NC - Amanda Strous, 27, killed in arson fire, Charlotte, 18 June 2016

[Blondie in Spokane]

Neighbor 'strangled half-naked bride-to-be to death and taped her mouth shut before setting her apartment on fire', autopsy reveals

Amanda Strous, 27, was strangled and suffered blunt force trauma and burns inside her apartment in Charlotte on June 18

EMS workers found Strous wearing only a pair of bathing suit bottoms and with duct tape on her mouth

A rape kit was performed and turned over to detectives

Neighbor and former pilot Mathew Benner, 28, was arrested two days later in Strous' killing

Strous had been due to marry Corey McCleaf in a ceremony on July 30

Her devastated fiancé was at his bachelor party during the attack

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...eath-mouth-taped-shut-apartment-set-fire.html

 

[JusticeWillBeServed]

October 2017:

Man accused in Amanda Strous' death pleads not guilty

Mathew Benner, 29, charged last year in the death of Amanda Strous, 27, in her North Carolina home, pleaded not guilty to first-degree arson and murder, according to Meghan McDonald, community liaison coordinator for the Mecklenburg County District Attorney's Office.

 

[JusticeWillBeServed]

Dallastown graduate Amanda Strous' killer pleads guilty to murder, arson in N.C.

On Thursday, 30-year-old Mathew Thomas Benner pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, first-degree arson and malicious damage to occupied property with an incendiary device.

Superior Court Judge Robert Bell sentenced him to 38 to 49 years in prison and noted that the sentence was affected by three aggravating factors, including that the offense was "especially heinous, atrocious and cruel." Strous was strangled and her mouth was taped shut, according to her autopsy.