Tortured Teenager Leads Detectives to Body of Missing Woman

On October 11, 1987, Bill Benefiel abducted a teen as she walked home from a gas station. He held her captive in his home and over the next four months, tortured the 17-year-old before police found her hidden in a crawlspace. They would soon learn Alicia wasn’t Bill’s only victim.

Alicia Elmore, 17, offered to walk to the gas station to buy soft drinks for her mom and brother on the evening of October 10, 1987. The gas station was about two blocks from the family’s Terre Haute home. Four months passed before anyone heard from Alicia again.

Alicia Abducted Walking Home

As Alicia walked home from the gas station, a man grabbed her from behind, pushing her into a garage. He immediately stripped her naked, covered her head, and bound her with electrical wire. Later identified as Bill Benefiel, the man threw Alicia into his van and drove to his house a short distance away.

Bill took photographs of the naked teenager before he SA’d her. When he finished, Bill handcuffed her by the wrists and chained her neck to the bed. He tied her legs together using rope, restricting any movement. He gagged Alicia so she could not scream.

Over the next few weeks, Bill repeatedly SA’d Alicia. She said she lost count of the number of rapes after 64. Bill forced Alicia to have anal intercourse, sodomized her with a gun, and superglued her eyes closed.

He pried her eyes open occasionally if he wanted her to see something but wore a mask so she could not see his face.

Bill had a couple of large, mean dogs outside his house. Alicia wanted to escape but feared the dogs would make too much noise or worse, bite her if she tried. On one occasion, she had finally built enough courage to try to make it out. Bill quickly caught her, resulting in him cutting her on the back and cutting off her hair. He would go on to cut her on the chest and neck later that evening.

Bill told Alicia he wanted her hair for his scrapbook. He had memorabilia in the scrapbook from all his prior rape victims, he egotistically boasted.

Alicia ate a baked potato and drank a glass of water each day. Bill forced her to ask for permission to use the bathroom.

About two months into the ordeal, Alicia began bleeding vaginally. Bill rushed her to a hospital out of town, where he stayed by her side every second so she could not tell doctors what happened to her.

With her eyes open and Bill without a mask, she could see the monster’s face clearly now.

After her release, Alicia was forced into another home where Bill resumed the same behaviors as occurred in the other place. He chained Alicia to a bed and continued to SA her.

The Abduction and Murder of Delores Wells

On January 26, some three and one-half months since Bill had kidnapped Alicia, she heard sounds of crying. She saw a girl across the room. She didn't know the girl was Delores Wells, but she knew Bill had kidnapped and forced her into the home the same way he had grabbed her off the street.

Alicia watched helplessly as Bill taped Delores’ eyes shut, and then cut off her hair, and a finger, again bragging about how it was a memento for his scrapbook. He horrifically beat Delores over and over and over again with his fists and electrical cords. The beatings left Delores covered in bruises and black and blue welts across her face and legs.

On February 7, 1987, 12 days after Delores arrived at the home, Bill squirted Super Glue into her nostrils and squeezed them shut. He stuffed toilet paper in her mouth and then placed duct tape over it. Dolores could not breathe!

Bill forced Delores into his van and drove away.

Two hours later, Bill returned home, muddy from the waist down. He bragged about digging a grave big enough for two people. He then told Alicia he had killed Delores. He said he tied her arms and legs to separate trees, wrapped duct tape around her head, and waited until he thought she was almost dead before he “popped” her neck. He buried Delores in the freshly dug grave.

Police Find Alicia

A few days later, on February 11, Bill watched as police pulled into his driveway. He forced Alicia into the crawlspace. Officers had received information that Alicia could be in the home. Upon searching, they located Alicia and rushed her to a local hospital. They placed Bill into police custody.

Alicia told detectives everything that had happened to her over the past four months. She also revealed that Bill had murdered Delores.

Searching Bill’s home, officers located a mask, shovel, rake, a posthole digger, a rope, and .22 caliber shotgun shells.

Volunteers located Delores Wells's body on February 22, 1987. Her autopsy revealed that she suffered internal and external injuries to her anus and vagina, indicating that she had been SA’d anally and vaginally. Her cause of death was listed as asphyxiation.

More Victims Come Forward

At Benefiel’s trial, several other women came forward to testify against him. The women claimed Bill had kidnapped and raped them six and eight years before Delories’ murder.

Psychiatrists testified during his trial that he suffered from Schizophrenia, a personality disorder, and other mental diseases or defects after enduring abandonment, physical and sexual abuse, and other traumatic events during his childhood.

He was ruled mentally competent to stand trial. A jury convicted Benefeil of murder and countless other related charges. He was sentenced to death. After more than two decades on death row, Benefiel was executed by the State of Indiana on April 21, 2005. He died from lethal injection at 12:35 a.m.

Sources:

https://caselaw.findlaw.com/court/us-7th-circuit/1420189.html