http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15287217/
22-year-old charged with murdering his family
Ill. authorities are holding man suspected of gunning down parents,
sisters
Updated: 9:47 a.m. ET Oct. 16, 2006
BONAPARTE, Iowa - A day after five members of a family were gunned down
in their southeastern Iowa home, the family’s 22-year-old son was
charged with murdering them, authorities said.
Shawn Bentler faces five counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of
his parents and three teenage sisters, according to the Van Buren County
sheriff’s office
Bentler was being held on a $2.5 million bond at the Adams County jail
in Quincy, Ill. An extradition hearing was scheduled for Monday morning.
Investigators have not offered a motive for the slayings, said Jim
Saunders, spokesman for the Iowa Department of Public Safety. “It’s
going to take them a while,” he said.
The victims were found early Saturday near Bonaparte, according to the
Van Buren County sheriff’s office. They were identified as Michael
Bentler, 53; his wife, Sandra, 47; and their daughters Sheena, 17;
Shelby, 15; and Shayne.
The sheriff’s office said it received the 911 call from Shayne Bentler
at 3:38 a.m. in which she told the 911 dispatcher her brother was “going
to do something.” Next came the sound of a gunshot and someone
yelling,“Shawn, no!”
Then the line went dead.
Details of the call were included in sheriff’s documents.
Authorities said they received a second 911 call at the same time from
Sandra Bentler’s cell phone. That call went unanswered.
Shawn Bentler was arrested Saturday in Quincy, Ill., about 60 miles from
the family’s home, on an unrelated charge of possession of drug
paraphernalia, according to the Adams County sheriff’s office.
The Bentlers were an affluent family that owned an elevator and lumber
company that served most of southeast Iowa.
On Sunday morning, a deputy stood guard at the street corner in front of
the home, which sits on 20 acres on a sprawling tree-lined bluff just
outside Bonaparte.
At the St. Boniface Catholic Church in Farmington, where the Bentler
family worshipped, some parishioners wiped away tears as they knelt to
pray, while others sat transfixed, their hands on their faces or clasped
in prayer.
“You saw this in the Amish country when those girls were shot, and now
it’s in our backyard,” youth minister Mike Linnenbrink said, referring
to the shooting deaths of five girls at Amish school in Pennsylvania
this month. “It’s not surprising at all that we turn to church at this
time. This is a tight community, not just in Van Buren County, but in
all of southeast Iowa.”
© 2006 The Associated Press
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at a high rate of speed. I trust you'll
be 'blessed' with a plethora of splinters.
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