Shivangi Sinha
In May 2018, when Joleen Cummings failed to meet her estranged husband, Jason Cummings, to pick up their children as planned, concern rose quickly. Her family tried contacting her but couldn’t reach her, so they filed a missing persons report. Soon after, Joleen’s vehicle was located, and police discovered it had been stolen. As the investigation gained momentum, officers uncovered multiple pieces of evidence that pointed to the perpetrator whose motives left many perplexed. The case and its detailed timeline have since been explored in ABC’s ‘20/20: The Final Cut.’
Joleen Cummings’ Mother Reported Her Missing After She Didn’t Pick Up Her Kids From Her Ex
Joleen Rebecca “JoJo” Jensen was born on May 13, 1984, in Florida. Her mother, Anne Johnson, described her as an adventurous and determined young woman with big ambitions. After graduating in 2002, Joleen learned she was expecting a child with her then-partner. Although she felt blessed when her daughter was born, the relationship ultimately didn’t last. As a single mother, Joleen moved to Jacksonville, Florida, and enrolled in cosmetology school. She dreamed of eventually opening her own salon. However, after completing her training, she worked at Tangles Hair Salon in Yulee, Florida, to support herself and her family in the meantime.
Joleen’s personal life seemed to be flourishing as well. She met Jason Cummings in 2012, and their relationship quickly turned serious. The couple married in 2013, the same year they welcomed their first son, and in 2015, they celebrated the birth of a second baby boy. For Joleen, life felt full and joyful. She had a devoted clientele at the salon, a stable career, and a blended family of five whom she adored. However, by 2017, the marriage had begun to unravel. That year, Joleen and Jason chose to separate and file for divorce. Despite the split, they continued to share custody of their sons and co-parented throughout the legal process.
On May 13, 2018, Joleen was scheduled to pick up her children in Hilliard, Florida, but she never arrived. It was not only Mother’s Day but also Joleen’s birthday, and her mother immediately sensed something was wrong when she didn’t receive the usual call or flowers from her daughter. On May 14, she reported Joleen missing. Investigators learned that Joleen had last been seen the previous evening, leaving the hair salon where she worked at around 5 pm. On May 15, her car was located near a Home Depot in Yulee, Florida, which deepened concerns and prompted further questions. Although her remains have never been recovered, Joleen has been legally declared deceased. Authorities believe she was dismembered and her remains disposed of, though this has not been proven due to the absence of recovered remains.
Joleen Cummings’ Car Led Police to Narrow Down a Suspect for the Crime
The police first looked into Jason Cummings, given the tense nature of the couple’s ongoing divorce. They had argued just days before Joleen Cummings went missing, but he was quickly ruled out after providing a solid alibi. Investigators then spoke with her coworkers, who confirmed that she had closed the salon that evening and that the only other person with her was an employee known as Jennifer Sybert. When Joleen’s car was found on May 15, surveillance footage showed it had been parked there at 1:17 am on May 13, and the person behind the wheel was Sybert herself. The two women had never been particularly close, and there had been minor conflicts between them in the past.
On May 16, Sybert was located sleeping in her car at a rest stop along Interstate 95 in St. Johns County, Florida. She was immediately arrested and initially charged with grand theft auto. Officers noticed she had injuries on her arms and legs, and a patch of her hair appeared to be missing. Investigators soon uncovered substantial evidence against her. At the salon, significant amounts of blood belonging to both Sybert and Joleen were detected with luminol, indicating the scene had been cleaned. Surveillance footage also revealed that after abandoning Joleen’s car, Sybert went into a nearby gas station, bought a bottle of water, and used the clerk’s phone to call a taxi.
Related
Joleen Cummings’ Killer Never Revealed the Location of Her Remains
The gas station employee later reported that Jennifer Sybert had noticeable scratch marks on her face. The taxi driver who picked her up said he dropped her off at the Tangles hair salon, where she then got into her own car. In the days following Joleen Cummings’ disappearance, Sybert was also caught on camera throwing away a white trash bag and emptying a trash can into a dumpster near the salon. Investigators discovered she had been renting a storage unit, where traces of Joleen’s blood were found, along with one of Joleen’s fingernails in a nearby trash bin. Police then uncovered that “Jennifer Sybert” wasn’t her real name. She was actually Kimberly Lee Kessler, a woman who had been missing from Butler, Pennsylvania, in 2004, and it was only reported in 2012.
Throughout her life, Kessler had operated under at least seventeen aliases and lived in thirty-three cities across fourteen different states since 1996. Police concluded that the crime was premeditated, based on the evidence that on May 4, she had conducted Google searches, including “coworker guilty of murder missing person body not found,” along with multiple searches about Joleen. Investigators theorized that the latter may have discovered Kessler’s identity theft, causing her to feel threatened and carefully plan the killing. They believe Joleen was murdered inside the salon on the night she vanished. In September 2018, Kessler was charged with first-degree murder and was later sentenced to life in prison.
