Murder at the Motel

Late on the night of March 19, 2017, police respond to a call from a witness who hears a gunshot at the Surf Motel on Auburn Boulevard in Sacramento, CA. At the motel, they find the body of 53-year-old Leonora Montoya.

In 2015, Abigail 'Abby' Cozad was found dead in a Denver, CO, motel room. Years earlier, Abby had suffered a traumatic brain injury in a drunk-driving crash, leaving her vulnerable and overly trusting.

On May 15, 2016, Bensalem police and firefighters were called to the Lincoln Inn Motel, where a room was engulfed in flames. As crews battled the blaze, they made a horrifying discovery, a body burned beyond recognition lying in the wreckage.

In 2012, 24-year-old military reservist 2LT Alvin Bulaoro was reported missing by his family. Two long weeks later, his body is discovered, having sustained gruesome injuries, inside a sleeping bag in the backseat of his car in a supermarket parking lot in Fallbrook, CA. Through in-depth police work, law enforcement identified the Fallbrook Country Inn, as the location where Alvin was murdered.

On April 23, 2018, the battered body of Aileen Seiden was discovered off a highway on Florida's Forgotten Coast. Investigators traced the crime to Room 15 of the Sportsman's Lodge Motel, where blood evidence and a palm print revealed a violent struggle and ultimately led them to uncover a tale of how jealousy and control turned a toxic relationship deadly.

On April 9, 2021, Tina Strader, a housekeeping manager at the Rodeway Inn in Venice, Florida, stopped replying to her regular check-in texts to her husband. Worried, he traced her last message to Room 205, where he discovered her body hidden in a closet-viciously beaten, with a towel forced down her throat. Using surveillance footage, investigators worked to identify her killer and bring him to justice.

On July 7, 2017, cleaning staff at America’s Best Value Inn in Michigan discovered a horrifying scene: 43-year-old Christina Daughenbaugh’s body, wrapped in bed sheets, surrounded by blood with a knife lying nearby.

On a cold November evening in 2011, the stillness of a motel in Utica, New York, was shattered by a brutal crime. Police responding to a call at The Davis Motel uncovered the lifeless body of the owner with a belt tied around her neck.