Located on the Gulf of Mexico in southwestern Florida, Naples is home to many wealthy families and has long been considered a prosperous and very safe community. However, in the mid-1980s, a car of the wealthy Benson family caught fire, and this illusion of happiness was disillusioned.
The Benson family made millions of dollars from tobacco-Margaret Benson is the daughter of Universal Leaf owner Harry Hitchcock, and his net worth is estimated to be more than $100 million. Although it is widely believed that wealthy families are alienated from each other, the Benson clan is a closely integrated group.
In July 1985, 63-year-old Margaret and her 41-year-old daughter Caroline Benson Kendall, 33-year-old son Steven Benson and 21-year-old adopted son Scott Benson together Get in the car and leave to see a piece of land in the city, where Margaret plans to build another home for her family.
When the family entered the vehicle, it exploded, and a loud explosion was heard five miles away. Margaret and Scott died on the spot, while Caroline was taken to the hospital with severe burns. Steven did not get in the car before the explosion, he was safe.
“We had to keep the scene because it was a pretty big explosion. There were corpses and particles of material, and it looked like a bomb fell on the suburbs,” said Harrow, a retired homicide lieutenant of the Collier County Sheriff’s Department. De Yanga told the producer of Oxygen’s new series “Murder in Florida”.
While searching the surrounding area, the police found residues of explosives and confirmed that this was a planned attack. However, they were stumped: Is Margaret the target? Or Scott? Or the whole family?
“I can’t imagine anyone would want to hurt them. Why would anyone want to hurt my family?” a relative of Benson, who asked not to be named, told the producer.
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Investigators sought possible clues from the survivors of the explosion, but they were shut down. Caroline said she did not want to talk to the authorities while recovering from the burn ward in Massachusetts. At the same time, Steven seemed to be in shock after the explosion and loss of his family, so investigators did not want to push him too hard.
After gaining insight into the background of the family, the authorities deduced that Scott was the focus of the attack. At the age of 21, he was arrested many times, used a lot of recreational drugs, and partyed with strippers.
“This is very different from Naples, so it makes people wonder,” Todd Kotzman, a retired Miami Herald crime reporter, explained to the mood producer at the time.
They soon came up with a theory that the attack may be related to Scott’s drug use. Maybe he owes someone money, or he is selling drugs himself, or he has seen something he shouldn’t have seen.
Investigators searched Scott’s social circle but were blocked. This theory is a dead end.
Then, when it was revealed that Scott was actually Caroline’s son, a tabloid scandal broke out-she secretly gave birth to a child and asked her parents to raise him as an adopted child. Although the police briefly considered that if Scott learned of such a shocking family secret, he might want to commit suicide, but they quickly rejected the idea. The young man didn’t seem to know the truth about his biological mother.
However, when the police talked to Steven’s high school friend, the investigation was interrupted. In the process of discussing him, they learned that he knows how to make tubular bombs and can repair explosives.
Investigators were eager to talk to Steven again-but when they asked for an interview, he refused, and hired a top defense lawyer in the area. The authorities were shocked by this move, and of course very skeptical.
Fortunately, another family member is finally ready to speak. Caroline agreed to talk to the police.
She said that on the morning of the explosion, the whole family agreed to see the land-but at Steven’s suggestion. He drove over in his own car, but later said that he would go out to get donuts and drive in the suburbs that later exploded instead of his own car. Then, when they got in the car, Caroline noticed that Steven had already made suggestions about where they should sit. Then he ran back to get the tape measure.
