In 2011, Jennifer “Jenny” Webb was a 32-year-old woman who lived in Buena Vista, Michigan. Her best friend, Andrea King described her as the most loving & happiest person you would ever want to meet & family described her as fun-loving & charismatic. Jenny had a great job working for P.F. Markey & owned her own home & those that knew her said she was an extremely reliable person that could always be counted on for a helping hand. She was said to have a magnetic personality that attracted everyone around. Jenny was born on April 12, 1979 to parents Donald & Dawn Webb. She graduated from Bridgeport High School in 1997 & attended Saginaw Valley State University. Jenny was an avid Michigan football fan & loved to go camping & hunting.
Jenny’s mom, Dawn Webb said that when Jenny found out she was pregnant, she was already five months along; she was very surprised & called her mom in tears to tell her the news. The news was unexpected because Jenny wasn’t really dating anyone at the time. She told family that the father was Kenneth Bluew, a police officer with the Buena Vista Township Police Department. Jenny had known Kenneth for ten years & explained that she’d gotten pregnant under casual circumstances & believed that he was separated & no longer living with his wife at the time. This proved to be untrue & Kenneth was still married. It was Jenny’s plan to raise her son Braxton as a single parent. Dawn indicated that she had never met Kenneth, she would hear her daughter mention his name & that’s all she told her. Dawn said that she always thought of her daughter as the sparkle of the family; she loved life, had a great attitude & nothing ever got her down.
On the evening of Tuesday, August 30, 2011, after finishing work, Jenny headed over to her friend Andrea’s house to help her out with her newborn twin girls. At the time, Jenny was 8.5 months pregnant with her baby boy & she was very excited about it. Jenny left Andrea’s house at 8:30 pm & told her that she was going to see “Baby Daddy” & talk to him about her plan to put his name on Braxton’s birth certificate & her expectations to collect child support. She also speculated if Kenneth had told his wife about her pregnancy yet. According to Andrea, Jenny seemed annoyed that she had to meet Kenneth but knew it was something that had to be done. Andrea was firm on the fact that despite carrying Kenneth’s baby, Jenny was not in love with him nor did she have any intention of marrying him in hopes they could raise the baby together. As Jenny was heading out, she told Andrea that she’d come by the same time the next day. Sadly, this was the last time Andrea saw her friend alive.
That evening, Kenneth was on duty & between 9:05-10:30 pm, he was not responding to multiple attempts to contact him via police radio, patrol car computer & cell phone. Central dispatch performs radio checks to confirm an officer’s safety & Kenneth didn’t respond to his 10:20 pm radio check. After all forms of contact went unanswered, a text message was sent via the patrol car’s computer which would have flashed or sounded an alarm & central dispatch sent another alert tone to Kenneth’s patrol car. After 10:30 pm, Kenneth tried to call an officer on the administrative channel & also contacted dispatch to inform them but he didn’t specify his location.
Buena Vista police officer, Tim Patterson drove around the area he knew that Kenneth would be patrolling & he also knew that he would often go not far from a police shooting range to take a nap during his shift. As Tim drove near the Van Buren Waste Treatment Facility, he saw Kenneth’s patrol car on a dead-end road in a remote area with its car spotlight shining on a Pontiac Aztek SUV.
As both officers got out of their cars, Kenneth asked Tim, “How do you want to do this?” Tim noticed that Kenneth was sweating profusely as if he had just gotten out of the shower despite the fact that it was a cool evening. He was out of breath & seemed disheveled.
Tim approached the Aztek’s passenger side & Kenneth went to the driver’s side. As Tim moved toward the driver’s side, he noticed that the back door of the car was open, a brown electrical cord was tied & hanging from the roof rack of the car & realized that there was a body of a female with something tied to her neck, hanging from the car, her body laying in the ditch. The victim was visibly pregnant, she wasn’t breathing & her lips were blue. Tim initially considered the scene a suicide & notified central dispatch.
