On February 25, 2010, Livingston Parish Sheriff’s Detectives obtained a warrant for the arrest of the man responsible for the 1993 murder of a 31 year old woman south of Denham Springs.  The body of Janet Parker Benoit was discovered August 31st 1993 in a church parking lot on Riverton Ave.  An autopsy indicated that she had been shot thee times with a .38 caliber weapon.  The first solid lead in the case surfaced in November 2007 when, analysts at the Louisiana State Police Crime Lab, made a DNA match linking the victim to her killer.  Armed with this new evidence, Detectives traveled to Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola, where the suspect was serving time for an unrelated murder, to interview him.  However, the suspect denied knowing or having ever scene the victim.

Another crucial break in the case came in February 2010, when Detectives discovered, what they believed, was the 38 Caliber Colt revolver used to commit the murder.  They were able to connect this blue steel 2” revolver to the suspect.  Analysts at the Louisiana State Police Crime Lab determined that the weapon was the same gun used to kill the victim.

On February 25, 2010, Detectives again traveled to Angola State Penitentiary to interview the suspect.  This time he gave a full confession to the murder of Ms. Benoit.

42 year old Mark Lewis, who is currently serving a life sentence prison for the 2007 murder of 13 year old Kaitlin  Aydell, has been charged as follows:

• 1 Count Second Degree Murder