Hey weirdos, before we unleash today's macabre mystery, we were wondering, have you ever heard of Wondery Plus?
It's like a secret passage to an ad free layer with early access to episodes.
You can join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or an Apple podcast or Spotify.
You're listening to a Morbid Network podcast.
Listening on Audible helps your imagination soar.
Whether you listen to stories, motivation, expert advice, any genre you love, you can be inspired to imagine new worlds, new possibilities, and new ways of thinking.
Listening can lead to positive changes in your mood, your habits, and ultimately your overall wellbeing.
Audible has an incredible selection of over 1 million audiobooks, podcasts, and Audible Originals all in one easy app.
Find the genres you love and discover new ones.
Explore bestsellers like my sister's title. new releases, plus thousands of included audiobooks, podcasts, and originals that members can listen to all they want with more added all the time.
I have been listening to the Martha's Vineyard Beach and Book Club, which actually Elena recommended to me.
She did not listen to it, but she said, girl, this title sounds so you.
And let me tell you, it did. I've been listening to it while I walk and I am absolutely loving it.
I love all the different narrators. I love Audible.
There's more to imagine when you listen.
Sign up for a free 30-day Audible trial and your first audiobook is free.
Visit audible.com slash morbid. You know that person in your life who just can't stand mayo?
Call them traumatized. Call them close-minded.
We get it. They're stuck in their ways. But here's the thing.
They just haven't tried Hellman's flavored mayo.
We're talking bold flavors that will flip even the biggest skeptics.
Spicy mayo that adds the perfect kick to your burger.
Garlic aioli that transforms ordinary fries into something extraordinary.
Chipotle mayo that turns your basic wrap into a smoky sensation.
So to all the mayo haters out there, Yes, we're looking at you.
It's time to eat your words. Because with mayo this flavorful, any hater is just a mayo lover waiting to be convinced.
Hellman's Flavored Mayo. Get ready to eat your words.
Hey weirdos, I'm Ash. And I'm Elena. And this is a mini-morbid, kind of.
Many, many, many, many, many morbid. Many morbid, many morbid, many morbid. but it's like a full length one now.
It's like a full-ish length because it's ash-centric.
So it's like a long mini. Yeah, exactly.
And this one's an important one. This is a very important one.
Um... But before I tell you what it is, we do just quickly want to tell you about some dates for the tour.
Yeah, it's important we just run through these real quick because, you know, with the COVID just floating around, it's messed up a ton of dates.
So we just want to make sure everybody...
Has it all in one place. Nobody's confused about their tickets or anything.
So just bear with us. We're going to do it real quick.
And like we've said before, if you had tickets for one show and the date got changed, that is still your ticket.
You still have tickets for your show. So with that being said, on August 11th, we're going to be at the Punchline Comedy Club in Philadelphia.
Woo. But that is actually going to be changing.
Yes, that will be changing. It's not going to be August 11th.
We just don't have a date. Yeah. But right now.
So we won't be there August 11th. No. But that was fun anyways.
But you know what? So keep an eye out. If you have a Philly ticket, that's going to change.
Going to change. Subject to change. Actually, all of these are subject to change pretty much.
I know, because honestly, these dates are locked in right now, but we all know.
We don't know what's going to happen in the fall.
COVID could just come roaring again, but we don't know.
Fingers crossed it doesn't. September 16th, 2020, we'll be at the DC Improv in Washington, DC.
Monuments. September 23rd, we're going to be at Zany's in Nashville for an early and a late show.
Fingers crossed, guys. I'm crossing my fingers.
September 24th, we're going to be at Stand Up Live in Huntsville, Alabama.
I want to be with you, Alabama. Me too. Then we have two shows at Talia Hall on October 11th in Chicago.
I'm so excited for that one. Today's case is kind of close to Chicago.
Chicago. Then, November 10th, we're going to be at the Comedy Zone in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Charlotte, we're coming. 11-11, make a wish because it's November 11th and we're going to be at the Good Nights Comedy Club in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Ooh, good luck. Yay. And then... What's three?
Is that March? Yes. I hate myself. What's three?
March 26th, we're going to be at the Wilbur Theatre in Boston.
Guys, come on. Buy tickets to that one because we'll be there by March.
For sure. March COVID is going to be a distant memory.
We're all going to be like, fuck that guy.
Exactly. Everyone buy tickets to the Wilba show because it's going to be great.
It's going to be so beautiful. So great.
And then one last show on January 27th, we are going to be in Greenwood Village.
Greenwood Village, Colorado. So yes, if you have a ticket for that, you probably got an email that it changed to January 27th. that is currently like the placeholder.
So hopefully it's then but subject to change.
Yeah. Just like all these dates, that's the date right now.
But everybody keep an eye out. We'll try to keep you abreast of the situation.
I don't like that at all. we're gonna keep you you know informed about this whole thing as we hear it so just keep an ear out keep an eye out we'll let you know we'll keep you a chesticle to the situation chesticle of the situation perfect and now because this is a quote-unquote mini no more bid no more business no more business no more business okay Well, this week I'm going to be talking about an extremely important case.
What is it? I'm going to be talking about Kanika Jenkins.
This is a wild case. Wild case. Before I start this case, I want to say that I am completely in the middle.
I have not made an opinion yet. Yeah, it's a really hard... case.
It's a very hard case. It's so before I start anything, I want to say that I full heartedly can see both sides.
I can see. thinking she was murdered. Maybe she was.
I can see thinking maybe she just ended up in the freezer somehow.
An accident. on accident, I can see that.
I can totally see both sides and I think... I mean, I respect both sides.
Tell me what you think. Keep it respectful.
Yeah, the reason we're kind of saying this ahead of time is this is not going to be another Kendrick Johnson.
No, thank you. Issue where we were pretty clear that, you know, we formulated an opinion, but we also said we don't know.
And we said, you know, have a nice discussion.
And some people were straight up assholes in the comments.
So we welcome debate that is respectful, but if you start to like come and say we didn't do our jobs or we're stupid or something, I'm just going to shut the comments off and block people who say that.
