The family of a 19-year-old woman who froze to death in a freezer at an Illinois hotel has agreed to a $10 million settlement, per NBC Chicago.
Kenneka Jenkins, 19, was found dead inside a walk-in freezer in a kitchen at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Rosemont, Illinois on September 10, 2017.
Jenkins was at the hotel for a party and was leaving with friends around 2:30 am when she realized she left her phone. Her friends went back to find the phone, but Jenkins had disappeared by the time they returned.
Surveillance video showed Jenkins stumbled through the hotel and entered an unused kitchen around 3:30 a.m., according to a lawsuit filed by the family. Around 4 a.m., Jenkins’ friends contacted her mother. Tereasa Martin, to let her know that they couldn’t find her daughter.
Martin contacted the hotel and was told they would review the surveillance video, according to the suit. It took more than 21 hours to find Jenkins’ body in the freezer.
The Cook County medical examiner’s office ruled Jenkins’ death an accident caused by hypothermia.
Martin sued a security company, a restaurant at the hotel, and the hotel itself, alleging that proper monitoring of the security cameras “would have saved her (Jenkins’) life.”
A $10 million settlement was made public on Tuesday (December 12). $3.5 million will go to attorney fees, $6,000 for Jenkins’ funeral, and family members will receive over $6 million.
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