Campen of any involvement in Stephanie’s murder. The investigators’ promising lead had vanished almost as quickly as it had surfaced. But this first squashed lead didn’t deter them from aggressively exploring other potential connections to the Bennett case.
Investigators thought they had another possible lead when a man in Florida, who was wanted in connection with the kidnapping and rape of a girl in Columbia, South Carolina, committed suicide. He had also been a primary suspect in the murders of three girls near Fredericksburg, Virginia. But once again, the magic of science eliminated this lead when the man’s DNA failed to match that of Stephanie Bennett’s killer.
DNA from the Bennett murder scene was also continually run through the state’s DNA database, which contained roughly sixty-five thousand samples at the time, and through the national database called VICAP (for Violent Criminal Apprehension Program). But no matter how many times they ran it, the answer was the same every time— no match.
It was as if the killer were invisible, a ghost, someone who didn’t really exist. In a sense he was taunting the investigators. Their strongest piece of evidence, DNA, was ruling out almost everyone and pointing to no one.
Trophies
Initially, investigators discovered Stephanie Bennett’s murderer took eight dollars from her wallet, a boom box, and a laundry basket from her bedroom. At least that’s what they knew he took. It was possible other items were missing that had not been identified.
Police learned, with the help of Stephanie’s roommates, that a small portable stereo was missing from a console in her room. It had been a gift from one of her mother’s boyfriends. Police described it as a 1995 compact JVC MXC- 220 stereo system with both dual cassette decks and a three-compact disc changer. The stereo had sat in a small open cabinet against the wall beneath a portable television set near Stephanie’s bed. Investigators circulated pictures of the stereo with a detailed description to the media and the public hoping it would generate some new leads in the case.
Investigators knew the five-year-old laundry basket was taken from Stephanie’s apartment because the killer had dumped out her clothing onto the floor in the very spot her roommates confirmed the basket always sat. Detectives spent weeks trying to figure this one out.
“Why take a damn laundry basket you can buy at any Wal-Mart?” Morgan said.
Ultimately, the supposition was that the killer used the laundry basket to carry the stereo as he made his escape from Stephanie’s apartment. The basket also gave him the additional benefit of looking like he was simply heading for the apartment complex laundry room if someone spotted him walking around the parking lot early in the morning.
But at the end of the day, the stereo and the laundry basket looked like every other stereo and laundry basket in any young person’s apartment in Raleigh. Police were going to be hard-pressed to find them unless they developed a solid suspect. Only one person knew where Stephanie’s belongings were, and he wasn’t talking.
Sexual deviance and control, not robbery, were shaping up to be the primary motives in the case. But still, trying to identify what might have been taken from the apartment was important, because the killer most likely held on to these items as souvenirs of the crime. Psychologists call the items taken from a murder scene for this purpose “trophies.” They are seen by the murderer as prizes or awards for what he has done. They are tangible items he can take out and look at when he wants to think back on what he accomplished. Psychologists say just seeing and touching these things may give the killer further sexual satisfaction.
The media was let in on everything except the laundry basket—that detail was held back. It was the investigators’ ace in the hole, something only the killer knew about, something that might ultimately
Investigators thought they had another possible lead when a man in Florida, who was wanted in connection with the kidnapping and rape of a girl in Columbia, South Carolina, committed suicide. He had also been a primary suspect in the murders of three girls near Fredericksburg, Virginia. But once again, the magic of science eliminated this lead when the man’s DNA failed to match that of Stephanie Bennett’s killer.
DNA from the Bennett murder scene was also continually run through the state’s DNA database, which contained roughly sixty-five thousand samples at the time, and through the national database called VICAP (for Violent Criminal Apprehension Program). But no matter how many times they ran it, the answer was the same every time— no match.
It was as if the killer were invisible, a ghost, someone who didn’t really exist. In a sense he was taunting the investigators. Their strongest piece of evidence, DNA, was ruling out almost everyone and pointing to no one.
Trophies
Initially, investigators discovered Stephanie Bennett’s murderer took eight dollars from her wallet, a boom box, and a laundry basket from her bedroom. At least that’s what they knew he took. It was possible other items were missing that had not been identified.
Police learned, with the help of Stephanie’s roommates, that a small portable stereo was missing from a console in her room. It had been a gift from one of her mother’s boyfriends. Police described it as a 1995 compact JVC MXC- 220 stereo system with both dual cassette decks and a three-compact disc changer. The stereo had sat in a small open cabinet against the wall beneath a portable television set near Stephanie’s bed. Investigators circulated pictures of the stereo with a detailed description to the media and the public hoping it would generate some new leads in the case.
Investigators knew the five-year-old laundry basket was taken from Stephanie’s apartment because the killer had dumped out her clothing onto the floor in the very spot her roommates confirmed the basket always sat. Detectives spent weeks trying to figure this one out.
“Why take a damn laundry basket you can buy at any Wal-Mart?” Morgan said.
Ultimately, the supposition was that the killer used the laundry basket to carry the stereo as he made his escape from Stephanie’s apartment. The basket also gave him the additional benefit of looking like he was simply heading for the apartment complex laundry room if someone spotted him walking around the parking lot early in the morning.
But at the end of the day, the stereo and the laundry basket looked like every other stereo and laundry basket in any young person’s apartment in Raleigh. Police were going to be hard-pressed to find them unless they developed a solid suspect. Only one person knew where Stephanie’s belongings were, and he wasn’t talking.
Sexual deviance and control, not robbery, were shaping up to be the primary motives in the case. But still, trying to identify what might have been taken from the apartment was important, because the killer most likely held on to these items as souvenirs of the crime. Psychologists call the items taken from a murder scene for this purpose “trophies.” They are seen by the murderer as prizes or awards for what he has done. They are tangible items he can take out and look at when he wants to think back on what he accomplished. Psychologists say just seeing and touching these things may give the killer further sexual satisfaction.
The media was let in on everything except the laundry basket—that detail was held back. It was the investigators’ ace in the hole, something only the killer knew about, something that might ultimately
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