During this time, Tim noticed that Kenneth was acting strangely & despite having much experience at the scene of gruesome crimes, he seemed nervous & uneasy. Kenneth found the victim’s purse in the car & inside was a typewritten suicide note, a driver’s license & a cellphone. The suicide note indicated that she didn’t know who the father of the baby was & it was someone she’d met at a bar & his name was Chris. “I’ve spent the past several months trying to convince myself I was OK with this pregnancy, but I’m not. I can’t afford to support myself. Then I have a baby on the way that I can’t support either.” The note ended with, “It’s the only way. I love you & I’m sorry. -Jenny.” At that time, they were able to identify that the victim was Jenny Webb based on her ID. Kenneth then proclaimed that he knew Jenny from a local bar.
Detective Seargant Sean Waterman indicated that he responded to a phone call from Officer Tim Patterson about the possible suicide on the evening of August 30, 2011 near the intersection of North Outer Drive & Hack Road. Minutes later, Detective Sergeant Sean Waterman arrived at the scene & Kenneth began to take evidence photos. At the time, it seemed like an open & shut case of suicide. The car was towed & Jenny’s body was transferred to the morgue.
As the officers headed back to the station to write up their reports, Tim noticed that Kenneth’s eye, which had previously been red, was now turning black & blue. He also noticed that he took his laundry bag to his truck instead of sending his uniform to the department’s laundry service at the end of his shift as he usually did. Tim was also aware that Kenneth was certified as an instructor in pressure point control tactics (PPCT) which is used to control someone with your bare hands.
As Waterman was at the crime scene with state police & the crime lab, Kenneth came back, now wearing civilian clothes & was ordered to go back to the station & stay there.
Detective Waterman then had the terrible task of notifying Jenny’s family of the devastating news of her death. He arrived to their house at 1 am on August 31 & her parents immediately did not believe that she would have committed suicide; Dawn said, “she may be dead but she didn’t commit suicide.” They explained that she was preparing for the arrival of her baby boy & showed the detectives all of the preparations she’d made for her baby. They dropped a bombshell when they explained that Kenneth was the baby’s father & that Jenny had planned to meet him that evening about putting his name on the birth certificate. Detective Waterman indicated that he had been in public safety, had worked as a paramedic & did a tour in Southeast Asia & that not much rattled him, but the news that Kenneth was the baby’s father absolutely rattled him & made him sick to his stomach. Waterman knew right then & there that Kenneth was responsible for Jenny’s murder & he knew the whole scene had been staged. After the conversation with Jenny’s family, Michigan State Police were contacted.
When Jenny’s cell phone was checked, the call log showed recent calls from “Ken Cop Boo” whose number matched that of Kenneth; there were two phone calls from Jenny to Kenneth at 8:28 pm & 8:43 pm & one call from Kenneth to Jenny at 8:48 pm.
By the time MSP lead investigator, Detective Sergeant Alan Ogg arrived on scene, everything was gone; the car had been towed & Jenny’s body had been removed. He reviewed the crime scene photos that Kenneth had taken. The scene was secured until forensic scientists Gary Ginther & Valerie Bowman arrived the next morning; they found a pair of flip-flop sandals in the ditch below where Jenny’s car was found but little else. They felt this was odd & there must be more evidence somewhere. After canvassing the area, police were able to find the spot about 195 feet away with more evidence that included a cigarette butt, a charm from a necklace & a drop of blood. The evidence was collected & sent for testing, including Jenny’s & Kenneth’s cars.
Nine hours after Jenny’s body was discovered, Kenneth was interviewed by Sergeant Ott & at this point, he was giving off the appearance of being fully cooperative with nothing to hide; the interview first appeared casual & had the appearance of three cops just hanging out. Things quickly turned serious. Kenneth said that he was patrolling the area when he noticed a parked car. He said that both he & Tim approached the car at the same time. He indicated he was the person who found the suicide note in Jenny’s purse as he looked for her ID. He said it was at this point, he realized he knew the victim.
Kenneth was asked why he hadn’t checked Jenny’s body for vital signs & he said that there was no movement & it didn’t appear that her chest was rising. He said her lips were blue & he didn’t have the impression that she was alive & he didn’t want to disturb the scene. He told investigators that he knew Jenny for about ten years, they were friends & they would see each other about once or twice a month. They asked if he’d recognized her when he first walked to where her body lay & he said because of her positioning, he didn’t. They found this hard to believe & he said it was because he was in ‘cop mode.’ When they asked him if he’d ever been sexually involved with Jenny or if there was any chance that he could be the father of her unborn baby, he said that it wasn’t possible since he’d never slept with her. When they explained that her family was under the impression that he was the father, he responded, “Huh. Wow” while continuing to deny that he was the father. He hesitated to sign a consent form for obtaining his DNA though eventually agreed. As he put his pen to the paper, he finally admitted to sleeping with Jenny.
