Pleasant Valley couple arrested following homicide investigation
NEW YORK STATE POLICE
Major Robin H. Benziger
Troop K Commander
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Pleasant Valley, New York – On October 6, 2015, New York State Police from the Poughkeepsie barracks were dispatched to check the welfare of 76-year-old Betty Cole, after family was unable to make contact with her. Ms. Cole was last known to be living at the Pleasant Valley Motel located in Pleasant Valley, NY.
A subsequent State Police investigation, with assistance from the Colleton County Sheriff’s Department in South Carolina, led to the recovery on October 17th of Ms. Cole’s remains in the Town of Lodge in a secluded wooded area, not far from Interstate 95.
State Police investigation determined, Betty Cole was strangled by her 48-year-old son Charles R. Cole on August 16, 2015 at the Pleasant Valley Motel where Charles Cole resided with his mother Betty Cole and his 40-year-old wife Ronalda E. Cole.
Charles and Ronalda subsequently kept the body of Ms. Cole in their motel room for the next 7 weeks until travelling to South Carolina where the remains were dumped off in a wooded area.
Charles Cole was located yesterday at the Family Partnership in Poughkeepsie and charged with Murder in the 2nd Degree, a Class A-1 Felony. Cole was arraigned in Town of Pleasant Valley Court and remanded to the Dutchess County Jail without bail.
Ronalda Cole was arrested on October 18th and charged with Tampering with Physical Evidence, a Class E Felony, for assisting her husband with transporting and disposing of Betty Cole’s body. Ronalda Cole was arraigned in Town of Pleasant Valley Court and remanded to the Dutchess County Jail in lieu of $10,000 cash bail.
“I find it hard to imagine circumstances that could lead to a son strangling his mother, but to also live with her body in a motel room for 7 weeks and to then travel several states away to dump her body like trash, makes this a particularly disturbing and unusual case.” Stated Captain John J. Ryan of the Bureau of Criminal Investigation.
