Who is Jenna Van Gelderen?
Jenna Van Gelderen graduated from high school in 2010. She attended Georgia Gwinnett College in Lawrenceville, Georgia before later transferring to Gwinnett Tech and earning an administrative assistant certificate. In late 2015, she was diagnosed as being on the autism spectrum. Her parents, Roseanne Glick and Leon Van Gelderen describe her as being a regimented person who liked having a routine, and naïve. “She was extremely gullible, extremely vulnerable because she wanted the friendships so badly, and she couldn’t always tell when their intentions were maybe to not be a good friend,” Roseanne told reporter Aly Vander Hayden in 2019.
On Friday, August 18, 2017 25 year-old Jenna’s parents were on vacation in Canada and she was cat sitting the family’s 21 year-old cat, Jessie. She was staying at their home in the upscale Druid Hills neighborhood of Atlanta, Georgia. Since Jessie needed daily medication, Jenna’s brother Will would administer the medication in the morning. A nurse from the family’s veterinary clinic would do so in the evening.
The Disappearance
The nurse came early in the afternoon on Friday and gave Jessie the medicine. Around 10:00 in the morning on Saturday August 19th, Will was running late to their parent’s home. He called Jenna on his way, but she didn’t pick up. He found the doors locked and Jenna’s blue 2010 Mazda 6 sedan was missing. The home was in disarray and the TV and lights were on. The family cat, Jessie had not been fed. Will was unable to get in touch with Jenna, but figured she was either at her home or had just stepped out. He fed Jessie, gave her the medicine and left. He tried several more times throughout the day, but was never able to get her on the phone.
Later that day, the veterinary nurse called both Will and their parents letting them know that he was unable to get into the home. This was when everything started to click for Will. He called their parents to let them know he thought something was wrong. After conferring with them he called police and reported Jenna missing.
A Second Cell Phone
Jenna had lived in the home with her parents until April of that year. She moved out and initially just couch surfed. She eventually rented a room from a friend in an apartment complex about 3 miles away. According to my research, Jenna loved Jessie and would not have just left her. Unfortunately her relationship with her parents wasn’t as strong. Jenna felt that her parents were controlling and over protective. She found out that they were tracking her location on their cell phones and felt they were violating her privacy. She ended up getting a new phone in her own name. Her parents were unaware of this second phone until after Jenna disappeared. Her parents were also unaware where exactly Jenna was living at the time of her disappearance. She had not shared her new address with them.
The police came by the family home on Sunday August 20th and interviewed Will. They were able to track Jenna’s phone and it showed she left the house around 10:30pm on Friday. She made several stops throughout the Atlanta area. She returned to her parents’ home between 1:30 and 2 am. According to the Find Jenna Facebook page, she had a passenger with her when she returned home. I was unable to find out who this person was, or if they were interviewed by police. After arriving home, she texted a friend in South Carolina that she was “laying down.” The friend later told her family that the text didn’t seem like Jenna’s usual texting pattern. This was the last time anyone reported speaking to Jenna Van Gelderen.
Suspicious People in Jenna’s Life
Police spoke with Jenna’s ex-boyfriend and found out that the two had met up and ended their relationship that night. The ex also claimed Jenna was a “prostitute and drug addict.” From my research there is absolutely no evidence to back up these claims. This seems to be mudslinging by a disgruntled ex. Police said that the people that saw Jenna on Friday night cooperated and were interviewed several times. One of these people did have shifting stories, but they have not been named publicly.
Police were able to track down where Jenna was staying. However, they didn’t go to the apartment until ten days after Jenna disappeared. They spoke to her friend that she was living with. He said she was paid up through August. He would be throwing out her belongings if he didn’t receive payment for September. If he was a friend, as he claimed, he had to know she was missing. It is odd, to say the least, that he would not have at least offered to give her belongings to her parents instead of just tossing them out onto the street.
Police did take the belongings and deliver them to her parents. A few notable things missing were a bed or mattress, bed linens and pillow. Jenna’s friend/landlord told police that she slept on the floor without a pillow or any type of blanket. He did not allow police to search the apartment, and they never obtained a search warrant. From my research I was able to find that Jenna’s name was on the apartment lease agreement. It’s unclear if her name was the only one. Since her name was on the lease, the friend would not have been able to evict her as he told police.
Puzzling Movements
The day Jenna was last seen she was driving her mom’s car. Reports say the car insurance on her vehicle had lapsed. Police learned that at both 7:15am and 7:45am on Saturday morning her second cell phone pinged a tower in Fairburn, about 50 miles south of her parent’s home. Around the same time, her car was spotted by a license plate reader camera back in Atlanta. It is unknown where Jenna was at this time, if she was in her car, with her phone or neither location. Dekalb County Police have said that they are very confident that the car and the phone were not in the same place. Interestingly, there is a large landfill in Fairburn. Police have conducted several searches in the area around where her phone pinged.
