No one stepping forward to provide services for man accused of faking his death

Robert Macy

Friday, July 16, 1999 | 1:53 a.m.

After Marine Staff Sgt. Arthur Bennett staged his death, grieving relatives were on hand as he was buried with military honors in a veterans' cemetery.

Since he committed suicide, relatives have kept their distance and the military is weighing whether it will be forced to bury Bennett.

Bennett, facing a military court-martial for sexually assaulting two of his daughters and those of fellow Marines, hanged himself in his jail cell Monday night.

His body was taken to a local funeral home Tuesday, but the owner said neither his family nor the military had shown any interest in funeral arrangements as of Friday.

"I talked to one family member who wants nothing to do with him," Jean Hites, owner of Hites Funeral Home, said Friday. She said she received one call Wednesday from Bennett's ex-wife, Amelia, but had not heard from her again.

Hites said she was told by a Marine captain, "We buried him once and we're not going to do it again."

Major David Lapan, a Marine spokesman in the Pentagon, was less direct.

"Because it's such a complex case, we're looking very closely to see we do everything correctly," Lapan said Friday. He said the legal issues were being studied by the judge advocate general's office.

"The circumstances involving Bennett at the time of his death were certainly less than honorable," Lapan said. "We would not want to provide benefits to his family unless we were compelled to do so."

Lapan said the Marines would be examining "what the status was at the time of his death and what entitlements legally his family might have."

Bennett was facing court-martial charges in February 1994 when he allegedly set fire to his trailer near Lake Mead. The badly burned body found in the trailer was believed to be that of Bennett. The body was cremated and the ashes interred with military honors at a veterans' cemetery in Boulder City, Nev. Authorities say they may never know who was really killed in the trailer fire.

A February 2000 trial was scheduled here for Bennett on murder and other charges related to the fire. This week, he was supposed to have been facing a court-martial on charges of sexually assaulting two of his daughters and those of fellow Marines in Yuma, Ariz. and Okinawa, Japan.

Bennett's family received $200,000 insurance money after his reported death in 1994. His mother, Ellen, 67, brothers, Scott, 39, and David, 41, and ex-wife, Amelia, 45, face federal conspiracy charges in connection with the insurance case.

Scott Bennett declined to comment on the case Friday, saying "I'm scared to talk."

Family members have said Arthur Bennett told them he was a government operative being used to kill drug lords, and the military faked his death in 1994 to provide him a new identity.