The mother of a Chicago teen found dead in a walk-in freezer last year is suing a hotel, a security firm and a restaurant for $50 million, claiming the entities did not properly secure the space in an unused kitchen.
Kenneka Jenkins, 19, was pronounced dead after her body was found by police inside a freezer at the Crown Plaza Chicago O’Hare Hotel & Conference Center in suburban Rosemont on Sept. 10, 2017, more than 20 hours after her relatives started searching for her, the Chicago Tribune reports.
The lawsuit filed by Jenkins’ mother, Tereasa Martin, named the upscale hotel, as well as Capital Security and Investigations and the Murray Bros. Caddyshack restaurant as defendants, alleging that they failed to properly secure the freezer and didn’t adequately search for Jenkins following her disappearance a day earlier.
“[I’m] horrified,” Martin told the newspaper last year after the teen’s death. “It’s something that no one could ever imagine. It’s unbelievable.”
Martin told the newspaper she went to the hotel to help in a frantic search for Jenkins, whose relatives ultimately filed a missing persons report a few hours later. Investigators later found surveillance video inside the hotel showing the teen “staggering drunk” near the hotel’s front desk, Martin said.
Jenkins’ body was then found inside a freezer that was working at the time but wasn’t being used to store food, Martin said.
An autopsy report later ruled that Jenkins died of hypothermia, with a cocktail of alcohol and a drug used to treat epilepsy and migraines cites as “significant contributing factors,” the Tribune reports.
“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,” a coroner wrote in Jenkins’ autopsy, which was obtained by the newspaper. “The freezer was empty. The temperature within the walk in freezer was 34 degrees Fahrenheit approximately two hours after discovery (note: the doors of the cooler and freezer had been open for approximately 2 hours when this temperature was recorded.)”
But unlike others on the property, the lawsuit alleges that the freezer where Jenkins was found was unsecured and had a sticker attached to it that was “completely faded,” rendering it useless to instruct users on how to open it.
Police investigators later determined that the freezer door could not be opened from inside the unit unless a circular handle was used to release its latch, but the mechanism was indeed working properly, according to the Tribune.
The lawsuit also claims that several employees missed opportunities to intervene after spotting a “visibly disoriented” Jenkins meandering the hotel’s hallways. It also blamed Capital Security and Investigations for not stopping the party at the hotel in an event space designed for four guests that was overflowing with dozens of partiers and rife with the odor of “strong intoxicants,” according to the lawsuit.
The hotel and security company also took too long to search surveillance footage after Jenkins disappeared, the lawsuit claims. And while the Murray Bros. Caddyshack restaurant wasn’t open at the time of Jenkins’ death, the company signed a deal two months earlier to lease space inside the hotel, according to a company news release. Restaurant officials therefore should have secured the kitchen and the ensured that its empty freezer was shut off, Martin’s lawsuit contends.
A spokesman for the hotel, meanwhile, said the company intends to “vigorously contest” Martin’s version of events.
“The death of Kenneka Jenkins was a tragedy, but the proximate cause of her death were the unsavory individuals who used a stolen credit card to book a room and host an illegal party which Ms. Jenkins attended,” the spokesman told the Tribune. “Those criminals escaped the hotel before police arrived and have never truly been held accountable.”
Staffers from the restaurant and the security firm, as well as Martin’s attorney, declined to comment, the Chicago Tribune reports.