WRAL.com archive: Stephanie Bennett homicide case


On May 21, 2002, Stephanie Bennett, 23, was found dead in her North Raleigh apartment. An autopsy later revealed the Rocky Mount, Va., native had been raped and strangled. Investigators interviewed thousands of witnesses and followed hundreds of leads, but never turned up any suspects in Bennett's death.

More than three years later, however, on Oct. 19, 2005, Raleigh police arrested a suspect in Bennett's death, Drew Planten, 35, an employee for the North Carolina Department of Agriculture. They said DNA found at the scene had been linked with Planten.

On Jan. 2, 2006, Planten was found unresponsive in his jail cell at Raleigh's Central Prison, apparently from a suicide.