One year after Kenneka Jenkins was found dead in a walk-in freezer, the videos keep coming.
Digital sleuths float theories on YouTube and Facebook dozens of times a day, saying they've found evidence to undermine the official story _ that Jenkins had gotten intoxicated at a hotel party, wandered away from her friends and stumbled into a freezer she was unable to escape.
All of that is a lie, they say. Jenkins didn't die from a tragic accident, but murder, perhaps at the hands of an organ harvesting ring. Or maybe it wasn't Jenkins at all who was captured on the hotel's surveillance video, but a body double.
Protesters are incensed by what they called a lax response from the hotel and police.
Some demand that authorities reopen the case. But in a sense, the investigation never ended.
After concluding that Jenkins died in an accident, Rosemont, Ill., police released dozens of photos and documents and hours of video to support their finding. That material, though, has been repurposed by skeptics, many of whom have never set foot in Rosemont.
They have become a vast and quarrelsome community, with factions coalescing around varying hypotheses. One Massachusetts woman, who administers a Facebook group dedicated to the case, said Jenkins herself has been forgotten in the frenzy to build up some theories and knock down others.
"For some reason, people really felt connected to her, but that has faded," said the woman, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of harassment. "Now, it's become more of a groupthink. It's very strange. It's like we can't walk back from this."
Kenneka Jenkins, 19, was pronouced dead early Sept. 10, 2017, after she was found in a walk-in freezer at the Crowne Plaza hotel in Rosemont. The Cook County medical examiner's office released photos Oct. 6, 2017, related to the cause and manner of death for Jenkins.
When Jenkins and her friends decided to leave about two hours later, she waited in the hallway as they went back to the room to retrieve her phone and keys, one witness said. When they returned, Jenkins was gone.
Surveillance video later released by police showed Jenkins stumbling alone through the hotel's hallways, ending up in a little-used kitchen and rounding a corner where a walk-in freezer was kept. The video, taken by a motion-activated camera, showed no one else in that area until her body was found 20 hours later.
An autopsy report from the medical examiner concluded that Jenkins died of hypothermia, with alcohol and a drug used to treat epilepsy and migraines "significant contributing factors."
The report said her body showed no signs of trauma, other than a scrape and bruise on her right leg. A private examination performed at the request of her family also concluded that there was no evidence of a physical attack or sexual assault, according to court papers.
None of that has stopped alternative theories from flourishing. Monet' Hughes, a Texan who moderates one of the largest Facebook groups dedicated to the case, is among many who maintain that video released by authorities was edited. She credited social media for keeping a bright spotlight on the case.
"We made it major," she said. "Facebook made it major. We know that baby did not do that to herself."
But another set of people following the case have taken an opposite approach, attempting to debunk the numerous conspiracies that have spread across the internet.
Gray Hughes, a YouTuber from Oregon who specializes in true crime, has made dozens of videos about Jenkins, many of which cast doubt on theories others have proposed. He even used computer animation to illustrate how Jenkins might have traveled through the hotel _ a path, he said, that makes the police version believable.
"I think it all built up," he said of the many opposing views. "I think social media, and the availability of content, created an avalanche of insanity."
Rosemont Mayor Brad Stephens said the case still shows up in reports he receives on how the village is being portrayed on social media. He has no regrets about putting the investigative materials on Rosemont's website, he said, but found it "ironic" that many refuse to take it at face value.
"People see shadow images and all kinds of other things, and I don't know how and where they see that stuff," he said. "But that's the internet age we live in. People become experts and post it on social media channels."
He said no one has come forward with new evidence in the case, and given that, there is no reason to seek the assistance of the FBI, as some have demanded.
The family's legal action has stalled, too, court records indicate. Lawyers for Jenkins' mother, Tereasa Martin, successfully petitioned last year to have the hotel retain photographs, documents and other possible evidence, but they have not filed a lawsuit.
Neither Martin nor her attorney returned messages seeking comment. The hotel's lawyer also declined to comment.
