Kenneka Jenkins death: Tuesday marked 2 years since woman found dead in Rosemont hotel freezer

Wednesday, September 11, 2019
ROSEMONT, Ill. (WLS) -- Tuesday marked two years since the death of a young woman found dead inside a Rosemont hotel freezer.

Kenneka Jenkins, 19, was found dead in the walk-in freezer at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in River Road in Rosemont on September 10, 2017.
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Surveillance video showed Jenkins walking near the freezer after leaving a hotel party.

Police said her body was found in a walk-in freezer that was inside a walk-in cooler inside an unused and vacant kitchen.

WATCH: HOTEL SURVEILLANCE VIDEOS OF KENNEKA JENKINS
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Police said the freezer Jenkins was found in was on and fully operational at the time her body was found. Police also said she was found with the freezer's lights off, but that the lights and also the freezer's safety device were fully operational at the time of her death.

The Cook County medical examiner ruled Jenkins' death an accident. She died of hypothermia, the medical examiner said, with alcohol and topiramate intoxication - a prescription drug used to treat epilepsy and migraines - as significant contributing factors. Police said they have not found any evidence to contradict the medical examiner's findings.



In the days and weeks after her death, Twitter and Facebook were flooded with conspiracy theories about how Jenkins died.

Last year, Jenkins' family filed a lawsuit against the hotel seeking $50 million in damages.
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