JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - As the search continues for missing mother Joleen Cummings, former co-workers and instructors are speaking out about the character of Kimberly Kessler, the woman arrested in connection to Cumming's disappearance.
Kessler used the name Jennifer Sybert, according to the Nassau County Sheriff's Office. She earned her certification in 2014 to cut hair. Fellow students and instructors that worked alongside her can only describe her behavior as "strange."
Before making her way to Tangles Hair Salon, Kessler, going by the alias Jennifer Sybert, trained at a Jacksonville Hair Academy.
“She basically carried a notebook everywhere with her and she would be writing down, word for word what was being said, nothing for studious purposes, it was basically to have documentation," a former instructor, who didn't want to be identified, told First Coast News.
He added the now 50 year-old Kessler kept to herself during themonths month of schooling.
“She was reserved, kept to herself, didn’t really associate with anybody," he said.
He added, Kessler didn’t associate or want to take part in learning hair-styling techniques or experiment like most students in beauty school.
“She wouldn’t let anyone touch her hair," he said. "When I told her that she needed to learn certain things, she told me she was only there, even if though it was a cosmetology school, she told me she was only there to barber.”
The only other memories he has of Kessler can be described as her odd behavior.
“She went inside a lower cabinet and would close herself in and when people asked what she was doing, she’d say she wanted to see if she could fit in there," he said.
Constantly writing in a notebook, keeping her head down and even hiding cabinets wasn't the strangest or oddest memory.
“I remember that one girl said that she asked if she could keep some of her sunburnt skin that was peeling off," he said.
Things got so bad, her instructor stopped working with her and says curious co-workers even tried to look up her background back in 2014, but couldn’t find much online then either.
“It was always this interesting thing where we didn’t know much about her and she kept to herself with the mission to finish school," he said.