Those who knew Tina Strader say she was finally turning her life around before her murder nearly four years ago. Wendy Patrick saw that up close as Strader’s case manager in a jail diversion program the motel housekeeper was about to complete. “She was very excited about that and very proud of herself,” Patrick remembers. “I was just dumbfounded. So unnecessary and unexpected.” In April 2021, as Strader cleaned room 205 at what was the Venice Rodeway Inn, Stephen Havrilka followed her inside, beat and strangled her to death and stuffed a towel in her mouth. Strader's husband, worried he was unable to reach her, went to the motel and found her body. Havrilka had been claiming insanity before this week and spent time in a psychiatric hospital after being found incompetent to stand trial in 2022, according to court records. A judge ruled he was competent in November 2023. Jury trials were scheduled and postponed throughout 2024 before he changed his plea to guilty on Monday when a judge sentenced him to life in prison. “It's never going to be closure, but at least we know he's never getting out to do something like that again because there was absolutely no motivation for what he did,” Patrick says. Patrick has been motivated to keep the case top of mind, staying in touch with Strader’s husband, who died last year, and telling Strader’s children, who live out of state, about the plea deal. During her time in the jail diversion program, Patrick says Strader reconnected with her estranged children and was planning to meet them in person before she was killed. MORE: https://www.wtsp.com/article/news/local/sarasotacounty/venice-motel-housekeeper-murder/67-f08d0af3-bff9-43ac-9b56-51cb8af37f26