The Chatt Inn, where the body of Jeanette Scholten, 34, was found strangled, is seen on Friday, March 25, 2016, in Chattanooga, Tenn. Scholten's body was found around noon on Thursday after hotel managers notified police that she hadn't been seen for several days.Chattanooga police are looking to talk to several people about the killing of a 34-year-old woman who was strangled inside a Chattanooga motel, investigators said Friday.
Police found Jeanette Scholten dead inside The Chatt Inn in the 2000 block of E. 23rd Street around noon on Thursday, after managers at the motel asked police to check on her because she hadn't been seen for a couple of days.
It's unclear how long she had been dead before her body was discovered, said Lt. Glenn Scruggs, but she was likely killed within a couple days of the time police were called.
Scruggs said that police currently do not have any suspects in the case, although investigators pulled DNA and fingerprint evidence from the motel room where Scholten was found.
She'd been living in the extended-stay motel for at least two or three months, Scruggs said. He said police did not find any medications with her body, and it didn't look like the room had been ransacked. The room was locked when officers first arrived.
"We're looking at if the suspect was an acquaintance, a stranger, someone who stayed at the hotel – we're looking at every option," he said Friday.
Scholten is the seventh person to be killed in Chattanooga so far this year. All of this year's homicides are so far unsolved.
The place where Scholten was killed has a long-standing history of problems.
In September 2015, one man was shot and another was run over after someone opened fire at a party outside the building, according to police.
Police responded to the motel 353 times in 2015. A portion of those calls may be routine traffic stops, according to police. Because the motel has a large parking lot, drivers who are pulled over on 23rd Street often stop in the motel's lot, which could drive up the numbers.
Stay with the Times Free Press for updates on this developing story.