Hotel worker sees Josh & boys day Susan reported missing

[Wagara]

We're not giving no food away!! I stayed in NJ a couple of times and had to have my ticket.

 

[karen7868]

Isn' t "Chantry" SP's alias? Could SP reserved and paid for a room for JP and the boys under that name? I know it is only 10 miles away from the Sarah Circle address, but could JP been using a room to clean himself up before returning home?

I also do not put it pass him to just crash the motel for a free breakfast.

Since this hotel clerk may have made him leave in a hurry by talking to Charlie, is it possible he then went to another motel?

Maybe SP was actually also staying in a room at a motel. That would have been a long drive from WA, so I would think he would have to stay somewhere to clean up and get some sleep.

I hope they are checking at all his alias names, or at least the one we know about.

 

[ThoughtFox]

I am a motel manager. We require ID and tag info but others may not. I am not aware that either or both are required by law (in SC.) We issue breakfast tickets for the free breakfast. No ticket...no food.

We've never had to use a food ticket at a hotel. The chains I'm thinking of are Holiday Inn Express, Comfort Inn, Best Western, etc. Those are just off the top of my head because we often use those chains when traveling with our kids.

Come to think of it, I couldn't look around the room and tell you who was a customer and who was not. Usually the front desk is busy with people checking out in the morning, and the attendant in the breakfast room is too busy making coffee and replacing muffins.

 

[ThoughtFox]

I am a motel manager. We require ID and tag info but others may not. I am not aware that either or both are required by law (in SC.) We issue breakfast tickets for the free breakfast. No ticket...no food.

Also, my daughter goes to Law School in SC, and we've never had to use a ticket there at any hotel where we've stayed. Not sure which chain you are talking about.

If it's a beach resort hotel, then I understand. But inland at our hotels, the breakfast was just there and we didn't have to check in with anyone.

 

[DLT88]

He didn't have to be staying in the hotel. Sad that I can actually say this, but when I was much younger I left home and became homeless for a while. There were a few hotels that I knew of that placed the breakfast near the entrances of the hotel and I would get breakfast there a few days a week -- it was the only one offered for free. Banners on the hotels helped me know which ones were serving.

He didn't have to be checked in to the hotel.

Why didn't this lady come forward years ago?

She did actually. She contacted the police a week or so after it happened but (sorry forgot what she said), she left a message with them. I forgot if she didn't get called back or not but she said she thinks she didn't leave enough information when she left the VM so maybe that's why she didn't get to speak to the police, she thinks.

 

[JustJax]

Bumping, Robin is on Vinnie's show now, says she reported the sighting long ago and never go a response. Recounting what she saw.

 

[GrainneDhu]

Staying in a hotel makes sense though. Sleeping in a tent after midnight (having to pitch a tent in the dark is difficult, especially with two kids) in the cold is not feasible to me. He must have stayed in the hotel and used another name. JMO

He said they slept in the minivan. I think it's possible for that to be true because I've done it; if you have warm blankets and (possibly) run the engine intermittently, it's not exactly comfortable but it is do-able.

Most motels make you show an ID, which I'd think he'd want to avoid.

It would be easy enough to just walk in and walk up to the breakfast area as if he and the boys really had slept there. If they looked reasonably middle class, I doubt anyone would challenge them or give them a second look... unless a child asks a very odd question.

 

[GrainneDhu]

We're not giving no food away!! I stayed in NJ a couple of times and had to have my ticket.

I think it's a geographical and urban thing. I've travelled all over the US and Canada and the only times I've ever been issued a ticket or voucher for a free breakfast was on the east coast and in major cities.

In the midwest and west, I've never been issued a ticker or voucher unless the hotel had a restaurant and the breakfast was served in the restaurant.

A Comfort Inn in the west, I wouldn't expect to have tickets.

 

[dovebar]

This situation seems to give JP the perfect threat. Talk to people about mommy, and you don't eat. You don't get breakfast.

 

[susan1122]

By law you have to have an ID and car license plate I believe.

Although they may let that slide. Esp. Late at night w/ two kids. I just stayed at a Quality Inn recently (same line of comfort hotels....or whatever the name is) . I was going to get my license from the car and the guy said don't worry about it.

I think this is credible. If the woman didn't get a response back, maybe she just figured they didn't need the info. I know that doesn't make sense to us now.....but I think people can talk themselves out of thinking that something is important. People second guess themselves all the time. Or some people anyway.

 

[AlwaysShocked]

I'm another one who has never been asked for an ID at check in and also has never needed a ticket for breakfast. Within the past year I've stayed in California, Florida and Ohio. Always at chains that offer the free breakfast.

I agree that the person who works the breakfast area would have no idea whether or not a person is a registered guest. One article I read said Powell and the boys were already sitting in the breakfast area when she arrived for work at 6:30 am. Don't know what the physical layout is at this particular hotel, but I've stayed at some where you do not have to pass the front desk to get to the breakfast area.

If he did do this, it was dumb of him. Because a man alone with two little kids being there in the breakfast area before the help have even arrived is kind of memorable.

Hearing these stories doesn't increase one's faith in tip lines, does it?

 

[GateKeeper]

Im not convinced. How,in such a high profile case,could this women stop herself from screaming from the rooftops..."I have information!!!!!!"
I would think she would have made SURE someone followed up on this tip.

 

[Zoe Bogart]

I've stayed in many hotel chains that serve breakfast. None has given me a food ticket. If they had, I've have a rather large stack of them because I'm not one for breakfast, only occasionally. At a plantation, I was given breakfast tickets, but that's the only place.

