Update: Documents provided by the North Carolina Trial Court Administrator’s Office, the jurors for the state agreed that Mathew Benner unlawfully, willfully, feloniously, and maliciously burned the dwelling house inhabited by Amanda Strous. The jurors for the state vs. Mathew Benner also agreed that Benner unlawfully, willfully, feloniously, and of malice aforethought killed and murdered Strous.
As part of the investigation, the state seized swabs, matches, lighter fluid, mobile phones, jewelry, suntan lotion, fibers, tape, key chain and smoke detector.
According to the North Carolina Trial Court Administrator’s Office, Mecklenburg County, Mathew T. Benner was indicted by a Grand Jury Monday, July 11.
His case will now enter a long series of administrative hearings.
Benner, 28, is accused of murdering 27-year-old York native Amanda Strous. Strous passed away on Saturday, June 18.
Enclave at Rivergate residents, exiting in response to a fire alarm on June 18, said they witnessed Benner on his phone. They told police that Benner, who stands 6’3″ and is 215 pounds, was “sweating profusely and physically refusing to allow anyone to enter the burning apartment.” Benner told them, witnesses said, that there was someone injured inside the apartment.
Nye County, Nevada police officers arrested Benner, after he fled the crime scene, Monday, June 20. He was extradited to Charlotte, North Carolina on July 4.
Strous had been living in Charlotte, NC to be closer to her fiance. They were to be married on July 30. She was employed as a counselor at Central Piedmont Community College.
Strous, a Dallastown Area High School graduate, began her field hockey career there. She went on to play field hockey at Shippensburg University. She coached field hockey at various colleges, and camps along the east coast. She was also an assistant field hockey coach at Hamilton College in New York.