Exclusive: Woman held hostage overnight in West Palm Beach hotel describes ordeal

By Terri Parker

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    WEST PALM BEACH, Florida (WPBF) — A woman who says she was held at knifepoint overnight in a West Palm Beach hotel room is still traumatized and trying to get her life back together after losing nearly everything.

The West Palm Beach police Special Weapons and Tactics team arrested the suspect, Brent Moody, after a five-hour standoff, but for victim Regina Coffey, the nightmare is far from over.

“He called me and he said he was nearby, would I please take him to a halfway house. He had just gotten out of prison,” said Coffey.

Coffey says she agreed to help Moody because he was her friend’s boyfriend. But that decision left her homeless and without her cat, car keys, heart medication or any of her belongings.

“He had a knife like this and he pulled it out, and I said, ‘What do you have that knife for?’ He said, ‘I’m protecting myself,’” Coffey recalled.

Police SWAT team make arrest at West Palm Beach hotel She says Moody injected drugs, became paranoid and threatened her life from 10 p.m. to 8 a.m. the next day.

“He’s pacing with this knife in front of me, and he’s not allowing me to go any further than right here,” she said, pointing to a small space in the room.

Coffey managed to sneak her phone into the bathroom and texted her friend, Jerry Cruz.

“She tells me she’s at a hotel and someone’s holding her at knifepoint. I thought it was a joke,” Cruz said.

Cruz rushed to the hotel and said he was barely able to push the door open.

“He had her almost pinned down. He said, ‘Dude, you’re gonna catch a body.’ I said, ‘You’re not catching a body here,’” Cruz said.

After escaping, Coffey called 911, triggering the SWAT response. Officers eventually used tear gas to flush Moody out of the room.

As seen in the video Coffey recorded, the room was left trashed. But instead of offering help, the hotel manager kicked her off the property.

WPBF 25’s Terri Parker went to the office to find out how Coffey could retrieve her belongings, but the manager wasn’t there and didn’t answer repeated calls.

“Everything I own is here, and I don’t know what to do,” Coffey said.

Late Monday, the manager finally allowed Coffey back into the room to search for her purse, medication and car keys. Fortunately, a detective had already located her cat.

Now, Coffey says she’s broke, having spent all her disability money to pay for a week at the hotel, where she’s no longer allowed to stay.

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