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Mastic landlord: Motel homicide victim ‘had problems’

MICHAEL WHITE PHOTO | Homicide victim Henrietta Sholl was evicted from this Forestall Drive house in Mastic earlier this year.
MICHAEL WHITE PHOTO | Homicide victim Henrietta Sholl was evicted from this Forestall Drive house in Mastic earlier this year.

The homeless woman found dead on a bed Thursday in Riverside’s Budget Host Inn had been living in Mastic when she was arrested at the massive Kohl’s shopping center in nearby Shirley for shoplifting last November, police and the victim’s ex-landlord said.

Henrietta Sholl, 53, a mother whose body was found by motel employees in a room about noon Wednesday, had been released from county jail April 14 after pleading guilty to petit larceny and serving a 90-day term, authorities said.

Suffolk homicide detectives said Thursday Ms. Sholl had been staying at the crime-plagued motel “for more than one night” before she was killed.

Before that, her troubled lifestyle had forced a landlord to evict her from her Mastic home on Forestall Drive.

The landlord, Rosemary Merrill, said she even had to get a restraining order to keep her former tenant away.

“She had problems,” Ms. Merrill told the News-Review Friday after learning Ms. Sholl had been found dead, a potential killer still at large. “She drank too much. She did too much drugs, and so did everybody else around her.

When asked why she had Ms. Sholl evicted, Ms. Merill said, “She was just uncontrollable when she drinks.”

Ms. Sholl has a 27-year-old son who is living in a group home in Nassau County, the landlord said.

She would not say how she had come to meet Ms. Sholl.

Meanwhile, Suffolk Police, though declining to release a cause of death in what’s been labeled a homicide, said no weapon was used in the attack.

It was not immediately known if detectives were reviewing surveillance footage from the motel, but a News-Review reporter found cameras mounted throughout its hallways. A motel guest whose been living there for a few weeks said the cameras feed clear images to a monitor behind the Budget Host’s front desk.

A hotel worker at the front desk declined to comment.

Ms. Sholl was due back in 1st District Court in Central Islip in July to pay a fee in relation to her conviction, officials said.

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ORIGINAL STORY: HOMELESS WOMAN FOUND DEAD AT BUDGET HOST INN

PREVIOUS NEWS-REVIEW COVERAGE INVOLVING THE BUDGET HOST:

Riverside man targets sex offender living at area motel, Aug. 19

Several thefts reported at Budget Host Inn, Sept. 30 police blotter

Greenport man reports $500 theft at Budget Host Inn, Nov. 2 police blotter

Man robs his girlfriend during ‘party’ at Budget Host, Jan. 4 police blotter

Tools stolen from car, found in Budget Host room, Dec. 22 police blotter

Beer bottle attack at Budget Host, Feb. 23 police blotter

Lawmaker tells county exec hopeful of sex offenders at Budget Host, March 15

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