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 in Minnesota has been arrested after he allegedly beat his female roommate to death in brutal fashion — exposing her skull and leaving blood spatter on her sleeping toddler — before trying to claim the victim’s fatal injuries were the result of her falling 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 with the Richfield Police Department at about 5:01 a.m. on Sunday responded to a 911 call at a residence in the 6400 block of Bloomington Avenue South regarding an injured female victim. The home is just 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 arriving, first responders found the victim already deceased “with heavy bleeding from a large laceration on her forehead, through which her skull was visible.” The victim’s nose was also broken and both of her eyes were “black and swollen shut.”
Love true crime? Sign up for our newsletter, The Law&Crime Docket, to get the latest real-life crime stories delivered right to your inbox.
In a news release, police said Benson was still at the scene when they arrived and “was covered in blood and had fresh injuries to his hands.” There also appeared to have been a “struggle in the basement living area” where the victim stayed.
A search of the home “revealed a number of areas with blood spatter,” which included several areas where it appeared as though someone had attempted to clean the blood.
“On the lower level of the home, where Victim’s body had been located, blood was on the floor leading from the stairs to the laundry room, on the rug and on the tile floor,” the affidavit states. “In the area in the living room next to the doorways to the bedroom and the laundry room, there was spattering of blood on the wall, shelving unit, books, and under the shelving unit. In some parts, the blood was smeared and lighter as though there had been an attempt to clean it up,”
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” were “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.
