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Hotel Room Killer Unmasked — As a Murder Victim Himself
The 1982 murder of Lee Rotatori has been solved, but who shot the killer?
Police in Iowa have solved a perplexing cold case murder dating back to 1982 — but in doing so have opened up a whole new mystery concerning who could have killed the killer.
Lee Rotatori, 32, hailed from the community of Nunica in Michigan, but had moved to Council Bluffs in Iowa in the summer of 1982 after getting a job in catering at Jennie Edmundson Hospital. She was staying at the Best Western Frontier Hotel until she found somewhere more permanent and had just completed orientation as food service director for the hospital.
However, four days into her new job on June 25th 1982, Lee failed to show up and her boss contacted the hotel to see if they could check whether she was in her room or not. Hotel staff duly did so — and came upon a horrific scene. Lee had been sexually assaulted and stabbed.
Police arrived and pronounced her dead, then began an investigation into the young woman’s brutal murder. Unfortunately, they were not able to identify a single suspect and the case quickly floundered.
Speaking in an Omaha World-Herald article that July, then-Sergeant Larry Williams said the proximity of the I-29 and I-80…
