2013-10-14

19 Years Later, Killer Confesses

Journal writer

Janet Benoit was a 22-year-old who was just getting her life in motion when on a November night in 1983 it was ended in a Santa Fe, N.M., Comfort Inn motel room.

The 1978 Bradley-Bourbonnais Community High School grad was headed to a new job as a Lady's Footlocker manager in Phoenix, Ariz. She never completed her journey.

But Benoit's older brother, Dave, was able to finally get closure for his family nearly 19 years later as his sister's killer has been found.

"When I first heard, it was disbelief,'' said Dave, who has never let this case rest. "There were lots of feelings, mixed feelings, going through my mind. How can you feel good about this, but you do. It's hard to put into words.''

On Friday, Santa Fe police finally received a confession from David Bruce Morton, a convicted Texas killer already in prison.

Why did Dave Benoit keep this up for all these years?

"I have a two-fold answer. First, to get this person and get him off the street so others wouldn't have to go through this. And secondly, I believe in justice. If someone commits a crime they should be punished.''

On that November night back in 1983, Janet was traveling from Arvada, Colo., to Phoenix, when she decided to pull off the highway and spend the night in Santa Fe.

According to Benoit, he discovered that nearly one-third of the keys issued to guests were master keys. A person with a master would have access to every motel room. Benoit sued Comfort Inn for that practice and settled out of court.

After years of frustrations in dealing with Santa Fe police, private investigators and even psychics, Benoit hired George Seibel, a Riverside private detective, in 1995.

Seibel, a retired homicide detective and a criminal justice college instructor, took over the case which he said became an obsession. "Sometimes I couldn't get it out of my mind,'' the detective said. "It sometimes affected my relationship with my family.''

Earlier this year, Morton was implicated in the killing of Kim Kendall, a secretary and college student who lived near him in Amarillo, Texas. Morton had been a prime suspect in the slaying of another Santa Fe woman, Teri Mulvaney, in the early 1980s.

Seibel pointed Santa Fe police to Morton in 1996 due to similarities between the way Kendall and Janet were killed. Both women had stab wounds to the back and neck.

Morton also confessed to the Mulvaney slaying. He had been tried for the Mulvaney death, but was freed in 1988 following a hung jury.