Inset: Shay Michael Benson (Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office). Background: The home where Benson allegedly killed his female roommate (Google Maps).
A 37-year-old man from Minnesota has been detained after he reportedly savagely beat his female roommate to death, revealing her skull and leaving blood splatters on her sleeping toddler. He attempted to claim that her fatal injuries resulted from a fall in the shower.
Shay Michael Benson was taken into custody over the weekend and charged with one count of second-degree murder with intent, records show.
According to a probable cause affidavit obtained by Law&Crime, officers from the Richfield Police Department responded to a 911 call at a residence on the 6400 block of Bloomington Avenue South concerning an injured woman at approximately 5:01 a.m. on Sunday. The location is a few miles south of Minneapolis.
The caller, identified as Benson, told the dispatcher that the victim was “laying in the shower” with “her head cracked open.”
Upon their arrival, first responders discovered the victim already dead, “with severe bleeding from a large laceration on her forehead, through which her skull was visible.” Her nose was broken, and her eyes were “black and swollen shut.”
In a news release, police stated that Benson was still present at the scene upon their arrival and “was covered in blood and had fresh injuries to his hands.” There was also evidence of a “struggle in the basement living area” where the victim resided.
A home search “revealed multiple areas with blood spatter,” including sections where it appeared efforts had been made to clean the blood.
“On the lower level of the home, where the victim’s body was found, blood was on the floor leading from the stairs to the laundry room, on the rug, and on the tile floor,” the affidavit details. “In the living room area adjacent to the bedroom and laundry room doorways, there was blood spattering on the wall, a shelving unit, books, and beneath the shelving unit. In some places, the blood was smeared and lighter as though there had been an attempt to clean it,”
There was also blood found in the lower-level bedroom where the victim lived with her 2-year-old daughter, who authorities said was found “sleeping with blood spatter on her arm.”
Much of the blood in the room appeared to have been “wiped down” and additional evidence pointed to an attempted cover-up, police said.
“The floor of the basement bathroom was covered in blood,” police wrote. “The washer appeared to have bloody clothes in it, as there was watery blood along the top of the washer and around the door. Half of a ripped black bra was found on the floor of the laundry room covered in blood, and the other half was in the washing machine. A pair of men’s white sneakers was found in the washing machine as well, along with rugs and washcloths.”
Surveillance footage obtained from a neighbor’s camera allegedly showed Benson and the victim at about midnight “engaged in a verbal argument” on the driveway, which is the last time she appears in the footage. Benson is seen again on the driveway at about 3:31 a.m. wearing different shoes and getting into an SUV that picks him up and drops him back off at the home at about 4:54 a.m., police said.
Investigators concluded that Benson’s “description of events” was “inconsistent with crime scene evidence.”
Benson is scheduled to make his first appearance in court before Judge Daniel C. Moreno Wednesday afternoon. He is currently being held in the Hennepin County Jail in lieu of $1 million bond, records show.
