The family of a 19-year-old woman found dead in a Chicago-area hotel's walk-in freezer will receive more than $6 million in a settlement disclosed as a lawsuit was due to go to trial. Kenneka Jenkins' body was found in a freezer in an unused kitchen at Crowne Plaza Chicago O'Hare Hotel in Rosemont, where she had gone to a late-night party in September 2017, NPR reports. Authorities said she died of hypothermia. Her body wasn't found until almost 24 hours after friends said she was missing. Her mother, Theresa Martin, sued the hotel, a security company, and a hotel restaurant for more than $50 million in 2018, accusing them of negligence.
According to the lawsuit, out of a total settlement of $10 million, some $3.5 million will go toward legal fees, the Chicago Sun-Times reports. Martin will receive more than $3.7 million, and two other relatives will receive $1.5 million and $1.2 million. Friends said they were leaving the party with Martin around 2:30am when she disappeared while they went back to the room to retrieve her phone. According to the lawsuit, Martin's mother contacted the hotel after her daughter's friends told her she was missing—but although employees told her they would review surveillance footage, it wasn't checked until police arrived to investigate.
"Hotel surveillance videos reveal that she had walked downstairs in an obviously disoriented state and was seen by multiple staff members as she was walking toward the freezer, though no one stopped her," the lawsuit states. The Cook County medical examiner ruled the death an accident, though the autopsy noted that the freezer door could have been opened from the inside, NPR reports. Police closed their investigation in October 2017, saying conspiracy theories about foul play were "not supported by facts." (More Kenneka Jenkins stories.)
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