1/25/2010 2:59:00 PM A mother's story of losing her son
Jan Jenkins
If you go
What: Jan Jenkins will read and sign copies of her book
When: Jan. 27 at 7 p.m.
Where: The Marsh, a Center for Balance and Fitness, 15000 Minnetonka Blvd., in Minnetonka
To register: Advance registration is requested. Call 952-935-2202. Space is limited. Copies of the book are available in the shop at The Marsh.
For more information: Visit www.footprintsofcourage.com
By Ed Huyck
On Halloween in 2002, University of Minnesota senior Chris Jenkins went to a party in Minneapolis. After being removed from the Lone Tree Bar, Jenkins found himself miles from home without any money, his cell phone or his group of friends.
He wasn't seen again.
In February, after months of frantic searching by his family and a team of volunteers, Jenkins' body was found in the icy waters of the Mississippi River.
That event sparked years of heartbreak for his family and friends, but also a dogged determination to discover what happened after Chris left the bar and how he ended up in the Mississippi River.
Their perseverance meant that in 2006, four years after the fact, the death was reclassified a murder. More recently, the murder has been connected by some investigators to a serial killer who has worked over the past decade in multiple states.
His mother, Jan, tells the story of the seven-year ordeal and pays a final tribute to her son in "Footprints of Courage," published late last year.
Jan, who was a longtime resident of Minnetonka and graduated from Minnetonka High School in 1970, will share her story and sign copies of the book at The Marsh on Jan. 27.
"I started writing the book two or three times after Chris was gone," Jan said. "I was thinking about it - it had so many twists and turns, but there was not a logical or rational ending. In reality, there never will be."
The frame Jan found for the story was an apparent connection between Chris' death and that of dozens of other young men throughout the northern half of the United States.
After learning that their son - a top student in the Carlson School of Management and a goalie on the University's lacrosse team - was missing, the family, Jan, husband Steve and daughter Sara, were galvanized into action.
Shocked to learn that the Minneapolis Police Department would not begin to investigate the disappearance for 72 hours, they organized their own searches. By the time Jan and Steve arrived in Minneapolis, there were hundreds of volunteers searching for their son.
It wouldn't be until the end of February 2003 that Chris' body was found. At the time, foul play was ruled out, but the family and friends couldn't believe that answer. They continued to investigate and push to have the death reclassified.
The book details the entire journey - from the moment the Jenkins got the call that their son was missing and that something was definitely wrong to the current status, where they believe it is connected to a string of murders (though supported by a number of investigators, the theory has so far been rejected by the FBI). Jan also goes back and details Chris' active, but short, life.
"As we talked to people, we got a consistent view of who Chris was. Everyone described him as a happy-go-lucky guy who worked hard and excelled at everything he did," Jan said. "No one could name one enemy that Chris had."
The Jenkins family said the ordeal also has been an education for them on how law enforcement, and the general public, treats a missing young man and a missing young woman differently.
"If a young man goes missing, they don't suspect foul play," Jan said. "Young men deserve the same resources as young women."
She uses the word "stonewalled" to describe their interactions with the Minneapolis Police Department, until current Chief Tim Dolan changed the cause of death. Even now, "we don't know the name of the investigator on the case," Jan said.
And Jan knows another truth as well. "If Chris had been allowed to go home with his friends that night, he'd still be alive," she said.
Though the investigation continues, the Jenkins family has decided to move away from that part of the story. "Other people have come forward and picked up the baton," Jan said.
Instead, she hopes that the book - and public speaking events like the one at The Marsh - will focus attention on education.
"We don't have another son to lose, but a lot of other people do," Jan said. "If we could have brought Chris back we would have, but the only thing we can do is to make things better."
Reader Comments
Posted: Monday, February 15, 2010
Article comment by:
Ron Lake
If you change the victim information to include a different race, sex, national origin, a particular religion, the FBI would be all over this. They only work on cases that fit their mindset. Take a poll of retired street cops and see what they think.
