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Chase |
Benedict "Benny" Chase moved to Spotsylvania County about 2001, three years before he disappeared and six years before skeletal remains believed to be his were found.
He came to be with a woman he'd dated growing up in St. Mary's County, Md. He disappeared mysteriously in March 2004.
This week, Spotsylvania sheriff's detectives found remains they think are his near the Spotsylvania Quarry.
All that was left was clothes and bones--a skull without a lower jaw, both arms and a pelvis.
But one of Chase's eight siblings, Linda L. Chase of Waldorf, Md., is sure it's her brother.
Linda Chase has followed the investigation closely the past three years. She's talked to detectives and the woman her brother was living with to piece it together. And she wants people to know who Benny Chase was.
Chase was the seventh of nine children. His sister says Chase was somewhat of a problem child. He had three children out of wedlock--one is a teenager and two are in their early 20s--and spent time in jail for not paying child support.
But Linda Chase said her brother "had a heart of gold." She said he had been in the Army Reserve and always kept in contact with his large family, which remains in Maryland.
In Spotsylvania, Benny Chase lived with his girlfriend in the Stoneybrook subdivision.
For a time he worked in construction. About a week before he disappeared on March 8, 2004, he took a job as a server at a McDonald's in the Four-Mile Fork area.
Benny Chase walked out of the McDonald's that day wearing his uniform, his sister said. He and co-workers had a minor spat. He called his girlfriend from a pay phone about 9:30 p.m. in the Lee's Hill area. He was drunk and asked her to pick him up. She declined.
Linda Chase said her brother used to walk home through the woods where the remains were found. It's unclear what happened, but it was a cold night--about 29 degrees at 7 the next morning, according to the National Weather Service.
The bones have been sent to the Virginia medical examiner's office in Richmond. DNA tests will conclusively identify them, and forensic scientists will look for evidence of foul play. For now, authorities say there's no evidence of that.
Linda Chase said the tests will give her family closure, but she said they've already concluded that the bones belong to Benny Chase.
She said the leather jacket found in the woods was her brother's. The skull had a chipped tooth--Chase did also. The pants had a waist size of 32-34--so did Chase. It was a black man's skull, the state lab has determined, and Chase was black. The tie and hat had the McDonald's logos on them.
Linda Chase is angry that her brother wasn't found before this week. She thinks the Spotsylvania Sheriff's Office should have done more. She said her "heart hurts" knowing her brother lay there for three years.
Spotsylvania sheriff's Maj. Michael Timm said his office took proper investigative steps after Chase was reported missing. He said they searched the area where Chase was last seen, did follow-up interviews and contacted other police departments when unidentified bodies were found. It remained an open case.
Timm said they hadn't previously searched the woods off Smith Station Road where the bones were found, but "there's nothing more significant about that patch of woods than any other," he said.
"Everything that could have been done was done," Timm said.
Bill Freehling: 540/374-5424
Email: bfreehling@freelancestar.com
