The Santa Fe Strangler

Janet Benoit, 22, was moving from Colorado to Arizona, where she had landed a job at a sporting goods store. In November 1983 she stopped at the Comfort Inn on Cerrillos Road in Santa Fe, New Mexico. A housekeeper found her body in her room. She had been raped, strangled with a handkerchief and stabbed about 30 times.

In June 1984, Teri Mulvaney, 25, who worked as a secretary for the Public Service Company of New Mexico, was raped and killed in her apartment on Galisteo Street. Police suspected her neighbor, David Bruce Morton, a convicted armed robber. He was tried in 1988, but the jury deadlocked, with eleven jurors favoring acquittal. Morton moved to Amarillo, Texas, where 22-year-old Kim Kendall was raped and murdered on May 4, 1990. A fingerprint from an earlier burglary of her apartment brought him a life term as a habitual offender, and in 1993 he was convicted of her murder and given 174 years. Meanwhile, Janet’s brother Dave Benoit dug into the motel’s security practices and sued the Comfort Inn, which settled out of court.

Dave Benoit later hired a private investigator, who tied the Kendall killing to Janet’s and pushed Santa Fe police to take another look at Morton. A cellmate later told police Morton had admitted killing Teri. In 2003 Morton confessed to both Santa Fe murders, and in February 2004 he pleaded guilty, adding New Mexico life sentences to his Texas terms.