We both put a lot of work into our research.
Like, I mean, I double fact checked. I watched videos on this like 42 different times.
And it's one thing to say, hey, I found this bit of information about this that you missed.
That's awesome. I love that. I welcome that.
Bring it. Bring it for sure because I want it.
So just be respectful because we are respectful of you.
So, you know, and... Honestly, the majority of people, especially on the Kendrick Johnson episode, were super respectful.
They had additional information or if they just straight up disagreed, which you have You're allowed to disagree.
Because there's obviously no actual, like, legal conclusion to this yet.
Because it has been reopened, I'm just saying.
So maybe we'll get a legal conclusion. But I just wanted to put that out there that we welcome respectful debates and we expect it, especially...
Good catch. Because I said expect and I was going straight for it.
But we expect it especially during, you know, cases like this where it's such a high time.
Yeah. And high emotions. There's a lot going on.
So everybody be nice. That's all we're asking.
Okay. So with that being said. Kanika Jenkins was a 19-year-old girl living in Lawndale, Chicago.
Chicago. Chicago. She was super hardworking.
She had two jobs and she was planning on going to nursing school.
For that young to have two jobs is pretty impressive.
It's pretty badass. Everyone around Kanika said that she just loved to laugh.
And if she was around you and you were in a bad mood, that was just not going to happen.
I love people like that. You can't be in a bad mood around me.
I'm going to make you laugh. I'm going to turn that frown upside down.
She was. Everyone says she was sweet, loving, really great person, and everybody wanted to be around her.
That makes me sad. Most of all, people say they miss her voice and her laugh.
That's how I feel about my grandmother. So I feel like it's like, whenever somebody says I miss their voice, it always like...
Her best friend is in an interview. Actually, Nev from Catfish started this, like, true crime show.
I think, like... a year or two ago on MTV.
It was like True Life, True Crime. Oh, really?
And this was the first episode. I didn't know that existed.
Yeah, it was a pretty good episode, but I didn't get a lot of stuff from it. sounds kind of like uh like a ripoff of buzzfeed unsolved yeah yeah yeah you know i'm just saying well just sprinkle that in there yeah you know well neve is problematic so Yeah, so that's good.
Well, we like Ryan and Shane better. Yes.
Well, this was the first episode. So I think a lot of people know the overview of this case, and I think...
Like I said in the beginning, it's really easy to come to many different conclusions.
For sure. And I think it's really important to look at all the theories surrounding Kanika's death so that you can come to your own conclusion.
Yeah, for sure. Just facts, facts, facts.
Facts, facts, facts. And there's also just a lot to look at in this case, to be honest with you.
Yeah. Because Kanika was found dead in a freezer.
Which already, it's like, what now? Suspicious as fuck.
Like, what? It's like the Phoebe Hansjuke thing.
It's like, whoa, whoa, whoa, this is a weird scenario right off the jump.
Right, exactly. And that one was like cut and dry 100%.
Well, and we're going to be updating that one soon too.
Yeah, we got to. So, yeah, she was found in a freezer on the property of the Crowne Plaza Hotel on September 10th around midnight.
And before that, she had been to a birthday party in one of the hotel rooms.
So this hotel was located in Rosemont, Illinois, which is like a little less than a half hour from Lawndale where she lived.
Okay. It really wasn't that crazy that she and her friends were heading to this hotel party because this is something that they did fairly often.
Yeah, hotel party. Hotel motel holiday inn.
Rosemont, first of all, is a pretty wealthy suburb.
And it has a ton of hotels. Like if you look it up on Google, it's like offers like this, this and like many hotels.
We have tons of places to stay. Stay here.
It's great. And it's a much safer place to hang out.
But Rosemont's Black population is only about 3%.
Oh, wow. And I think that's pretty important to keep in mind.
Absolutely it is. Especially as we go over the details of some of this case.
So Lawndale, where Kanika and her friends were from, is one of the most dangerous places to live.
And I think she was on the west side, which is specifically more dangerous.
So just like a lot of crime. Yeah. It's not safe because there's various shootings.
There's assaults. If I actually looked at it, you know how you can look it up and see like how many like shootings and assaults are in a certain place. place it was just like tons and tons and tons yeah it's sad but that I mean I think they were doing the right thing by going to another part of town like they were trying to stay out of trouble Yeah, absolutely.
They were trying to stay out of harm's way.
In a safe place. Yeah. Right. They're going to this party on September 8th.
They show up technically on September 9th because it's like 1.15 in the morning.
Oh, okay. So I'm going to say September 9th.
Yeah. And they head up to the room where they're going to be celebrating their friend Irene's birthday.
Okay. Now, we're going to talk a lot about Irene later on.
Hmm. So over the course of the night, Kanika went on Facebook Live a lot and so did her friends, which I didn't even know there was like a live feature on Facebook.
I actually didn't either, so that's really impressive.
It is. It's weird that cases now are starting to have this element.
Yeah. A lot of them are. People using Facebook Live and crimes happening like while it's happening or just being able to have that like breadcrumb trail.
Right. Yeah. So... Yeah, I'm going to get more into that, too, like crimes happening while the Facebook lives, because there's a lot of wonderings around if this was happening while it was being broadcasted on Facebook Live.
So we should do a whole episode on Facebook Live.
Facebook Live. Crimes. Yeah, that's a good idea.
Or just live, like, on the internet. I like it.
Yeah. It's a good idea. Look at us brainstorming in the middle of it.
Right? Well, in one video, Irene is on Facebook Live, and although there's a lot of background noise, you can definitely hear Kanika saying, girl, I'm not drunk.
Hmm. Okay. Usually when someone says that.
I literally have that in my notes. Irene later says that Kanika was very drunk, actually. and that they were like a turn-up crew is what she says.
So it wasn't that weird that Kanika was like super drunk.
Okay. They were having a party. It's her birthday.
In a hotel. Right. That's the whole point is that you're in a safe place that you can...
Right. And go crazy. Exactly. So Irene says that that's how you knew that Kanika was drunk when she was saying that she wasn't.
