Kenneka Jenkins died after stumbling into a walk-in freezer at a Chicago hotel.
Kenneka Jenkins died after stumbling into a walk-in freezer at a Chicago hotel.
Three months after her daughter was found dead inside a Chicago hotel's walk-in freezer, Terease Martin is suing for US$50 million (73 million).
Kenneka Jenkins, 19, went missing in the early hours of September 9 last year after leaving a party at the Crowne Plaza Hotel.
The teenager walked into an unlocked freezer in an abandoned kitchen shortly after midnight. A search for her body did not initially cover the kitchen where the freezer was kept. Jenkins died of hypothermia, an autopsy found.
Kenneka Jenkins, 19, went missing in the early hours of September 9 last year after leaving a party at the Crowne Plaza Hotel. Photo / via news.com.au
Moments before she entered the freezer, Jenkins was seen stumbling around the hallways of the hotel, news.com.au reports. CCTV footage of her final moments does not show her enter the freezer because security cameras were not operating in that area.
The Chicago Tribune reports Martin has filed a civil suit against the hotel, its security contractor and the restaurant that was renting space at the time.
"Had Crowne Plaza defendants and employees and/or agents of defendant Capital Security properly intervened when they observed [Jenkins] visibly disoriented, confused and lost within their premises, they would have prevented her from entering the abandoned kitchen and prevented her death," the civil suit filed on behalf of the family says.
A spokesman for the Crowne Plaza hotel told the newspaper they would challenge the legal action. Jenkins was officially reported missing about 1pm on Saturday, September 9 last year.
At 4.30am, her friends called Martin to tell her they could not locate her daughter.
Martin went to the Crowne Plaza hotel to look for Jenkins around 5am.
Hotel staff told her they could not start reviewing CCTV from the night before unless Martin reported her daughter's disappearance to police.
Kenneka Jenkins died after stumbling into a walk-in freezer at a Chicago hotel. Photo / via news.com.au
Frantic, Martin telephoned Rosemont Police and was told to wait a few hours in case her daughter turned up.
Police officially notified the hotel Jenkins was missing at 1.15pm on Saturday.
A search of all the hotel's public areas and the ninth floor, where Jenkins was last seen, revealed nothing.
Between 3pm and 4pm, police viewed hotel video footage but did not sight Jenkins.
The girls' family returned to the hotel at 6pm on Saturday and began knocking on the doors of guest rooms.
Officers agreed to view the hotel's surveillance footage again at 10pm on Saturday. They told Jenkins' family they had spotted the teenager "staggering" drunk near the hotel's front desk at 3.20am.
Still at the hotel around 1am on Sunday, Jenkins' family was informed by police they had found the girl's body in the walk-in freezer, which had double steel doors.
Kenneka Jenkins, 19, went missing in the early hours of September 9 last year after leaving a party at the Crowne Plaza Hotel. Photo / via news.com.au
The hotel issued a statement following Jenkins' death.
"The Crowne Plaza Chicago O'Hare Hotel and Conference Center holds the safety, security and wellbeing of our guests and employees as our top priority and concern," a spokesman said.
"We are saddened by this news, and our thoughts are with the young woman and her family during this difficult time. All further questions should be directed to the Rosemont Police Department."
The Coroner's report cited alcohol and drugs as a contributing factor in the teenager's death, but said there was a handle on the inside of the door that was functioning correctly.
"The doors of both the cooler and freezer had external handles that must be pulled to open, and both doors were equipped with a circular, functional, internal door opening mechanical," the Coroner wrote.
"The freezer was empty. The temperature within the walk in freezer was 34 degrees Fahrenheit (1 degree Celsius) approximately two hours after discovery."
That temperature reading was obtained after the doors of the freezer had been open for approximately two hours.
