TARGETED: A Deputy, Her Love Affairs, A Brutal Murder

by M. William Phelps

  Scoggins was all ears.

  “Doug told me that after one of their arguments, Tracy took his wallet, cell phone and pager back to her house.”

  “OK … ?”

  “So he called her and demanded she return them. That he needed his money so he could eat. She told him that she was going to work the next morning and that he could come to her house and pick up the items.”

  What was the significance of the story, Scoggins wondered. It displayed a bit of Tracy’s character, sure. But couples played these sorts of games on each other sometimes when they fought. So Doug and Tracy were not getting along? What was the big deal? Couples quarreled. They took back gifts and other things they’d given each other. They hid wallets and keys and yelled and screamed.

  They also made up.

  “She told him that the items would be on her coffee table. She wouldn’t be home. Doug went by and grabbed the items.”

  “When was this?”

  Jeff Bennett thought about it.

  “Not sure.”

  Big help that was.

  “Was there anything else?” Scoggins asked.

  Bennett said he had plenty.

  “Let’s hear it.”

  Scoggins had Jeff sit down in one of the conference rooms so he could take a more formal statement from him.

  Jeff agreed.

  Doug Benton’s friend began with how he had known Doug for 16 years. They met as welders in Barrow County, Jeff explained, while working for a company called Base Manufacturing. “The past seven years we’ve become close,” Jeff added. “We started working out together and competing together in bench-press competitions. We always stayed in constant contact—that is, until last year, when Doug began dating Tracy.”

  “Why is that?” Scoggins asked.

  Jeff Bennett rubbed his chin, took a deep breath. “Tracy is a dominating person … and is basically a possessive tomboy type of person. She demanded that Doug show her constant attention. She is manipulative and has violent tendencies. She demanded to know all of his affairs and she consumed all of his time. She always wanted to know who he was with and where he was.”

  This sounded dramatic and perhaps even dangerous. As Bennett talked, Scoggins took notes and detailed the interview in his reports. In the grand scope of the MCSD’s investigation, however, what did it actually mean? So Tracy Fortson was a pain in the ass? She wanted to know Doug’s every move. She lifted weights like a man. She acted tough and nasty, even. But what the hell did it have to do with Doug having gone missing?

  Jeff indicated he had more.

  “Go right head, Mr. Bennett.”

  “I do not like her. She does not like me,” Jeff added. He took a sip from a bottle of water the sheriff had given him. “Doug told me many times that she would get violent toward him and when they had trouble she would threaten to shoot herself or would take things from the house and threaten to turn him in. He was not sure what she was referring to.”

  Scoggins listened intently. If Jeff Bennett was being honest and not just sour at Tracy for coming in between him and his bestie, the relationship between Doug and Tracy was a bit more volatile than everyday boyfriend-girlfriend arguments, kissing and making up. There was possibly more to it than that.

  “Doug told me Tracy had explained to him how she had beat up both of her ex-husbands and that one of them she hit in the head with a pipe while drunk, telling police a burglar had done it. She also told Doug that she once set their trailer on fire, trying to burn it with him (the ex-husband) inside of it, but the fire went out. She had threatened to shoot herself once, holding a gun to her head to get (Doug) back. Whenever they had an argument, she would go home and then call him incessantly until he would let her come back over. She would not leave him alone.”

  “Was he afraid of her?”

  “No. He was not afraid and did not believe she could hurt him.”

  “Is there anything else?” Was all of this leading somewhere? There seemed to be a buildup. If what Jeff said was true, Doug and Tracy’s relationship was a powder keg. If nothing else, Tracy Fortson had some explaining to do.

  “Tracy worked for Doug. She did work on the computer for him. Filing. Bills and documents. Doug told me they once got into an argument and she went into his house and started deleting items off the computer.”

  She was vengeful.

  Not a good sign.

  When Doug realized what she was doing, Jeff added, Doug grabbed her and pulled her away.

  Tracy then went outside and tried to kick over one of his Harleys.

