Who killed Colonel Bennett?

"The woman who was left for dead after a brutal beating in Lansdowne last month has finally been able to talk to authorities, but Loudoun investigators are still seeking a motive in the case.

Cynthia Bennett, who was attacked along with her husband William during the early morning hours of Sunday, March 22, has memories of the incident and investigators have been speaking with her in short time periods as she recovers from multiple surgeries.

Meeting with reporters Tuesday, Sheriff Stephen O. Simpson said he is confident that Bennett will eventually be able to give the sheriff's office more details about the attack and potentially even lead them to a suspect or suspects.

"We've got to hone down exactly what it is she remembers happened and what is reality," Simpson said. "She is frustrated with trying to get it communicated to us."

The fact that Bennett remembers the incident is the first break the sheriff's office has gotten in the more than two weeks since William Bennett's body was found on a gravel path along Riverside Parkway near the Goose Creek. Cynthia Bennett was found on the other side of Riverside Parkway in a wooded area. Since the incident she has been listed in critical condition.

Deputies have been stationed outside Bennett's hospital room for protection Simpson said, and will remain there. Where she is being treated has not been released for her own protection."  Leesburg Today

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Colonel William Bennett (USA-Ret.) is not someone I knew, but the story of his death just outside Leesburg, Virginia in March is of interest.

He and his wife were having a morning walk for exercise on a well known path when they apparently were set upon by several assailants reportedly armed with clubs.  Bennett was beaten to death and his wife left nearby in such a condition that the attackers must have anticipated her death.  As is recounted in this story, the sherriff of Loudon County is inclined to think this is the handiwork of gang members, perhaps in some bizarre initiation ritual.   There a lot of Central American immigrants in Virginia now and there have been incidents of violent criminality, usually among rival gang members.  Incidents against "gringos" have been few.  To be fair, most latino immigrants in Northern Virginia are hard working family people who contribute to the community.  To assume that immigrants are the killers seems a bit "hasty" in the absence of evidence.

Bennett is reported to have been a "technical intelligence" type who worked for the CIA after retirement from the army.  He is said to have continued to "consult" for CIA afer he stopped working for them full time.  That would be a normal pattern of employment.

He is reported to have worked on the analytic problem of the reverse engineering of "Patriot" missile technology by foreign companies.  The goal would have been for the country or company doing the reverse engineering to include that technology in missile systems or anti-missile defense system intended for export and sale on the international market.  He is reported to have had a good deal of success in this work.

Let's hear what you know and think about this crime.  pl

http://www.leesburg2day.com/articles/2009/04/07/news/public_safety/9780update040709.txt

Comments

[euclidcreek]

Reputation of the WMR is zip.

[confusedponderer]

From War & Piece by Laura Rozen:

Two men with possible gang affiliations have been charged with capital murder and two other suspects are expected to be charged in the beating death of a Loudoun County man during a morning stroll with his wife last month, authorities said yesterday. The attack was a "random robbery gone bad," Loudoun Sheriff Stephen O. Simpson said.

Police began to home in on the four suspects while executing search warrants in connection with a flurry of burglaries, robberies and assaults in Loudoun County. Some suspects appear to be either members of or associated with a regional street gang, but it does not appear that the attacks were part of a gang initiation or ritual, authorities said.

Darwin G. Bowman, 18, of Annandale, and a 17-year-old male from Sterling were charged with murder in the killing of William Bennett near his Landsdowne home, the sheriff's office said.

Anthony R. Roberts, 20, of Middleburg, has not been charged in Bennett's killing, the office said. Roberts is being held on charges that he burglarized Loudoun Guns on April 15 in Leesburg. A fourth adult male suspect in the Bennett case, an unidentified 18-year-old from Sterling, is also in custody on unrelated charges.
All of the suspects are being held without bond, officials said. Loudoun County Commonwealth's Attorney James E. Plowman said additional charges are expected in coming days in connection with wounds suffered by Bennett's wife, Cynthia, who was critically injured in the attack.

News of the arrests in the Bennett attacks came as little solace to neighbors, who said they had been on heightened alert since the killing.

"If it was a random attack, it could happen again," said Agnes McDonald, who has lived in Lansdowne since 2004 and used to walk her dog in the area where the Bennetts were beaten. "We're not very comfortable knowing that."

Bennett, 57, was found dead shortly before 6 a.m. March 22 along Riverside Parkway near Rocky Creek Drive by a sheriff's deputy investigating a report of a suspicious vehicle. He and Cynthia Bennett, 55, had been walking less than a mile from their house.

Cynthia Bennett was found about 30 minutes later across the road, beyond a bloodied white fence in a muddy ditch. She has been recovering at Inova Fairfax Hospital and was recently moved out of the intensive care unit, officials said.

Simpson refused to identify the gang, saying it was unclear at what level the suspects were involved. He said the suspects were part of a "criminal enterprise" involved in a countywide crime spree in recent weeks.
"They're not complete strangers, but they've been elusive so far," Simpson said yesterday during a news conference near the Potomac Station subdivision where the Bennetts were found.

The men were familiar with the Lansdowne area and were "looking for something to get into," Simpson said. "The Bennetts were just at the wrong place at the wrong time."

Investigators are searching for additional suspects, based on eyewitness accounts of five to six suspects at the scene.

"The fact that this is random is literally the scariest part of the whole thing," Simpson said.

During an unrelated investigation into a late-night, mob-like assault at the Cascades Community Center on Feb. 28, some of the suspects in the Bennett attack were identified, Simpson said. At the time, the suspects in that case were said to be possibly affiliated with a gang.

The final break in the case came Thursday night, Simpson said, when authorities found the nondescript white van linked to the attack.

Authorities said they would be contacting neighboring jurisdictions to see if the suspects could be linked to any other crimes. ...