That makes sense. And I literally, I wrote down, I was like, honestly, I think that's the case with everybody.
That's how you know I'm drunk. That's the universal sign of I'm drunk is I am not drunk.
Girl, I am not drunk. So, there's a lot to unpack with the Facebook live videos, but we're gonna get to that in a minute.
So Kanika and the four friends she went to the party with decide to call it a night and head home around 3 a.m.
Okay. While they're heading out, Kanika realizes that she left her phone in the hotel room.
So I've seen two variations of what happens now.
In one scenario, her friends leave her in the hallway and they head back up to grab her phone.
Okay. And then in another scenario, they're already outside and Kanika goes back in to get her phone.
Okay. So either way, there's security footage of Kanika by herself, like, wandering through the hotel room.
So at one point, she's alive. She's alone.
Yeah. For a good period of time she's alone and alive.
Okay. And she's actually on security footage and she is like very clearly like very inebriated.
Like, should not have been left alone. I was just going to say, so she shouldn't have been left alone.
No. Rule of thumb, and I'm not saying her friends did anything wrong here.
I'm not trying to make anybody feel guilty.
But if your friends are super drunk and you're super drunk, stay together.
Yeah. Do not split up. Don't let your friend go home with someone.
Nope. Don't let your friend go in somewhere alone.
Because they're going to be... They might be mad at you in the moment, but they're going to get it when...
I think we've all been in a situation where you've been like, no, bitch, you can't do that.
Yeah, you can't. And your friend's like, fuck you.
And then the next morning you're like, oh my God, thank you for not letting me do that.
Exactly. When they when they wake up alive the next day, they're going to thank you for it.
Right. So like I said, she was not in a state to be left alone.
Like you can turn up as much as you want to, but stick together, stick together.
So around 3.30 a.m., Kanika's friends are like, okay, we still haven't linked back up.
Like, where is she? She's been gone and unaccounted for for a half an hour as far as they're concerned.
Yeah. Yeah. So they're like, where is she at?
And at this point, you see them on the hotel security video looking for Kanika, like they're wandering around the hallways.
They're like, they went up to the front desk and they asked if they could see the security footage.
And the guy's like, no, like, no. And like, basically, Kanika's best friend, Bri Bri, She said that nobody wanted to help them.
Like, Nobody at the hotel wanted to help them.
The security guard was like, you need to get out of the hallway.
Like, get the fuck out of here. They were probably just like, you're drunk, girls.
Go away. Right. Exactly. It's like, good job.
And I don't think it helped that they were in a suburban community.
Like white area. A white area, unfortunately.
Oh, no, I'm sure that didn't. I think they were treated less than. absolutely and no no i don't think they were they just were i was just gonna say that literally is what happened right So, they decide to call Kanika's mom because something is clearly wrong.
Yeah. Because now it's 4 a.m. Ooh. I'd be freaking out. call her mom at 4am and they tell her the situation.
And they explained to her that they have Kanika's keys and now they have her phone.
So I'm assuming that the scenario where they went back to get her phone is what happened.
Yeah. So, Kanika's mom is named Teresa.
Okay. So, when they call Teresa, she hops in her car ASAP and heads over there.
Poor Teresa. She goes into the hotel and she's like, I need to see the surveillance tapes like that's going to tell me where she is.
You don't stop a mama. No. The staff tells her that if she is going to see the surveillance tapes, that she needs to have a missing persons report.
That's the only way they can hand them over.
So she's like, cool, let me go get one. I'll go get one to wait here.
Yeah, like, don't move. So she calls the police and she tells them the situation.
Oh, no. Now, this is a case where I really hope the operator has like a little hindsight these days and wishes that they handled this a lot differently.
Oh, this is going to make me angry. Because I already was hyped up when I was getting this research together, but now I'm still hyped up.
Oh, okay. Hit me. Yeah. She explains the situation and she literally tells the operator like it's this is not right.
Like, I don't feel right. that this is not like Kanika.
Yeah. And the operator goes, well, you know, she might be running around with friends or maybe she passed out at a friend's house.
Like, let's give it a couple hours and if she still has turned up call back it's like no i one i just told you that this is not how she is and two right it's her friends who are telling me that she's not with so she's not with her friends like what so she's like okay well can i file a missing persons report anyway like I don't care what you have to say.
Like, fuck off. Like, you don't get to make this decision.
No, this is not about you. So he's like, well, that could take a bit to get filed.
And then the security footage, it's going to take a while to get that from the hotel and have the police go over it.
So why don't you just wait a few hours and just like he literally tells her to try and relax.
So your solution to this is like, well, it's going to take a while.
She'll turn up. So like, fuck it, right?
Yeah, it's going to take a while, so let's wait a while.
What? You know what? Paperwork is paperwork.
And like your kid will probably show up at some point.
And it's like you're telling her not only to like that her kid is probably just wandering around.
And she's like, oh, I'm sorry, do you know her?
Or passed out. And then you're telling her to try to relax.
Yeah. And literally, I quote, he was like, it might take a bit.
It might take a bit. Like, why do you take this a little more seriously?
And it's like, I don't care if it's going to take a bit. right i want to file the fucking report like oh i'm sorry 911 operator i'm so sorry to disturb you my bad sorry that i have to put paperwork on your desk shit so she's like okay why in a missing persons case would you just wait a few hours yeah we all know that that's the most crucial time is like the first few hours yeah it doesn't makes sense.
It's really shitty. But kay. But kay. So Teresa calls back in a couple hours when her child Still hasn't turned up because as we all know at this point, she's passed out in a freezer and at this point is probably dead already in the freezer, which is awful.
So the police go to the hotel for the first time around 1 p.m. on September 9th.
So she's been missing since basically 3.30.
And they just show up at 1 p.m. The first phone call that she put into them was at 7, 7 a.m.
That's crazy. So why did it take that long?
So she was finally able to file a missing persons report just a few hours earlier than the time that they showed up.
I think it was like around like 10 or 11.
