The Murder of Christopher Jenkins

When I’m deciding which cases to do, I like to watch different shows on Investigation Discovery and talk about cases that not a lot of other blogs or podcasts have talked about. Today I watched the show Breaking Homicide and on Season 1, Episode 3 the case of Christopher Jenkins was talked about. The episode is called ‘The Secrets of the River’. I’ve never heard about this case before, and sadly it’s still unsolved.

Christopher Jenkins was a 21 year old college student at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis when he disappeared on Halloween night 2002. Chris went to a bar called the Lone Tree Bar with his girlfriend and a few other friends. According to Breaking Homicide, the bar was in a sketchier part of Minneapolis.

This is the infamous picture of Christopher wearing his Halloween costume from the night he was killed.

Christopher dressed up in an Indian costume and the photo above is what he was wearing when he was found. There are many different reports, but originally it’s stated that Christopher was kicked out of the bar and walked home alone. According to the bouncer he left the bar and took a left on Hennepin Avenue. Christopher would later be found 5 miles away in the river right above the Hennepin Bridge. Later, in Breaking Homicide they tracked down a bouncer who was working in 2002 who said he didn’t kick Christopher out, he left on his own. He left without his phone, wallet or jacket and it was freezing cold that night.

Christopher would eventually be found in the river in Horseshoe Dam. He was found with his costume still intact, his legs and arms crossed and he had his own hair in his hands. This is wear the case gets a little tricky because it’s stated that it’s weird his body would be found like that if there would have been a struggle, or if he would have jumped from the bridge like it was first reported.

His case was first reported as a suicide and then in 2006 Tim Dolan, the new Minneapolis police chief reopened it as a homicide and held a press conference apologizing to the Jenkins family.

When they did an autopsy, it was reported that Christopher was not intoxicated to the point where he wouldn't have been able to be walk or speak on his own. They also found GHB in his system. In Breaking Homicide, they interviewed a man who went to that same bar a few months before Christopher did and reported that he had a drink and was very sick and almost unconscious after having one drink. He said that a few men tried to put him in a car but that he was saved by a friend, who then took him to a hospital where he did have a high dose of GHB in his system. It was reported that Chris did have GHB in his system, but that he wasn’t drugged, that his body actually produced it. (I had no idea our bodies produced GHB).

In Breaking Homicide, they also spoke to the mother of another young college student named Dan Zamlen who was a freshman at St. Thomas who also disappeared from a party in 2009. His mother was very adamant that he didn’t drink or go to parties, but she was told he was missing and that he was drunk the previous night. Between the years of Christopher and Dan’s cases, several other young college aged men went missing. They often were found in bodies of water and disappeared from college parties. (Such a weird coincidence). Was this the work of The Smiley Face Killer(s)?

THE SMILEY FACE KILLER THEORY:

Murders that apparently took place in the Midwest and when the bodies are found, a graffiti smiley face is found by the location.

JARAMY LYNN ALFORD:

In Breaking Homicide, it was reported that a man by the name of Jaramy Lynn Alford was at the bar in 2002, the same night Christopher was. Jaramy is now in jail in Minnesota serving time for murdering a man named Douglas Miller in 2005, along with his brother. Apparently, they killed a man who they were living with and it was very vicious. Jaramy also had a friend nicknamed ‘Zmiley.’ Is that where the Smiley Face theory came from? Derrick and Chris and a police informant from Breaking Homicide actually contacted Jaramy using a female alias ‘Lindsay’ to ask if Jaramy knew anything about Christopher’s case. He replied:

“I don’t want to talk about anything I haven’t been convicted of.”

This case has so many twists and turns and some unusual findings. I also don’t think it was Jaramy Alford, apparently the Douglas Miller murder was brutal. However, Jaramy was known to brag about murdering Christopher Jenkins.

How was Chris killed if his he didn't have any broken bones or bruises? How was his costume still tucked into his pants? In Breaking Homicide, Derrick and Chris disagreed. One said he was murdered and one said that he accidentally fell in the river.

I think Christopher knew his killers, he got a ride home after the leaving the bar and something happened. It’s very weird that there didn't seem to be signs of a struggle, and that his body wasn’t found for 4 months. I don’t think it was the work of The Smiley Face Killers.

I hope one day his parents get justice.