Kenneka Jenkins’ Mother Resumes Protests Days After Daughter’s Funeral, Says ‘Release The Tapes!’
Teresa Martin, the grieving mother of Kenneka Jenkins, a 19-year-old girl who was found dead in a freezer at Crowne Plaza Chicago O’Hare Hotel & Conference Center, has ignited claims of a “cover-up” in the death of her daughter. The protests arrive days after Kenneka Jenkins’ massive funeral, which was held at a far South Side mega church.
For the second night in a row, Teresa Martin stood with supporters while adamantly stating that she was not a “sell out.”
Martin led chants of “release the tapes,” “tear it down,” and “justice for Kenneka” that were directed at the hotel located in Rosemont, Illinois.
The protest occurred days after over a thousand mourners attended Kenneka Jenkins’ three-hour wake and funeral service, according to the Chicago Tribune.
Martin had previously requested the protests to end.
The protest was shown through a series of Facebook videos that she streamed live. The Facebook videos had some major interruption, as much of the audio was muted.
During the protest, Martin also called for the FBI to either join or take over the local police investigation.
It has been nearly one month since Kenneka Jenkins was found dead in a walk-in storage freezer at the Crowne Center Plaza, with no official announcement of Jenkins’ cause of death, a suspect, or a motive.
An autopsy was conducted one day after Kenneka Jenkins was found. However, results are still pending.
Martin can be heard asking authorities to “release the tape.” The statement is a reference to the hotel’s surveillance footage that showed Jenkins staggering around the hallway before making her way into the kitchen, where the freezer was located.
Many on social media have cried foul due to missing footage, which would presumably show the 19-year-old entering the hotel freezer.
The Crowne Center Plaza at O’Hare has maintained that there was no camera on the freezer to capture the sought-after footage. In addition to this, police have said video of Jenkins walking into the freezer does not exist.
This week’s protests followed Martin’s call for them to end last week when she alleged an activist central to the demonstrations was profiting from her daughter’s death.
“I’m ending y’all’s agendas that’s not righteous toward my child.”
After Kenneka’s funeral, Martin appeared to be extremely vocal in her quest to find justice and answers for her daughter.
On September 9, Kenneka Jenkins was found several hours after her disappearance was reported to hotel staff and police, neither of which took immediate action, according to reports.
Martin maintains that if hotel staff and police showed more of a sense of urgency, her daughter might be alive today.
A phony Kenneka Jenkins Twitter account surfaced and promised new details about the 19-year-old's death https://t.co/tx3t1DuqGX pic.twitter.com/wUCfQhrFcP
— Intl. Business Times (@IBTimes) September 12, 2017
Martin has repeatedly pleaded for the FBI to lead the investigation upon acknowledging Rosemont police’s checkered past.
Despite the cries from supporters and an online petition to have the FBI intervene, Rosemont police announced last month that the FBI would not be investigating.
Kenneka Jenkins’ change.org petition requesting FBI intervention is in need of 1,600 more signatures.
[Featured Image by ZorPink/Shutterstock]
