Mayor threatens to shut down Elk Grove motel where woman was stabbed to death

The business license of an Elk Grove Village motel that was site of a homicide is in jeopardy.

Mayor Craig Johnson on Wednesday threatened to shut down InTown Suites, the extended stay motel at Landmeier and Higgins roads where a woman was found stabbed to death Feb. 25.

“That’s a scary situation. The thought there’s families residing there, young children there, and the amount of police activity going on there is appalling,” said Johnson, citing records going back two years of police calls and criminal incidents at the property. “I feel bad that it’s gone on for this long. … I feel guilty and bad that I’ve allowed this to occur this long.”

During a special meeting of the village’s license review commission Wednesday afternoon, Johnson gave the motel a 5 p.m. Thursday deadline to hire private security that would patrol the property 24/7. He also ordered owners to provide police officers access to the building with working key cards, and barred new guests from renting there.

The hearing was continued until 2 p.m. Tuesday, March 31, which Johnson said should give the motel’s attorney — who was just retained a day ago — enough time to get up to speed.

Penalties could include revocation or suspension of the annual village business license, fines and court costs.

Brian Liston, the attorney, said owners will cooperate and “make sure we are a good neighbor.” He said the suspect charged with murder was not listed in the hotel’s computer system that flags names of individuals barred from booking a room.

“This was beyond our control,” Liston said. “We want to sit down with the village, and anything we can do to remedy this, we are willing to do.”

Authorities say the body of 50-year-old Colleen Bagley of Fox Lake was found near a dumpster outside the motel. Prosecutors charged her longtime boyfriend, Arturo F. Taylor, 54, also of Fox Lake, with first-degree murder after they say he strangled her, stabbed her in the chest with two knives, then dragged her body to the parking lot.

Police have responded to reports of domestic batteries, assaults, drug activity and prostitution at the motel — enough to fill 14 pages over the last two years, Johnson said.

“That’s not Elk Grove Village. That will not be Elk Grove Village,” Johnson said. “It’s going to end fast. Real fast. And we’re going to make sure this is taken care of to the fullest extent. We got a messed up problem here, and it stops today.”

Among the extended stay residents are 14 students of Elk Grove Township Elementary District 59, which has a school bus stop there every morning.

Johnson was asked what becomes of the students and other tenants, should he and others on the 3-member panel revoke the business license.

“It’s something we’ll have to review,” he said.

Village officials said, and Cook County records confirm, the property is controlled by Blackstone Real Estate Income Trust, a division of the New York City-based asset manager and hedge fund giant. InTown Suites is an Atlanta-based chain with 195 locations in 22 states; its only other locations in Illinois are in Downers Grove and Villa Park.