Jennifer Kesse

Case background and investigation

Jennifer Joyce Kesse, a 24-year-old finance manager for Central Florida Investments, a timeshare company, was last confirmed to have been in contact with family on the evening of January 23, 2006, at her condominium in the Mosaic development in Orlando, Florida. When she failed to arrive at work on the morning of January 24, 2006, and could not be reached, her employer and her boyfriend raised the alarm, and her family reported her missing to the Orlando Police Department that day. According to investigators, she had recently returned from a Caribbean vacation and had reported to police, before disappearing, that her condo complex was still under construction and that she was uneasy about workers on the property.

Two days later, on January 26, 2006, Kesse's black 2004 Chevrolet Malibu was located parked at the Huntington on the Green apartment complex, roughly a mile from her home. Security cameras at a nearby complex had recorded a person parking the car at around noon on January 24 and walking away. The footage, widely publicized, shows an individual whom police estimated to be between roughly 5 feet 3 inches and 5 feet 5 inches tall; because the cameras captured images only intermittently and a fence in the foreground obscured the person's face in each frame, the individual has never been identified. Police have consistently described the figure only as an unidentified 'person of interest,' and no one has been charged in connection with the case.

The investigation, initially led by the Orlando Police Department and later assisted by the FBI, generated extensive tips but no confirmed suspect. Jennifer's parents, Drew and Joyce Kesse, became prominent advocates and grew frustrated with the pace of the official inquiry and their lack of access to the case file. In December 2018 the family filed suit against the City of Orlando seeking Jennifer's investigative records; in 2019 they reached a settlement that gave them access to roughly 16,000 pages of case materials, a release the family and their attorney characterized as a significant public-records milestone for an open investigation. The family reported paying more than $18,000 in fees to obtain the files.

Using those records, the Kesse family assembled their own team of independent investigators to re-examine leads and evidence. In December 2022 the case was formally transferred to the cold case unit of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE). In May 2025, according to the family, FDLE indicated it had identified several persons of interest and that the case was being treated as active rather than dormant. In October 2025, Drew and Joyce Kesse said in public statements that FDLE had told them investigators found DNA on evidence that had never previously been tested and had significantly narrowed the pool of individuals of interest, with Drew Kesse stating the case was 'not cold anymore.' The family also said a documentary project about Jennifer's disappearance was in development.

As of 2026, the disappearance of Jennifer Kesse remains unsolved. No remains have been found, no arrest has been made, and no individual has been publicly identified or charged. The person captured on the surveillance footage remains unidentified, and claims of new DNA evidence and a narrowed suspect list reflect statements attributed to the Kesse family and to FDLE rather than any resolution of the case. Anyone with information continues to be directed to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the Orlando Police Department.