Kenneka Jenkins' Family Awarded $6 Million Over Teen's Hotel Freezer Death

Relatives of Kenneka Jenkins, the 19-year-old who was found dead inside a walk-in freezer at a Chicago-area hotel in September 2017, were awarded more than $6 million in a wrongful death settlement, according to court records made public on Tuesday.

The circumstances surrounding Jenkins’ death gained international attention after police said she died after wandering inside a commercial kitchen freezer at the Crowne Plaza Chicago O’Hare Hotel and Conference Center in Rosemont, Illinois. An autopsy determined the cause of death to be hypothermia, with alcohol and a drug used to treat epilepsy and migraines “significant contributing factors.”

Jenkins went to the hotel to attend a late-night party on the ninth floor but never returned home, igniting a frantic search by the teen’s loved ones. Nearly 24 hours later, her body was found inside the walk-in freezer.

Jenkins’ mother, Tereasa Martin, filed the lawsuit in 2018 against the hotel’s parent company, the hotel’s security contractor and a restaurant that was allegedly leasing the space where her daughter was found dead, according to local media reports.

Newsweek reached out via email on Wednesday to Martin and the hotel’s parent company, IHG Hotels & Resorts, for comment.

Teresa Martin, mother of 19-year-old Kenneka Jenkins who was found dead inside a hotel kitchen freezer, listens as attorneys speak on behalf of the teen’s family during a news conference in downtown Chicago on Friday, Sept. 15, 2017.
Chris Sweda/Chicago Tribune/TNS/Getty

What Happened to Kenneka Jenkins?

Witnesses told police they lost track of Jenkins at about 1 a.m. on September 9, 2017, when the teen left the party to fetch her car keys and phone from another room.

By roughly 2:30 a.m., Jenkins’ family members and her friends were telling hotel staff that she was missing.

Her mother said at 4 a.m., her daughter’s friends called to say they could not find Jenkins, so she called police to report her daughter was missing but they told her to wait and call back. Rosemont police ultimately filed a missing person report at about 1 p.m.

The teen’s body was found more than 12 hours later, nearly a day after she went missing, in the kitchen’s walk-in freezer. An autopsy showed no signs of trauma or assault, concluding instead that Jenkins died from hypothermia with alcohol and prescription medications in her system.

While the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office and Rosemont police both have stated that her death was accidental, the case garnered widespread interest and immense scrutiny.

Newsweek reached out via email and Facebook on Wednesday to the Rosemont Police Department for comment.

Critics, activists and conspiracy theorists questioned how someone could freeze to death in a walk-in unit that was easy to open from the inside, prompting Rosemont police to release video footage that shows Jenkins’ stumbling around various corridors of the hotel around 3:30 a.m. The footage does not show her entering the freezer, sparking a widely circulated conspiracy theories that she was murdered.

Multiple Change.org petitions urging for the case to be reopened have amassed hundreds of thousands of signatures. Jenkins’ death also led to protests outside the Crowne Plaza O’Hare Hotel, with critics arguing the hotel staff did not take reports of her being missing seriously.

The Lawsuit

The negligence lawsuit originally sought more than $50 million in damages, the Chicago Tribune reported when the lawsuit was filed in 2018.

Martin argued in the lawsuit that the hotel, security company and restaurant were negligent for failing to secure the freezer and not conducting a thorough search when Jenkins first went missing.

While the parties settled in October, the terms were sealed until Tuesday.

The total settlement amounts to about $10 million, with more than $3.5 million covering the cost of Martin’s attorney fees and the expenses for Jenkins’ funeral, the Chicago Tribune reported.

Martin will receive more than $3.7 million, with other family members receiving $1.2 million and $1.5 million, court records show.