So. the police get there, they go, they do a search, and nothing turns up.
Like, they're looking around, looking for Kanika, they don't see her, and they're like, okay, like, we're gonna come back, but, like...
Let's look at other possibilities. And she's like, no.
So they leave and Teresa starts going door to door, like knocking on doors.
Good for her. Yeah. So then the fucking hotel has the audacity to call the police on Teresa because they're saying that she's disturbing the guests. yeah, she's going to disturb this whole fucking place until she finds her kid.
Right, exactly. Like, I'm sorry, are you mad at her?
I would have turned that place inside out for my kids.
So it's like, and she was, I give this woman so much credit and my heart like genuinely breaks for her.
Because you can see her, like, knocking on the doors, like, just searching desperately for Kanika.
That really hurts. That, like, makes my stomach hurt just thinking about that.
Yeah. So the hotel calls the police on her.
They show up. And then while they look over the footage, of like they're trying to figure out they can see Kaninka on the footage and then all of a sudden she just like disappears or something.
A manager finds her in the freezer. Now, at this point, she's dead.
This is at 1225 a.m. on September 10th. Wow.
So that's 21 hours after she went missing.
Wow. 21 hours. And. I'm sorry, but this all could have, like, if they had started this search earlier, they perhaps could have found her and, like, maybe she could have been treated for hypothermia at this point.
She might have still been alive. Well, and a whole hell of a lot happened in that time.
Like, we don't know what happened. It's all time that's unaccounted for.
Exactly. So there's a lot of opinions about the demeanor of the employee that found Kanika's body, and I think it's weird.
Yeah. Personally, I just think it's super weird because he's not... running back around the corner, like with a freaked out look on his face.
He's just walking back around the corner to like go get the police.
He's walking like somewhat quickly, but he doesn't look disturbed at all. yeah that's a little weird and if you obviously you can't like you know I can't judge how somebody reacts to something we always try to say like we can't judge reaction because everybody reacts differently but like when you find a dead body in a freezer Well, and especially the way that her body was found.
If you type in her name to Google, it pops right up.
Just FYI. Oh, I know. She's like. curled in the corner one of her shoes is off like her her shirt is like ruffled up a little bit I think she was wearing like a little bit of a crop top but She's very much in like an alarming position.
Yeah. And it should be alarming to open a freezer and see a dead human being.
Right. So he calmly goes to get the police and tell them, So now the police and the medical examiners have to investigate whether this case involves foul play or if this is just a horrible accident.
Mm-hmm. So the ME arrives at 3.08 a.m. And I wanted to ask you, is that weird?
Because they found the body at 12.25 and the ME doesn't get there until three hours later.
Oh, yeah. That's a long time. Yeah, like, that's ridiculous.
Yeah, that's a long period of time. Why did it take that long?
That's the same thing that happened in the Kendrick Johnson case.
Right, because it was a period of hours before they showed up.
And it's like, that's not normal protocol.
Yeah, you're on call for a reason. And that's just not how you handle things.
And you're losing valuable information. Right.
With those hours, you are losing a lot of information that you could get Well, and at this point, they opened the freezer, so she's also, for lack of a better term, thawing out.
Yeah, exactly. So this is already, her body temperature and decomp and all that is already being skewed by this freezer. time of death it's already you know it's gonna that's gonna stop like liver mortis it's gonna stop like Because basically it's like preserving her.
It's literally preserving you. And so it's going to stop all these natural things from happening that help you date death. time of death and now they're opening the freezer so that's starting to thaw it out so now we're accelerating slightly but that's also skewing it so we've already we're already skewing a skewed thing Exactly.
And it's like, I think of like when we, because I do like rapid autopsies for research.
I've seen you get called in. You have to fly in.
We have to be in there by, I mean, at the very, I mean, two hours is pushing it. getting in there.
Yeah, I would assume so. And so we like to be in there within the hour and starting that autopsy.
So hours is just not... It's unacceptable.
It's just not acceptable. And it's like, what were you doing?
Like, it's... it's the morning your whole job is getting called into death scenes like you weren't at dinner it's 12 p.m when they called or 12 a.m when you just sit up put those put your clothes on your scrub on tired shoes.
So yeah, they arrive at 3.08 a.m. and then they transport her body around five.
What are your thoughts on that? I mean, because what time did they get there?
They got there at 3.08 and they transfer her.
I think it was at 5.15. I mean, that seems like a long time, but if they're, you know, doing stuff at the scene.
Like assessing the scene. I guess that could make sense.
I thought it seemed like a long time, but that's obviously not my profession.
It's not a hard place to get a body out of if it was like a difficult area, like sometimes in like the woods or in like water. or something, it'll take a long time because you're trying to get them out of where they are.
Right, but she was like, right there. Yeah, this is just an easy...
I don't know. Seems like a long time to assess it at a scene.
That's what I thought. Well, Teresa and Kanika's sister, Lenore, are able to see her body before they transport it.
I love that name, by the way, Lenore. Lenore is such a cool name.
There used to be a client at the salon I worked at and her name was Lenore and she was the sweetest woman ever.
It's just a cool name. It's a cool ass name.
Sorry, that was such a side note. Well, so the toxicology report comes back and this is weird and I bet you'll have more to speak of on this than I will, but.
Her blood alcohol level was 0.112, which is a lot higher than the legal limit, which is 0.08.
She was turning up. And topiramate and alcohol were found in her system.
I'm not sure if I'm saying that right. I looked it up.
Topiramate is a drug that can treat migraines and treat epilepsy.
Oh, okay. Kanika didn't have epilepsy. The town of Agde in France is famous for sun, sand, sea and sex.
But lately, life on the coast has taken a strange turn.
The town's mayor, a respected pillar of the community, has been arrested for corruption.
His wife claims he's been bewitched by a beautiful clairvoyant.
Then there's the mysterious phone calls that local people have been getting.
I am the Archangel Michael. The whole town has been thrown into chaos.
As the mayor is unable to carry out his duties, I would like to address you all.