  She turned as he stopped her and threw a punch at him.

  Doug blocked it. Grabbing her by the throat and holding her against the wall inside the garage, he warned: “Don’t you ever try to hit me again.”

  Doug let her go.

  Tracy walked toward her truck. She said: “I will kill your ass!”

  As Tracy reached inside, Doug looked on, knowing she kept a pistol there. He walked over and picked up his rifle. Pointed the barrel in her face: “I will shoot you if you get out of that truck with your pistol.”

  Tracy stared at him. Started her truck and tore out of the driveway.

  It was a hell of a story. If true, it showed how deceitful, maybe even violent not only Tracy could be under certain duress, but also Doug. It appeared they got each other going.

  “When was the last time you saw Doug?” Scoggins asked Jeff Bennett.

  “On May 22nd and 23rd, I went over to his house and lifted (weights) with him.”

  “Was Tracy there?”

  “Yes, she was.”

  “What happened?”

  “Well, I was supposed to go back over on May 25th and work out, but I called and told him I wasn’t coming over if Tracy was going to be there.”

  Jeff went on to explain how he called Doug on that day but got no answer. Doug called back later on and said he was outside feeding his birds.

  “Did you go over?”

  “No, I went to Gold’s Gym.”

  “When did you next see or speak with Doug?”

  “I never saw him again.”

  After Jeff BennetT left the MCSD, Scoggins sat back and thought about the interview. The stakes had changed. There was much more rigidity and bitterness within the Doug and Tracy relationship, more than the MCSD had been first led to believe by what they’d uncovered. There was a violent thread woven through the fabric of Tracy and Doug’s life together. They could both become angry and turn to violent means. Doug himself had admitted to Jeff—if true—that he once grabbed his girlfriend by the throat and pointed a gun in her face. You add dangerous behaviors into the mix of love, most good cops knew, and anything became possible.

  Scoggins needed to get Tracy in for a more formal chat. Also, according to his report and later testimony, something that bothered Scoggins here was Doug’s mental state at the time he went missing. They had reports from close friends indicating Doug suffered from depression. If he and Tracy had broken up, Doug was likely upset. Could he have been suicidal?

  Scoggins called Tracy.

  “Sure,” she said. “I can come in.”

  “Six o’clock?” Scoggins asked.

  Tracy agreed.

  11.

  There were other secrets, Tracy Fortson insisted, Doug kept from her. For one, she explained to me in 2016, “I didn’t find out that Doug had a second son … until several months” into the relationship. Doug’s other child had blurted out one night, as we were going out to eat, that he had a brother.

  This shocked Tracy.

  “I was confused at the time because Doug had never mentioned a second marriage or second child.”

  There came a point in their relationship when Doug said, “I want you to meet my best friend, Jeff (Bennett), and his wife.”

  It was decided they’d meet for dinner at the local Red Lobster. As they pulled in, Jeff and his wife were waiting in the parking lot.

  “That’s him,” Doug said of Jeff. “Over there, standi
ng with his wife.”

  Tracy recognized the guy right away, she later said.

  After Doug made formal introductions, Tracy and Jeff looked at each other and said: “I know you.”

  Jeff had been a customer at the tanning salon for many years and Tracy knew him by sight alone.

  Doug had a “funny reaction” to this. An odd look crossed his face. “But he didn’t say anything at the time.”

  They sat down to dinner.

  The talk was a bit much for Tracy. Jeff liked to constantly dig at Doug, according to Tracy.

  As they finished dinner, Tracy later claimed to have gotten the feeling Jeff didn’t like it that the two of them (Doug and Tracy) were together as a couple.

  “Jeff made a big production of how Doug had told him all about meeting me and that Doug had been really excited about it. I could tell they were very close, but I could also tell Jeff wasn’t as happy about our newfound relationship as he wanted us to believe. There was underlying sarcasm in everything he said.”

  Could this have simply been Jeff Bennett’s way of acting? Could it have been his normal jabbing at a friend?

