UPDATE: Reader Missing Budweiser was among those searching for missing mom Jenna Lord. He was there when her body was found, and offers an eye-witness account to this tragic discovery and very sad ending to a young woman's life.
See update after the jump...
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| Jenna borrowed a phone at a Camden train station. That's the last anyone has seen her. |
Jenna Lord had spent the 4th of July at a friend's house. The next
morning she was given a ride to a Camden, New Jersey train station to
find a train home. Her cell phone had died, so she borrowed another
traveler's to call her mother. That's the last anyone saw her.
Lord, who's 23 and has a young son, was later seen on surveillance cameras at the station. But the man who loaned her his phone says he hopped train before Jenna left, so he has no idea what happened to her.
This isn't the first time Jenna's found herself in trouble. The 5-foot-1 woman with a Mickey Mouse tattoo spent three weeks in the slam in January on charges of assault, robbery and theft. That case is still pending.
Her record also suggests a wild side, with previous busts for fighting, obscene gestures, public drunkenness, marijuana possession, disorderly
conduct, careless driving and harassment.
But her mom says there's nothing she can think of that would make her want to disappear.
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| Friends and family say Jenna had sobered up in the months before her disappearance |
UPDATE: Train station surveillance tape shows two men following her before she disappeared.It seems a man at the train station thought she "looked a little scared," according to her mother. So the unnamed man loaned Jenna his cell so she could call home. He also helped her buy a ticket, then waited with her until his own train arrived.
He left just a minute before Jenna's train was supposed to depart. But something must have happened within that brief period.
Surveillance tape shows two men following about five feet behind her and saying something to Jenna. She couldn't have been interested in them, because she turned around to look, then kept walking. That's when the tape cut off.
Her friends and family don't believe she vanished on her own. They say she's been sober for six months, reading the Bible daily and taking care of her 3-year-old son.
The family also claims police have shown little interest in finding her, which isn't uncommon for women with her history. But if police believe otherwise, they're not saying. They provided almost no public statements in their investigation of the case.
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| A man questioned by police claims Jenna was doing drugs the day she disappeared |
UPDATE II: Jenna's body has been found in a vacant lot of a drug infested neighborhood in Camden.A search of Camden by 40 friends and family didn't take long to find Jenna's body Sunday. Less than two hours into the canvass, she was discovered by her uncle, Ariel Morales.
Though no official ID has been made, all signs point to Jenna. She was badly decomposed and bloated, but the corpse had Jenna's trademark hoop earrings, ankle bracelet and Mikey Mouse tattoo on her forearm.
According to neighbors, the lot is largely used as a drug trade zone and a place for hookers to turn tricks.
She was last seen July 5 in surveillance cameras at the Camden train station. Police say she then took a train across the river to the Philly, where she was caught on another surveillance camera taking what appears to be clothes from another woman. Then she returned by train to Camden. She was later seen on camera leaving that station with two other men.
Her family has resoundingly ripped police for failing to vigorously search for the missing mom, complaining that detectives thought she was a junkie. They may be right, since police routinely give shorter shrift to missing women with drug histories. (See the
case of a Cleveland serial killer who got away with murder for years while cops blew off statements from victims.)
Then again, it's not unusual for families to lash out at officers in their grief, irrespective of whether police could have done anything more.
But one searcher, Justin Bender, says an unidentified man told searchers where to find Jenna. The man directed them to the lot, then ran away. Members of the group gave chase and he was later nabbed by police, Bender told the
Philly Daily News. But police counter that no one was arrested or charged.
What remains to be seen is why no one in the neighborhood reported the body. It was blackened and bloated from the heat, and the smell had to be horrific. But when you live in a city as broken down as Camden, you do your best to ignore what you don't want to see. Or smell.
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| Jenna's body was too decomposed to disclose a means of death or render toxicology information |
UPDATE III: Reader Missing Budweiser was in the search party when Jenna's body was found. He offers an eyewitness account:
"I was in a group of about 20-30. Mostly women (Mom, Aunts, cousins,)
with a few of the older men which included Jenna's Grandfather. About
an hour and a half into the search, one of the other groups, comprised
of Jenna's boyfriend (father of child), his friends, uncles, and possible
stepfather ran into a man who had been with her on the train station
video.
"At this point we had spoke to 10-15 people and most said they had
seen or recognized Jenna. I was becoming skeptical at this point. The
man was brought to speak with Jenna's mom, and then out of nowhere
everyone started running down to the next street. I believed that
someone had spotted Jenna, but apparently this man had taken some of
the men to a lot where he had last seen Jenna.
"I ran down the road blowing by the women, and the police officer
helping with the search. I saw a man (an uncle) pointing to an abandoned
lot. As soon a I hit the lot, I realized that a dead body had been
found. I could smell the decomposing body, but it was not as bad as you
would expect considering the time and weather.
"I stepped up onto a tree
stump beside some bushes and she was 2-3 feet away. I first noticed a
gold purse and a shoe. I followed a swollen blackish yellow leg up to
the bloated torso. Her head and face appeared to be partly missing. I
had to turn away and only viewed her for a few seconds. I was pretty
much in shock and shaking. One minute you are looking for a person, then
you see her dead badly decomposed body.
"Screams, wailing, and crying filled the air as police officers
closed the scene. I then saw a small group of men chasing someone back
in the direction that we had come from. The man who led the group to the
area was running away.
"He was caught be Jenna's boyfriend and a friend
of his. Police then took him into custody. Not sure if he knew that
Jenna was there dead. The police may have just took him away for his
safety. I did not see the man get hit, but the boyfriend's knuckles were
bloody. So he hit someone or something.
"I have a hard time believing he
would knowingly lead searchers of a loved one to her body. Then again,
maybe his conscience was getting to him. Not sure why he just wouldn't
have phoned in a anonymous tip then.
"The key
to this case lies with the woman who handed Jenna clothes and the two
men she was seen leaving the train with."
The Philadelphia Inquirer is reporting that the man who led searchers to the lot is on of the men seen in surveillance video at the train station. He's been questioned by police, and claims that Jenna did do drugs that day. She later passed out and he left her in the lot.
At least that's what he's claiming. But police aren't releasing any further details on the case.
Because her body was so badly decomposed, a coroner was unable to identify the cause of death, nor get a toxicology read. Police say there were no obvious signs of physical trauma.
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