Legal proceedings have been initiated. Join me, Anna Richardson, and journalist Leo Schick for The Mystic and the Mayor as we investigate a story of power, corruption, and magic.
Binge all episodes of The Mystic and the Mare exclusively and ad-free right now on Wondery Plus.
Start your free trial in Apple Podcasts, Spotify or the Wondery app.
I was going to say, and if you have migraines, you know that you can't take your medication.
You can't drink with it. Right. Because so.
From someone who has migraine, in fact, had a migraine all last night.
Yeah, exactly. Literally just coming out of the haze of a migraine.
Right. You definitely. Good thing it was my case and not yours.
Thank goodness, because I'm still in like that woozy migraine area.
But yeah, no. Well, and it's just weird that it was like to pure a maintenance system because that's not a party drug.
And Irene, the friend from before, said that some of the people at the party did occasionally take pills, but Kanika was not into that she didn't like how they made her feel and she I think they said like maybe she tried it once and she was like no thanks I'm good And I can tell you every migraine medication I've taken besides Excedrin migraine has made me feel... really woozy and yucky.
It's not by any means something you would take to feel good.
No. They don't make you feel good. Well, it's not something she would take recreationally.
No, it's not a party. The only thing I could think of is if she did is a migraine medication that she maybe I mean, she was younger.
Sometimes younger people don't listen to the rules of like you can't drink on this.
I've seen plenty of people do it. I definitely drink and have not.
Yeah, exactly. So maybe she just didn't.
Maybe she had a headache and she took it and then... But I wonder how she got that instead of like you think the typical headache like a 19-year-old is going to take like Advil or like aspirin or Aleve or...
Well, maybe she was prescribed it. Her mom didn't really have anything to speak of.
I was going to say, because she didn't say that she suffered from migraines.
No, like this wasn't something that was prescribed to her.
No epilepsy, no migraines. Okay. So it was weird.
You wouldn't take a migraine medication unless you have migraines.
Right. You would just take, like you said.
Well, so this leads to the question, was she drugged at the party that she was at?
Again, I say that that would be a good one to drug with because my last migraine medication, I literally couldn't function properly.
Right. Well, they tell you, like, not to drive and not to do anything.
There's no way I could have. And then the other thing is that alcohol and opiumate, when together, they heighten the effects of each other.
Oh, yeah. So that's why she was so, like.
Which alcohol is a depressant. Right. So.
Well, and that's why she, like, I'm not saying this in, like, a mean way.
She was barely able to walk. At one point, she walks a little bit into a side reeling and almost trips over it and has to level herself up.
Yeah, so those two things together were probably just making... She's drugged.
Heightening the experience, like, 100%. Yeah.
That's very... That's interesting. I didn't know that little...
Yeah, that is weird to me. And all of her friends agree, like, because Irene was saying, like, yeah, she tried it once and she didn't like it.
All of her friends and family agree that it was not her deal to take pills.
And remember, she wanted to go to nursing school, so she wouldn't have drank and taken a migraine medication.
Yeah, that's true. And again, that's not something you take to turn up is a migraine medication.
No, definitely not. So the cause of death after investigation is reported accidental.
It's ruled accidental. it says that Kanika died of exposure to the elements, the freezer, and that the alcohol and topiramate in her system were basically... contributing factors okay so all the people at this party got cleared by law enforcement Okay.
Which I don't really know how they cleared all these people, but... But, like, go off?
Seems to me like... Go off, sis? It seems to me like maybe. something happened at this party but we're gonna get there yeah so Kanika's funeral drew hundreds and hundreds of people if you can see it online i watched like a little tidbit of it and i'm not gonna lie to you i started crying because it was like people are so so so sad like because from what you said she was like she was so loved and people that didn't even know her were coming to the funeral so and the people that didn't know her that were coming to the funeral, some of them were like going up to her mom, Teresa, and like offering explanations for what happened.
And it's like, oh, There's a time and a place and the funeral is not the time or the place.
That's not it. yeah it's like take a seat no exactly take a seat several seats back like do not just take a seat in your car and drive away yeah Because I do not walk up to a grieving mother and sit there and try to tell her what happened to her kid.
I'm cool that you want to save the day, but can you fuck off for a minute?
Read the room. Right. So, the funeral happens, so many people came, and then Kanika's friends and family And they all start to talk and they're like, we don't think that she just stumbled into that freezer, laid down and died.
Like, we don't buy that. And the pictures from the freezer that the family saw and that the public can see are definitely strange.
And I could see why somebody would question, like, what the fuck happened.
Yeah. So... One of Kanika's shoes is completely off, which is leaving one of her feet bare.
And on that bare foot, on the side closer to her heel, underneath her ankle, there's a pretty significant scrape that was bleeding.
Okay. So she has a bloody foot. Her shoe is off.
Behind her is like a hair tie. And then in front of her is a tube of lip gloss.
Okay. Okay. So there is this thing, I think it's called paradoxical undressing.
Yep. So people thought... Like in the Diet Love Pass.
Yeah, that's what it reminded me of. People thought that maybe she was starting to do that, like, by taking the shoe off, and then, like... she just kind of passed out due to the drug in her system and everything.
That I don't buy. I don't buy the Paradoxial Undressing.
What I do think happened is that maybe she stumbled into the freezer And the door is really heavy, so it is weird to think that she stumbled into this freezer and was able to open the door.
That is something that strikes up questions.
And her mom is like, I don't think that she was going to be able to open that to me.
It just seems like a strange thing for a drunk person to do is like really struggle to open a door to get somewhere.
Usually they just try to like fall into whatever they can.
Right, exactly. So, I mean, maybe she did fall in by accident, but what I think is that, like, you know how, like, have you ever tripped over a door, kind of, like, and the door kind of, like, pulls your shoe?
Yep. I think her shoe, she tripped over the door and her foot got caught in the doorway, pulled off her shoe and also scraped like her ankle.
Because the door was like metal. Yeah. It was probably sharp on the bottom.
Or it scraped when she was dragged into the freezer.
