Cole
POUGHKEEPSIE – The Dutchess County grand jury has indicted a Pleasant
Valley man on charges that he strangled his mother to death, kept her
body in a motel room they shared with his wife and then drove to South
Carolina where they disposed of the victim’s remains.
The body of Betty Cole, 78, was recovered on October 17, 2015 in an area
secluded from I-95 in Lodge, South Carolina. Her son and suspect, Charles
Cole, 48, was located in a homeless shelter in Poughkeepsie days later.
Police said Cole is believed to have killed his mother and stored her
body in their Pleasant Valley Motel room before traveling south and disposing
of her remains.
Cole’s wife, Ronalda, was arrested in October and charged with tampering
with physical evidence for assisting her husband with transporting and
dumping the body.
Cole, himself, was charged in the indictment announced Monday with tampering
with physical evidence for acting together with his wife in moving and
disposing of Betty Cole’s body.
