Newport police said an 85-year-old woman was found dead in her Rhode Island hotel room after her 66-year-old son died by suicide, and her death is being investigated as a homicide.
Officers in Newport were trying to deliver one of the hardest messages a family can receive—only to find that what came next would trigger a homicide investigation.
The Newport Police Department said officers were sent to the Harbor Base Inn on Connell Highway for a death notification. The department said the woman, Terry Costello, 85, was the person officers were attempting to contact after her 66-year-old son died by suicide.
When police arrived and entered one of the hotel’s rooms, they found Costello’s body inside, the department said. The state’s medical examiner is conducting an autopsy on Costello.
Newport police said Costello’s death is being investigated as a homicide. Investigators are treating it as an isolated incident with no active threat to the public, the department said.
The sequence of deaths has placed the hotel case under scrutiny, with medical examiners working to determine what caused Costello’s death as police continue to investigate the circumstances surrounding it.
Newport Police Department Rhode Island Harbor Base Inn Connell Highway Terry Costello suicide homicide investigation medical examiner