VIDEO: Police: Suspect kept mother's body in local motel for 7 weeks

MILLBROOK - A Pleasant Valley man has been accused of strangling his mother, and then keeping her remains in a Pleasant Valley motel for seven weeks before moving her body to a small town in South Carolina.

The gruesome details came to light during a state police press conference Saturday at the Troop K headquarters in Millbrook.

Charles Cole, 48, has been arraigned on a charge of second-degree murder in connection with the death of his mother, Betty Cole, 76. He is being held at Dutchess County Jail without bail.

Cole's wife, Ronalda Cole, 40, faces a charge of tampering with physical evidence, a felony. Police say she assisted her husband with transporting and disposing of Betty Cole's body. She was sent to Dutchess County Jail in lieu of $10,000 cash bail.

"I find it hard to imagine," state police Capt. John Ryan said, "the circumstances that would lead a son to strangle his mother, but also to live with the body in a motel room and then travel several states away and dump her like trash."

Police allege Charles Cole strangled his mother on Aug. 16 at the Pleasant Valley Motel on Route 44, where they both resided, and kept the body there for seven weeks.

Cole, police say, then stuffed the body into a plastic bin, placed the bin into a 2006 Ford Escape and drove to South Carolina. There, he left the remains in a secluded area off of Interstate 95 in the Town of Lodge, which is about halfway between Augusta and Charleston.

Police declined to specify why Cole chose to leave the remains in South Carolina.

Betty Cole's remains were located on Oct. 17. Ronalda Cole was arrested the next day. Her husband was located in Poughkeepsie five days later and charged.

Police would not say if Cole had any previous criminal history.

Ryan said Charles Cole, his wife and his mother were sharing the same room at the motel. He said that on Oct. 6, state police were dispatched to check on the welfare of Betty Cole after family members were unable to make contact with her.

Cole moved his mother's remains that day, Ryan said.

Chandresh Patel, manager of the Pleasant Valley Motel, said Cole moved out just hours after police came to check on his mother.

Patel said hotel workers routinely cleaned air conditioning filters and did other maintenance in Cole's room during the period police say he hid his mother's body. Patel said there were no indications a body was being kept there, including any smell.

"We went in the room at least six or seven times while they were here to check the smoke detectors," he said.

He said motel employees never saw Cole's mother living with the couple, only two dogs.

"There was no mother here," he said. "We never saw her."

When the couple moved out, Patel said, they took one dog, but left the other. That dog, he said, was turned over to a local shelter.

"He paid and then he left," Patel said.

John Ferro: 845-437-4816, jferro@poughkeepsiejournal.com, Twitter: @PoJoEnviro