Body of Sony Millbrook, missing mother of 5, found under hotel bed

[Whisper]

MEMPHIS, TN (WMC-TV) - A missing persons case involving a Memphis mother of five came to a shocking and disturbing end when investigators found Sony Millbrook's body under the bed in a motel room that several people had rented before the body was discovered.
[...]
The following is the press release from the Memphis Police Department:
On January 27, 2010 Sony Millbrook was reported missing to the Memphis Police Department after she failed to pick-up her children from school. Officers responded to 3347 Adair after family members received a call from the school that Sony had not picked up the children from school. Family members arrived while officers were completing this report and advised officers that they checked the hotel where Sony Millbrook has been residing and she was not there. The family indicated no one was in the room. Sony had been staying at the Budget Lodge room 222 at 1533 East Brooks and was last seen there at 7:00 am by a staff member who advised officers the room had been locked out today for lack of payment but all of personal belongings were still inside the apartment. Officers contacted the Budget Lodge to verify this information via telephone.

The case was assigned to the Missing Persons Bureau for follow-up investigation, however due to the nature of the incident the case was reassigned to Homicide on February 3, 2010. A Homicide Investigator conducting a follow-up went to the Budget Lodge, 1533 E. Brooks Road on February 4, 2010 and spoke to two clerks and a security guard. The investigator learned that Ms Millbrook did not make a payment after January 26th and her belongs were boxed up and the room released for rental. The family had been there on the 27th and 28th and removed items from the room. The room had been rented three times since January 29th till February 4th.

Homicide Investigators located Ms Millbrook boyfriend, LaKeith Moody and interrogated him during the course of the investigation and later charged him with a gun violation and he is currently in Mason TN being held on a federal gun charge. Moody remains a person of interest in this case.

On March 15, 2010 Homicide Investigators were called to the Budget Lodge room 222 where the body of a female had been located under the bed, after a report of bad odor was reported in the room. The body was identified as Sony Millbrook and it is apparent that she was the victim of a homicide. The cause of death is not being released at this time. (The bed in which the victim was located is a metal box frame which sets directly on the floor and the box springs and mattress set inside the metal frame.) The room had been rented approximately 5 times and cleaned by the hotel staff numerous times since January 27th.
[...]

http://www.wmctv.com/Global/story.asp?S=12155822

[TwiztidAngel]

if they hadnt described the under bed part being enclosed i woulda said some house-keepers need to be fired...ugh can you imagine sleeping directly over a corpse? poor woman...i hope they find out who did this to her

[penelopejo]

The bed in which the victim was located is a metal box frame which sets directly on the floor and the box springs and mattress set inside the metal frame.

Soooo....

Does this mean that the box and mattress were placed on top of her body?

[TwiztidAngel]

Soooo....

Does this mean that the box and mattress were placed on top of her body?

thats what i'm thinking

[Whisper]

I saw a CSI episode like this exact same thing a few months ago

[Whisper]

Murdered Woman's Boyfriend Named 'Person Of Interest'

FAST FACTS:
Body of Sony Millbrook discovered underneath motel bed
Police name boyfriend LaKeith Moody a person of interest
Police say couple had a rocky relationship

(Memphis 3/17/2010)

New information tonight in what Memphis Police say is one of the most bizarre murder cases they've ever seen.

The body of Sony Millbrook was discovered underneath a bed at the Budget Lodge Motel on East Brooks Road in Whitehaven. Police believe she was murdered even before January 27, when friends and family reported her missing.
Investigators tell WREG it was because of the victim's violent relationship with her boyfriend, LaKeith Moody, that Homicide Detectives took over the case just days after the Missing Persons Bureau began investigating.
[...]
Moody has a lengthy criminal history that spans more than two pages. He was named a 'Person of Interest' almost immediately in the disappearnce of his girlfriend.

Millbrook's brother confirms the couple had problems.

