by Amanda Lamb
“I know where Stephanie’s at, and I know where he’s at,” Mollie’s words trailed off in the wind. It was up to me to fill in the blanks.
Someone to Blame
In May 2008, Drew Planten’s mother, Sarah Chandler, did file a lawsuit against the state of North Carolina for failing to protect her son from himself. Even though the State Bureau of Investigation had ruled there was no foul play or negligence involved in Planten’s suicide, Chandler’s lawsuit alleged her son was taken off suicide watch prematurely after his mental health appeared to be improving and was then not given proper counseling or oversight.
Chandler said her son had been diagnosed with “acute stress reaction,” yet he was put in solitary confinement where he was permitted outside his cell just one hour a day. She maintained this type of isolation only made his condition worse. During that period of time, Chandler’s lawsuit alleged that Planten got no psychological counseling whatsoever.
“His condition severely deteriorated. He became withdrawn and unresponsive again,” the lawsuit stated. “His declining mental status culminated in Drew’s death when he hung himself.”
Chandler’s lawsuit against the state and Carmon Bennett’s lawsuit against the Bridgeport Apartments are both still pending in the North Carolina court system.
Riding Off into the Sunset
Stephanie’s picture remained tacked up on Susan Spurlin’s wall above her desk in the courthouse. It reflected Stephanie’s humorous side in happier times. In the photograph, Stephanie was wearing a big purple felt hat, a red satin sash, and a mischievous grin. Of all the pictures Carmon offered Spurlin on her trip to Virginia, this was the one she took. It was the one she wanted. Spurlin wanted to remember Stephanie as a young woman full of life, not a young woman whose life had been tragically cut short.
Spurlin kept the picture as a symbol of Stephanie’s murder case and of the all murder cases she has prosecuted before and after Stephanie.
“It reminds you that there are no guarantees for anyone tomorrow,” Spurlin said. “There are no guarantees in this world for any of us.”
Several years after Planten’s suicide, Spurlin called Carmon Bennett one day out of the blue. She had been asked to do an interview for a network television program about the case, and she wanted to make sure it was okay with him. As they talked, Carmon told the prosecutor that he was on his way to the local high school to present a scholarship in Stephanie’s name, a program he had created to honor his daughter’s memory. Spurlin looked down at the calendar on her desk and suddenly realized it was May 21, 2008, the sixth anniversary of Stephanie’s murder—of all days, something had made her choose that one to make that phone call.
In the time that she had known Stephanie’s father, Spurlin had shared her love of horseback riding with Carmon. It was something safe they could talk about besides Stephanie. Being someone who owned land and lived in the country, Spurlin always felt like Carmon might enjoy owning horses. After their conversations, she said he became so intrigued by the idea, he decided to get some horses to roam the rolling hills of his rural Virginia property.
On this day, May 21, 2008, the anniversary of Stephanie’s murder, as Susan Spurlin talked to Carmon Bennett about horses, she was again reminded of why she loved to ride.
“It’s my serenity where the wind blows in one ear and out the other. It helps me maintain perspective and sanity because I can really get away from it all,” Spurlin said with a broad smile. And in her job there was a lot to get away from.
And maybe that’s the day the idea started to ferment in her head—there are no guarantees—that it was time to ride off into the sunset. So, on April 1, 2009, after twenty-six years as a prosecutor, Spurlin finally loaded all her personal belongings from her office into a box, including her picture of Stephanie Bennett, and said good-bye to the Wake County District Attorney’s Office.
She went home, mounted her horse, and said hello to the rest of her life.
Journalists Have Feelings Too
“I remember how angry I was at the suspect, and that he stayed under the radar for so long,” former WRAL reporter Len Besthoff said. “It bothered me that this kind young lady, brave enough to leave the comfortable confines of the Blue Ridge Mountain area, and just getting started on her own, had such an awful end to her life. It infuriated me.”
For everyone at WRAL-TV who covered the case, it is etched in his or her memory forever. First, because it was a random crime involving an innocent young woman. Second, because it took so long to solve the case. And third, because it ended in a way that left everyone, including the journalists who covered it, feeling like they had been cheated out of answers.
“They left behind loving families who are forced to go on with their life and always wonder what would have become of their lovely daughters. As a parent myself, that was the most difficult part of this case,” said former WRAL reporter Melissa Buscher.
“I think the biggest heartbreak for me, aside from the murder, is for Stephanie’s family not to have the answers they were so desperately seeking,” said photographer Chad Flowers.
For me, the case is a constant reminder that tragedy can happen to the most undeserving person, that justice is not always served, and that grief does not always lessen with time. As with everyone who was involved in the case, I lived with Stephanie’s image in my mind throughout the investigation. But it wasn’t until I began writing this book that her essence truly took up residence in my heart. Unfortunately, Stephanie Bennett is now one of several victims I have come to know in death that I would have liked to have known in life. May she rest in peace.
1 Denotes pseudonym.