Kenneka Jenkins
Nineteen-year-old Kenneka Jenkins was found dead in a walk-in freezer at the Crowne Plaza Chicago O'Hare hotel after a party. Her death was ruled hypothermia. Controversy surrounds the circumstances.
On September 8, 2017, nineteen-year-old Kenneka Jenkins attended a party on the ninth floor of the Crowne Plaza Chicago O'Hare hotel in Rosemont, Illinois. During the party, she became heavily intoxicated. Her friends later reported that she wandered away from the gathering.
When Jenkins didn't return, her mother Teresa Martin went to the hotel and demanded that staff search for her daughter. After initially being turned away, hotel staff and police eventually searched the building and found Kenneka's body in a walk-in freezer in the hotel's kitchen area on September 10.
Security camera footage showed Kenneka stumbling through the hotel's hallways and entering the kitchen area alone. The Cook County Medical Examiner ruled her death accidental, caused by hypothermia with ethanol intoxication as a contributing factor.
The case sparked significant controversy and social media attention. Jenkins's family disputed the finding and filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the hotel, arguing that security failures allowed an intoxicated teenager to access a dangerous kitchen area.
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