As season four of the hit dramedy series White Lotus continues to firm up with actress AJ Michalka and Vikings star Alexander Ludwig confirming they’re checking in – Woman’s Day is looking at some real murders that occurred at lavish resorts.
KILLER WIFE
Bernice Novack led a cultured life. Her beauty and poise caught the eye of artist Salvador Dali, for whom she modelled, and she attended celebrity events including the inauguration of President John F Kennedy and the weddings of powerful Mafia figures.
Her beauty also captured the heart of hotelier Ben Novack Sr, who built the luxury Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami Beach in 1954.
The couple ran the sprawling, glamorous resort together, greeting guests including Elvis Presley and Frank Sinatra.
When Ben Sr died, Bernice inherited the hotel and later planned to leave it to their son, Ben Jr, but in April 2009, Bernice, 87, was found dead in the laundry of her home, with police initially describing her cause of death as resulting from a fall.
The Fontainebleau fortune passed to Ben.
Three months later, Ben Jr’s body was found bludgeoned and suffocated to death in the penthouse suite of a Hilton Hotel in New York. The 53-year-old’s arms and legs were bound and his eyes had been removed.
His wife, a former stripper called Narcy Pacheco, was arrested a year later. Along with her brother Christobal Velez, she was accused of conspiring to kill her husband and Bernice. They received life sentences.
Prosecutors alleged Narcy was concerned her husband might leave her for his mistress and that their prenup would leave her without the money she’d become accustomed to enjoying.
They claimed she was motivated by “hatred, greet and vengeance.”
DEADLY TEA PARTY
Sherine Chong owed five key investors in her business around $500L and they wanted their money back.
So, in July 2024, the 56-year-old invited them to meet in a suite at Bangkok’s Grand Hyatt to discuss the issue.
Exactly what happened next is a mystery, except that the guests ordered a Thai banquet and a waiter later delivered a pot of tea and six cups to the room.
He recalled Sherine “spoke very little and was visibly under stress”.
Hours passed and when nobody emerged from room 502, hotel staffers entered it.
There they found uneaten food along with six half-drunk cups of tea – and six dead bodies.
Police believe Sherine laced the tea with cyanide and poisoned her guests before drinking a cup of the lethal brew herself.
5-STAR SLAUGHTER
British businessman Ian Griffin and his Polish girlfriend Kinga Legg lived a life of luxury.
When they weren’t at their mansion in the British countryside, they travelled the world.
But in May 2009, during what should have been a romantic getaway at the chic and glamorous $2000-a-night Hotel Le Bristol in Paris, something went fatally wrong.
Ian, then 45, vanished and a maid later discovered Kinga’s body in the bathtub.
The 36-year-old had suffered multiple brutal injuries and died of internal bleeding.
Griffin went on the run in his Porsche 911. He fled to the north of England where he’d grown up, but was found by police sleeping rough in woodland.
He claimed he’s blacked out in the hotel room and woke to find Kinga dead.
In 2014 he was sentenced to 20 years, but was mysteriously freed after 22 months, although his conviction was upheld.
As of 2017 he was said to be living in France with a fiancé and young son.
COASTAL ATTACK
Rita Ortiz was the personality and face of the grand Guardamar Hotel in Spain’s sun-soaked Costa Blanca region.
The 77-year-old was found dead at her apartment in the hotel in the early hours of December 21, 2022. She’d been beaten to death.
Her son, whose name has never been made public and who also lived at the hotel, called the police.
He reported that both he and Rita had been robbed by a group of violent masked attackers who tied them up and beat him until he passed out.
When he awoke, Rita was dead.
But gradually the story of the mystery attackers unravelled and in July last year, Rita’s 54-year-old son, who supposedly had a history of drug addiction, was arrested by Spanish police.
It’s been alleged he orchestrated the attack on his mother to gain access to her weath.
He has not yet been found guilty and is currently awaiting trial.
