Charles Cole
Ronalda Cole
PLEASANT VALLEY – State Police charged a Pleasant Valley man with killing his mother and then keeping her body in the motel room he shared with his wife and mother for seven weeks before traveling to South Carolina where he dumped her remains in a wooded area.
Charles Cole, 48, is charged with murder in the death of Betty Cole, 76, whose body was recovered on October 17 in a secluded area not far from Interstate 95 in the Town of Lodge, South Carolina. Cole allegedly strangled his mother, Betty Cole, and stored her body in their Pleasant Valley Motel room before traveling south and dumping her remains.
Cole was located Friday at a homeless service provider in Poughkeepsie, charged with murder and placed the Dutchess County Jail without bail.
Cole’s wife, Ronalda, was arrested on October 18 and charged with tampering with physical evidence as a felony for assisting her husband with transporting and disposing of Betty Cole’s body. Ronalda Cole is in 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 seven weeks and to then travel several states away to dump her body like trash, makes this a particularly disturbing and unusual case,” said BCI Capt. John Ryan.
State Police worked jointly with the Dutchess District Attorney’s Office and were assisted by the Colleton County Sheriff’s Office in South Carolina.
