Hotel/Motel Housekeepers Fatality File

Housekeeper beaten to death in Venice hotel room 

VENICE- A housekeeper at Venice Hotel beaten to death while at work at a Venice hotel, a suspect is in custody.

“This is one of the most egregious recent crimes that we have had here in Sarasota County,” Sheriff Hoffman said. “The victim in this case was doing her job, was certainly terrorized, battered and now is deceased.”

Tina Strader was the housekeeping manager of the Rodeway Inn, where she lived with her husband.

“We would have been married six years May 1st,” Gerald Strader said. “And she really was my everything.”

Strader was filling in for a sick employee, when she was attacked in the hotel room. She would text her husband every time she started and finished a room.

“And I could see that she had not read my messages at all,” Strader said. “And the normal protocol would be for her to have the door open.”

Gerald found his wife beaten in the hotel room and attempted CPR.

“As a husband I cannot imagine what this victim’s husband is going through right now,” Hoffman said. “Having contacted her, not being able to contact her and obviously he was the one who found her unresponsive in the hotel room.”

30-year-old Stephen Havrilka was arrested acting erratically about 2 miles from the Inn. Hoffman says surveillance video showed him entering the hotel room where Strader was found, there is no indication he knew the victim.

“I can only imagine that he may have spent his days observing her at the Rodeway Inn where he was employed and he was staying,” Hoffman said. “As you can see Havrilka is extremely familiar with law enforcement.”

 Havrilka has a previous 34 felony charges, with 19 felony convictions.

“There is no other way to describe Mr. Havrilka,” Hoffman said. “He is an animal, he also has tattoos that depict his certain symbols of white supremacy.”

Havrilka is currently being held at the Sarasota County Jail, on second degree murder charges.