Tip Led to Suspect in Bennett Rape/Murder
tiny dancer
POSTED: 6:02 pm EDT October 26, 2005
RALEIGH, N.C. -- The man police accuse of murdering a 23-year-old Raleigh
woman in her North Raleigh apartment in May 2002 may have known
investigators were tracking him and may have taken steps to try to throw
them off his trail.
Last week, Raleigh police arrested 35-year-old Drew Planten outside the
building where he was working as a chemistry technician for the North
Carolina Department of Agriculture and charged him in the rape and death of
Stephanie Bennett, a Virginia native who lived with her stepsister at
Bridgeport Apartments on Lake Lynn Drive in Raleigh.
Investigators said Bennett was found in her bedroom bound, gagged, strangled
and sexually assaulted. They also said that the attacker may have taken some
of Bennett's personal belongings, including a compact stereo system and a
"mystery item" that may have been the pajamas Bennett wore on the night of
her death.
"Police say they found some of her articles in the dumpster about 50 feet
from his apartment door," said Sidney Hoff, who lived in the same building
at Dominion Apartments, where Planten lived in 2002. "They told us shortly
after the crime they thought it was someone in our apartment building."
Hoff said Planten was a recluse who never spoke to him, even when Hoff said
he tried to be neighborly.
After police released an updated description of the suspect on the third
anniversary of Bennett's death, Hoff called police, saying he thought
Planten may have been the suspect for whom they were looking.
"In May, they put out a description of a person of interest that matched his
description to a T," Hoff said. "So, I called and gave them everything I
knew."
One of the things investigators already knew was that the killer left his
bodily fluids all over Bennett's apartment. Because Planten does not have a
criminal record, he had no DNA on file with authorities.
Investigators had asked Planten for a voluntary sample, but said he refused.
They followed him and finally got it, but sources told WRAL that Planten
knew investigators were tracking him and that he covered his tracks by
wiping down surfaces he touched and utensils he used.
"I just felt so good that they caught him," Hoff said. "It was something
that myself and so many people were praying for -- that this fellow would be
caught."
The state of North Carolina and CrimeStoppers has offered a $10,000 reward
for information leading to the arrest and conviction of a suspect in the
case; Bennett's family has offered a $100,000 reward. Police said, however,
that it was still too early in the investigation to determine how and when
the reward money would be dispersed.
http://www.wral.com/news/5183506/detail.html
tiny dancer
POSTED: 9:51 pm EDT October 26, 2005
UPDATED: 11:04 pm EDT October 26, 2005
RALEIGH, N.C. -- The father of Stephanie Bennett has filed a lawsuit against
the management of an apartment complex where police say the 23-year-old was
raped and murdered three years ago.
Drew Edward Planten, 35, of Raleigh, was arrested last week and charged with
first-degree murder in the May 2002 death of Stephanie Renee Bennett, who
was found gagged, strangled, raped and dead in her North Raleigh apartment,
investigators said.
The lawsuit filed by Carmon Bennett, Stephanie's father, claims Bridgeport
Apartments could have prevented the crime.
The suit claims the shrubbery was too high, the exterior lighting poor and
one of Stephanie's window did not lock at the apartment complex. It claims
these conditions allowed the suspect to climb into Stephanie's window
undetected.
"Our case is centered on the fact that there was a suspicious person out
there and unsafe conditions," William Bentley, Carmon Bennett's attorney,
said.
The lawsuit also claims the complex ignored a report of a peeping Tom
lurking outside Stephanie's window three weeks before the murder. Police
said that man was Planten.
"It's really a combination of having a vicious criminal attracted into this
environment that acted as sort of a magnet for someone like this," Bentley
said.
Bentley added that Planten's arrest on Oct. 19 confirmed what the family
believed all along: that someone who lived near Stephanie targeted her.
Planten lived at the Dominion Apartments, a short distance from where
Bennett lived at Bridgeport Apartments on Lake Lynn Drive. Only a tree line
separated the two complexes.
Police said a male entered Stephanie's apartment through a window during the
night, and raped and killed her.
Bentley said the goal of the lawsuit was to make sure what happened to
Stephanie does not happen to another young woman.
The lawsuit asks for compensation for the pain and suffering Stephanie
endured. It is scheduled to be heard in federal court in Raleigh on Dec. 13.
http://www.wral.com/news/5184847/detail.html