigned to the case retired a year into the investigation and new detectives came and took over the
00:51:12
investigation they too left and new ones were assigned this is a 13-year old investigation I'm
00:51:20
Not faulting Orlando Police Department for assigning new detectives we when we have people retire that's what has to
00:51:26
happen it's a 13-year investigation right you can't force them to stay on the force
00:51:31
so a lot of work was done I was just going to say there's a episode that disappeared it's called Girl Interrupted
00:51:40
it aired in 2016. um and they had some detectives I I don't know which detectives they were
00:51:49
right but they had some detectives on that show talking about the case again they they make the claim hey well we
00:51:55
know that she got an argument with the boyfriend so maybe she just took off very unimpressed with these detectives
00:52:01
the thing here is to with the switching of detectives so the new detectives are only left with what
00:52:08
the old ones provide them with right and there was a lot of work done in this case and the files
00:52:16
number tens of thousands of pages one thing that was obvious to be a problem and extremely unfortunate was
00:52:25
that the original detectives were old school they didn't use computers they didn't really even take any notes
00:52:34
so when they were retiring and moving on put out the pasture uh and the new detectives come in they're left with
00:52:44
with almost nothing and I think that they were that the original detectives were forced or at least asked and did so
00:52:52
like write down everything you can remember about the case before you you're you're done and you're out of
00:52:58
here right that's awesome right right that basically says yeah we know your daughter went missing but we don't give
00:53:05
a [ __ ] I'll tell you what man I cannot tell you I don't watch the show anymore
00:53:09
but remember the like the first 48 and then there's I think there's another show that's the 72 hours whatever anyway
00:53:16
I'm talking about these these cases where you you can watch a unit homicide detective robbery
00:53:24
detective whomever and they're interviewing people and they're I cannot tell you how many times
00:53:31
that I've seen what I call like old school detective work work in a case and I love it like that's one of my favorite
00:53:39
things these are guys and and women that are interviewing people and taking down
00:53:45
notes they're writing things down even [ __ ] that doesn't seem important at the
00:53:50
time they write it down and multiple times there's something that happens a week later or some
00:53:57
vehicle is spotted elsewhere a week later and they can flip back through their notes and go oh yeah I remember I
00:54:04
thought I remembered something like that I wrote down a blue Lincoln was spotted
00:54:09
here and then all of a sudden now they've got the lead that they needed so I get that not everybody was raised
00:54:17
around computers and to use them I don't understand the fact that they it's been reported that these guys
00:54:26
didn't even take notes that seems to me to be the most basic and simplistic portion of detective work and and
00:54:35
recording your work along the way yeah you wonder if that's [ __ ] or if they took some notes and and the department
00:54:42
can't find them I mean you start by the obvious we have this girl that went missing let's try to figure out did she
00:54:49
stay there that night roughly what time do we think this happened is there any eyewitness that saw her car there at
00:54:56
night start there now we go to the boyfriend now we go to the ex-boyfriend now we go to anybody else that maybe she
00:55:04
had any romantic ties to now let's go to the family and and at the same time then
00:55:09
you go to Every staff member and that condo complex and then you go to the different staff members of the
00:55:17
construction but that lie is a big problem when you don't have a list of those workers
00:55:25
now you have any of those workers plus any of their immediate contacts that possibly worked
00:55:33
with them at some point so now the poll is becoming so big to try to investigate
00:55:39
well and anyone that's experienced one of these renovation the large-scale renovations or construction projects on
00:55:47
on housing sites and residential areas and even in commercial areas understands that it's not as easy as
00:55:57
just going to one big company and going give me a list of all the workers that are working on this property it doesn't
00:56:04
work that way because there's multiple multiple companies some of them big some of them small some of them one-man
00:56:11
owner-operated operations properties so right right because they can be difficult right because they could hire
00:56:17
one contractor that is only there to do tile on contractor that's only there to do drywall the problem is when you're
00:56:24
able to contact that contractor and they're not going to give you the proper names of the people that work for them
00:56:32
because they're undocumented that becomes an issue that becomes a safety issue for others
00:56:38
and and that's where yeah maybe I cannot be so impressed with these detectives from this TV series or maybe not
00:56:47
impressed with some of the rumors that I heard but the stacks you know but the cards are stacked up against these
00:56:54
detectives anyways especially the newer ones because they're left with very little
00:57:00
information from the original detective detective so for whatever reason or however you want to slice it
00:57:07
foreign much about the early months of this investigation is lost or unknown there
00:57:13
is virtually nothing in the case File from the first 16 months of the investigation we do know that the
00:57:21
following was done or was not done by the Orlando Police Department Jennifer's condo was never processed the
00:57:29
handrails on the two sets of stairs leading from Jennifer's floor the second floor to street level were not dusted
00:57:37
for prints Jennifer's credit cards were checked there was no activity after the Abduction the Orlando Police Department
00:57:45
has never commented on her bank records or phone records the Orlando PD checked close circuit TV and traffic cameras
00:57:57
near all relevant locations Jen's condo did not have surveillance cameras at that time the Orlando Police Department
00:58:05
checked pawn shops in the area they also took Jennifer's laptop into evidence the
00:58:12
police visited Jennifer's workplace about a week after she went missing and did some cursory interviews with her
00:58:21
colleagues and took her work computer into evidence as well the Orlando Police ordered a ping study
00:58:30
to try to see where Jennifer's cell phone was on January 23rd and 24th the discussion of the pings and Jennifer's
00:58:40
phone is probably one of the most debated and confusing pieces about Jennifer's case
00:58:48
Drew kessie addressed the pings in the in an episode on unconcluded and in one entry in the guest book on the Family's
00:58:57
website as well and we will revisit this issue further a little later for now remember the
00:59:04
kessies said that Jennifer had terrible cell service in her condo in addition they have said that one of the cell
00:59:12
towers near the Mosaic at Millennia was damaged or down at the time implying that Jen's phone had to Ping off a
00:59:21
further away Tower when the Orlando Police Department looked at 11 pings related to Jennifer's
00:59:29
phone according to Drew and Joyce the police believed that Jennifer was out and about late on the night of Monday
00:59:37
the 23rd moving away from her condo after her 9 57 PM conversation with Rob further they believed that she had gone
00:59:47
to a shady area of town it's not known where this was the kessis absolutely denied that there was any way Jennifer
00:59:57
would go out that late on a work night after getting up at 5am that day and they said once she was in for the
01:00:05
night and in her sweats and glasses she would never have redressed and gone back
01:00:10
out the Orlando Police Department detectives said to the kessies quote you don't know your daughter as well as you
01:00:17
think you do one more thing that the Orlando Police Department seems to have told the
01:00:22
kessies was that both Jennifer's phone and Travis's phone were powered off at some point that night around 10 40 PM
01:00:31
but the Cassies knew that Jennifer used her phone as an alarm clock and didn't turn it off that night
01:00:44
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