Minnesota police say a 35-year-old man killed his girlfriend by beating and strangling her in a home where he was house sitting.
looked at records and found that Joseph James Benson was arrested earlier this month and charged with one count of second-degree murder in the brutal death of 38-year-old Samantha Koehne, who was known as “Panda.”
For sure, on Saturday, November 2, 2024, around noon, deputies from the Pipestone County Sheriff’s Office went to a home on 1st Avenue West in Edgerton because of a report of a possible domestic assault.
The person who called 911 said she was the homeowner and that Benson was house-sitting for her when he sent her a Snapchat message saying he had killed Koehne.
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When first responders got to the scene of the crime, they talked to Benson and detained him. They saw that he had cuts and scratches on his arms and face. Deputies say he told them that the marks on his body were from his girlfriend and that there was a dead body upstairs.
The deputies then found an adult woman, later named Koehne, lying on the bathroom floor with an extension cord around her legs and not moving. The police said Koehne had marks around her throat and what looked like blood in her hair and ear.
After that, an autopsy showed that Koehne had been killed and that the cause of death was “probable asphyxia.”
Later that day, Koehne’s owner called the sheriff’s office to see how he was doing and was told that the victim was dead.
Investigators talked to the property owner, who said she had gone on vacation to Florida and asked Benson to stay at the house and watch her dogs and bird. The two talked every day on Snapchat, and she knew Koehne was at home too.
This person said that Benson told Koehne on November 2 that they had been fighting and that she was “freaking out and wanted to leave.”
And the homeowner told Benson, “I don’t care what you need to do, you get this taken care of.” After about 20 minutes, Benson called her directly and left a scary message.
People say that Benson told them, “Panda is gone” when they asked him if the problem was fixed. He told the homeowner over and over, “Panda is gone.”
The homeowner said that Benson told her that Koehne “wouldn’t stop screaming” out an open window and that he was scared she would call the police. He also said, “I can’t go back to prison.”
In 2009, Benson was found guilty of felony burglary and given a sentence of 15 days in jail and five years of probation.
When the police took Benson’s phone, they found a video of him and Koehne fighting the morning she died. Following Koehne, who has marks on her face, and filming her as she says, “Go for it, here look at the bruises on my face from him beating me again,” is what the video is said to show.
As the video goes on, Koehne can be heard pleading with Benson.
“Please stop right now.” “I didn’t tell anyone; I didn’t tell anyone,” she allegedly said while crying on the floor and looking like she couldn’t stand up. Benson is said to have told her, “You literally tried to break in,” and she begs him to call 911, saying over and over, “I didn’t tell anyone.”
The police also found messages from Benson to his ex-wife in which he says he needs a friend because “something happened.” Benson is said to have told his ex-wife, “I can’t say, can you call me?” and “it’s atomically bad” when she asked him what happened.
Benson is being held in the Pipestone County Jail on a $100,000 bond right now. He is set to go to court on December 10.
