Dateline: Secrets at the Sunshine Motel - Who was Vern Holbrook and what happened to him? Details revisited

Secrets at the Sunshine Motel is an NBC Dateline episode that was originally aired in February 2015. The harrowing episode featured the case of Vern Holbrook, a 78-year-old Yakima County resident, who was brutally attacked on May 25, 2013.

Vern Holbrook was a family man, a sincere member of his Washington community and a successful real estate agent and the owner of Aspen Real Estate. Despite his old age, Holbrook was a dedicated agent and pulled off a 60-hour work week.

On May 25, 2013, Vern Holbrook was scheduled to show a property in Cowiche, Washington, to prospective buyers. However, the agent's employer found him with a slashed throat, lying lifelessly inside the house. Vern Holbrook was immediately taken to a hospital and it was revealed that while he had survived the attack, the brutal beatings had left him in a coma.

While the Yakima County Sheriffs investigated Vern Holbrook's attempted murder and looked for possible suspects, he eventually succumbed to his injuries and died eight months after his attack.

More on Dateline: Secrets at the Sunshine Motel in our story.

Dateline: Secrets at the Sunshine Motel- Who attacked Vern Holbrook?

As Dateline: Secrets at the Sunshine Motel revealed, the police began their investigation by checking out Vern Holbrook's phone records, which suggested that the last call made by the victim's phone was to Adriana Mendez (who was in the crime scene's vicinity the day of Holbrook's attack).

Adriana Mendez was a 24-year-old single mother who lived in Sunshine Motel with her three children. Sunshine Motel did not have the best reputation and was affiliated with criminal activity. Adriana revealed that she was looking to sell her trailer and had contacted Vern Holbrook after seeing an ad for Aspen Real Estate in the newspaper. While the woman initially denied being in Cowiche on the day of Holbrook's attack, the CCTV cameras at Sunshine Motel showed her leaving with a man that day, who was later identified as her boyfriend and a criminal, Luis Gomez-Monges.

As revealed in the Dateline episode, Adriana finally revealed the details of that fateful day after the police pressed her for information. She revealed that the couple set out for the Cowiche property Holbrook was showing. While her kids waited in the car, the couple went inside, which is when Gomez-Monges brutally attacked Holbrook. The couple returned to their car and drove away.

After Adriana's statement, Gomez-Monges was nabbed at a casino and the police also discovered a blood-stained box cutter from his car, which was assumed to be the murder weapon.

Also Read: Dateline: Who was Sandi Johnson and what happened to her?

Dateline: Secrets at the Sunshine Motel- Who was the real mastermind?

According to the Dateline episode, the real mastermind was Daniel Blizzard, one of Vern Holbrook's colleagues. According to Adriana, Blizzard regularly helped her by paying rent and looking after her family financially, which is why she felt compelled to return the favour by attacking Holbrook for him.

As the police further investigated, Blizzard had a long working relationship with Vern Holbrook and the man had also agreed to sell him Aspen Real Estate after his retirement. To seal the deal, the late Dateline victim even allowed Blizzard to take out a $1.58 million life insurance policy on him. However, after the accused failed to make more than two payments, Holbrook took his agency back and the agreement was officially dissolved.

Since Adriana was struggling financially and her boyfriend was on the verge of being deported, she accepted the deal when Blizzard offered them $10,000 plus a $2,000 bonus to pose as home buyers and kill Holbrook. Further investigation also revealed that Holbrook's ex-daughter-in-law (Jill Taylor) was also in on the murder and was currently in a relationship with Blizzard.

While it was difficult to connect Blizzard with Holbrook's murder, the police reluctantly turned Adriana and Taylor into witnesses and proved Blizzard as the mastermind.

As revealed in Dateline, while both women received shorter sentences due to their cooperation with the police, Blizzard and Gomez-Monges were charged with the murder of Vern Holbrook.

While Gomez-Monges was convicted of first-degree murder and was sentenced to 28 years in prison, the mastermind Blizzard was also sentenced to 34 and a half years in prison on first-degree murder charges.

You can stream Dateline: Secrets at the Sunshine Motel on Peacock.

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