In the meantime, Jenny’s autopsy was completed by Dr. Kanu Virani, an expert in forensic pathology, who found no injury or bleeding inside Jenny’s neck which would be expected in death by hanging. Dr Virani concluded that her cause of death was neck compression & listed the manner of death as homicide & believed that she died of suffocation, likely from a chokehold. It was also noted that she had bruising on her arms, face, chest & neck & a ligature mark from the cord found around her neck. It just so happened that Kenneth had his training manual on chokeholds sitting on the front seat of his patrol car which was very unusual.
When Kenneth was brought in for questioning, investigators noted scratches to his head, arms & next to his right eye which he explained he’d received from his dog a few days earlier. His index finger was also bandaged. They asked if they could expect to find his DNA under Jenny’s fingernails & he said, “I don’t know, I mean, I wasn’t there.”
Officer Sara Sylvester indicated that she shared a pizza with Kenneth at about 7:30 pm the evening of Jenny’s murder & indicated that she hadn’t noticed any red marks around his eye or any other scratches at that point.
The DNA from the cigarette butt came back as a match for Kenneth & the DNA from the necklace charm as well as the drop of blood on the ground was a match for Jenny. Detectives believe that while she was being strangled, her nose began to bleed. A crime lab also found the tip of a latex glove tangled amongst Jenny’s clothes that contained blood on the inside that matched Kenneth’s DNA & a mixed stain on the outside from both Jenny & Kenneth from human blood & saliva. It was theorized that he was wearing the glove when she bit his finger.
As the investigation continued, Jenny’s obstetrician also indicated that she was extremely excited for the arrival of her baby & showed no signs of depression. Kenneth’s home computer was analyzed by an expert in forensic computer analysis & found that several searches had been made during the summer of 2011 concerning suicide, painless ways to commit suicide & hanging. Several searches from August 2011 included ways to die from carotid artery compression & how long such a death would take.
An expert in DNA analysis conducted a paternity test & determined that Kenneth was the father of Jenny’s baby. Blood from Kenneth’s clothing as well as from the inside & outside of Jenny’s car found that they matched the DNA from Kenneth. A swab from under Jenny’s fingernails showed a mixture of her own DNA as well as Kenneth’s.
Evidence told the story that Jenny met Kenneth in a secluded area & while there, he, being a big, tall man, attacked her from behind & placed her in a chokehold, strangling her to death. During the struggle, Jenny not only scratched Kenneth, but also bit a sizable piece of skin from the tip of one of his fingers. He then placed her body in the backseat of her car & drove to another location, a very short distance to Outer Road. Once here, he staged the murder to look like a suicide. During the staging, the blood from his injured finger was transferred via multiple bloody fingerprints to the back of Jenny’s car as well as to the extension cord he wrapped around her neck & connected to the roof rack of her car. He then pushed her body out of the car & into the ditch where she was found. He provided investigators with the uniform that he’d worn & laundered that night & investigators also found a second uniform under the back seat of his personal car that had blood stains on the shirt & pants which was a match for his own DNA.
The suicide note was also found to be fake. According to Jenny’s mom, had Jenny written the note, it would not have been typed & instead would have been handwritten in a pink, green or purple glitter gel pen. She said that she would have also left a note for each person she was close with. Dawn said that she doesn’t even remember much of what was on the note because after reading about a quarter of it, she knew it was not legitimate, the wording so unlike anything that would come from her daughter. The note had been typed in single-spaced #10 font. The language used was uncharacteristic of Jenny & on further processing, detectives found 14 clear separate fingerprints on the backside of the note which all belonged to Kenneth. The fingerprints were shown to have no defects indicating injury which Kenneth’s prints had directly after the murder. This indicated that the note had been typed before Jenny’s murder which suggested a premeditated act. There was not a single finger print of Jenny’s on the letter.
