Good Nights Sleep

Day #21 of 31 Days of Halloween

What’s under your bed?

Urban legends. Wonderful, scary, made-up campfire tales, often mixed in with some misremembering of places, events, or people. I love to travel and do so a lot, I love a good hotel room. Not sure why, perhaps it's the fresh atmosphere, the towels I don't need to wash, or the fact I can just leave and have someone else tidy up after me. Urban legends are more so tales of a friend of a friend this really happened to. Cautionary made-up tales, of always being aware.

As a child, my favorite Urban legend was about the lone female traveler and the hotel mattress.

All the stories involve a naive female traveler or newly married couple, a foul smell, a search to find the smell, and the discovery of the body. However, other versions include different descriptions: the couple is on their honeymoon, the story takes place in Las Vegas, the cleaning staff cleans the room while the couple is off sightseeing (but the smell remains when they return) and sometimes there is no complaint, just a discovery. The story of the body in the mattress has many different versions, but nonetheless, is the same story.

What if it's been true, and not a myth at all.

In 2010, Rhonda Sargent with a friend had rented room 222 at a Budget Lodge in Memphis. It was inexpensive, available, and had a more than not, comfortable bed. January 30th they had checked in, taken off their shoes, and instantly regretted it.

The couple said they told the motel staff the room was “stanky and foul.” They burned incense but said nothing could cover the odor, although someone apparently had tried because the Sargents noticed there were fabric-softener sheets stuffed in ceiling tiles and nooks. The smell was strongest when someone sat on the bed. They stayed in the room for 3 days before they insisted to be moved as the smell was getting worse. Then just checked out and left altogether.

In fact, 3 more times the room had been rented out, over the course of as many weeks. Even tho it was ignored the hotel staff had heard the same complaints. Police were even called more than once and they didn't even check the room and chalked it up to an HVAC issue.

Unfortunately for Sargent, her road trip brought her back to Memphis and the need to get a budget room. On February 7th, she was once again given the keys to Room 222. The smell was overwhelming this time and the carpet was...moist.

Immediately the police were called and discovered the badly decomposed body of Sony Millbrook within the frame of the bed. She had been a missing person for 12 weeks ....when she hadn't been missing at all., Millbrook had checked into the motel and just never checked out.

A court eventually convicted Millbrook’s boyfriend, LaKeith Moody, of the crime and the Memphis Police Department is launching an internal investigation to determine if mistakes were made in how the case was handled.