UPDATED: Friday, September 15, 2017 6:00 PM ET
Police on Friday released surveillance video that appears to show Kenneka Jenkins walking through the halls of the Rosemont Crowne Plaza hotel.
In the videos, Jenkins can be seen walking out of an elevator into the hallway. In another, she’s seen stumbling into a vacant hotel kitchen. The video does not show her walking into a freezer.
From ABC Chicago:
Less than an hour before the videos were released to the media, Jenkins’ mother, Teresa Martin, and her attorneys – Larry Rogers, Jr. and Sam Adams, Jr. – held a press conference imploring the hotel and authorities to release all of the video.
Martin and her attorneys were also given snippets of the video, but were frustrated that none show her walking into the freezer. They said they only want to know what happened to Jenkins.
This is a developing story.
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Nearly a week after Chicago teenager Kenneka Jenkins was found dead in the freezer of a Rosemont, Illinois hotel, confusion and questions still surround the investigation.
But on Thursday, Chicago activist and crisis responder Andrew Holmes told CBS Chicago station WBBM-TV that Jenkins can be seen on surveillance video from the Crowne Plaza Chicago O’Hare Hotel & Conference Center walking into the the freezer on her own, a development that directly challenges internet speculation that foul play was involved.
Holmes said detectives showed him the video after he inquired abut Jenkins’ death earlier in the week. The police are still treating the case as a death investigation.
“We all wanted to know: Did anybody pull her down there? Did anybody force her down there? Was anybody on the other side in that room when she got down there?,” Holmes said. “And the answer to that is no. She walked into that unsecured area that should have been secured.”
Holmes also told the station that Jenkins appeared to be lost as she stumbled and tried to open several doors.
“It was a tragic accident.”
Glen Harston, a spokesman for the hotel, did confirm with the station that the freezer was on. The doors, he said, do not lock from the inside.
Friends of Jenkins called her mother, Tereasa Martin, to report her missing after a night of hanging out. Martin arrived at the hotel around 5:00 a.m. Saturday, but was told that she had to file a missing persons report with police before reviewing the surveillance tapes. After some delay — police told the family to wait just in case the teen turned up — the family was able to file a report and a search commenced. Jenkins was found in the freezer early Sunday morning.
The cause of death has not been determined. Results from an autopsy conducted by the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office are pending further studies and the investigation.
The hotel has offered to pay for Jenkins’ funeral expenses. According to the Chicago Tribune, a family attorney said they have not received video that shows the teen walking into the freezer.
This is a developing story.