S3 Ep353: Jennifer Kesse Case No Longer Cold Due to A.I. and DNA!

Nearly two decades after Jennifer Kesse vanished from her Orlando condo in January 2006, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement has announced significant progress. Previously untested DNA evidence has been discovered and the pool of persons of interest has been narrowed down to just a few individuals, leading the family to say the case is “no longer cold”. Try our coffee!! - www. CriminalCoffeeCo.comBecome a Patreon member -- > ｿ https://www.patreon.com/CrimeWeeklyShop for your Crime Weekly gear here --> ｿ https://crimeweeklypodcast.com/shopYoutube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CrimeWeeklyPodcastWebsite: CrimeWeeklyPodcast.comInstagram: @CrimeWeeklyPodTwitter: @CrimeWeeklyPodFacebook: @CrimeWeeklyPod

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:13Derrick Levasseur?

  Hey everyone, welcome back to Crime Weekly News. I'm Derrick Levasseur.

• 0:17Stephanie Harlowe?

  And I'm Stephanie Harlow.

• 0:19Derrick Levasseur?

  And before we get into the update with Jennifer Kesse, I just wanted to mention quickly, Criminal Coffee Halloween hoodies. We do have a very small stock available right now. I know there's a lot of people who put the notify button out there, but every time we fulfill those orders, more people get, you know, the notification set up for them. So we do apologize. It was a limited run. This will be our last run for the season, but it was a huge success. So we'll be coming out with similar designs and also this probably same design next year. So thank you all for the love and support. It exceeded any expectations we had, hence why I put in one more small run, but that's all we could get done before Halloween's here and, you know, we didn't want to get them to you in Christmas. So thank you everyone. If you're

• 1:04Derrick Levasseur?

  seeing this, they're already available on the website and there's a good chance that they might already even be sold out at this point because I'm recording this with Stephanie on a Monday. They're live right now. So people who already have their notifications on are probably checking out and you got to follow us on Instagram. Drink Criminal Coffee on Instagram. So you should be following that if you're really into it. That way you're one of the first people to get that notification. That's, that's all I had. Okay. So let's talk about why we're really here. January 2006, 24-year-old Jennifer Kesse vanished from her Orlando condominium without a trace. Nearly 20 years later, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement has announced that the case is no longer cold. And that's thanks to new DNA evidence and AI

• 1:49Derrick Levasseur?

  review of the investigation and a dramatically shortened list of persons of interest. So tonight, we're going to dive into those changes, why this case may finally turn a corner and what it means for Jennifer's family. Because for anybody who doesn't know, we've already covered this case. We did a Crime Weekly series on it. We talked about potential persons of interest. And I believe at the end of that series, we said it's going to take updates in science and technology. We didn't know what DNA had already been tested and what technology was used to test it. So now with these advancements, just like a lot of the cases we cover, same DNA, nothing's changed as far as the evidence. But with these advancements, now you can

• 2:30Derrick Levasseur?

  take smaller amounts of DNA and extract more information. So this is not only great for Jennifer's family, but also any other family that has the hope that one day their case will be solved using a similar technology.

• 2:42Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah. So this is obviously, you know, not only due to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, who took over the case from Orlando Police.

• 2:50Derrick Levasseur?

  Yes, which was, which was big.

• 2:51Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah, thank God. But also to Jennifer's family, specifically her father Drew Kesse, who, as we know, we talked about this in our series, Drew has never stopped, will never stop.

• 3:00Derrick Levasseur?

  Nope.

• 3:01Stephanie Harlowe?

  Trying to figure out what's going on and what happened with Jennifer. And he has really kept this case alive. He goes on all the podcasts. He, you know, talks about her case all the time. So he's really kept her name alive. And it was Drew Kesse who, who has announced that investigators told the family Jennifer's case is no longer considered cold. All DNA evidence in the case has been sent back for reexamination using newer technology. And Drew Kesse said that DNA testing has expanded from 19 markers to 26 markers since the original investigation. So that's, that's big. That's huge. 19 to 26. That's, that's a lot. And it could definitely move the marker. And like, like Derek said, when he first introduced

• 3:45Stephanie Harlowe?

  this case in this video, the, the suspect list is now narrowed down to just a few individuals. And most likely that's because of these increase in DNA markers, which helped rule out some of those people. So investigators are now working with an artificial intelligence company to analyze the case files. Drew Kesse said he had been asking investigators for two years to try AI technology. And he said, quote, "We were advised in July that they are now with a very reputable AI company that is handling the entire case." End quote. He said that the technology is being used to analyze all available information about Jennifer's disappearance. This includes the grainy surveillance footage that captured an unidentified person parking Jennifer's car. I think we just mentioned this last week when we were filming our

• 4:30Stephanie Harlowe?

  episode where I said,

• 4:32Derrick Levasseur?