Exactly. And it fell off in the same way. exactly you could see both you could see both yeah so both of those make total sense they make total sense And so because of the way her body was found and the way this case was handled from start to finish, people were outraged because they were like, no, like, she didn't just fall in there.
People thought she was carried in there.
They're like, why was her shoe off? And there needs to be more significant investigation into it.
And there just really wasn't. Also, I forgot to mention, her hair was also slightly matted, which you could explain because the...
She was in a freezer and then they opened the door so it started to melt.
So maybe like her hair got wet and matted that way.
Okay. Or... there is the possibility, and some people think that she was raped, so your hair would get matted that way.
Absolutely. So that... Did they check? I didn't find anything saying that they did check, but there's no... information that she was raped like there's no either way so there's a possibility that that wasn't even checked Right.
And because it was ruled accidental, they wouldn't they wouldn't object.
Yeah. So people are pissed. Protests start going on outside of the hotel. people online start offering up all these theories that, It was a hit that was set up by her friends that she was found in the freezer because somebody wanted to sell her organs on the black market.
Damn. And that was the best way to keep them fresh.
People say, like I said, that she was raped at the party.
And people also wonder about the potential that maybe a security guard tried to assault her and she fought back. but yeah that seems like it could be yeah a possibility and they think maybe she fought back and something went wrong and he threw her in the freezer and dipped and like you just said that's That could explain why her shoe and her foot was scraped and why her hair was matted.
Yeah. Both of those things make sense. They make perfect sense.
Now, this is where it's going to get, like, super, super intense.
So we're going to talk about some of these theories in depth, and then I want to go back to some of those Facebook videos.
Okay. So there's the video of Irene where you can, like I said in the beginning, you hear Kanika saying, like, girl, I'm not drunk.
Okay. Right after that, somebody says something like along the lines of, okay, like just enjoy yourself, Kanika.
So obviously something was up at this party.
And you hear her say back, I am enjoying myself.
Yeah, that's just a strange interaction.
Right. Then at another point in the video, Irene mentioned something to somebody in the background about $200.
And there's been countless theories about what the fuck this $200 was about.
So, was it for Kanika's organs? Was it the price of the hit?
Like, people wonder all about that. The only interview that Irene has ever done is with this guy.
He's a YouTuber named Zach TV. Okay. And she explains that the $200 comment was in regards to the price of a lost parking ticket.
So at this hotel, if you lost your parking ticket and you had to get your car out of the garage, you had to pay a $200 fine, basically.
So, and it followed up. Like, if you looked at their rules and regulations, that's, they did charge $200.
Yeah, because I've seen hotels charge a shit ton for that.
Which is a little bit of a ridiculous fee, if you ask me.
A little bit of price gouging, but OK. But OK.
So that could potentially explain away that.
And I think that's a pretty good explanation.
But I don't know. I still don't know. Also, this is just a side note.
I think it's important to say. um zach tv later died in a drive-by shooting oh shit he was shot in the head and the neck Oh, my God.
That's so sad. Really sad. Wow. People on YouTube and on other sites, they've also slowed down the audio in some of these videos.
And they cancel out like the background noise.
So in one of the videos, you hear somebody say, I think it's Irene.
They stupid. They in there raping that girl.
Yeah. So I watched... Are you kidding me?
No, dead serious. But... I watched one of the videos where they slowed down the audio and they tried to, like, bring the noise levels up.
And you do hear they stupid, but I didn't hear the part where they said they and they're raping that girl.
Like, I listened to it over and over and over again.
And I couldn't hear it. It's like an EVP.
It's hard to. Yeah. But if anybody else listens to that and they hear it, like, I want to know.
Like, if any of our listeners listen to it.
I want to listen to it now. I haven't listened to it. send you the video yeah i i'm not saying it's not there i'm just saying i can't hear it Huh.
So if you go onto the YouTube and watch the video of Irene, there's all kinds of different timestamps in the comments where people hear like fucked up, eerie things in these Facebook Live videos.
Shit. In the beginning, you hear a male's voice, and I heard this, say...
We about to murder somebody. which is like that could be we're about to murder somebody or it could be like you know what you're annoying me i'm about to murder you that can also be very ominous yeah Then at another point in the video, you hear someone say, help me.
And then Irene turns the music up. Like real loud.
I definitely heard, so people say that you hear help me.
I heard a squeaky noise that could have sounded like help me.
But I didn't hear it very clearly say help me.
Okay. Now, again, I'm not saying it's not there.
I want everybody, if you feel like you want to, go listen to it and tell me what you hear.
Yeah, I want to listen to it. And I want you to watch it and see what you hear.
And then turning the music up right after that is very... That's the thing that made me feel weird.
And you definitely hear something there. and it's like in a like scared voice almost oh yeah there's also now this freaks me the fuck out There's also a point in the video where someone is holding the phone, but Irene is still in the shot and she goes to hit a blunt and it kind of looks like she's saying after she exhales, help. to the camera but she doesn't say it out loud it looks like she mouths the word help and that i saw clear as fucking day Really?
Yes. Like clear as day. If I show you and you don't see it, I'm going to lose my mind.
And to me, that. is significant because it's not just a video being taken this is facebook live so she's hoping someone's seeing that right And then other people were saying, because she's wearing sunglasses in the video.
They are inside, but she's wearing sunglasses.
And you can kind of see some people think the reflection is of Kanika.
It's so hard for me to tell in the video.
But there's Kanika and some people say that it looks like a guy in a red sweater is above her.
And like at some point she says she gets mad at him for something.
I think she said like you slapped me or something like I'm out.
She says something along those lines. Kanika says that.
Oh, that's huge. And then the guy says, are you going to ride with me or not?
Oh, that's, to me, this is already, like, some shit is going down here.
Weird shit going down at the party, for sure.
Yeah. And it doesn't look like Kanika is having a smooth time here.
No. And the thing that I did hear clear as day is somebody said, just try to enjoy yourself.
She's like, I am enjoying myself. Like, fuck off, basically.
See that? And I saw clear as motherfucking day, Irene look at the camera and mouth the word help.
