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Distraught over son's disappearance, mom says Downtown 'dangerous'
Family calls police response 'weak' and hides Downtown public-safety problem. Police say the area is safe, and a tragedy is being overblown
Police are faced with the unenviable task of disputing allegations made by a Wisconsin family desperate to find their missing son, who vanished Halloween night while partying Downtown.
Chris Jenkins, 21, disappeared Oct. 31 from the Lone Tree Bar and Grill, 528 Hennepin Ave., after bouncers refused to allow him back inside, according to police.
Clad only in a leather Indian costume and abandoning his coat, cell phone and wallet in freezing weather, Jenkins walked away and hasn't been seen since.
"Chris literally evaporated off the streets of Minneapolis," said Chuck Loesch, the private investigator and former Hollywood bodyguard retained by the family. "There's so little to go with."
The family and police agree that there is little to go on. Beyond that, there is little consensus.
Differing accounts Jenkins' family, led by mother Jan Jenkins and father Steve Jenkins, have always suspected foul play. A Jenkins relative -- police won't name the man -- said he talked to someone who witnessed a horrific Downtown assault that night by about a dozen people against someone matching Jenkins' description, near 5th Street and Hennepin Avenue.
That charge -- which officials now doubt -- led police to transfer the missing-persons case to its homicide unit, a rare move. One of the unit's 18 detectives works the case full time, officials said.
Police say they have examined every lead brought forward by friends, family and potential witnesses, finding nothing.
Frustrated by what they call weak police response during the critical first week of Jenkins' disappearance, his parents -- independent business owners from Burlington, Wis. -- have poured tens of thousands of dollars into the search for their son, a student at the University of Minnesota's Carlson School of Management.
They have hired the private investigator, brought in publicists and appeared on local and national TV news programs to keep public focus on his disappearance. They have also papered the city with posters about the disappearance.
The family and private investigator suggest that the case is tied to the recent disappearance or attempted abductions of five other college students in Minnesota and Wisconsin -- two of which they said happened almost simultaneously on Nov. 17, in Mankato and Maple Grove.
The family also is urging people to be wary of Downtown, accusing the city of hiding its dangers in order to protect entertainment interests.
"Why are civic leaders afraid to come to grips with the fact that it's dangerous in Downtown Minneapolis?" Mrs. Jenkins said. "Are they waiting for those of us who live in Wisconsin, who don't live and work here, to get tired and quit so we don't ask these questions?"
The Jenkins have enlisted hundreds of volunteers to search for the missing man, establishing a Website (www.findchrisjenkins.com) as their communications locus. A message board on the site features many vitriolic swipes at Minneapolis police, with family, friends and some people who never met Jenkins charging that cops aren't doing enough.
Supporters also are peppering city officials from the mayor on down with e-mail demands for more thorough police work. Lt. Robert Skomra, the police homicide-unit supervisor, said he gets 30 to 40 such missives daily.
Jan Jenkins, speaking at a Nov. 27 press conference, called for the formation of a federal missing-persons task force to probe this case and others. "I know that Chris's life is worth a thorough and complete investigation," she said.
Sensitive subjects Police say they are feeling a bit boxed in by the case. Despite intense media scrutiny, the disappearance is one of only 191 missing persons cases reported in the city as of Nov. 27. There were 221 such cases reported in 2001, according to police spokeswoman Cyndi Barrington. She said she did not know how many of the 2002 cases remain open.
Asked about various allegations the family has made about the investigation, Barrington said, "My heart goes out to [the Jenkins] but we're not going to get into a tit for tat. ... It's a priority for the department, and we're acting on the information that we have."
Among the allegations:
- A bloodhound brought Downtown by agents working for the family traced Jenkins' scent into a Downtown parking ramp where blood splatters led to a parking stall, ending there abruptly. Police say they have found no such blood evidence.
- Minneapolis police, unlike rural law enforcement agencies investigating other cases, did not rapidly bring in helicopters, scent dogs or the National Guard to investigate. Police say they have put all the resources they can afford into the case.
