The family of Kenneka Jenkins, the 19-year-old who was found dead inside a walk-in freezer at a Chicago-area hotel in September 2017, will receive more than $6 million in a wrongful death settlement, NBC Chicago reported. The agreement was made public Tuesday morning as the case was set to go to trial.
Notably, Ms Jenkins 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 reported.
Security video showed Ms Jenkins stumbling through the hotel, entering an abandoned kitchen, and rounding a corner toward a walk-in freezer at 3:32 a.m., the lawsuit stated. Had staff checked the surveillance footage, they would have seen her enter the kitchen and would have been able to find her, the lawsuit said.
At about 4 am, her friends alerted her mother Tereasa Martin that they had not seen her daughter since they first left the room.
Her family went to the police to report her missing after they didn't hear from hotel staff. The Rosemont police ultimately filed a missing person report at about 1 p.m. At 3:20 a.m., police opened an investigation at the hotel and checked the security footage. Almost 24 hours later, the teenager was found unresponsive in the freezer, which had no lights on and a recorded temperature of 10 degrees Fahrenheit, The Chicago Tribune reported, citing the medical examiner.
Alcohol intoxication and the use of a drug for treating epilepsy and migraines were also "significant contributing factors," the office said. Her death was ruled an accident caused by hypothermia, according to the Cook County medical examiner's office.
The now-settled lawsuit was filed in late 2018 by Tereasa Martin against the hotel, its security provider, and others, seeking $50 million. She accused staff of negligence for failing to secure the freezer and not conducting a thorough search when Jenkins first went missing.
According to the lawsuit, out of a total settlement of $10 million, some $3.5 million will go toward legal fees. Ms Martin will receive more than $3.7 million, and two other relatives will receive $1.5 million and $1.2 million.
