Florida
Missing Florida woman Jennifer Kesse's father hopes for answers 18 years after disappearance: 'Blows my mind'
Missing Florida woman Jennfier Kesse’s father, Drew Kesse, is still holding out hope he will find out what happened to his daughter 18 years after she vanished from her Orlando condo complex.
Jennifer was last seen leaving Mosaic at Millenia for work Jan. 24, 2006, when she was 24 years old. She left her condo that morning with several outfit choices laid out on her bed.
“We have great hope that we will someday locate Jennifer. And I hope it’s within my lifetime. I mean, I don’t have too much longer left,” Drew Kesse told Fox News Digital, 18 years after his daughter’s disappearance.
“It blows my mind at this point,” he said of a lack of answers in the case, adding that he’s sure law enforcement is “trying their best,” but he’d like them to walk in his family’s “shoes for one year.”
MISSING JENNIFER KESSE’S FAMILY HOLDS OUT HOPE FOR POSSIBLE DNA EVIDENCE
Jennifer Kesse vanished from her Orlando, Fla., condo Jan. 24, 2006, when she was 24. (Find Jennifer Kesse)
On Jan. 26, 2006, authorities located Jennifer’s vehicle, a black 2006 Chevy Malibu, at a different residential complex called Huntington on the Green about a mile away from Mosaic at Millenia after a neighbor reported seeing her missing car.
Jennifer’s parents later sued the Orlando Police Department for thousands of records related to the case, which revealed police collected DNA in the car. The records also indicated the hood of Jennifer’s vehicle, which was covered in dust from the ongoing construction at her condo complex, showed signs of a struggle.
JENNIFER KESSE DISAPPEARANCE: NEWLY RELEASED POLICE PHOTOS SUGGEST VIOLENT STRUGGLE
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement took over the case in 2022. (Find Jennifer Kesse)
The complex allowed workers to stay in vacant condos while they were finishing construction, Fox News previously reported.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) took over the case in November 2022, and the Kesse family continues to hold out hope for new testing of potential DNA evidence from Jennifer’s car, though they have not heard of any new developments.
Jennifer Kesse was living at Mosaic at Millenia, pictured above, in 2006. The property was undergoing a conversion from apartments to condominiums at the time of her disappearance. (Fox News )
“We don’t even know right now … if they’ve sent in all the physical evidence for DNA testing,” Drew Kesse said.
Other significant evidence in Jennifer’s case includes surveillance video images of a person of interest who has yet to be identified. The person’s face is obscured by a gate on the edge of the Huntington complex, where her car was found.
Jennifer Kesse’s colleagues reported her missing Jan. 24, 2006, because it was unlike her not to call if she was going to miss a day, Gilmour said. (Find Jennifer Kesse)
“An unidentified person of interest and possible suspect was photographed parking Jennifer Kesse’s vehicle and walking away. The unidentified person was approximately 5-foot-3 to 5-foot-5 and was wearing white clothes similar to a painter or a manual worker,” a missing persons flyer from the FDLE says. “Prior to Kesse’s disappearance, she had complained about some construction workers that were working on her apartment complex and were making her uneasy.”
JENNIFER KESSE DISAPPEARANCE: FAMILY SAYS IT’S ‘CLOSE’ TO ANSWERS IN THE 15-YEAR-OLD COLD CASE
It remains unclear exactly how the 24-year-old woman, who was excelling at her job and in a healthy relationship with her boyfriend at the time, disappeared after she left for her job at Westgate Resorts in Ocoee.
The records obtained as a result of the Kesses’ lawsuit against OPD also included images of Kesse’s vehicle, which had dust from the ongoing construction at her condo complex. (OPD)
Her colleagues reported her missing that same day because it was unlike her not to show up for work.
“It’s easy as the father of a missing child to say, but we as Americans, we have to start caring more about ourselves.”
“What I see in America today is the total breakdown of family,” Drew Kesse said when asked if he has a message for the public. “If we don’t start loving ourselves, first and foremost, so we can learn to love other people, such as our wives, our husbands, our children, and then our community, our country — it’s what we need. It’s what made this country the greatest nation on Earth.”
LISTEN TO HOUSE OF BROKEN DREAMS: THE JENNIFER KESSE STORY
He added that the case is “more than just Jennifer.”
“It’s our culture and our nature right now.”
