00:00All right, now, if you've been following the news, you've heard all about the case of Kanika Jenkins.
00:10She was attending a hotel party in the Chicago area when somehow she got separated from her friends
00:15and ended up dead in a basement freezer.
00:17Now, her family and friends immediately called for an investigation,
00:21and there have been rampant theories online about exactly what happened to her.
00:24And the recent release of new photos of her body have only increased the outcry.
00:28Now, joining me in the studio to talk about it is former prosecutor, civil rights attorney, and legal analyst, Sue Ann Robinson.
00:35And via Skype is Natalie Wilson, co-founder of the Black and Missing Foundation.
00:40And thank you both for joining us.
00:41Thank you for having me.
00:42All right, now, Sue Ann, let's start with you.
00:44What were your initial thoughts after seeing the photos of Kanika's body in that hotel freezer?
00:48After seeing the new photos, to me, it immediately, I noticed how dirty and how abandoned the freezer was,
00:55which tells me that it's not a place where there was heavy traffic or where anyone should have been,
01:01much less a hotel guest, an invitee on the property, should definitely not have been there.
01:05And then she has an injury to her leg that hasn't really been explained properly
01:10because the location is kind of on the side of her foot.
01:14So if you were trying to kick the freezer or to get out of the freezer, then you wouldn't use the side of your foot.
01:21You would use the front.
01:22So that's the things that jumped out at me.
01:25But most importantly, what jumped out at me as a mom, as a black woman, just the place that she was found is nowhere
01:31where anyone should spend their last moments of their life.
01:34Absolutely.
01:34But going back to some of the things that you noticed in that and those photos,
01:38do you think that there should be a deeper investigation after the release of these photos?
01:41Do you think it's enough to reopen the case?
01:43I think that what's going to happen now is that the police that are investigating are satisfied
01:49with what's been done in terms of the investigation.
01:53I think what is going to continue, I think the family is going to have their own independent medical examination
01:58and there's going to be more investigation during a possible civil lawsuit against the property.
02:05Okay.
02:06So, Natalie, your Black and Missing Foundation deals with bringing much-needed awareness to missing persons of color
02:11was there anything that her friends and family could have done differently from the time she went missing
02:15to the time her body was discovered?
02:18Well, first and foremost, we want to say, you know, condolences to the family
02:23and our thoughts and prayers are with the Jenkins family.
02:25But from what we read, her family or her mother reached out to law enforcement at the very beginning,
02:32asking them for help in searching for her.
02:34And that is something that we ask family members to do.
02:38You have to reach out to law enforcement and you need their help to help, you know, find your missing loved ones.
02:43So we think that they did it right by reaching out early, asking for help.
02:49What has been your experience in how, you know, authorities deal with, like, people of color in these cases
02:53and non-Black people?
02:56Is there a difference in how they deal with them?
02:57Absolutely. And we see cases like this all the time where family members contact law enforcement for assistance
03:04and their cases aren't taken seriously or the individual is criminalized and stereotyped
03:11as being involved with some type of criminal activity.
03:14So the law enforcement doesn't take the case seriously.
03:18And we do know that many times when our children are reported missing,
03:22they are categorized as being a runaway.
03:24So they do not receive any type of media coverage at all or any type of awareness.
03:30We recently had a case where Carrie Bletway was reported missing
03:34and law enforcement refused to take the police report.
03:38And sadly, her body was found.
03:40She was deceased and her body was found naked.
03:43And she was a mother of four.
03:44That's so unfortunate.
03:45It makes you wonder, like, what that time difference,
03:47if they would have acted immediately, what a difference it could have made.
03:50Now, Sue Ann, what are the next steps legally that Kanika Jenkins can take, her family can take?
03:55I think the next steps for sure are what I mentioned earlier, an independent medical exam.
04:00And then, of course, going back to the property with their lawyers
04:04and starting the litigation against the property for negligence.
04:08Because honestly, an open freezer that can lock should not be invitees or hotel guests should not have access to that.
04:16That's called an attractive nuisance.
04:18And so the hotel, even the fact that she could get to it, gives the hotel some sort of liability.
04:26And I think right now, if I was in their position, I would definitely be going after,
04:31well, why were there not barricades?
04:33Why wasn't it locked?
04:34Why wasn't the security more adequate at the facility?
04:37You can't even, you know, walk out of a hotel with a towel or something extra without being, you know, spoken to or someone saying something.
04:47So why was she able to get into an abandoned part of the hotel and into a freezer that is obviously perilous?
04:56So we asked earlier, do you think there was foul play involved in the death of Kanika Jenkins?
05:00A for yes, B for no.
05:01And the comments were flooded with yes to foul play.
05:04Doreen MC says, yes, I do.
05:06It's a shame they're not willing to dig deeper.
05:07There are too many inconsistencies in this story.
05:10Jeannie online says, someone killed this girl.
05:12Judgment needs to be done in a fridge and not balled up trying to warm herself up.
05:16Bruises on feet, legs on hair.
05:18This is a flat out crime.
05:20Maria Daniel says they should do what they would have done if this was their daughter or a rich girl.
05:24So a definite A to foul play.
05:26Okay, now I'll show along.
05:28We've been taking your votes for today's viewer poll.
05:30And the question was this, do you think foul play was involved in the death of Kanika Jenkins?
05:35Vote A for yes, the photos and video look suspicious, or B for no.
05:39This was just a tragic accident.
05:41Is it, all right, so the results for today's viewer poll are, let's see how you guys voted.
05:46Oh, well, I think it makes sense.
05:4893% say yes, the photos and video look suspicious, and 7% say no, this was just an accident.
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