BRADENTON, Fla. — Twelve years after the disappearance of Jennifer Kesse, a locally produced podcast is generating new leads and giving her parents hope they may one day have answers about what happened to their daughter.
Jennifer Kesse, originally from Tampa and then 24, disappeared from her Orlando apartment complex on January 24, 2006. Her parents say time has not eased the pain of her being gone.
“It gets harder to deal with every single year,” said Jennifer’s father Drew Kesse. “Especially when we know things could be happening and other things should be happening.”
The Kesse’s were feeling like the investigation was running into dead end after dead end when early last year they were surprised by the emergence of a new weekly podcast focused solely on their daughter’s case.
Called “Unconcluded” and produced by two buddies with little if any investigative experience, the two admit they were oblivious to Jennifer’s case until the 10 year anniversary.
“We kinda went in with a blank slate,” said Unconcluded co-producer Scott Jamison who first watched the grainy video of a person of interest in the case. “To me that sort of hooked me right there and then I started watching some of the videos of her parents and their pleading for answers and their passion. We both sort of felt this was something we needed to do.”
The Podcast started out small but quickly drew followers.
“When we first started we thought if we get 500 downloads that would be amazing,” said Jamison. “Now we’re sitting here and we just passed 2 million downloads.”
And all those listeners want to help find Jennifer too, researching and digging up their own clues.
“I think that’s what’s captured people’s imaginations-- there’s a lot of blanks to fill in,” said Jamison.
Drew Kesse says it’s attention his daughter’s case desperately needed.
“Every time I listen to one of their podcast I literally sit back in my chair and say huh… how’d they do that? And HOPE. And you hope something comes of it.”
Every week new leads and possible clues keep coming with all the information eventually being turned over to Orlando Police.
“Our most recent episode might be the biggest piece of information we’ve turned over,” says Jamison. “It’s a Facebook post where an individual mentions Jennifer Kesse’s name and says he’d like to apologize to her parents. He lived in Orlando at the time about a mile from where Jennifer lived at the time in 2006.”
It’s unclear if anything will come of that information passed on to detectives but the producers of Unconcluded vow to keep digging.
“I do believe at some point there will be some closure for the Kesse family.”
A news conference is scheduled for Wednesday, the 12th anniversary of Jennifer’s disappearance. Orlando Police are expected to announce the assignment of a full time detective to the case and an increase to the reward money.
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