- Police failed to act quickly on the private investigators' findings, which include the parking ramp theory and a theory that a serial killer may target drunken college students. Police say they have no such evidence; Skomra said he is "98 percent sure" there is no serial killer.
- Police investigators have all but given up on the case because they think Jenkins probably fell in the Mississippi River and his body won't reemerge until the waters warm next spring. Police counter that leads continue to be followed.
- Police administrators are shackling "seasoned investigators" who believe the disappearance, coupled with the other disappearances, points to a serial killer. Loesch said he has spoken with undercover homicide investigators who support the theory.
Skomra said that is unlikely. The police department has no undercover homicide detectives, he said.
Police are careful to handle the family's assertions sensitively, but are not as circumspect regarding Loesch.
"The credibility of the private investigator is questionable," said Sgt. Pete Jackson, the detective on the case, in a statement forwarded by Barrington.
Loesch's reports, Jackson said, "are speculative and inaccurate" and his conclusions based on mere inference.
Loesch has similar thoughts about the police. "The problem, as long as you're pushing it," he told a reporter, "is that [the Jenkins] haven't had a goddamned piece of cooperation from the local police department since day one. They demanded nothing except respect, and they have not gotten that."
Psychological state The family has complained that police wrongly suggested Chris Jenkins suffered from depression, which might explain his disappearance as a suicide.
Jan Jenkins said there is no reason to believe that, saying friends described him dancing and laughing just before he vanished. She did, however, acknowledge that after a recent breakup of a three-year relationship, Jenkins stopped eating, sleeping and attending classes for several weeks.
Barrington would not comment on Jenkins' mental state, citing data privacy. But Skomra suggested there were indications Halloween night that Jenkins "could have been upset." He gave no details.
"His state of intoxication was more than mild," Skomra said. "And in my experience as a cop, people do strange things when they are under the influence. Things they may not even remotely consider when they are sober come out when a person is under the influence."
The real truth, Jan Jenkins said at the press conference, is her son faced peril as soon as he headed Downtown. "We are asking all of you who live, work and play in Downtown Minneapolis to think about how safe it is down there," Jan Jenkins said.
Loesch told reporters that police he has spoken with said there are as many as 20 assaults a night Downtown. He declined to name his sources.
Police crime statistics contradict Loesch's assertion. According to those figures, there were only 22 aggravated assaults reported in the entire 1st (Downtown) Precinct in October. Twelve of them took place in Downtown West, where Jenkins was partying.
"It's extremely safe," Barrington said. "There have been a few tragic things that have happened Downtown, but it's not a clear reflection on the safety of Downtown."
Police admit the case puts them in a tough spot. Skomra, for one, said he'd do exactly what the Jenkins family has done if his son were involved.
But the case is not the only one under investigation. There are many others, including recent murders near Loring Park and Nicollet Island.
Smaller jurisdictions can expend more resources on a single case because they have less to deal with, Skomra said. The Jenkins, he added, apparently don't understand that.
"The issue here is they want to devote all these resources to looking for their relative, and I understand that," Skomra said. "It's really frustrating that we can't find Chris. But to pursue what the family is saying we should do is not logical in our urban setting."
Originally published in Skyway News, Dec. 19, 2002
Kevin Featherly, a former managing editor at Washington Post Newsweek Interactive, is a Minnesota journalist who covers politics and technology. He has authored or contributed to five previous books, Guide to Building a Newsroom Web Site (1998), The Wired Journalist (1999), Elements of Language (2001), Pop Music and the Press (2002) and Encyclopedia of New Media (2003). His byline has appeared in Editor & Publisher, the San Francisco Chronicle, the St. Paul Pioneer Press, Online Journalism Review and Minnesota Law and Politics, among other publications. In 2000, he was a media coordinator for Web, White & Blue, the first online presidential debates.
Copyright 2004, by Kevin Featherly