Kenneka Jenkins' Death Ruled An Accident By Hypothermia

By Stephen Gossett in News on Oct 6, 2017 9:42PM

Kenneka Jenkins / Facebook

Kenneka Jenkins' death has been ruled an accident, the Cook County Medical Examiner's Office said in a release on Friday. The cause of death is hypothermia "due to cold exposure in a walk-in freezer."

The office added that "alcohol and topiramate intoxication are significant contributing factors." Topiramate is a medication used to treat epilepsy and migraines. The level of topiramate found in her system is "within the appropriate prescribed levels to treat" conditions for which the drug is approved, but family said Kenneka was not prescribed the drug, according to the release. Her blood alcohol concentration (BAC) was 0.112, "which is higher than the 0.08 BAC commonly used to determine if an individual is too drunk to drive," the office noted.

The office ran toxicology tests "for hundreds of drugs of abuse, medications and other chemical compounds," plus date-rape drugs, including Rohypnol and ketamine. "None were found" in Jenkins' system, the office said.

There was an abrasion on Jenkins' right ankle and a purple contusion on her right leg, but no other evidence of internal or external trauma on her body, the Cook County Medical Examiner's Office said. The autopsy revealed mucosal erosions in the stomach that are indicative of hypothermia.

Also on Friday, Teresa Martin, Jenkins' mother, filed a motion asking that surveillance video and employee logs at the Rosemont hotel where Kenneka's body was found be preserved, according to the Daily Herald.

Jenkins, 19, left her home on Friday, Sept. 8 at around 11:30 p.m. on the Near West Side to attend a hotel party. Jenkins' sister said the last contact she had with Kenneka was at around 1:30 a.m. on Saturday, Sept. 9, through text message. Friends then called Martin at around 4 a.m. and told her they had lost track of Jenkins and left the Crowne Plaza Hotel, in Rosemont. Martin contacted hotel staff and police shortly thereafter. Jenkins' body was found early on Sunday, at around 1 a.m.

A barrage of social-media speculation and protests outside the hotel followed in the wake of Jenkins' death. A viral video that was viewed millions of times on Facebook, which showed figures reflected in the glasses of a woman who appeared to be inside a hotel room, was at the center of speculation.

Surveillance video from the hotel released on Sept. 15 showed Jenkins stumbling into walls, a staircase and through a kitchen area.