WI WI - Debra J. Bennett, 20, Cross Plains, 21 Jul 1976

[Quoththeraven]

Debra Jayne Bennett, born July 22, 1955, age 20, from Ridgeway, Iowa County, Wisconsin, was last seen walking barefoot about 7:15 pm, along Loftsgordon Avenue, in Madison, Wisconsin, on July 8, 1976. She had just left an an apartment from where she had been evicted and had rented a room at the Cardinal Hotel in Madison, but hadn't had a chance to move in. Her partially decomposed and badly burnt body was found 10 days later on July 21, 1976 by land surveyors in a ditch along Old Sauk Pass Road, a half mile east of Highway 14 about 4 miles east of Cross Plains in Dane County, Wisconsin. An autopsy showed she had been dead for at least 1o days. Exact cause of death is unknown or not revealed. She was unemployed and her body was found a few days before her 21st birthday. She had lived in Madison about seven months.

She was last seen wearing blue jeans, carrying a denim jacket and a brown shoulder-strap purse. Three weeks after her body was found, her key to the Cardinal Hotel was mailed to the hotel. The area she was found in was known as a party area.

Officials said there was evidence that a flammable substance had been used to set fire to the body and weeds around it. Debra had been arrested but not convicted the month before by Madison police as a suspect in a Williamson Street apartment burglary. An uploaded file article below is from the Madison Capital Times, July 24, 1976. Debra, was buried at East Side Cemetery, Dodgeville, Iowa County, Wisconsin. Her death date is listed as July 8, 1976.

There are other news articles about her murder online but are subscription only.

 

[MadMcGoo]

28 Jul 1976, 33 - Wisconsin State Journal at Newspapers.com

 

[Quoththeraven]

"Officials said there was evidence that a flammable substance had been used to set fire to the body and weeds around it."

The Saturday, July 24, 1976 issue of the Wisconsin State Journal on Newspapers.com stated "Her body and the area where she was found by two farm surveyors, Ronald Williamson, 29 Rt. 1, Waunakee, and Daniel Birrenkott, 20, Rt. 2, Sun Prarie, were too badly burned to reveal how she died, the investigators said.

Obviously set on fire at the site if the area around her was burned. One would think an autopsy would have determined whether she was still alive or dead when set on fire. I assume there would be carbon and smoke in her lungs if she inhaled while alive.

I posted more on this at the below link and IMO these deaths are all related.

WI - WI - Julie Ann Hall, 18, Waunakee, 21 Jun 1978

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