Jenna Van Gelderen, a 25-year-old from Atlanta, Georgia, vanished while pet-sitting her family’s 21-year-old cat named Jessie in 2017. Her car was found abandoned two weeks later, but her whereabouts remain a mystery over seven years later.
She’s remembered by her parents as a regimented young woman who enjoyed following routines. Jenna received an autism spectrum disorder diagnosis in 2015, and according to her mother, Roseanne Glick, she trusted others easily.
“[Jenna] 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 detailed.
Her father, Leon Van Gelderen, also called his daughter’s social life “a total mystery most of the time.”
Around six months before she disappeared, Jenna reportedly began socializing with a group that Leon thought didn’t have her best interests at heart.
Due to his concern, he went through her cell phone records and confronted Jenna, which took a toll on their relationship.
She’d also worked full-time at a local pet store, but her position was terminated after she allegedly stole a $3,000 check from her employer. Leon believes the same group of people he’d been worried about had influenced his daughter.
By April 2017, Jenna had moved out of her parent’s home and couch-surfed before renting a room at a friend’s apartment a few miles away. Additionally, she’d been trying to find a new job and working with a career coach when she went missing on August 19, 2017.
At the time, Roseanne and Leon had gone on a trip to Canada, so Jenna was taking care of their family’s cat, Jessie. She and the pet reportedly had a really close bond.
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On the morning of August 19, a veterinary nurse reportedly visited her parent’s home to administer medication. Yet, no one answered the door for the nurse, who contacted Jenna’s brother, Will.
He wound up going to his parent’s house to let the nurse inside and check on his sister. Upon arriving, Will realized Jenna’s car, a blue 2010 Mazda 6 sedan, wasn’t there.
Furthermore, the TV and the lights inside had been left on, their cat Jessie hadn’t been fed, and a large Egyptian tapestry, which had been framed, was missing from the wall, with the empty frame put back.
Will reached out to his parents, who quickly traveled back to Georgia. Roseanne stated that her daughter “would never have left without making sure that the vet tech that was giving [Jessie] medicine knew.”
Once Roseanne and Leon made it home, they discovered Jenna had left behind her sneakers, makeup bag, and cell phone charger. This was uncharacteristic, as part of Jenna’s routine was bringing these items wherever she went.
Her parents spoke to Jenna’s friends, none of whom had seen her in the last two days, and reported Jenna missing.
It was uncovered that she’d secretly gotten a second cell phone on a different phone plan. Jenna allegedly used the device to stay in touch with her friends behind her father’s back.
Authorities determined that she’d left her parent’s home at 10:30 p.m. on Friday, August 18, making multiple stops in the Atlanta area before returning to her parent’s house sometime between 1:30 a.m. and 2:00 a.m.
Her last known text message was sent at 2:00 a.m. when she told a friend from South Carolina that she was going to lie down.
Hours later, Jenna’s second cell phone pinged a Fairburn, Georgia, tower at 7:15 a.m. on August 19. The tower was about 20 miles away from her parent’s residence, and around the same time, a license plate reader spotted her vehicle in Atlanta.
It’s unclear whether Jenna was in her car, with her second cell phone, or neither, but Captain Anthony Ford with the Dekalb County Police Department said investigators are “very confident that the car and the phone were not in the same place.”
Authorities visited the apartment where Jenna had been staying 10 days after she vanished. She’d already paid her rent for the whole month of August, yet reportedly never disclosed the address to her parents. The police returned her belongings to her family, but some basic essentials were missing.
“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,” Leon told the press in 2018.
On September 5, 2017, two weeks after Jenna disappeared, her car was then discovered parked on Defoor Place, approximately seven miles away from her parent’s house. The vehicle was unlocked and nearly empty of gas, and Jenna’s purse, clothing, and suitcase were still inside.
Additionally, the driver’s seat had been pushed back, suggesting someone else had been driving the car since Jenna was only four foot eleven, and a phone charger and pair of shoes belonging to someone else were recovered.
The police reportedly found no additional evidence inside the vehicle, which was ultimately returned to Jenna’s family.
According to Leon, the car’s discovery made him think “right away that the chance of Jenna being alive was very limited.”
It has now been more than seven years since Jenna vanished, and what exactly happened to her is unknown. The police claim to have interviewed dozens of people and executed multiple group searches with K9s. Still, no suspects have ever been named in her disappearance, and her whereabouts are a mystery.
“Her whole life, I advocated on her behalf. If we stop, Jenna’s not going to be found,” Roseanne stated in 2019.
Jenna was four foot eleven, weighed 140 pounds, and had black hair and brown eyes. Anyone with information regarding her case is urged to contact the Georgia Bureau of Investigation tip line at 1-800-597-8477.