And you know what? In regards to like possibly her being drugged, which to me makes sense.
It makes sense that she was drugged. I think she had to have been drugged.
I think someone drugged her. And... For her to like because when you think about it, when you're saying to someone like you're really drunk and they're like, I'm not drunk.
Your reaction would be like, all right, just like be careful. right i mean like just like take take care of yourself saying just try to have fun is rapey It's super rapey.
That's being like. It's a girl that says that to her.
But who knows if the girl's in on it. Wasn't on it.
Right. And it's like, there's a lot of girls that help dudes do this shit.
And so for somebody to say that, it's almost like being like, loosen up.
That's exactly what it sounded like. Just loosen up and let it happen.
And it sounded annoyed. It was like, Jesus Christ, Kanika, have a good time.
That's what it sounded like. It's strange, at least.
Obviously, this is all us speculating on a thing that we were not attending.
Right. But to me, that's what it looks like.
It's definitely... It's definitely... And again, I'm not saying I was there and I know for sure.
No, me either. This is my... Because like I said, there's some things that I didn't hear that other people did hear.
Yeah, absolutely. So I just, there's definitely some weird shit for sure.
This is weird. Yeah. And the drugging thing.
Mm-hmm. As far as I'm, I don't see another explanation.
I don't either. If she didn't have migraines, you're not taking migraine medication.
You're just not. It's not only just a migraine medication.
It's an epilepsy medication. Like she didn't have epilepsy.
Yeah. No. So Kanika's family thinks that there's more footage on the security camera and that somehow it was fucked with.
That's always the way, man. Always the way.
They always only give portions. Because the last footage is Kanika walking like around. the corner to the freezer.
And her mom says that when she was there, she saw cameras pointing toward the freezer but that they told her there's no cameras that point to the freezer.
It's what she was looking at was like sprinklers or like fire things.
Okay. So I'm like, I mean, I definitely have confused them for cameras before, but I think Teresa knew what the fuck she was doing while she was there, and I think she saw cameras.
Yeah. Yeah. But there was an expert that weighed in and said they reviewed all the files that were sent to law enforcement and they were ETC files, which are basically impossible to send if they're edited.
Oh, okay. So some people think it was edited.
Some people are like it would be near impossible to send an ETC file edited.
And I don't know anything about that. I don't either.
And basically it's very black and white.
Like you either know about it or you don't.
So if anybody knows about it. Let us know.
Nicely. They also say that, like I said before, how would she be able to push that door open?
If she was. That's definitely one of the things that's confusing me because, like... Unless she maybe, like, fell into it.
Like... But even that, it's like... That's a heavy door to just stumble into.
When you're drunk or in a state, which she was in a drugged state as well.
It's like you're not looking to like exert force upon things.
You're looking to just flop onto something.
A hundred percent. You're looking to flop into bed.
You're literally looking to just fall into something and have it open.
You're not looking to have to put forth Right.
Any kind of force. And then the other thing is that there was an emergency latch on the inside of this freezer.
So it's as simple as just pushing the latch.
Now, if you're drugged and drunk, you're not going to realize that.
And it was also super dark in there. Like when she was in there.
Oh, that's really scary. Yeah. Fucking terrifying.
If she was alive in there, that's really, that's like a whole other layer of terrified.
Well, so people question, like, why wouldn't she have pulled that latch?
But that's what I say. I'm like, if it's dark in there and you're drugged and drunk, you're not going to see it.
You might not even see it if you were sober and in a panic.
And if you were put in there, who's to say that somebody is not on the other side of that door holding it fucking shut?
If there's no cameras pointing towards it.
It locked toward the outside. or locked from the outside.
Yeah. So. On the opposite side of that, people say that the most likely sequence of events is that she wandered down there, she stumbled into the freezer, she didn't know what she was doing, and that she tripped over the door and that pulled off her shoe, like how I was saying earlier.
That's basically like the argument for she, this was an accident.
That's what the argument is. And she didn't have any blunt force trauma.
She didn't have any head injuries. Not that they said in the autopsy that was released, but... Because it feels like if she...
If she just fell into there, she would have a bump on the head or something.
Exactly. And she only had, on the autopsy, it only states about one bruise and it was on her leg okay so yeah so that's that doesn't I mean obviously stranger things have happened but like to me right if you're falling into a freezer You're going to hit your head.
You're going to hit your head on something.
Especially the way that she was positioned.
She's face down when they find her. And it doesn't feel like if you're that drunk that you're falling over something.
You might not be able to put your hands out.
And if you did put your hands out, you'd probably hurt your hands.
Right, exactly. But the autopsy is very, like, minimal, which is weird.
It's because they did what they did in Kendrick Johnson.
You go in, you make an assumption about the case, and you work off of that assumption. looking at it to tell you when you're an investigator or like an ME or something like that you should go into a scene and you should let the scene tell you Before you go into it.
You don't go in there saying, this looks like this.
You go, no, you tell me. Yeah, you tell me what happened.
You're the whole vessel for, like, a dead person to speak.
Like, that's supposed to be your... Not for nothing, do you think these cops really cared about this black girl that died in Rosemont?
Doesn't sound like it. No, it definitely doesn't sound like it. black population.
This is real frustrating. It's fucked up.
So, that's basically all the So there's a lot of back and forth, like I said at the beginning, about was this murder?
Was it a setup or was it just a tragic accident?
Yeah. So at the end of the day, no matter what it was, it could have been avoided.
Yeah. Oh, 100%. Because if law enforcement had acted faster, they would have got down to that freezer.
The hotel would have been searched. That's how they would have got down there.
And they potentially could have saved her.
Yeah. I'm not saying that she was still alive, but you don't know.
And that's the whole reason of why you're there is to act fast.
It's a fucking emergency. And to look at it from all angles.
And this just wasn't treated like an emergency.
No, it definitely wasn't. I quickly want to go over two things to explain why these theories seem so wild because.
People are like, it's ridiculous that they thought her organs were going to be sold on the black market.
