The discovery of multiple bodies in a derelict Highland Park hotel exposed a series of linked killings that ended the life of 34-year-old Valerie Chalk. On February 17, 1992, her body was found in a room of the former Monterey Hotel along with those of 23-year-old Juanita Hardy and another woman who remained unidentified for years. Relatives had reported Valerie missing in early November after a warrant was issued for her arrest.

Investigators later connected these deaths and others across Highland Park and Detroit to Benjamin Thomas Atkins. He was arrested in August 1992 on an unrelated rape charge and, during interrogation, confessed to eleven murders, including Chalk’s, saying he targeted women involved in prostitution and lured them to abandoned buildings before assaulting and strangling them. Atkins was tried beginning in January 1994, convicted of eleven counts of first-degree murder and related charges, and sentenced to life terms.

Did anyone in Highland Park or Detroit at the time recognize signs that could link these cases sooner, or does anyone have memories of the Monterey Hotel before February 1992?