"I know she was in a violent relationship," said TJ Shields.
[...]
Inside room 222, in a metal bedframe is where police discovered Millbrook's body.
Police won't say how she was killed. They believe her body was in that room at least 49 days. Though no one, not the five people who slept in the room since or any motel staff ever reported anything suspicious until Monday.

Budget Lodge management refused to answer any of our questions.
[...]
Moody has been in federal custody since February. Investigators found him in Millbrook's vehicle and put him in jail on a gun charge.

The convicted felon isn't allowed to have a weapon. A federal criminal complaint states back in 2008 police found an Astra .9mm caliber semi-automatic pistol inside his car alongside his 17-month-old baby.

Moody has been arrested for everything from beating a man with a board outside the Carriage House Apartments to biting a Memphis Police Officer at Austin Peay and Yale.

http://www.wreg.com/news/wreg-bodyun...,5559206.story

[Dakota Valkyrie]

For the first time tonight, Sony Millbrook's sister is speaking out about the battle she waged to look inside her sister's hotel room. The room where Millbrook's body was found under the bed. Linda James says, she pleaded to get into the room ever since Millbrook disappeared at the end of January.

James says her sister was staying at the Budget Lodge on East Brooks Road for about a week, with her five children and her boyfriend, LaKeith Moody. He is the father to four of the children. And James says, she believes he's also responsible for her sister's death.
[...]

"I begged. I didn't raise my voice. But I begged. I begged that front desk staff to please go check the room and they refused," James said.

Had the employees checked Sony Millbrook's room, had they allowed James to go inside, had investigators searched the room... James believes the body of her 28-year-old sister would have been found way before March 15th. That's a month and a half after she was reported missing.

"As far as I know, my sister could've been living and just suffered," James said.

Memphis police say the room was rented out at least five times before an employee noticed a strong odor.

"If the housekeeper was in there cleaning the rooms, why didn't they check underneath the beds?" James asked.
[...]

James says officers showed-up at the Budget Lodge twice when she asked for help getting medicine and clothes for Millbrook's five children. But they never followed through.
[...]

Now there's an internal investigation. And, really no comfort for James, in knowing she was right in the fight to find her sister.

"I did not win. I lost. I lost my baby sister and my sister's kids lost their mother. And can't [anybody] give my sister back," James said.
[...]

http://www.myfoxmemphis.com/dpp/news...tel-speaks-out

[Nell]

If she wanted to check the room that bad why didn't she just rent it? Then she could have looked all night for her sister.

[TwiztidAngel]

sounds like the sister knew something...i mean the way they describe the way the under bed part is enclosed...doesnt sound like beds we use at home where the underneath part is open...if investigators didnt find her what made her think she would find her?

[moonlilly1981]

How did her body not smell before it was reported? I mean dead bodies dont smell like a garden of roses.

[Abroad]

if investigators didnt find her what made her think she would find her?

Investigators didn't look. That is the greater part of the problem.




(This if the newpaper accounts are right, of course.)

[totallytoddler]

How did her body not smell before it was reported? I mean dead bodies dont smell like a garden of roses.

Am I right that her body was there from Jan 27th to March 15th?????? So like more than a month and a half? Yea...c'mon....that would have been stinkin by day 2...I would think anyway.
Even if the maids didnt recognize the smell....they must have smelled something bad and reported it....one would think.

Ugh..the very thought of the innocent people who rented that room....shudders.

[Whisper]

About 15 yrs ago we called police at least 3xs b/c old man that lived next door his mail was overflowing.
Not seeing him wasnt anything diff b/c he was a recluse and I had NEVER seen him.
Food and booze were delivered and money left by the door and the delivery guy would pick it up.
After a few times of me calling b/c flyers were flying all over the yard and I knew it was diff.
They came in July of that yr.
He had been dead at least 3-4 months with heat cranked in bed and was basically a puddle.
Coroner and cops came to my door and told me to close my windows and doors b/c they had to open it all up and bring whatever was left of his body out and door faced my windows.
And he was zipped in bags and crap
They had to empty all his furniture out into the back yard etc,etc.
So her body would smell bigtime theres got to be something not released as like wrapped and fucking lime all over it or something.

