Ep 45: LAW AND ORDER: Finding Jennifer Kesse

14 years ago, Jennifer Kesse disappeared from her Orlando apartment without a trace. The case, which has received national media coverage, remains unsolved, but the family has never stopped searching for Jennifer. In this podcast, Sarina Fazan is joined “On The Record” by the Kesse’s family attorney, Paul Sisco, Esq., and Jim Rathmann, the lead investigator of “Joe Exotic: Tigers, Lies and Cover-up,” as they discuss the cold case and the current efforts to find Jennifer.

24-year-old Jennifer Kesse was living in Orlando when she disappeared in January 2006, but she grew up in Tampa, Florida. Paul Sisco, Esq. is a Tampa-based criminal defense attorney and also serves as the attorney for the Kesse family. He is Board Certified as an Expert in Criminal Trial Law and has been practicing since 1992.

Paul says, “Jennifer comes from a very loving family, actually who live in Bradenton currently. Parents and a brother who have never stopped doing everything they can to try to find out what happened to Jennifer.”

A graduate of North Tampa’s Gaither High School, Jennifer moved to Orlando to attend the University of Central Florida, earning a degree in finance in 2003. After college, she started a job in the finance industry.

“She was intent with her family on finding a safe place to live, and they found what they believed to be a safe place for her to live in a condominium over in Orlando. A parent’s worst nightmare, a family’s worst nightmare, they get a call that she didn’t show up for work one morning,” Paul explains.

Jennifer was very reliable, so her family and co-workers were immediately concerned about her whereabouts. However, the police didn’t consider there to be foul play until approximately 48 hours had passed.

“Unfortunately, since that time, while the family has just been tireless in trying to find out what happened and involved as many experts and legal counsel and everything they can do to try to find out what happened to their daughter, up to this point they don’t know what happened to her. They continue to try to keep this in the national attention and have had had success doing that, but, at the same time , there just haven’t been any satisfactory answers,” Paul conveys.

Jim Rathmann, a former Secret Service agent, retired homicide detective, and decorated Army Veteran,  grew up in the Orlando area and learned about the case when it happened. He says, “You take a personal interest when it’s so close to home, and so I remember this case. Even today, when you would drive around Orlando, you see some of the flyers up.”

Jim says that he’s taken hundreds of reports of missing persons during his career in law enforcement and that people are found in the majority of those cases. “A small percentage of times, it turns into so much more and unfortunately that’s the case here with Jennifer Kesse,” he states.

In the Kesse case, law enforcement did not start their investigation in earnest until Jennifer’s car was found about a mile from her home, approximately 48 hours after the family first alerted police that she was missing. Security camera footage from the scene was recovered, showing an unidentified person parking the car and walking away.

Paul says, “That’s where literally the tracks are still out there.”

He continues, “You let those first 48 hours go and you think you’ll be able to recover that. And, I think that’s probably where, you know, that was the fatal flaw in this, all those years ago.”

Jim says that it’s not that law enforcement doesn’t take cases like these seriously, but that they have certain steps to follow before a formal Missing Persons report can be filed. He explains, “But, also, that can be the most critical hours to investigate a case. You know because the one thing you can’t get back, you can’t get back that time. You can’t recreate those moments when they are already passed. So, it’s like, that’s your shot. So, it’s unfortunate that law enforcement typically has to wait about 24 hours.”

The Orlando Police Department has faced criticism over the years for its role in this case, but Paul says he doesn’t take that approach. He explains, “It’s like any profession. The large number of folks are probably doing everything to the best of their ability. Sometimes the problem is, as I believe it was here in this case, there was never really a quarterback from the law enforcement side. You know, it changed hands so many times over the years that there was a reinvention of the wheel or frankly ignoring of the wheel.”

In May 2008, the Florida House of Representatives unanimously passed Senate Bill 502, "The Jennifer Kesse and Tiffany Sessions Missing Persons Act", which reformed how missing persons cases are handled in the state.

Volunteers have been involved since the start of the case, working to keep Jennifer’s name in the public eye. Paul says, “That’s the fuel that keeps this going. But I have to tell you, what’s really inspiring about this case is this family will not let this go unanswered, what happened to their daughter. I mean, it’s impressive. It’s also heartbreaking and it’s also often frustrating. But it’s the fuel that keeps this thing going.”

Even after all these years, the family tries to maintain optimism. Paul says, “They’re not in the odds game. You know, they’re in the love game. They, of course, love their daughter and the ultimate goal is to find her somewhere alive.”

From the investigative standpoint, Jim says that a fresh set of eyes may be needed on the case. He says, “If I were fortunate enough to work on this case, I don’t want any bias in it. I don’t want what other people’s opinions are. I want to be able to come up with those based on where the facts take me.”

In fact, Investigator Mike Torretta, a retired DEA agent, is taking another look at the evidence. In 2018, the Kesse family sued the Orlando Police Department to get access to the case files, effectively taking over investigation efforts themselves. The family then hired Mike Torretta to lead the private investigation.

Paul says, “What Jim does and what Mike Torretta does, my investigator, it’s elbow grease. It’s what you do. There’s no magic celebrity in any of this. Nobody gets to where they are without working hard, right? The people who are good at solving these things are the ones who are putting in the late nights, sifting through the files.”

Jim and Paul met while working on Investigation Discovery’s “Joe Exotic: Tigers, Lies and Cover-up,” where Jim served as the Lead Investigator in the case of the disappearance of Don Lewis and Paul was interviewed as a legal expert. Jennifer’s case has also been featured extensively in the national media, appearing on dozens of podcasts and programs, such as “Dateline,” “48 Hours,” and “Up and Vanished” on the Oxygen Network.

Paul says, “Smartly, I think the family always realized that’s where we’ve got to keep this, in the national eye by this wave of publicity you get from these new forms of media.”

Jim believes that this kind of media coverage can help solve a case. He explains, “You never know what leads can form from having such national exposure. It brings a lot of people out of the shadows that come forward with information. No tip is ever stupid. Every tip counts.”

Paul’s hope is that the legal team’s efforts will bring the family closure. He says, “I don’t like being in the probability business. You have to think that’s going to happen or why are we doing this? Why would we put the family through this further if we thought this wasn’t realistic? They deserve it.”

Jim agrees, “My gut and my heart tells me the answers are out there. Go find it.”

If you have any information on the Jennifer Kesse case, please go to the family’s website at www.JenniferKesse.com, visit the “Help Find Missing Jennifer Kesse” Facebook page at www.Facebook.com/groups/FindJenniferKesse, or contact the Law Office of Paul M. Sisco at 813-225-1988 or www.PaulSiscoLaw.com.

Learn more about Investigator Jim Rathmann at www.JimRathmannTheCompany.com.

For more discussions like this one, make sure to subscribe to the podcast “On The Record With Sarina Fazan."

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