Drew Kesse has been seeking answers for nearly two decades regarding the mysterious disappearance of his daughter, Jennifer Kesse.

Jennifer went missing from her Orlando condo in January 2006, prompting her father to hire private investigators and invest $700,000 of his own funds into the search efforts.

In a bold move, he initiated a lawsuit against the Orlando Police Department to remove them from the investigation, aiming to gain access to the vast trove of records and evidence collected over the years.

However, Drew now finds himself able to step back and entrust the case to law enforcement professionals once again.

In a significant breakthrough, new DNA evidence has emerged and is undergoing testing for the first time in two decades.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) has also narrowed down its persons of interest to just ‘a few’ people. 

And, police have told the father desperate for answers that, finally, his missing daughter’s case is no longer cold. 

‘Now I’m just waiting for the phone to ring and for them to say: hey, we’re finally there,’ Kesse told the Daily Mail.

‘It feels just so different. We’ve never had this feeling before.’

Jennifer Kesse vanished without a trace from her Orlando condo complex in January 2006 

Surveillance footage captured a person of interest leaving Jennifer’s car at a condo complex

Investigators are now ‘working hard’ and ‘going fast’ to solve Jennifer’s case, he said.

‘They are truly on a sense of urgency right now.’ It’s been a long time coming. 

It was January 24, 2006 when Jennifer suddenly vanished, setting off a desperate search to find her and a now decades-long mystery.

The 24-year-old had just returned home from a trip to St Croix in the Virgin Islands with her boyfriend Rob and his family and, on the night of January 23, she had called family and friends telling them what a great time they had had.

But the next morning, Jennifer failed to show up for her job as a finance manager at Central Florida Investments Timeshare Company.

Kesse and his wife, Jennifer’s mom Joyce, instantly knew something was wrong.

Inside Jennifer’s condo on the Mosaic at Millenia complex in Orlando, all the signs indicated she had gotten ready and left for work as normal. 

Her pajamas were on the floor, a damp towel was left by the shower, her hair tools had recently been used and the front door was locked.

Jennifer’s father Drew Kesse (pictured together) has fresh hope now that DNA evidence is being tested

Jennifer’s 2004 Chevy Malibu was gone, as was her cellphone, purse, iPod and keys.   

Two days later, Jennifer’s car was found abandoned around one mile away at a condo complex at Huntington on the Green. But there was no sign of Jennifer or her phone, purse, iPod and keys.

Haunting surveillance footage at the complex captured a shady figure abandoning the vehicle there and walking off at around 12pm on the day Jennifer went missing.

This person of interest was believed to be a man around 5 foot 3 to 5 foot 5 tall with unusually large feet for his height and dressed in workman’s clothes.

But because of the fencing, investigators were unable to obtain a clear image to identify him – even with the help of NASA.

For an agonizing 19 years, the identity of this shady figure and the whereabouts of Jennifer have been unknown and the case had long grown cold – with no suspects, persons of interests or credible leads.

Then, finally, Jennifer’s family has fresh hope that never-before-tested DNA evidence could hold the key to solving her case and bringing Jennifer home. 

Kesse said he learned the FDLE had found some DNA evidence that they believe has never been tested.

While he doesn’t know where the evidence came from, Kesse suspects it was found on Jennifer’s car after a private investigator for the family previously discovered marks indicating a struggle on the hood. 

Investigators noticed signs of what appeared to be a struggle on the hood of Jennifer’s vehicle 

The Mosaic at Millenia condo complex in Orlando where Jennifer lived. Inside her condo, everything appeared to be as it should be on the morning of her disappearance

How long the DNA testing will take – and what answers it will yield – remains uncertain. 

But Kesse said the FDLE has told him ‘they’re going at such a fast pace, that they’re just knocking things out left and right’. 

‘It’s just falling all into place right now. And they’re going a thousand miles an hour, and it’s all starting to make sense,’ he said. 

The Kesse family have also shared their own DNA with law enforcement to help with the investigation and artificial intelligence is now being deployed in the case, Kesse said. 

Kesse has long believed that Jennifer was trafficked by a group of people – and that she is no longer alive.  

But with his belief in the FDLE and with investigators honing in on a small number of persons of interest, he feels confident her case can still be solved and the perpetrator identified. 

‘If you get down that far to so few people, you’re going to close the deal. That’s my feeling,’ he said.

Things ‘feel so different’ now compared to the years he spent fighting for answers. 

Jennifer Kesse should have turned 44 this year. Instead her family are still searching for answers

The Kesse family is holding onto the ‘glimmer of hope’ that the case is finally moving forward

‘This is Jennifer’s best chance. I feel hopeful that we will get a result,’ he said.

‘Whether that’s going to bad news, I don’t know… I just need to find my daughter. I just don’t want her to be in a shallow grave somewhere or never be found.’

Yet, despite the big break in Jennifer’s case, Kesse admitted he and his family are also preparing themselves for the painful possibility they might never truly know what happened.   

‘We could get to the end of the line and they come to us and say: ‘We did everything, but we didn’t find your daughter and she’s gone.’ We can accept that. It would be hard, but we could accept that because we know they did everything,’ he said.

‘Joyce and I have started having those discussions because we’re getting older and 20 years of constant stress and anxiety kills your body. We’re not going to be around forever.’

For now though, Kesse is holding onto that hope. 

‘I’m the dad who’s been doing this for 20 years. So when I see a glimmer of hope, I grab it,’ he said.

‘And there’s a whole bunch of glimmer of hope right now.’