On September 13, 2011, two weeks after Jenny was murdered, Kenneth was arrested. Kenneth was the son of a Detroit police officer who served in the city for twenty-eight years before his death in 2006. Kenneth followed in his father’s footsteps & began working for the Saginaw County Sheriff’s Department in 1997 & then accepted a position with the Buena Vista Police Department where he worked until the time of his arrest in 2011. He had been married to a woman named Lisa & the couple had a young son together; at the time of his arrest, Lisa immediately filed for divorce.
In October of 2012, more than a year after both Jenny & her unborn baby had been murdered, 37-year-old Kenneth went to trial. The prosecution called 31 witnesses whereas the defense called only one. Kenneth himself never took the stand. After two hours of deliberation, Kenneth was found guilty of first-degree premeditated murder, assault of a pregnant individual with the intent to cause miscarriage or stillbirth & two counts of felony firearm possession. He was sentenced to life in prison without parole for the first-degree murder conviction, 65-100 years for the assault conviction & 2 years for each felony-firearm conviction. Saginaw County Circuit Judge Darnell Jackson spoke to Kenneth during his sentencing, “For me to say the evidence of your guilt in this case was overwhelming is an understatement. You plotted & researched this killing for quite a while before you actually committed it. You decided you were going to do it & you did. You waited for the right time & the right place. It was heinous & cold-blooded. Just like you plotted & planned the murder of Jennifer Webb, you by necessity also plotted & planned the murder of her baby. You had to have known that when you killed her the baby was also going to die.”
Kenneth’s sister Debbie Dennis believes that the only explanation for what happened that night was that Jenny killed herself or maybe it was just an accident, “I hate to say that she would have tied a cord around her own neck just to scare him. Some women can be dramatic. I think all the answers probably died with her.” Debbie believes the evidence was lacking & had Kenneth moved Jenny to her car & pushed her out, there would have been drag marks & there were no scrapes where he pushed her out the door. She also pointed out that there wasn’t a single strand of Jenny’s hair on Kenneth’s uniform. She believes that her brother was set-up & evidence may have been planted. In regards to the blood that was found on Jenny’s body & in her car, she theorizes that somebody put it there “because they definitely had access to his blood & fingerprints.”
Detective Sergeant Alan Ogg feels that in Kenneth’s mind, he thought he was going to get away with it. Others involved felt that Jenny was the best witness in this case because of the blood that she managed to leave behind in her fight to stay alive for herself & her baby & it’s likely that Kenneth never imagined that the crime scene would be as messy & bloody as it ended up being. A bad cop killed an innocent woman & her unborn baby but the good cops helped to put him behind bars.
In August of 2014, a Michigan Court of Appeals sent Kenneth’s case back to Saginaw County Circuit Judge Darnell Jackson. On November 3, 2014, Judge Jackson reluctantly reduced the sentence on the assault charge which sentenced Kenneth to 65-100 years which was exceeded by nearly 50 years. At the time of initial sentencing, the judge felt that the sentencing guidelines for the assault charge didn’t adequately address the crime Kenneth committed because Jenny’s baby boy would have been a viable baby had he been born.
He reluctantly re-sentenced him to the maximum sentence called for by the applicable sentence guidelines which was 18 years & nine months to 40 years in prison for the assault charge which will run concurrent with the murder sentence. He would have been charged with a second first-degree murder for the baby, but in the state of Michigan you can’t have first-degree murder of an unborn child.
During Kenneth’s sentencing, Dawn, Jenny’s mom made a victim-impact statement & said, “Everyone who trusted you has to live with the horror of this. Why God didn’t strike you dead, I really don’t know. An evil monster is the only word I can think of for you. Go to your cage & think about how you squeezed the life & breath out of my daughter & grandson & I hope it haunts you every day for the rest of your life.”
References:
- Odd Murders & Mysteries: The murder of Jennifer Webb
- Casetext: Bluew v. Woods
- Mlive: Judge ‘reluctantly’ reduces ex-cop Ken Bluew’s sentence for assault in Jennifer Webb murder
- ID Crimefeed: Michigan woman eight months pregnant found dead in staged suicide
- True Crime Daily: Married cop murders single woman carrying his baby, stages suicide
- CBS Detroit: Ex-Michigan cop gets life in pregnant girlfriend’s death
- Mlive: Jennifer Marie Webb
