A woman has reached a settlement in a lawsuit against a hotel where her teenage daughter Kenneka Jenkins was found dead in a freezer in 2017, multiple outlets report. Two other parties were also involved in the settlement.
via: BET
Tereasa Martin filed a $50 million lawsuit against Crowne Plaza Hotel in Rosemont, Ill., along with its security company in December 2018. Her lawyers suggested that the defendants didn’t properly secure the walk-in freezer or the surrounding area.
The terms of the settlement were reached in August. But Martin’s lawyers have requested the terms remain sealed from the public, according to Associated Press.
“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,” an attorney for Martin wrote in an unopposed motion to seal the settlement’s terms.
Jenkins went missing from a ninth-floor room at the Crowne Plaza, where she was attending a party on Sept. 9, 2017. The 19-year-old’s body was found face-down in a walk-in freezer about 24 hours after family contacted the police and hotel.
Her body was found with no signs of trauma outside of a small cut on her foot. Surveillance video released by police showed her stumbling alone through a kitchen near the freezer.
The Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office ruled Jenkins’ death an accident and determined that she died from hypothermia. It also determined that the mixture of alcohol intoxication and the use of a drug for treating epilepsy and migraines were “significant contributing factors” in her death.