  Somebody gets lucky by they go past the fence post.

• 4:34Stephanie Harlowe?

  And then, and that, that was the case. And you said Jennifer Kesse. That's crazy.

• 4:37Derrick Levasseur?

  That's right. That's right.

• 4:39Stephanie Harlowe?

  Now Drew Kesse also said that three production companies have approached the Kesse family about creating a documentary. They have selected one group and are currently in production.

• 4:50Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah.

• 4:50Stephanie Harlowe?

  And then Drew Kesse said, quote, "To be upfront and honest, I want Netflix. I think it's just the biggest audience," end quote. So I don't know if that means they're working with Netflix because he said, "I want Netflix."

• 5:01Derrick Levasseur?

  Hmm.

• 5:02Stephanie Harlowe?

  But yeah, well, how do you think they're doing this with the AI? Are you think they're just taking the entire case file, putting it into AI and then basically putting in the right prompts to have what is happening? Yeah.

• 5:15Derrick Levasseur?

  Well, well, first off, shout out to Jennifer's entire family. I believe it was, uh, Bill Gilmore, her uncle, who actually reached out to me, sent me his book. He wrote a book about Jennifer's case. So this whole family, including her father Drew, they just, they're not going to give up. They're not going to give up until they know what happened and who's responsible and that person's held accountable. So kudos to them. They dedicated their lives to it. It's amazing. To answer your question with the AI, I'd be lying if I said I knew exactly what they were doing, but I think we've all used chat GPT at this point, and we understand at least on a surface level, how powerful the tool really is. And there's probably ways that they're using it through different algorithms that have been developed by smarter people than you and I, where they're able to upload the entire case because it's been digitized.

• 5:59Derrick Levasseur?

  And that AI tool is able to analyze any patterns or conflicts in the entire, however, you know, 1600 page report in a matter of seconds. So instead of having a human person or a bunch of human people all go through and read it themselves, and maybe they're tired on one day, or they miss a page, or they miss a something in there that was important. The computer will not miss it. So if there's an, uh, if there's an anomaly or something that indicates a certain person who gave a witness statement that we don't even know about, where it contradicts. There's obviously someone, it's not chat GPT they're using.

• 6:33Stephanie Harlowe?

  No, no, yeah, they're using something I think specifically for law enforcement purposes, yeah.

• 6:38Derrick Levasseur?

  And something that we might not even be completely familiar with yet because they don't want it out there. But yes, I can't imagine the capabilities.

• 6:46Stephanie Harlowe?

  I would love to get my hands on that. I'll tell you that much.

• 6:48Derrick Levasseur?

  This is what we talk about all the time, though, like between AI and the advancements in the DNA analyzing of any type of evidence they have. It's going to be really, really hard. We're not minority report level yet, but we're getting, we're on the path. Like, it's going to be damn near impossible for someone because if they had all this technology when this happened in 2006, I believe this guy's already caught. They got a video of him.

• 7:14Stephanie Harlowe?

  So listen, I just watched Meghan 2.0 yesterday, last night, and it's kind of like stuck in my head now because when you just said that, like, AI is really going to have a hand in the future in helping solve cases. And I just thought like, well, chat GPT is going to be testifying in court, but they wouldn't have chat GPT testifying in court. They would like make a robot that looks like a human to have that thing testify on behalf of chat GPT. But yeah, I did look it up.

• 7:39Derrick Levasseur?

  All the software developers, that's for sure.