Kesse’s family still does not know how the 24-year-old woman, who was excelling at her job and in a healthy relationship with her boyfriend at the time, disappeared after she left for work at Westgate Resorts in Ocoee. (Find Jennifer Kesse)
Drew and Jennifer’s mother, Joyce Kesse, have been married 45 years with their two children and now grandchildren. He emphasized his belief that the well-being of the country depends on parents loving and guiding their children.
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A GoFundMe page, “Help Us Find Jennifer Kesse,” has raised more than $117,000 to help her family pay for the “monstrous legal fees and PI bills that have accrued over time.”
Anyone with information about Jennifer’s disappearance is asked to contact the “Find Jennifer Kesse” Facebook page or the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) at 1-888-FL-MISSING (1-888-356-4774).
Gulf system to bring downpours to Florida
FOX 13 Meteorologist Jim Weber is continuing to watch an area in the Gulf that is expected to bring much-needed rain to Florida this weekend. He said the system will likely drift to the north and northwest and will linger before heading to the northeast. He said to get a tropical depression, or a tropical storm there needs to be winds and a closed low and he is not seeing that in the models yet. Weber is also tracking a system off the coast of Africa that has a 10% chance of developing over the next week. He says it will likely enter a hostile environment and dissipate.
TAMPA, Fla. – Forecasters are tracking a broad disturbance in the Gulf of Mexico off the Florida coast that could bring much-needed rain to parched communities this weekend.
Gulf tropical development potential
What we know:
Models continue to indicate there is a potential for an area of low pressure to form over the northeast Gulf off the west coast of Florida over the weekend.
The National Hurricane Center says an area in the Gulf has a 30% chance of tropical development over the next seven days.
Models a shifting away from the forecast of the system moving over the state and off the coast of the Carolinas. Models are now indicating a more likely scenario that it lingers in the Gulf over the weekend and may drift more to the northwest near the Florida Panhandle or Louisiana coast. Early next week conditions look like they will become less conducive and may prohibit much development. Regardless of whether it organizes, the system will bring tropical downpours and increased moisture across Florida and parts of the Southeast.
FOX 13 Meteorologist Jim Weber states we are close to 7.50″ below average on our rainfall in Tampa for the year. A weak area of low pressure or tropical system can be beneficial in helping to make up for the rainfall deficit we have been experiencing. Drought conditions continue over much of the state of Florida. If this system ends up drifting more westward, it would limit the total amount of rainfall and the highest totals would be along the immediate west coast.
Atlantic tropical development potential
A tropical wave southeast of the Cabo Verde Islands remains disorganized.
It is moving west-northwest and, according to the NHC, there is a chance for slow development over the next day or two. By the weekend it is expected to move into less conducive conditions and Saharan dust will begin to affect this wave, limiting its moisture. The time for this system to develop is very limited and will not develop after the weekend.
The NHC is giving it a 10% chance of developing.
Weather factors and storm names
What we don’t know:
Officials cannot yet confirm if the disturbance will overcome environmental hurdles like land interaction, wind shear and dry air. Computer models remain uncertain on how much this system will develop over the waters of the Gulf. If it stays over the warm waters of the Gulf longer, it may give it additional time to organize. Interactions with land and wind shear will likely pose obstacles in further development.
To become a tropical system, it must develop a defined circulation with organized thunderstorms. If it reaches maximum sustained winds of 39 mph, it will become a tropical storm and be named Bertha.
The Source: The information in this story was gathered by FOX 13Meteorologist Jim Weber, the National Hurricane Center tropical weather outlooks, as well as forecast computer models.
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VOLUSIA COUNTY, Fla. – If you felt shaking along Florida’s east coast on Thursday, you’re not alone. But it wasn’t an earthquake.
A strong “experimental explosion” was reported in the waters off Central Florida on Thursday afternoon, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
The USGS website indicates that the explosion happened around 3:04 p.m., roughly 91 miles east-northeast of Ponce Inlet.
Per the agency, the event registered a preliminary magnitude of 3.9. However, few other details about what may have caused the explosion have been provided at this time.
“The recorded ground motions from this event are more typical of an explosion than a naturally occurring earthquake,” the USGS website reads. “The Navy has conducted Full Ship Shock Trials in this region in the past.”
[A LOOK BACK: U.S.S. Gerald R. Ford performs shock trials on an aircraft carrier in 2021]
News 6 has reached out to Navy officials for more information and is awaiting additional details.
Anyone who felt the impact of the explosion is urged to report their experience here.
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