Apprehensive Husband Got here to Motel After Spouse Did not Reply to Texts, Finds Her Slain

A Florida man accused of killing a housekeeper and leaving her battered physique in a motel closet in 2021 has pleaded responsible to second-degree homicide.

On Monday, Feb. 3, Stephen Havrilka was sentenced to 2 life sentences in reference to the demise of 46-year-old Tina Strader, an worker on the Rodeway Inn in Venice.

“We might by no means discern a motive,” Assistant State Lawyer Karen Fraivillig tells PEOPLE. “Nonetheless, he’s a particularly violent particular person with prior episodes and I believe he simply needed to kill one other human being. He must go away ceaselessly.”

“There was no relationship between the defendant and sufferer,” she provides.

Strader was found by her husband, who grew frightened when he did not hear again from her after texting her a number of occasions on April 20, 2021. The mom of 4 and grandmother of two had been severely crushed and bruised, and was unconscious, with a towel stuffed in her mouth, based on deputies, the Miami Herald reported.

Bloodstains lined the mattress, the Herald reported. She was rushed to a neighborhood hospital the place she died from her accidents hours later, the sheriff’s workplace mentioned in a press release.

Authorities found video surveillance that confirmed Havrilka, who had been staying on the motel, had entered the room the place Strader was working that day.

Strader was allegedly crushed proper after she texted her husband at 8:49 a.m., the Herald reported.

The video confirmed Havrilka getting into the room at 8:50 a.m. only one minute after Strader had gone inside, the Herald reported.

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He allegedly stayed within the room for 14 minutes earlier than he was seen leaving the room carrying a white towel and his sneakers.

“The very last thing my mom tasted was cotton,” Strader’s youngsters mentioned in a press release learn by Fraivillig, per ABC7. “It was a dry towel that was shoved in her mouth, down her throat, and which in the end led to her demise. Our mom won’t ever be at our weddings. She is going to by no means be capable to meet her grandchildren, kiss their heads, inform them tales, inform them fond reminiscences she used to share about being pregnant with us.”