• 7:41Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah, and I looked it up and it said, hey, you know, basically running the entire case file through chat GPT is like having one detective who knows everything about the case and it's not spread out over, you know, different case files and different detectives heads. And what it can do is it can process massive digital data sets. So everything, right? And then the algorithms can identify hidden patterns and links between seemingly unrelated cases or pieces of evidence, which might suggest new avenues for investigations. So maybe something a police officer or a police task force might come up with eventually chat GPT or whatever AI they're using can bring it really quickly.

• 8:20Stephanie Harlowe?

  And they have AI-powered facial recognition that can scan large databases of photos and videos to identify potential suspects, even when their appearance has changed significantly over time. They also have advances in AI-driven genetic genealogy that are helping to analyze DNA evidence and link it to suspects in cases where traditional methods. have failed. They have a lot of stuff that they're specifically tailoring towards a law enforcement sort of methodology, which is interesting.

• 8:51Derrick Levasseur?

  Now, obviously. AI can also enhance that video that we have. They can enhance that video to make it current with the technology we have today as far as the resolution. They may be able to enhance it and see something in there that hasn't been seen before.

• 9:04Stephanie Harlowe?

  I don't know how well that'll stand up in court, though. You know, if you're like the defense person, the defense attorney for this person, you're probably going to say, hey, like, this was, this is technology that's still so new, still sort of untested. And additionally, we don't know what.

• 9:20Derrick Levasseur?

  It would have to be overwhelming.

• 9:20Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah, it would have to have supporting evidence, not just that. Yeah.

• 9:24Derrick Levasseur?

  But back to what you were just talking about, because in addition to being able to process, you know, one detective, like, it basically acts as one detective processing everything in a matter of seconds, and also comparing it to every other case that's been uploaded to the software as well, where they can immediately recognize certain patterns.

• 9:41Stephanie Harlowe?

  MOs, yeah.

• 9:42Derrick Levasseur?

  Here's the difference. Hate to say this, but it's the truth. We, as human beings, detectives, we have things going on in our personal lives. We may be in a bad mood that day. We may have certain biases that we're not even aware of. We may not remember something that was told to us seven years ago in another case in another jurisdiction. AI doesn't have any of those problems. It only sees the data points. It doesn't get tired.

• 10:09Stephanie Harlowe?

  It has, it has an objective, and it will complete that objective. It doesn't, it doesn't care what's going on at home, or if its kids are failing math.

• 10:16Derrick Levasseur?

  That's right. That sounded too personal. But, but it's, it's, it's ability to do what we may take months to do with 20 guys is incredible. And it's so new. It's so new. And it can go through and weed out all the bad stuff, focus on the actual data points, and probably spit out some answers that may already be in line with certain persons of interest that they've already identified. And now this is just corroborating that evidence that they've already had. So I can't wait to see where this goes. I thought this case was going to be solved years ago. This is my final takeaway on this. I'm happy to see it's going to be with a production company, Netflix, whatever it might be. I've always believed it's not going to be word of mouth

• 11:00Derrick Levasseur?

  that solves this case. It's going to be the advancements in science and technology. I think there's enough there. They just haven't identified that person yet. And we know it's a small pool of people. When I say small, I mean relatively speaking, it's got to be someone who was working there, living there, was in that area because it happened right outside her apartment, right? So we know that there's a smaller pool than just it could be anybody, right? And I know if someone hasn't come forward yet to say this was my cousin or whatever, I don't think it's gonna happen.

• 11:28Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah, they're not going to, yeah.

• 11:29Derrick Levasseur?

  And I don't think that a documentary is going to do it. It doesn't hurt. I think the more eyes and ears, the better, just like Amy Bradley, right? But I think at the end of the day, this is going to be what solves it, not some documentary, regardless of how well it does or how many people see it.

• 11:45Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah, absolutely. And according to Drew Cressy, he believes that the Florida Department of Law Enforcement found a couple pieces of DNA that that hadn't been tested. So, and I think that they did say that back in the the press conference they gave in July. And he said, so all that DNA is also going back through. So they're going to have a good shot here of really narrowing things down, if not solving this all together. And that's very exciting because I know that this has always been a mysterious one for you. It's always been one you wanted to see solved, of course. Yeah, it's very.

• 12:15Derrick Levasseur?

  We almost did it on Breaking Homicide. We talked about this. I almost did it on Breaking Homicide. There were some battles with it where, I know this is a shocker, but Orlando PD, they weren't going to work with this on. I know, surprised. So we didn't want to work against them. It's easier to work with law enforcement. We had so many other cases where law enforcement was welcoming us.

