Do Images Of Car Hood Hold Clue To Jennifer Kesse Cold Case? Her Family Thinks So
"It looked like someone was thrown down on the top of the hood — arms spread out and then dragged back almost like off the hood to the point where you can almost see fingers scribbling down the hood," the father of Jennifer Kesse, who vanished without a trace in 2006, said.
Newly released images in a cold case involving a 24-year-old Florida business executive, who vanished in 2006, may indicate that a violent struggle unfolded before her disappearance, according to the woman’s family.
Few clues were discovered when Jennifer Kesse disappeared almost 15 years ago, but her father now says that new images of her abandoned Chevrolet Malibu indicate that she may have been attacked before going missing.
"It looked like someone was thrown down on the top of the hood — arms spread out and then dragged back, almost like off the hood, to the point where you can almost see fingers scribbling down the hood," Drew Kesse told Fox News.
Jennifer Kesse was reported missing after she didn’t show up to work on the morning of Jan. 24, 2006, according to WKMG. Her family’s pursuit to discover what happened to her has led them to the bottom of lakes and from Mexico to Russia, according to Fox News.
Kesse’s family says they are now convinced the image of the black Chevrolet sedan could hold the key to solving her disappearance.
"The photos look suspicious and show what appears to be a hand mark going across the hood," private investigator Mike Torretta told Fox News. “We hope that by showing the public these photos, someone will come forward with information they’ve been holding onto for all these years."
It’s unclear if the purported marks in the hood of Kesse’s car were overlooked by investigators following the initial police report. CBS News previously reported that no signs of a struggle were evident.
An anonymous witness told Fox News she saw Kesse’s sedan swerving in traffic near an exit by the condo where she lived on the morning she was reported missing.
"The car was moving erratically," the witness told Fox News. “It looked as though two people were fighting over the steering wheel."
Another clue in the case involves a CCTV video of an individual exiting Kesse's car before it was recovered by authorities. But that lead has never led to any arrests, USA Today reported in 2017.
"This person holds the key to solving the case,” Torretta said.
In 2018, the family sued the Orlando Police Department in order to obtain the records pertaining to the case, the Orlando Sentinel reported.
“We don’t have an alternative, really,” her mother Joyce Kesse, told the newspaper. “I mean, anyone in our shoes — I can’t imagine a family not trying to seek answers for their child.”
The determined parents have since admitted they don’t expect to find their daughter alive but insist they need answers to find any sense of closure.
“Jennifer needs to come home,” Drew Kesse told USA Today. “I will take her any way I can get her.”
Anyone with information related to Kesse’s disappearance is urged to contact the Orlando Police Department at 321-235-5300 or the Central Florida Crimeline at 800-423-TIPS