The Murder of Stephanie Bennett
Warning, this case also discusses sexual assault.
For this case, I watched an episode of Forensic Files. It’s season 13 episode 15, titled ‘Calculated Coincidence.’
A woman is found dead in her apartment after not showing up at work.
Background
Stephanie Renee Bennett was born on April 30, 1979, in Virginia. She graduated from Roanoke College, a private liberal arts college in Virginia, with a degree in business. After graduation, Stephanie moved to Raleigh, North Carolina, and worked at IBM for about a year.
Stephanie was described as a free spirit, dependable, and all-around beautiful person. She was just 23 at the time of her death.
Stephanie Bennett
The Discovery
In May 2002, after being at IBM for about a year, Stephanie didn’t show up for work. It was unusual because Stephanie was very reliable. Her parents contacted the manager at the Bridgeport Apartments to do a welfare check.
The manager went to Stephanie’s apartment and found her dead on her bedroom floor. She had been strangled and sexually assaulted.
Stephanie lived on the ground floor, but there was no forced entry. The police believed that the killer entered through her bedroom window as the screen had been removed.
A robbery was ruled out as nothing had been stolen. However, a phone, a glass, and a box of tissues were found in the closet of the 2nd bedroom. It looked like someone had been waiting in the closet for Stephanie to come home.
There were no fingerprints found besides Stephanie’s and anyone else that she allowed inside the apartment. The police believed that Stephanie was killed by someone that she didn’t know.
The Investigation
The medical examiner put Stephanie’s time of death around midnight. A rape test was done and a DNA sample was also collected. The sample was entered into CODIS, however, there were no matches.
Stephanie had been on the phone with her boyfriend between 8-9 pm. Her boyfriend was eliminated as being a suspect as he had been 4 hours away at the time.
While searching through Stephanie’s email, the police found one from a few weeks before her murder. She wrote to her aunt that she hadn’t been sleeping well and had been afraid of a window peeper around the building. In one incident, a neighbor had seen this peeping tom looking into Stephanie’s window.
The police also spoke to Stephanie’s neighbors and tenants of the apartment building. Many reported that they had seen a tall thin man wearing a sweatshirt walking around the area. Stephanie’s neighbor had described this person as being the one who had been looking into Stephanie’s window.
A police sketch was created and released to the public. It led the police to a convicted sex offender who lived in the area. The police collected his DNA but it was not a match.
The First Suspect
The police reinterviewed the tenants who lived in the apartment building. One neighbor reported new information and said they had seen the tall thin man walking a dog that looked like a Rottweiler. The man had been seen walking from the Bridgeport Apartments to the Dominion Apartments.
The manager at the Dominion Apts remembered a man with a larger black dog but said the man had moved away. They said his name was Drew Planten, and described him as being very odd.
Drew was 35 at the time and worked planting fertilizer at the North Carolina Department of Agriculture. Drew was described as a loner and someone who kept to himself.
Drew was interviewed by the police. He said he had never heard Stephanie Bennett’s name before. The police didn’t believe him as everyone in a 50-mile radius had heard of Stephanie’s death.
Drew refused to be interviewed at the police station. The police told him that they would be stopping by his apartment the following day. The police said he began to shake uncontrollably when they said this. He denied being involved in the murder and refused to give a DNA sample.
The police could not get a court order for Drew’s DNA. He looked nothing like the police sketch and there was no evidence against him.
The Surveillance
A forensic DNA Analyst told the police that they needed to collect a sample of something that Drew had touched or used. However, Drew picked up on this quickly. A surveillance team followed Drew for a week and were unable to collect any items for DNA testing.
The police followed Drew to a restaurant, but he had taken his straw with him after he was done with his drink and flushed his napkins. The police caught a break when he left his fork behind. He had been seen wiping it down for several minutes. The police collected the fork after he left.
The fork was tested, but there was a mixture of profiles because the restaurant hadn’t properly cleaned the fork. The male DNA profile was tested against the DNA from Stephanie’s rape kit. It was very similar to the DNA from the rape kit. However, it was a very weak sample.
The police were allowed to search Drew’s workplace as he worked for the state. His keyboard, radio, and other equipment were all swabbed for DNA. Drew’s DNA was a match.
It’s believed that Drew had broken into Stephanie’s apartment and waited for her in the closet. Stephanie called her boyfriend between 8-9 pm and went to bed. Drew then attacked and killed her.
A Second Victim
Drew was arrested, and his apartment was searched. In the apartment, the police found pornography, lock-picking guides, and knives. They also found evidence leading them to believe that Drew had killed before. They found mail belonging to a woman named Rebecca Huismann who had lived in Lansing, Michigan. The postmark was 6 years old.
In October 1999, Rebecca had been shot, and her case had never been solved. At the time, Drew attended Michigan State University. Rebecca worked as a topless dancer at the time of her murder. Rebecca didn’t want this job but needed extra money to buy a house for herself and her fiance.
On the evening of her death, Rebecca was walked to her car by a bouncer. Rebecca had made it home but was confronted by someone in her driveway. Rebecca had been shot with a .45 caliber handgun.
Rebecca’s purse was still in her car, so robbery was ruled out as being the motive. The only piece of evidence found at the scene was a .45 caliber shell casing.
There weren’t any suspects that stood out. Many believed it could have been a customer from the club.
The Lansing police were contacted by the police in Raleigh, North Carolina with the news that they had a possible suspect in Rebecca’s case.
Rebecca Huismann
What Really Happened?
The police had also found 2 .45 caliber handguns in Drew’s apartment, which were both tested. The markings on the shell casings that Drew had were a match to the casing found at Rebecca’s crime scene.
At his court appearance, Drew refused to open his eyes or walk and had to be strapped to a gurney.
In January 2006, while awaiting his trial, Drew suffocated himself with a plastic bag in prison and died.
While searching Drew’s apartment, they found evidence of who Drew’s next victim could have been.
Drew Planten
FINAL THOUGHTS
Stephanie’s dad said he is devastated that he will never get an answer as to why Stephanie was chosen. Drew was clearly a creep and had probably been watching both Rebecca and Stephanie. It’s devastating that both women were killed at home, the one place where you are supposed to feel safe. Rebecca was just steps from her front door and Stephanie was literally in her bed. Drew took the cowardly way out and now neither family will have any true answers.
Sources
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/11300506/stephanie-renee-bennett
https://www.wral.com/story/1091182/