Missing Tapestry
Even though the family home was in disarray, the only thing missing was a circa-WWII Egyptian tapestry. It was part of a set that was brought over by Jenna’s grandfather. It wasn’t considered to have much monetary value. The tapestry, which measured 5’x2’, was framed. The glass on the frame was damaged and the tapestry was removed by pulling it out of the front. Reports differ on how exactly the frame for the tapestry was damaged. Some say the glass was cut and the tapestry removed, others say the glass was broken. The empty frame was put back on the wall. According to Will, it would have taken at least two people to get the frame back up. The missing tapestry was not noticed until Sunday, August 20th. It is unclear if it has anything to do with Jenna’s disappearance. The tapestry has never been found.
Jenna’s Car Found
Two weeks after Jenna disappeared her car was found parked along Defoor Place Rd in Northwest Atlanta, about 6-8 miles from her parents home. The car was found unlocked and covered in leaves and various debris. Some report say the car was out of gas. Compartments within the car were open with items strewn about the interior. Jenna’s purse, suitcase and clothing were inside. Her phones were not found in the car and have never been located. The driver’s seat had been pushed back, indicating that someone taller than Jenna – who is only 4’11” was driving the car. The car was not forensically tested at the time it was found and was eventually given back to the family. They searched through the car and found a pair of shoes that didn’t belong to Jenna as well as a phone charger that wasn’t hers.
Several months after the car was returned, Dekalb county police did take the car back in for testing at the family’s expense. If anything was found from these tests, it has not been released to the public. In 2019, the family stated that the GBI also took the car in for tests. Just like with the county, any pertinent results have not been released to the public. Police did conduct searches in the area where the car was found.
Surprise Money Trouble
During their investigation, the family discovered that Jenna had been sending payments to someone through Western Union since 2015. These transfers stopped a few months before she disappeared. The purpose of the payments and the recipient remain unknown. Six months before her disappearance, Jenna lost her full-time job as a cashier at a pet supply store and was charged with theft for allegedly stealing a $3,000 check from her employer. Her family believes she wasn’t the mastermind behind the theft and that she may have taken the money for a friend or coworker. They also revealed that Jenna had been working with a career coach and searching for a new job when she went missing. The theft charges were eventually settled out of court.
In 2019, after nearly a year of lobbying by the Van Gelderen family, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) joined the case. The family asserts that the Dekalb County police mishandled the investigation from the start. They claim the police never interviewed neighbors about potential sightings at the Druid Hills home and didn’t check for security cameras in the area. In October 2018, Jenna’s father, Leon Van Gelderen, told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:
“The detective said he collected her belongings from her apartment, but there was no mattress, no sheets, no pillows, no bedding. The roommate claimed she was sleeping on the floor, which we know isn’t like Jenna, but they didn’t think that was enough to get a search warrant. Now, after a whole year, we’re no closer to answers.”
Police Provide Few Answers
In 2018, the Dekalb County Police told the AJC they had prioritized Jenna’s case for over a year and had a detective exclusively assigned. The police also stated that they’d gotten search warrants for Jenna’s phone records, conducted several ground searches using K-9 groups and interviewed dozens of people. He went on to say, “We have no evidence to lead us to believe it is anything other than a missing person.” 1https://www.ajc.com/news/year-later-missing-woman-family-hopes-for-answers/
It’s unclear if a detective is still assigned to this case. Police have never named anyone as a suspect, or even a person of interest in this case.
A Heartbroken Family
Jenna’s father, Leon posted on Facebook in February 2022 that he was going to court to have Jenna declared legally dead.
There has been no activity on Jenna’s bank account, phone or social media accounts since her disappearance. Jenna’s family is desperate for answers in her case. They just want to know what happened. Her family maintains a Facebook page for her here.
What happened to Jenna Van Gelderen?
If you have any information regarding Jenna’s disappearance, please contact Crime Stoppers at 404-577-8477 or the Georgia Bureau of Investigation’s Tip Line at 1-800-579-8477. Crime Stoppers and the Van Gelderen family are offering a combined $50,000 reward.
Sources:
Atlanta Jewish Times: Family decides to Mourn Jenna Van Gelderen
True Crime Society: Jenna Van Gelderen and the Missing Tapestry
The Vanished Podcast: Jenna Van Gelderen
Oxygen: Searching for Jenna Van Gelderen
Oxygen: What We know about Jenna Van Gelderen
NBC News: Jenna Van Gelderen’s Car Found
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