No Body, No Crime

Joleen Cummings was a 34-year-old hairstylist and mother of three who worked at Tangles Hair Salon in Yulee, in Nassau County, Florida. A coworker there called herself Jennifer Sybert. Joleen was last seen at the salon on May 12, 2018. The next day was Mother’s Day and her birthday, and she never came to pick up her children.

Joleen’s Ford Expedition was found at a Yulee Home Depot on May 15, and surveillance video showed the coworker parking it there early on May 13. When deputies came to the salon, “Sybert” left, and she was arrested at an Interstate 95 rest area for stealing the SUV. In custody she turned out to be Kimberly Kessler, who had used at least 18 aliases and had been listed as a missing person after leaving Pennsylvania in 2004. Luminol revealed cleaned-up blood throughout the salon. Joleen’s blood was later found on a boot and scissors, and one of her fingernails was in a bin in Kessler’s storage unit.

Kessler’s outbursts got her barred from the courtroom for most of her trial. On December 9, 2021, a jury found her guilty of murder and grand theft, and in January 2022 she was sentenced to life without parole. A Florida appeals court affirmed the conviction in October 2023, and the U.S. Supreme Court denied her petition in January 2026. Joleen’s body has never been found.