Woman Tries to Fake Own Death by Beating Body Double with Brick in “Bizarre Beyond Belief” Case

It was not your typical Saturday at a Cleveland, Ohio Kentucky Fried Chicken on April 21, 2001, as a frantic woman ran into the storefront.

“What they are witnessing is a woman who burst into the restaurant, trembling in fear, bloodied about the head, and screaming that they’re trying to kill her,” prosecutor Sal Awadallah said on Snapped, airing Sundays at 6/5c on Oxygen.

As KFC employees called 911 dispatchers, the hysterical woman, 27-year-old Melissa Latham, claimed a woman and her cousin were trying to murder her, and added she’d been injected with insulin. When police arrived, a woman named Tonica Jenkins came into the restaurant and accused Latham of stealing from her and her cousi, Kyle Martin.

“Melissa saw her and actually climbed over the counter to get away from her,” said Jay Hodge, Cuyahoga County Sheriff’s Deputy Captain, on Snapped. “And was yelling, ‘That’s her! That’s the lady who tried to kill me!’”

As police tried to piece together the competing stories about what happened, they unraveled a sinister plot that included deception, fraud, and drug use — all to try and keep Jenkins out of prison.

Tonica Jenkins. Photo: Oxygen

“In 30 years as a federal prosecutor, I mean, I’ve seen people who have been killed, mostly witnesses, so that they wouldn’t testify, but I’ve never seen anybody try to fake their own death to avoid going to jail,” said Jeff Downing, ret. Assistant U.S. Attorney on Snapped.

Tonica Jenkins lived a life of fraud long before she tried to fake her own death. In 1997, she was charged with forgery and larceny for faking transcripts and letters of recommendation in order to get into Yale University’s neuroscience graduate program with a full-ride scholarship. When it was time for her to appear in court, she didn’t show up — and her story about why fooled no one.

“She said the reason she didn’t make it to court was because she had been kidnapped, raped, thrown in the back of a trunk, and driven to Philadelphia,” Downing said, adding Jenkins’ lie included faked photographs of her tied up in a trunk with a gag on. “I mean, this is the kind of stuff that shows up in fiction, in novels, you know?”

Her attorney was able to negotiate so her punishment was three years of probation and repaying her Yale scholarship money.

“People close to me at the time who heard about it said, ‘That woman scares me,’” Norm Pattis, Jenkins’ defense attorney, said on Snapped.

Months into her probation, she and her mother were arrested in Tampa, Florida and charged with drug trafficking. She was released on bond while she awaited trial, and wore an ankle monitor for tracking as a condition of her release.

“I believe Tonica Jenkins snapped when she actually realized she was gonna have to face justice,” Carroll Grant, ret. Lead U.S. Customs service agent, said on Snapped.

After hearing Melissa Latham’s claims, police went to Tonica Jenkins’ home — across the street from the KFC — to investigate. They found Jenkins’ mother cleaning the basement with bleach, as well as blood splatter on the stairs and other areas. Kyle Martin, Jenkins’ cousin, was also located and arrested, and eventually began confessing.

“I think this was easily the most diabolical and thought-out incident I ever had investigated,” Hodge said.

Martin confessed that he and Jenkins drove around late at night looking for someone to volunteer to help in their scheme.

“Melissa was under the impression that she was doing this insurance scam for medical payout,” Awadallah said.

Martin told police he and Jenkins took Latham to the dentist to get X-rays of her teeth, then all three went back to Jenkins’ home and took drugs.

“At the time, I didn’t know it, but she was putting her name under my dental record,” Latham said on Snapped.

Martin told officers he and his cousin only assaulted Latham with a brick because she stole drugs and money from them, but this turned out to be another lie.

“I felt Kyle swinging. I’m asking, ‘Why are you all doing this to me? What did I do?’” Latham said. “They were hitting me and punching me … he hit me in the head with the brick about three times … that’s when she grabbed the brick and hit me two more times. All the sudden, I feel needles going into my body.”

Latham told officers she heard Jenkins say she was injecting Latham with insulin in order to force her to pass out.

“I’m like, ‘Lord, I got to play dead, because if I don’t play dead, I’m gonna be dead,’” Latham said.

It was when she was faking her own death that Latham told police she overheard the real purpose of the beating.

“She was telling Kyle, ‘This is your cousin right here. We’re gonna get this ankle bracelet off me. Put it on her. Then she’s gonna be me, and I’m gonna be dead,’” Latham said. “She was like, ‘We’re gonna take her to this abandoned apartment next door and burn her up. All they’re gonna have to identify her is her dental records.’”

When Jenkins and Martin left to find something to wrap her body in, Latham ran from the house to the KFC across the street.

“She lied to get into Yale. She lied about where she was when she was supposed to show up for court,” Downing said. “She lied about what happened when Melissa was attacked and escaped. She’s a liar.”

Kyle Martin was found guilty of kidnapping and other charges and was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Tonica Jenkins was tried first on drug charges in Florida in April 2001 and was sentenced to 24 years in federal prison. In February 2003, she returned to Ohio and was tried on attempted murder charges. She was also found guilty. She’ll serve a total of 36 years in prison and will be eligible for parole in 2039.

“She’d already been convicted of fraud. She just was stepping up her game,” Grant said.  “It’s troublesome to think that Jenkins thought Melissa was so worthless and that her life meant nothing, that she was going to kill her to avoid going to prison for something that she did.”

Watch all-new episodes of Snapped on Oxygen on Sundays at 6/5c and the next day on Peacock.