At a Holiday Inn Express in Atlanta, they told me the hotel had a contract with a neighboring office building for employee breakfasts because there were no restaurants in the immediate area serving breakfast. The hotel issued cards to them, but not to their guests. I think the hotel was sold about two years ago, so don't know what they do now.

I've traveled all over the country, in a car, or flying, I'm usually asked for auto information, but if I'm in a rental and don't have the info handy, they just say write down color and make of the car. When I fly but don't rent, they never fret that I don't have car info. Occasionally though, upon check-in, I've had to show my ID with credit card. I think that's only been in cities with crime problems. I guess if I paid cash up front, they'd be more than willing to take the money and not care who I am.

After this "newest" development, it's quite possible it happened the way the woman says. Wouldn't LE be able to check with the tip line to see if she really called in? I'd think they'd keep tip records in a missing person's case. Definitely JP and the children could have spent the night in the van and shown up at the hotel in time for breakfast. Surely the boys would have fallen asleep on the midnight ride anyway. I don't see JP setting up a tent if they were asleep in the van. Why bother? Not even to make his story more plausible. When would he have had the time, considering he had major disposing to do?

 

[GrainneDhu]

I'm another one who has never been asked for an ID at check in and also has never needed a ticket for breakfast. Within the past year I've stayed in California, Florida and Ohio. Always at chains that offer the free breakfast.

I agree that the person who works the breakfast area would have no idea whether or not a person is a registered guest. One article I read said Powell and the boys were already sitting in the breakfast area when she arrived for work at 6:30 am. Don't know what the physical layout is at this particular hotel, but I've stayed at some where you do not have to pass the front desk to get to the breakfast area.

If he did do this, it was dumb of him. Because a man alone with two little kids being there in the breakfast area before the help have even arrived is kind of memorable.

Hearing these stories doesn't increase one's faith in tip lines, does it?

I don't know why this tip wasn't followed up but I can think of a few reasons. In a descending order of probability (IMHO):

One reason might be that the tip line received multiple tips from multiple people who thought they saw JP and the boys that morning or day and there was nothing about this particular tip that made it seem more believable than other tips they'd received.

Another reason might be that LE *did* follow up the tip but not in time to secure the surveillance video. If LE was following up on lots of tips, well, that takes time.

Yet another possible reason is that LE already had evidence that made it unlikely that the man in question was actually JP (for instance, maybe his cell phone pinged elsewhere at 6:30 am that morning).

 

[NocturnalLady]

I wonder what would have happened if the woman reported the tip to her supervisor and asked them to let her review the video surveillance tapes (assuming there were any) and then if she saw the person she thought was JP she could have asked the hotel to save the tapes OR taken the tape directly to the cops. That's what I would have done.

I think society in general has moved so far away from people being proactive! It seems to be such a hurdle even to just get people to call a tip line & when it isn't followed up on it seems so easy for them to shrug it off and go about their business. I'd like to see the public take more active responsibility! We need to start caring more about our communities and our surroundings. The police aren't magical & the majority of crimes take some help from citizens to solve.

 

[Columbo]

I don't know why this tip wasn't followed up but I can think of a few reasons. In a descending order of probability (IMHO):

One reason might be that the tip line received multiple tips from multiple people who thought they saw JP and the boys that morning or day and there was nothing about this particular tip that made it seem more believable than other tips they'd received.

Another reason might be that LE *did* follow up the tip but not in time to secure the surveillance video. If LE was following up on lots of tips, well, that takes time.

Yet another possible reason is that LE already had evidence that made it unlikely that the man in question was actually JP (for instance, maybe his cell phone pinged elsewhere at 6:30 am that morning).

Bolded by me.

Good points--but how many kids would be asking a total stranger if they knew "what happened to my mom" ?

 

[princesspjs]

I don't know why this tip wasn't followed up but I can think of a few reasons. In a descending order of probability (IMHO):

One reason might be that the tip line received multiple tips from multiple people who thought they saw JP and the boys that morning or day and there was nothing about this particular tip that made it seem more believable than other tips they'd received.

Another reason might be that LE *did* follow up the tip but not in time to secure the surveillance video. If LE was following up on lots of tips, well, that takes time.

Yet another possible reason is that LE already had evidence that made it unlikely that the man in question was actually JP (for instance, maybe his cell phone pinged elsewhere at 6:30 am that morning).

You can purchase a cell phone at a 7-11 or similar place where you just purchase minute cards - how would anyone know if he and SP were using some of the disposable phones? No one would ever know where those phones pinged.

 

[TxLady2]

Something about this story bothers me. Not sure I'm buying it entirely, it could be just an attention-seeker.

 

[hollyblue]

Around ten miles. Below is a map showing one of the ways home. The other way would have been through a bunch of small towns in Tooele County. But that would make the stop in Sandy way out of his way. Then I wonder, what did he do and where did he go all day until the friend got ahold of him that afternoon?

http://g.co/maps/t2qhs

Wasn't there an alleged sighting of him at a strip bar the afternoon before he arrived home? I remember us discussing how he prolly left the boys in the van. ***It was NOT confirmed or believed to have happened per WVCPD.

 

[Columbo]

Something about this story bothers me. Not sure I'm buying it entirely, it could be just an attention-seeker.

Maybe it is better to be skeptical like you and GrainneDhu...you just never know these days.
And it's true, LE may have already researched the tip.