19-year-old Kenneka Jenkins lost her life on a night that was supposed to be filled with laughter and freshly made memories. Instead that night will forever be burned into the minds of everyone who attended the Crowne Plaza hotel party in Chicago on September 9th, 2017. The exact cause of Jenkins’ death is still unknown, but new surveillance evidence revealed that Jenkins, inebriated and stumbling, wandered around the lower level of the hotel and was last seen entering the hotel kitchen, and was later found dead inside of a walk-in freezer. After observing she wasn’t forced, drugged, or carried, but was left alone, despite what the amateur social media detectives have theorized.
                                 Photo provided by Kenneka Jenkin’s Mother, Tereasa Martin, for the Chicago Tribune
But the question remains: How did she get down there in the first place? More importantly, when did her friends realize that she was gone? She was alone that night when she shouldn’t have been. We’ve all experienced what it’s like to be out having the time of our lives with the people we know and love. We shed the stress of the day like a second skin and don our sexy weekend attire and that bright shade of red lipstick that’s too bold for daily use. Once out, women especially will cling together like a pack of wolves. Women normally move as a unit.
That being said, where was Jenkins’ pack? She showed up to the party with her closest friends but was seen wandering alone and was allegedly missing her cellphone. Before going to a party like this it’s pertinent to discuss who will be the designated driver and such, followed closely with a buddy system so that no one who’s had too much to drink ends up alone, or in a bad situation. Maybe she’d still be alive today if she and her group of friends set up a better party system that would have encouraged each other to pay a little bit more attention to one another. However, everything isn’t just on the friends. Nobody can really tell what’s going to happen at these kinds of events and slip ups do happen.
Men and women alike, the unspoken rule applies to all: check in with each other as often as possible. Take note of how much one has had to drink and watch them. Be on your guard for them. Don’t let anyone out of your line of sight if the environment is starting to get a little sketchy. It sounds like extra work, but the point here is to take care of your friends during and after a party, it very well could mean the difference between life and death.
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