The mother of 19-year-old Kenneka Jenkins reportedly delivered a big legal win concerning her $50 million wrongful death lawsuit against the Crowne Plaza Chicago O’Hare Hotel & Conference Center in Rosemont, Illinois.
In 2018, Martin filed a lawsuit against the hotel for the 2017 death of Jenkins. The beautiful teen’s body was found in a large walk-in freezer inside a vacant kitchen of the Rosemont-based establishment.
According to CBS News, in August, Tereasa Martin negotiated a private settlement deal with Crowne Plaza Chicago O’Hare Hotel & Conference Center officials.
In a statement, lawyers for the grieving matriarch said Martin and hotel representatives agreed to keep the settlement terms private due to safety concerns, CBS News noted.
“The widespread publicity of this case, including uncontrolled speculation and social media commentary, has resulted in various threats made against various individuals in the case,” legal reps for Martin said. “One of the main terms of the settlement for all parties was maintaining the confidentiality of the settlement.”
What happened to Kenneka Jenkins?
A hotel employee found Jenkins’ body inside a walk-in freezer at the Crowne Plaza Chicago after the teen went missing for 24 hours. The 19-year-old was last seen hanging out with friends at a hotel party on Sept. 9, 2017. Authorities claimed that 31 individuals attended the hotel party that dreadful night.
Surveillance footage released in October 2017 captured Jenkins stumbling out of a lower-level elevator and struggling to maintain balance as she walked through a first-floor kitchen. The footage did not show her entering the freezer.
Authorities later concluded that Jenkins died of hypothermia.
A toxicology report also discovered that the 19-year-old had alcohol and a drug used to treat epilepsy in her system at the time of her death. Rosemont authorities ruled the teen’s tragic death as an accident and claimed no foul play was involved. However, the evidence did not stop speculation from spreading on social media.
Online, conspiracists pondered whether someone had pushed Jenkins into the freezer. Before the toxicology report was released, Martin also had doubts about her daughter’s mysterious death.
“It takes strength to open these doors… So if she couldn’t barely hold herself up, you know, she needed the wall to support her. How did she find the strength to unlock both of the double doors?” Martin told ABC 7 Chicago in 2017.
In 2018, Martin filed a $50 million wrongful death lawsuit against the hotel, naming the hotel restaurant and the establishment’s private security company as defendants. She accused all three parties of gross negligence and of “failing to secure” restricted areas of the hotel.
In the suit, Martin also accused the hotel of “maintaining a defective and faulty freezer” and alleged that the company allowed their “dangerous” freezer to “remain in operation, unsupervised and open to the public.” A lawyer for the torn mother suggested that Jenkins may have locked herself in the freezer.