[Pene784]

I already was reluctant to stay in hotels because of the bedbug epidemic and now I will be thinking of dead people under the bed!!!!

[Dex]

Sadly, this is not the first body-under-the-mattress story... Remember this case?

http://www.dreamindemon.com/2008/07/...elinda-hinson/

[Aslan]

Good Lord Whisper, there go my plans for actually having dinner tonight.
A puddle?

Millbrook's brother confirms the couple had problems.

"I know she was in a violent relationship," said TJ Shields.

...aaaand this is why I love my brothers. They would never say something like that. They would deal with it.
Becoming a puddle would be the least of the guy's problems.

[Whisper]

We tried to booked a room yrs ago at a motel forgetting that on my birthday is some stupid civic holiday we can never remember the name of takes place each time
We were taking the kids up to Sports World up by London.
All the rooms were booked so we figured we will drive up and camp overnight but I wasnt crazy about that idea
So we hit the city and Im calling looking and getting pissed.
Finally call one and they have rooms!!
Well no wonder
I swear with florescent light thingys like CSI has there was blood everywhere.
Casey wanted to go get pop so we come walking out and head down the hall and here come some stripper/hookers!
The otherside of the motel was a strip bar!
Casey still has his match books he took and thinks its the best vacation ever!!
To hell with Disney World just take your kid to a cheesey hotel and he loved it

[Whisper]

Good Lord Whisper, there go my plans for actually having dinner tonight.
A puddle?



...aaaand this is why I love my brothers. They would never say something like that. They would deal with it.
Becoming a puddle would be the least of the guy's problems.

LOL sorry and after I posted that I had to run and grab food from the barn at the rescue I drove by and SOMEONE LIVES THERE NOW AGAIN!!
Ill never forget I called and called and nobody came out to check on him
I dont think he had family b/c never saw anyone except delivery guys for grocery store and liquer store

[Aslan]

Laf if you have liquor store delivery up there, you're living right.
London is awesome, there's fantastic thrift store there, right next to the Days Inn.

I'm with the others though, how could the smell not alert people pretty much within a week?

I cannot imagine learning that I slept over a corpse.

[Whisper]

Laf if you have liquor store delivery up there, you're living right.
London is awesome, there's fantastic thrift store there, right next to the Days Inn.

I'm with the others though, how could the smell not alert people pretty much within a week?

I cannot imagine learning that I slept over a corpse.

The Valu Village Resale Store????Its like 2 city blocks big??
We have it here now too.
Hubby hates London bad memories as a teen in trouble lol
We have beer and liquer and food delivery thats why I never once ever saw this man.
Case of beer or a bottle is$5.00 above the cost of the booze
And big business now a friend has a business it was just him at first and now its him,wife and 4 guys
No more drinking driving or I should say less Drinking and Driving

[Dakota Valkyrie]

"When we first walked in the room you couldn't smell anything was bad. But once you turn the heat and stuff on, it brings the odor up."

Rhonda Sargent says she and her husband were staying at the Budget Lodge on Brooks Road back in February. They just moved back to Memphis from Illinois and $109 rate a week was appealing.

"When you sit on the bed between the head board and the night stand you smell the odor strong," added Sargent.

That smell, they learned last week, was from the decaying body of missing mother Sony Millbrook. Her body was stuffed under a mattress in room 202, where the Sargents were staying.

"But I though it was a mildew carpet where they didn't get all the water up off the floor," said Sargent.

Sargent says she burned incense but nothing could mask the smell.

She says she repeatedly complained to hotel managers about the stench.

"Nobody knocked on the door and asked to come in and search it or anything. We didn't even get any house cleaning," she added.
[...]

http://www.wreg.com/news/wreg-hotel-...,3890883.story

Eeewww. Just eeewwwww. <gag>