GUILTY TX - Margie Gafford, 86, Louise Tamplin, 81, slain, Port Arthur, 21 April 2005

Preliminary autopsy results on a Port Arthur woman found Thursday floating in a reservoir near the Motiva Enterprise refinery indicated she accidentally drowned, Justice of the Peace Robert "Bob" Morgan said.

A passing tractor-trailer driver spied 40-year-old Karon Benton's body in Star Enterprise Utility Reservoir No. 7 in the 2500 block of 25th Street, between Savannah Avenue and Memorial Boulevard.

Police found a fishing pole near Benton's body. There were no signs of trauma, police said.

Although it is considered a drowning, Benton's death still is under investigation, said Lt. Troy LeBouef, a Port Arthur police department detective.

In April, Benton was one of two women who said they were attacked by Gary Sinegal. Sinegal later was indicted on capital murder charges in connection with the beating deaths of two elderly women found stuffed in their closets.

Benton told The Enterprise at the time that Sinegal came into her house in the 2700 block of Florida Avenue on April 10, hit her on the back of her head, made her take off her shirt and grabbed her breasts.

A total of three women were found dead in their closets the next week.
http://www.southeasttexaslive.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=15686619&BRD=2287&PAG=461&dept_id=512588&

I was reading the above article and got intrigued by Sinegal.
The two victims, Louise Tamplin, 81, and 86-year-old Margie Gafford, were both found on April 21 stuffed in closets in their respective Port Arthur homes with their chests crushed.

DNA evidence connects Sinegal to both deaths, according to prosecutor Shettle.

Tamplin and Gafford were two of three women beaten to death in their Port Arthur homes in April.

Dorothy Barrett, 82, was also found stuffed in a closet in her home April 18.

However, although Barrett's killer had an almost identical modus operandi, police found no probable cause linking Sinegal to her death.

"There's a similar M.O., but that's not evidence," Shettle said. "...You don't decide someone did it and look for the evidence to support it. That's not the way criminal investigations proceed. You let the evidence point you toward the person who did it.

"That way you lower the likelihood of prosecuting the wrong guy. And the investigation is more objective that way."

Another woman who was beaten but fought back and escaped death picked Sinegal out of a photo lineup as her attacker.
http://www.southeasttexaslive.com/s...5554618&BRD=2287&PAG=461&dept_id=512588&rfi=6

From April 2007:

http://www.panews.com/2007/04/09/sinegal-sentenced-to-life-in-prison/

Sinegal, who was sentenced to prison for four years for the 1980 beating and robbery of a 77-year-old, entered into a plea agreement with the Jefferson County District Attorney’s office in February for a sentence of life in prison. In return for Sinegal’s life sentence, the district attorney’s office dismissed cases in the death of Gafford and the assault of Choate.

“I read in the media that you confessed to the murders of Mrs. Tamplin and Mrs. Gafford so that their families could have closure. If you are really sorry, then why didn’t plead guilty to the death of Dorothy Barrett?” Choate questioned her attacker.

Click to expand...

Sinegal has a thread in the Serial Killers forum here:

http://www.websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?27437-Tx-Gary-Sinegal