After receiving a $3.7 million settlement, Kenneka Jenkins mother, Tereasa Martin, is speaking out about her daughter’s death.
Martin says she still does not know what truly happened to her child, who died on September 10, 2017, inside a latched freezer at the Crowne Plaza hotel in Rosemont, Illinois, after attending a party there the previous night.
According to court documents, Martin agreed to the $3.7 million settlement. Of that amount, $3.5 million will go toward attorneys’ fees, while other members of Jenkins’ family will receive $1.2 million and $1.5 million. An additional $6,000 will cover Jenkins’ funeral expenses.
Security footage last showed 19-year-old Kenneka Jenkins wandering through an empty kitchen in the Caddyshack Restaurant located within the hotel at around 3:30 a.m. on September 9, 2017. She was found dead in a walk-in freezer roughly 21 hours later.
In 2018, Martin filed a lawsuit against the hotel, the restaurant, and the security company responsible for monitoring the property. The suit claimed that staff failed to stop Jenkins from entering the freezer and did not review surveillance footage in time to locate her. Martin had originally sought $50 million in damages.
About an hour before she was seen on camera in the kitchen, Jenkins had left a party on the hotel’s ninth floor. The lawsuit argued that hotel employees should have noticed that Jenkins appeared “visibly disoriented and in dire need of assistance” as she moved through the building.
Toxicology tests from the Cook County medical examiner reported that Jenkins had alcohol, caffeine, and a medication used to treat epilepsy and migraines in her system at the time of her death.
The lawsuit also stated that the restaurant failed to properly secure the freezer where Jenkins was found.
Jenkins was reported missing at around 12:30 p.m. later that same day. Police began investigating roughly three hours afterward, but her body was not discovered until 12:25 a.m. the following morning.
The medical examiner’s report concluded that Jenkins’ death was accidental. Alcohol and the medication topiramate found in her system were believed to have intensified the effects of hypothermia after she remained inside the freezer. Although the Rosemont Police Department stated they did not suspect foul play, they acknowledged that their investigation was not yet complete. Jenkins’ family and friends criticized the initial police response, leading to a lawsuit filed against the hotel and other parties. That lawsuit was ultimately settled in 2023.
Activist Jedidiah Brown, who took part in protests and provided legal support to demonstrators following Kenneka Jenkins’ death, has now spoken out.