FBI Names Second Suspect in Jewelry Store Armed Robberies

An FBI affidavit accompanying her criminal complaint says agents traced cellular traffic near the robberies and zeroed in on Kemp’s cell phone.

The FBI office in Jacksonville said earlier this week that it was looking for a woman believed to be involved in six jewelry store robberies in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee and Florida.

The jewelry store holdups in Tennessee and North Carolina each netted more than $900,000, and a total of at least $2.2 million was taken in the string of crimes, court records show. They also said Kemp has a handgun and recently had her auto painted black.

If found guilty, Kemp faces 20 years in jail.

Her parents, other family members and friends were in the courtroom.

A cellphone number with an Atlanta area code – traced to Kemp – hit towers in cities where the robberies occurred around the time of the crimes, according to the affidavit.

Remanded to next appear in court on Thursday with a court appointed federal public defender, the FBI also told of taking in a second party into custody in connection to the jewelry heist, Lewis Jones III.

Kemp looked unhappy while undertaking her perp walk into court Monday, and is said to have wept in front of the judge, which is all understandable and should be a reminder that jewel theft is probably a lot more trouble than it looks.

We have a reporter and photographer at federal court to learn what the judge may tell her about her fate for updates on Channel 2 Action News at Noon.

Odum said she also did not know Kemp on a close personal level, although the two worked at Twin Peaks Restaurant in Kennesaw for a brief period of time.

An affidavit from the Federal Bureau of Investigation states that in each case, a white female used a gun to threaten store employees, herded them to the back of the store where she had them lie face down and then tied their hands behind their backs. The feds heard from the public after agents released word of the January 4 robbery of a Jared Vault in Mebane, N.C., agents said in a statement Saturday. The FBI says the 24-year-old woman brazenly robbed jewelry stores in five states. They also used Kemp’s own social media photos to match her Honda Civic to the one captured on surveillance video.

How did one jewelry thief, Abigail Lee Kemp think to go on a string of heists without a disguise or covering her tracks?

FBI This woman the FBI later identifed as Kemp robbed a jewelry store in Panama City, Fla., in August.