Evil Boyfriend Realizes Cops Found His Disturbing Secret

The Quietest Room: The Murder of Jennifer Perglesi

The tragedy of Jennifer Perglesi unfolded not in a grand, cinematic sweep, but in the stale, forgotten confines of Room 217 at a motel in Bradenton, Florida. It was a brutal, swift end to a life already on the edge, a final, disastrous collision of addiction, desperation, and rage. Her story, too young, too brutal, too fast, began its final chapter on a Sunday in August 2022.

The Discovery in Room 217

It was August 28th, 2022. A housekeeper, navigating the routine squalor of a low-rent Florida motel, rolled her cart up to the second floor. When she slipped her master key into Room 217, something immediately felt wrong. The room, accustomed to abuse, was unusually disturbed. One of the beds was missing a sheet, and the mattress was tilted, yanked out of place. This wasn’t the usual mess; it felt deliberate.

Acting on a chilling instinct, she crouched and lifted the edge of the mattress. There it was: the missing sheet, soaked in blood. She immediately radioed for help. Within minutes, Manatee County Sheriff’s deputies and Fire and Rescue were on the scene.

Stepping inside, the reality of the call hit them instantly. A few steps in, they found the victim: a female body wrapped in bed sheets, tucked under the mattress. Someone had clearly tried to clean the scene—officers noted the scent of bleach—but the blood was everywhere. This was, undeniably, a murder scene. The attempt to hide the body by wrapping it and stuffing it under the bed indicated the perpetrator was not just quick, but actively attempting a cover-up.

The Search for the Missing Suspect

As detectives took over, they gathered initial intelligence from the motel’s long-term residents. The motel was not a stopover for travelers, but a refuge for those with nowhere else to go, a place rife with drugs and drama. Witnesses, peering out from behind doors, offered vague but consistent details about the victim, a young woman who was frequently “geeked out on drugs” and prone to creating a “ruckus” with men coming and going.

Crucially, neighbors identified one man who had been staying with her: a young, white male, about 5’8″ or 5’9″, who was now gone. This missing companion immediately became their number one suspect.

A potential lead—checking the motel’s mounted security cameras—hit a dead end. Every camera lining the walkway was unplugged, fueling suspicion that the crime was either premeditated or that someone on staff might be involved. However, the consistent witness testimony pointed the detectives in one direction: the missing young man.

With no security footage, detectives relied on the motel log book. The records confirmed the woman, 26-year-old Jennifer Perglesi, had been staying there for about a week. Finally, they had a name.

Social media and past interactions filled in the gaps. Jennifer’s boyfriend, who constantly appeared in her photos and tags, was identified as 24-year-old Steven Joseph Kosins. His record included petty theft and trespassing, but nothing that predicted this level of violence. They had been in a tumultuous relationship for two years, often staying in motels when things got rough.

The Interrogation and Confession

At 3:00 p.m., a sighting of Kosins came in from a nearby Walmart parking lot. He wasn’t running, just circling the edges of the area. Police spread out, and a search dog eventually located him hiding in a patch of bushes. He was arrested and driven to the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office.

Inside the small interrogation room, detectives offered him food and a calm demeanor, establishing trust before reading him his Miranda Rights.

The questioning was direct.

“Who is the person that you murdered?”

Without hesitation or shock, Kosins named her: “Jennifer Perglesi.”

He claimed the incident started with an argument because Jennifer had accused him of “cheating on her with invisible women.” He claimed she attacked him, and he was only trying to defend himself.

“I pushed her off and I got the knife.”

Kosins admitted to stabbing her a “lot” of times with a black, flip-open blade. They established the murder happened around 7:00 or 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, while the sun was still light. The fight occurred on the floor, in between the two beds. Neck wounds, the detectives noted, are deeply personal and about shutting someone down completely.

He confirmed key details that aligned with the scene: he was wearing camo gym shorts and no shirt; she was wearing a white shirt and shorts.

The Cover-Up and the Full Truth

The detective pressed him on what happened next.

“I took a shower… I went back… I tried to cover it up.”

Kosins detailed the cleanup:

He used water and towels to wipe the floors.

He took the bed sheets and wrapped her body.

He stuffed her under the bed closest to the door.

This confession immediately opened the door to additional charges: Destruction of Evidence. The detectives confirmed he threw his clothes (the camo shorts) into a clear trash bag in the dumpster right at the hotel. He also confirmed that a pair of Jennifer’s shoes with blood on them found in a garbage can outside the room were hers.

The final piece of evidence was the murder weapon. Kosins revealed he threw the knife “in the lake” behind the hotel, tossing it out the back window of the room before he cleaned up. This immediately made the nearby body of water a crime scene requiring divers.

The detective noticed Kosins’s hands shaking and his distress. He gently pushed back on the self-defense claim, using his knowledge of the injuries (cuts on Kosins’s hands were likely from the blade sliding down).

“It doesn’t make a lot of sense to me that she got out of the bed, went retrieved your knife, and came back and tried to attack you… It feels to me like there was a fight, something did happen, and you snapped.”

Kosins finally broke, admitting the truth: “I’m right.”

He admitted that Jennifer’s constant nagging—like a “barking dog nipping at you”—and his rage, fueled by his long history of addiction and homelessness, finally pushed him over the edge.

He confirmed the dark reality of their survival: Jennifer was a “working girl” who made money any way she could to feed their mutual habit. He didn’t like it, but on the streets, survival came first.

Conclusion and Consequence

Kosins, just 24 years old, had come from years of chaos, addiction, and pain, a storm that culminated in the violent end of Jennifer Perglesi. He finally admitted to murder.

The charges were initially second-degree murder but were later upgraded to premeditated first-degree murder by a grand jury. Facing life in prison, Steven Kosins took a plea deal. He was sentenced to 60 years for second-degree murder with a weapon, ensuring he would spend the vast majority of his life behind bars.

Jennifer Perglesi, a life consumed by addiction and ending in brutal, sudden violence, was gone. The quietest room in the Florida motel had hidden the loudest, most tragic truth.