Disappearance of Jennifer Kesse

In May 2007, Kesse's company, led by David A. Siegel, offered a $1 million reward for information leading to her whereabouts, with a July 4 deadline and the stipulation that she had to be alive. It was never claimed. A $5,000 reward for information leading to the whereabouts of her remains was available through Central Florida Crimeline. The case received state and national press attention at the time of her disappearance. She is still considered missing and endangered by the Orlando Police Department, FBI, Orange County Police, FDLE, NCIC, NCMA, and Interpol. On May 2, 2008, the Florida House of Representatives unanimously passed Senate Bill 502, "The Jennifer Kesse and Tiffany Sessions Missing Persons Act", to reform how missing-persons cases are handled in Florida. As of June 10, 2010, the FBI has taken the case over from the Orlando Police Department; it did so at the urging of police chief Val Demings. Kesse remains on the FBI's Most Wanted/Missing List. The latest search for her took place in February 2014, and investigators continue to receive and pursue leads.

A graduate of Vivian Gaither High School in Tampa, Florida, Kesse attended the University of Central Florida in Orlando and graduated in 2003 with a degree in finance. At the time of her disappearance, she was working as a finance manager at Central Florida Investments Timeshare Company in Ocoee and had recently bought a condominium home in Orlando. The weekend before she vanished, Kesse had vacationed with her boyfriend on Saint Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands. Returning on the Sunday, she stayed that night at her boyfriend's home, then drove straight to work on the morning of Monday, January 23, 2006.

Kesse was seen for the last time leaving work at approximately 6 p.m. on January 23, 2006. She spoke by phone with her father while driving home at around 6:15, and then with her boyfriend at around 10:00 p.m. She was in the habit of texting or telephoning her boyfriend before leaving for work, so it was unusual when she did neither the next morning. His call to her went to voicemail. When Kesse failed to arrive at work, her employer contacted her parents, who began the two-hour drive from their home to hers. Her parents noticed that her car was missing but saw nothing out of the ordinary in her home. A wet towel and clothes laid out, among other things, suggested that she had showered, dressed, and prepared for work that morning. Friends and family distributed fliers about Kesse that evening, and the Orlando Police Department organized search parties on foot and on horseback, as well as by boat, helicopter, car, and ATV.

With no sign of forced entry or a struggle, investigators initially theorized that on the morning of January 24 Kesse left her apartment for work and locked her front door, only to be abducted at some point while walking toward or getting into her car. On January 26, around 8:10 a.m., her black 2004 Chevrolet Malibu was found parked at another apartment complex about a mile from her own. Investigators were excited to learn that several hidden cameras at the apartments surveilled the part of the lot where the car had been parked as well as the exit. The surveillance footage showed an unidentified "person of interest" dropping Kesse's vehicle off at approximately noon the day she went missing. None of her family or friends recognized the person, whose physical features were not clear on the video. Investigators were disheartened to find that the best video capture of this subject, in three separate snapshots, was obscured by the complex fencing, the posts aligning to conceal the face. One journalist called the suspect "The luckiest person of interest ever". The FBI was called in to help determine the person's size and gender, but could only say that the person stood between 5'3" and 5'5". NASA also enhanced the video to help identify the suspect. Detectives interpreted the valuables left inside the car to imply that robbery was not a motive in the case. A search dog tracked a scent that led from her parked car back to her apartment complex, prompting detectives to believe that the suspect might have returned to her apartment's parking lot after abandoning the car. No other evidence was found along the route. A forensic examination of the car yielded little in the way of evidence, only a latent print and a small DNA fiber. Investigators deduced that the car had been wiped down. The following items are known to be missing: her cell phone, her iPod, her keys, her purse, her briefcase, and the outfit she was wearing. Authorities were unable to ping her cellphone, its power remaining off. Her bank account keycard has not been used since her disappearance.

Jennifer Joyce Kesse (born May 20, 1981) is an American woman from Orlando, Florida who has been missing since January 23, 2006. Shortly after she vanished, her car was discovered around a mile from her home. A local security camera recorded a person who could not be identified parking Kesse's car and walking away. The case received local and national press attention.