Jennifer Hampton’s co-workers last saw the Alabama woman as she entered her room at the Days Inn Motel on Lovell Road. Ten days later, the medical examiner confirmed that a body found floating in Melton Hill Lake was hers.
That same day, we decided to inspect the rooms on the same side of the Days Inn that Hampton was staying in, to find out if they could be easily broken in to. Helping with the inspection was Kendall Shull, a former FBI agent who runs a private investigation firm in Knoxville.
"There doesn't appear to be some of the things I would want if my daughter, for example, was going to stay here," said Shull.
We quickly spotted our first problem, the security door guard which functions like a chain lock. It appeared to have been re-drilled at some point.
"It's obviously been broken off or repaired,” said Shull. “I don't know how secure it is and I don't know what it would take. I can guarantee that if I go out there and push or kick on the door hard enough, then I bet I can break it off of here."
We asked the Days Inn manager about the door guard and he said, “Safety is our number one priority. We try to prevent breaks before they happen through weekly checks. Anytime a lock is loose, we replace it immediately."
Since the door is the last barrier between you and a criminal, Shull continued inspecting the one in our room, right down the hall from where Hampton was saying. He said the deadbolt worked fine, but the “hard key override,” was something to be worried about.
"It just bothers me that there is a key there,” he said. “The key can be duplicated and if someone wants in they will duplicate the key."
Management at the Days Inn confirmed that maintenance and housekeeping employees have access to the key.
After inspecting the room, we drove across town to the Four Points by Sheraton’s Knoxville Cumberland House Hotel across from World’s Fair Park. Shull noted that the doors to each room had the same number and type of locks as the doors at the Days Inn. The difference was the overall construction.
