On June 13, 1987, when Daniel Buettner, Bret Anderson, Martin Engel & Anne Knabe successfully cycled 15,266 mi from Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, to Argentina, 23-year-old Cathy Sposito had also been biking up the Prescott’s Thumb Butte Trail in Yavapai County, Arizona before she was killed.
For over three decades, the search for Sposito’s murder has been a mystery and a constant resolve for Yavapai investigators. According to authorities, on the day of the fatal incident, people close to the trail heard the victim’s scream but later found her deceased. At the time, investigators collected evidence found at the scene but had no suspect. Eventually, the case went cold.
However, in April 1990, a sexual assault occurred at the same location along the Prescott’s Thumb Butte Trail. Though authorities were unable to identify a suspect at the time, DNA samples were collected and preserved. Recently, genealogical DNA testing was conducted by investigators that led to a descendant who provided investigators with the name of a potential suspect – Byron Scott Bennett.
Soon, authorities discovered Scott was deceased and had died by suicide in 1994. However, to make sure they had the right suspect, Scotts’ body was exhumed where he was buried in Kentucky to retrieve his DNA, which was a match with the DNA left on a wrench found a few yards away from Sposito’s body at the crime scene. As a result, investigators finally established Scott as the perpetrator responsible for Sposito’s murder.
At the time of the murder, Bennett was 16 years old and a Prescott High School student. However, Bennett and the victim never knew each other.
Over the years, the case was worked on by six volunteers that a homicide detective supervised due to Yavapai County’s limited resources.
"There's never a time when full-time paid detectives could spend this amount of time working on cases that are so old because the resources are not there — they carry caseloads, they're busy doing things all the time and so really, I can say with absolute certainty we would not be here today if it was not for the dedicated, competent work of our volunteers," said Sheriff David Rhodes, reported azcentral.
Bennett was never charged for the sexual assault in April 1990 and was found not guilty of attempted sexual attack in June 1990. However, he was convicted in Arizona for forgery.
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