  Tracy takes the leap later that it was directed at her and Doug’s relationship, but she didn’t know this for certain. She speculated.

  As the days ticked off the calendar of their relationship, Doug and Tracy got to talking about Jeff Bennett a lot. Doug’s friendship with the man came up all the time. Doug’s explanation concerning Jeff was always that they were “really close friends and were in touch with each other daily.” They had also been workout partners for years and had a set schedule for 4 p.m. each day at Doug’s home gym.

  “The (home) gym was Doug and Jeff’s remedy to prevent paying gym fees.”

  When Doug explained all of this to Tracy, she said (according to her), “OK, that’s cool. I’m a member at Ladies 1st Fitness.” She claimed to have “worked out there every day and went to the tanning salon afterward.”

  Tracy felt their lives were gelling like Southern biscuits and gravy as the spring of 2000 came. She and Doug did everything together.

  However, according to Tracy’s later recollection, Jeff Bennett was becoming “quite irritable because Doug was missing workouts.” She believed Jeff blamed her for the lapse in their friendship and less and less time they spent together.

  “Rather than being at home at 4 for their routine, Doug was most often with me,” Tracy said. “That caused Jeff to have to miss working out or go to a gym. … Doug’s idea was that he and I could work out together and I wouldn’t have to go to a gym, either. That was OK, if it was just me and Doug,” Tracy insisted. “But when Jeff came over, it was a lot of work. They worked out with 200 pounds and went up. I started out with 50 pounds and went up to 100. Imagine how many (weight) plates had to be removed then added back between sets when I was in the mix. Not good.”

  Tracy began to feel like she was in the way.

  Tracy said Jeff didn’t like it when she was there, Jeff later admitting as much in court. She was coming in between what had been a routine the men had been accustomed to for years before she was ever even in the picture. Now she was causing the workout to be longer and more difficult. Jeff Bennett had a hard time focusing. And lifting heavy weight, anyone involved in the practice would agree, is all about focus.

  Body. Mind. Soul.

  Funny what love can do? How it can change a man.

  “Jeff’s attitude got worse by the minute,” Tracy insisted. “If Doug didn’t make a workout, Jeff got mad. He called two and three times a day asking Doug where he was at and if he was with me. Once, when Doug and I were going to breakfast, Jeff called and asked Doug what he was doing. When Doug said, ‘Going to breakfast,’ Jeff came back with, ‘Are you with that bitch?’ ”

  “What’s Jeff’s problem?” Tracy began asking Doug.

  Why couldn’t Jeff understand they were in love, Tracy wondered. Give them the space the relationship required.

  “He’s just mad,” Doug said.

  “But why?” Tracy countered. She couldn’t figure out why Jeff was getting so angry when she was with Doug. They were in love. Shouldn’t he be happy that his best friend had found love?

  “I remember the time Jeff had said that he was glad Doug had finally found someone he could be happy with. The fact that he was mad didn’t sound like the same person to me that Doug had been describing.”

  One day, Tracy was with Doug as he was out working a welding job. Doug was underneath a trailer, welding the axle. His cell phone rang.

  “Get that, would you, babe?” Doug told Tracy.

  “Hello?” Tracy said into the phone. She looked at the screen and knew it was Jeff calling.

  All Tracy could hear was static. Bad connection.

  “Hello … I cannot hear you … hello,” she kept repeating.

  Jeff continued to talk, not hearing Tracy. Soon, she hung up because she could not hear anything.

  “Who was it?” Doug asked.

  She told him what happened.

  “He’ll call back.”

  Later that night, Jeff called while Tracy and Doug were at Doug’s house enjoying dinner. Jeff, according to Tracy, started in on Doug and yelled so loudly, Tracy claimed, “I could hear him (through the phone while) standing next to Doug.”

  Jeff was convinced Tracy could hear him when he called earlier that day and blew him off, was rude and—worst of all—intentionally hung up on him.

  12.

