Death of Kenneka Jenkins

Kenneka Jenkins, a 19-year-old from the West Side of Chicago, left her home around 11:30 p.m. on September 8, 2017, borrowing her mother's car to attend a private party held by friends in Room 926 of the Crowne Plaza Chicago O'Hare hotel in Rosemont, Illinois. She arrived at the hotel at 1:13 a.m. Witnesses reported that she drank cognac and, as the night went on, appeared increasingly withdrawn and intoxicated. Surveillance footage later showed her staggering near the front desk around 3:20 a.m., and the last footage showing her alive, timestamped 3:32 a.m., showed her walking into a kitchen area toward a freezer that was out of camera view.

When friends could not find Jenkins, they called her mother, Teresa Martin, who arrived at the hotel around 5:30 a.m. Hotel staff told her they could not access surveillance footage until a missing person report was filed, and Rosemont's public safety department advised waiting before doing so. A formal missing persons report was filed at 12:46 p.m. by Jenkins' sister, Leonore Harris. Family members have said the police response lacked urgency. It was not until 10 p.m. that police located footage of Jenkins stumbling through the hotel. She was found dead inside a walk-in freezer, part of an unused kitchen leased to a restaurant, by a hotel employee at 12:25 a.m. on September 10, and was pronounced dead shortly after. She was found lying on her side with one shoe off and a small cut on her foot, with no other signs of trauma.

On October 6, 2017, the Cook County Medical Examiner's Office ruled the death accidental. Toxicology found a blood alcohol level of 0.112 and traces of topiramate, a migraine and epilepsy medication she had not been prescribed; the combination was believed to have hastened hypothermia. No illegal drugs were found. Rosemont police stated no foul play was suspected but noted the investigation was not complete. The credit card used to book the room was later found to be fraudulent and linked to a Chicago-area gang, though officials said no evidence supported rumors of foul play. Inconsistencies remained in accounts given by Jenkins' friends about what happened after the party.

In 2018, attorney Geoffrey Fieger filed a $50 million lawsuit against the hotel and other defendants on behalf of Jenkins' family, raising questions about the freezer door's locking mechanism, though this was disputed by surveillance evidence. The lawsuit was settled in December 2023 for $10 million, with court records indicating the defendants were found negligent in securing the kitchen area, failing to shut down an unauthorized party, and not promptly reviewing security footage once Jenkins was reported missing.