BY ADRIANA HERNANDEZ
Daily Post Staff Writer
A man was sentenced to life in prison for holding a 74-year-old woman captive at a Belmont hotel for two years.
Ian Edard Kroe, 58, was sentenced Monday to 394 years to life in prison, one of San Mateo County’s longest sentences, said District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe.
Kroe was convicted by a jury on Feb. 20 of 33 felonies.
It started in 2016, when the 74-year-old woman reached out to Kroe to express her sympathies that his mother, her lifelong friend, had died. The woman had known Kroe since he was a child, said Wagstaffe. At the time, Kroe was living in Minnesota while the woman was living in New Mexico. Kroe flew out to New Mexico and the two began a road trip up the West Coast, said Belmont police Cpl. Brian Vogel at the time.
Between 2016 and 2020, the two had traveled up and down the coast. During the trip, Kroe convinced the woman to hand over her finances to him and that people in New Mexico wanted to hurt her, Vogel said at the time. The two were never in a romantic situation, according to Vogel.
During their travels in August 2020, the two stayed at the Hyatt House hotel in Belmont at 400 Concourse Place, behind the Oracle complex.
Kroe and the woman stayed in a room for two years, police said at the time. During that time, there were noise complaints and other calls to police until Aug. 20, 2022, when police figured out what was going on between the woman and Kroe, Vogel said at the time.
The woman had a phone, but Kroe would always check it, so she had to delete text messages, making it hard for her to stay in contact with anyone.
Kroe threatened the woman, telling her he would kill her and her body would never be found, according to Wagstaffe.
Kroe also raped and sexually assaulted the woman numerous times, according to the DA’s office.
On Aug. 20, 2022, the woman messaged a friend living in Berkeley through Twitter that she needed help and to call 911. The friend called the police, but their information was vague, and it took the police a few days to piece it together, Vogel said at the time.
On Aug. 25, 2022, police found the woman and Kroe at the hotel. The woman was naked in bed with bruises all over her body and a broken finger, police said.
Around December, the woman had broken her ankle, but Kroe denied her any treatment, not letting her leave the room for about eight months, police said at the time.
Leading up to the trial, Kroe faked heart attacks several times, delaying his case, Wagstaffe said. He was questioned about his mental fitness to stand trial, and it was determined that he was competent.
When the housekeepers came to the room, why didn’t she say something? Did the housekeepers suspect anything?
He declined housekeeping for two years, but somehow that wasn’t a red flag to the hotel management.