Like, it's ridiculous. That makes no sense.
Yeah, people here. that and they immediately go to like, that's nuts.
You're crazy. And it's like, no, it happens.
It does happen. And it's really not as crazy. as some people think that it's like a setup or anything like that it's not weird to take it that far because there have been instances where people of color were not completely taken care of and They were medically misled.
Yep. So with that, I quickly just want to talk about the most famous case of this, which is the case of Henrietta Lacks.
Ooh. So... When you learn about HeLa cells in school, you learn that these cells were basically donated by Henrietta.
Yeah. That's not the case. So researchers noticed the cells from a cancerous tumor on Henrietta's cervix.
She went in because of vaginal bleeding and Basically, they found out she had a tumor on her cervix and it was malignant.
The researcher that found this, they're looking at the cells and they're realizing, wow, these They're like so rapidly increasing in numbers like this.
I've never seen anything like this. And ultimately it leads to helping get a polio vaccine.
Yes. So. Henrietta didn't know that they were taking these cells and she never gave consent for them to take them.
That's fucked up. They also brought her children in for blood work and like they weren't told the real reason for why they were doing blood work.
Yeah. It was done in the children and they basically were told that they just weren't told the real reason for the blood work.
And then Henrietta dies in 1951 and the family never received any kind of compensation. for all that she did all that she contributed unknowingly to modern science and they made it seem like she just donated it and she was like such a great woman for doing that but it was like No, she didn't know.
You didn't even give her a chance. Right.
Like, she probably would have, but you didn't even give her a chance.
And it seemed that she was basically just used for the experiment.
That's fucked up. Also, another interesting point is that for a while she was misidentified.
And I'm just going to leave you with why you think she was misidentified because they started calling her Helen Lane.
Huh. That's real shady. Real shady. Real shady.
And then really quickly, just to wrap up here, another instance of people of color being taken advantage of is the, I need to look up this pronunciation actually.
I looked it up. It's the Tuskegee experiment.
We did our research. I did my research on spot.
So this experiment began in 1932. The experiment included 600 black men, 399 were infected with syphilis, and 201 were not.
I remember reading about this. This is actually the first I've ever heard about this.
It's crazy. I read it and I was like, what?
The fuck. What now? And this is just a very brief overview, just like kind of as an argument.
Yeah. But you should look further into this because it's so fucked.
The study was for the purpose of understanding the natural history of untreated syphilis.
But these men were not aware that they were not being treated.
They were given placebo drugs and told that they were being treated for bad blood.
Oy vey. Which it's like, no, that's not the case at all.
Like, woof. And the study was supposed to last six months, but it actually went on for 40 years.
That's a big difference. A big jump there and ended in 1972.
So that's when the first news articles came out, like scrutinizing the experiment.
And they're basically like, yeah, you can't do that.
Like these people don't realize that they're not getting treated.
Ethically, this is questionable. This is going to cost us a lot of money.
Yeah. And it did. because it led to a class action lawsuit, which was held by Congress on behalf of the victims.
And in 1974, a $10 million settlement was reached.
Damn. But it's like that doesn't even matter because at this point, countless black men had already lost their lives. and put their families at risk because syphilis is insanely contagious.
Yeah, syphilis is no joke. Yeah. So I just think it's important to put those two things in there for if you're like, it's so crazy that this happened.
Because you're like, no, it's not. Nothing is that crazy when it comes to, like, people of color's point of view because it's like this has happened to them over and over again and nobody takes things seriously.
Exactly. That's the thing. That's what everybody's screaming from the rooftops right now.
It's like, no, this is not insane to think this is happening to black people right now.
No. So that is the case of Kanika Jenkins.
And I think that you should have a nice discussion about what you think.
Yes. I think that I... I don't think I missed anything, but if I did, hit me up.
Tell me. Nicely. I'd love to hear more about this if you have anything that I didn't mention.
This case is wild. And it's closed. It's a closed case.
That's even worse. Yeah. Because I'm going to be honest, after hearing everything laid out.
The accident thing doesn't sit well with me.
No, I definitely think that there's more to the story.
I can see... so you know c looking at it quickly and thinking maybe it was a tragic accident but It's something about that migraine and epilepsy drug.
And the party. And the party. The videos, some weird shit.
The fact that Irene won't give another interview.
The fact that she won't give another interview and the fact that she's saying help or mouthing help.
I swear. I swear I saw it. I swear. Something's weird.
It's something strange. Yeah. That's all I'm saying.
There's something strange. I think it's worth another look.
Oh, and I meant to mention. Teresa did file a wrongful death suit, and it's still in litigation.
Good. Hopefully that'll come out the right way, because it...
If anything, at the very least, it deserves a second look.
Of course it does. It does. Let's fucking reopen this case.
Yeah, take a look at it, man. Why not? What's the... If you... believe wholeheartedly that it was an accident.
Cool. Prove it to me again then. Yeah. Just show me.
Make me believe. Make me believe you. Because I'm not Not sold.
I'm not convinced. But again, we weren't there.
We're not saying that we know better than anyone else.
No. It's just... This is how I feel. It's strange to me.
And please, we really do encourage, you know, respectful debating about this when we post it.
No, we do. keep it nice don't call anybody stupid don't be mean to each other let's just listen let's stop talking even though we just talked to you for like 55 minutes yeah let's not stop talking but let's quiet down a little let's just let's just take a moment yeah just listen to what people of color have to say Well, I'm definitely going to post some of the images of the crime scene.
So I'll put a little warning before it. But if you'd like to check some of that stuff out. see what you think about it, hit us up on Instagram.
At Morbid Podcast. You can also follow us on Twitter.
At Amorbid Podcast. Send us a Gmail. Morbidpodcast at gmail.com.
And we hope you keep listening. And we hope you keep it weird.
Uh, but not so weird that you Facebook live if you're doing something shady.
Yeah. Yeah, that's just fucking weird. You're weird.
Thank you. If you like Morbid, you can listen early and ad free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts.
Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music.
Before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a short survey at wondery.com slash survey.