  Tracy showed up at the MCSD as promised at 6 p.m. on Sunday, June 18, 2000, sheriff Amory Scoggins’ report of the interview noted. What’s important about this meeting is that the MCSD was still in the information-gathering stage of looking for a missing person. Nothing more. MCSD was looking to discover information from everyone Doug knew, including Tracy. This was a voluntary interview. Tracy was there to help. Not to be interrogated.

  Scoggins and Tracy sat, shook hands and smiled. Two cops, at least fundamentally speaking, after the same answer. Tracy, undoubtedly, one would think, was wondering where in the hell her ex-boyfriend had run off to. Although Tracy wasn’t with the sheriff’s department any longer, having initiated a lawsuit against the department, she still held the look of the law in her eyes. In the way she walked and spoke, Tracy carried herself like a cop.

  “When was the last time you saw Mr. Benton?” Scoggins asked after they exchanged pleasantries.

  “On Monday,” she said, “June 5th.”

  “When?”

  “Oh, between 6 and 8 p.m. It was at his house. I had been in court and traveled out to see him afterward.”

  “How was your relationship then?”

  “Rocky,” Tracy said, taking a breath. “Doug had become jealous, wanting to know my whereabouts at all times and more specifically, on that Monday in particular, he was in a foul mood.”

  Tracy had stopped by Doug’s to talk, she further explained. She started to help him as he tended to the birds, as she normally would. But Doug snapped at her: “I don’t need any help!”

  “I stayed there until around 10:30,” Tracy told Scoggins. “Then I went back to my house.”

  That would have been between two and four-and-a-half hours, depending on what time Tracy had arrived.

  “Did you two make plans to see each other again?”

  “I also received a voicemail from him. He said not to come over, not to call him anymore and, basically, that the relationship was finished.”

  What was she supposed to do? She’d tried to mend fences. Doug wasn’t interested. So she began to let go.

  That was about all Tracy had for the MCSD. What else could she offer? She’d seen the guy. He was bitter. He wanted nothing to do with her anymore. It was over. Now he was gone.

  Where in the hell was Doug Benton?

  13.

  Tracy Fortson and Doug Benton, if we are to believe what Tracy later said about their relationship, were madly in love during the spring of 2000. She believed they shared a deep connection and had many t
hings in common. Tracy had explained to her mother one day after meeting Doug that she thought they were meant to be together—that Doug was “the one.” Tracy’s mother, on the other hand, knew Tracy’s relationships with men “never lasted very long.”

  “I had been married twice,” Tracy explained to me, “and neither marriage lasted more than 18 months. I just didn’t do well with relationships.”

  Tracy said the “underlying reason” for the dissolution of most relationships she’d been involved in, after being in love with her daughter’s father, was simple: “I compared every man I ever met with (him—Elise’s dad), and no one ever came close. I had it in my brain that no one would ever measure up, and they didn’t. As a result, my relationships never went anywhere. The men I became involved with were not as good-looking … not as passionate, not as tall, not as built, just not (him) and never would be. He had been perfect, in my 18-year-old eyes. Doug was the first man I had ever met that I did not compare to (him). Doug was the ‘total package.’ He had it all.”

  There was one night when Doug and Tracy sat at the kitchen table inside her mother’s house. Tracy’s mother was cooking dinner. The smells of childhood wafting up from the pot on the stove. Her mother standing, apron on, preparing a meal. It was not only nostalgic, but comforting in a way that only being back home can be. Although Tracy would later talk about many bad memories associated with her childhood, this was one image she treasured.

  Tracy stared at Doug.

  This is nice, she thought. It feels so right.

  “I want to tell you how we met, Mother,” Tracy began.

  Tracy’s mother said she couldn’t wait to hear.

  After Tracy concluded the story, Doug spoke: “I had said a prayer and asked God to send a woman who would love me and care for me, someone I could love in return. Two days later, there you go, I met Tracy.”

  “Isn’t that the sweetest thing you ever heard?” Tracy said.