• 12:33Stephanie Harlowe?

  Was willing to cooperate, yeah.

• 12:34Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah. I mean, we went all the way to frigging Kauai.

• 12:36Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah.

• 12:37Derrick Levasseur?

  And they were like, come on in. You know, they were all about it. So I'm happy to see for the family that they may get some answers here. And most, you know, I want the guy who did this off the streets.

• 12:46Stephanie Harlowe?

  Obviously, yeah.

• 12:47Derrick Levasseur?

  We got to see who he is and make sure he never does it again. I'm also interested to see if it's. aligned with one of our theories as far as who could be the person

• 12:55Stephanie Harlowe?

  I have a very sneaking suspicion that it is

• 12:59Derrick Levasseur?

  we're gonna find out any other words from you this is a quicker crime weekly news it's more of an update we have a big crime weekly series that we're gonna record right after this so any other things that we got to cover before we we go over to that

• 13:11Stephanie Harlowe?

  no I think we're good I'm excited to start on our series this month I think everybody's really going to be interested yeah

• 13:17Derrick Levasseur?

  why don't we why don't we tell them what it is

• 13:19Stephanie Harlowe?

  why why do you always want to do that

• 13:21Derrick Levasseur?

  cuz I can't keep a secret I'm a I'm the I'm a horrible gift giver

• 13:25Stephanie Harlowe?

  you are that's true I'm I am too kind of actually

• 13:28Derrick Levasseur?

  I won't say it I won't say it's BTK

• 13:34Derrick Levasseur?

  it's BTK we're covering it we're gonna go do a deep dive it's gonna be a multi-part series who knows how many parts

• 13:40Stephanie Harlowe?

  yeah here's how it actually came to pass now that Derek's already talking about it

• 13:43Derrick Levasseur?

  okay

• 13:45Stephanie Harlowe?

  I was uh I have obviously everybody knows about BTK we met his daughter at Crime Con a few years and she's you know very

• 13:54Derrick Levasseur?

  I think we did we did a CWN on it as well

• 13:56Stephanie Harlowe?

  yep she's very personable very willing to talk about it and and her experience

• 14:00Derrick Levasseur?

  Carrie she's amazing

• 14:02Stephanie Harlowe?

  I was going through TikTok and then I was listening to a TikTok which I think was like part of a documentary about BTK and I was listening and I was horrified I was horrified and I was like I know all of this stuff but I guess I just I never dug deep enough to like know other things because serial killers are disturbing to me and then I started thinking about the golden age of serial killers and how there's really not going to be anything like this again there just can't be

• 14:26Derrick Levasseur?

  now with these advancements in AI

• 14:28Stephanie Harlowe?

  yeah you wouldn't even know at this point if somebody you're arresting for a murder or two murders would eventually go on to become a serial killer because thankfully they're getting caught before they have the chance to do that and so I was like I think this is a really good topic right now to talk about because this is a bygone era and which is great but also this case is just so horrific and there's so much to learn from it from like a law enforcement perspective there's so much to talk about and that's what I found out when I listened to this short TikTok which I think was a snippet from a documentary was driving and just like listening to videos on my phone, but I was like, I, I'm, I'm hooked. So I gotta, I gotta look into this more. And if I'm going to look into it more, I might as well talk about it.

• 15:12Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah. Yeah. No, I, I covered it on crime feed. So I, I do have some background in it because we, we went into the newer information that's come out as of late, some new drawings, things like that. So I'm looking forward to going back to day one and talking about how this all came to be and how eventually he was caught. We haven't dove into those details here or anywhere else. I haven't done it anywhere.

• 15:35Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah. Cause he was one of those serial killers that taunted law enforcement.

• 15:38Derrick Levasseur?

  That's right. And that's what ultimately did him in. And that's, I can't wait to get into it. I like when we cover a case that you feel like you know everything and we take pride in surprising you with stuff that you don't know. So looking forward to it. We appreciate you guys being with us. We'll be back later this week with BTK part one, but until then, everyone stay safe out there and we'll see you soon.

• 16:00Stephanie Harlowe?

  Bye.