Jennifer Kesse’s Disappearance Remains Unsolved After 19 Years

ORLANDO, Fla. — Nearly two decades after Jennifer Kesse vanished without a trace, her family continues to seek answers in one of Florida’s most baffling missing person cases. Kesse, then 24, was last seen on Jan. 24, 2006, outside her condo near the Mall at Millennia in Orlando. Despite extensive investigations, her whereabouts remain unknown.

Kesse’s parents, Drew and Joyce Kesse, marked the 19th anniversary of her disappearance with a heartfelt social media post. “How can a missing person’s case with such awareness not produce even a direction 19 years later is inconceivable, yet very true,” they wrote on Facebook. “We, Jennifer’s family and friends, live with that very real fact day in and day out.”

Kesse, a University of Central Florida graduate, had recently purchased her first home and was thriving in her career at a timeshare company. Her disappearance shocked her family and friends, who described her as safety-conscious and meticulous. On the morning she vanished, Kesse failed to show up for work, prompting her coworkers to alert her parents. When Drew and Joyce arrived at her condo, they found signs that she had been preparing for work but had left abruptly.

Her car, a 2004 Chevy Malibu, was discovered abandoned a mile away from her home later that day. Surveillance footage captured an unidentified person parking the car and walking away, but the individual’s face was obscured, leaving investigators with few clues. “We’ve come up with a height of between 5’3 and 5’5,” Detective Joel Wright told 48 Hours, referencing the person of interest. “The clothing looks to be maybe someone who is a painter or some type of worker.”

Over the years, the Kesse family has pursued every possible lead, including a 2019 search of Lake Fischer after a witness reported seeing a pickup truck dump a rolled-up carpet into the water around the time of Kesse’s disappearance. Dive teams and sonar technology failed to uncover any evidence. The family has also theorized that Kesse may have been targeted by construction workers at her condo complex, where renovations were underway at the time of her disappearance.

In 2016, Kesse was officially declared dead by the state of Florida. Her family later sued the Orlando Police Department for access to investigative records, receiving 16,000 pages of documents and 67 hours of video and audio. Despite the extensive files, no breakthrough has been made. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement has since taken over the case, retesting physical evidence and reinterviewing witnesses.

Drew Kesse has speculated that his daughter may have been a victim of human trafficking. “Maybe they had to pay off a debt, maybe it’s what they do, maybe they had to get into a gang,” he said in a 2018 interview. “But I believe Jennifer was pointed out as, ‘That’s the one you want.’”

The Kesse family has spent over $500,000 of their own money on the search, relying on private investigators and public support. They continue to raise funds through a GoFundMe account, determined to find closure. “We are continuously humbled by the people who still reach out on a very regular basis with leads,” the family wrote. “Maybe someday one will produce results.”

Anyone with information about Jennifer Kesse’s disappearance is urged to contact Crimeline at 1-800-423-TIPS (8477).