SC SC - Kynande Bennett, 4, Conway, 29 Sept 2002 *V. White guilty*

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New Developments in Kynande Bennett Case

Posted: October 5, 2005

Nearly three years have passed without a trial in the Kynande Bennett case. That trial has now been set for one parent, and charges are dropped for the other.

Four-year-old Kynande was reported missing from the Whiteville K-Mart in the fall of 2002 and her parents were arrested in her disappearance. Both were charged with homicide by child abuse.

After their arrest, the couple paid bond and were allowed to return to their homes where they have been living ever since.

Now, Kynande's mother, Vartasha McCullough, will go to trial in February of next year. However, charges have been dropped against the father, Kevin Bennett, after it was determined there was insufficient evidence to go ahead with a trial against him.

http://www.wect.com/Global/story.asp?S=3941940&nav=2gQc
 
A mother who was charged two years ago in connection with the disappearance of her 4-year-old daughter will face two additional charges when she goes to trial on Feb. 6, prosecutors said.

An Horry County grand jury on Thursday indicted Vartasha McCullough White, 27, on charges of unlawful neglect of a child and inflicting great bodily injury on a child, in addition to her initial charge of homicide by child abuse. She has said the child was abducted from a Kmart store in Whiteville, N.C., in September 2002. The child has not been found.

Fifteenth Circuit Solicitor Greg Hembree said his office added the charges after considering the evidence, then decided to present the information for grand jury consideration.

McCullough faces a maximum of 20 years to life in prison if convicted of homicide by child abuse.

White was charged initially along with the child's father, Eddie Kevin Bennett Jr., but prosecutors dismissed the homicide by child abuse charge against him in October saying there was insufficient evidence to proceed with a trial.

The case attracted national attention after the couple reported that the child was abducted Sept. 29, 2002, from the store. Police arrested both parents a month later.

Hembree said prosecutors do not expect to call Bennett to testify against the child's mother.

The case has taken more than three years to get to court in part because the S.C. Supreme Court suspended the prosecutor assigned to their case from practicing law after the couple was charged.
http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/mld/myrtlebeachonline/news/local/crime_courts/13376017.htm
...........................
:behindbar
 
http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/news/local/13849393.htm
A mother received a 20-year prison sentence after a jury found her guilty in the 2002 disappearance of her 4-year-old daughter. An Horry County jury found Vartasha McCollough-White guilty Friday of homicide by child abuse, unlawful neglect of a child and inflicting great bodily harm on a child. The jury deliberated for four hours. Judge Edward Cottingham sentenced her shortly afterward.
Click to expand...
More at link
 
mysteriew said:
Details about the trial. From reading this article, I really don't know, defense did make some good points.
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=16100955&BRD=2081&PAG=461&dept_id=385210&rfi=6
Click to expand...



I don't think I could have voted "guilty" if I had been on the jury...just going by what was said in that article by the Pros and the defense.

Did they have any evidence of the possibility of abuse besides the black eye the little girl had....mom said it was caused by a book falling and hitting her?
Her school said they had never noticed anything.

Her lack of emotion at the station right after she said her daughter was taken could simply have been from numbness. It sounds like LE was focussed on the mother right from the beginning. Why lie to her about needing article's of clothing for search dogs and never use dogs. Why didn't they take dogs to that parking lot???

As far as a WalMart greeter recognizing the mother who was without her daughter....how in the heck could a greeter remember anyone unless the person drew attention to themself? Greeters see tons of people walking by a day.

Boy, I wonder if any video cameras picked up this mother or her daughter in the parking lot or if LE even bothered to check the cameras. Remember when Dru went missing? There was a tape of it in the parking lot.

I hope the wrong person didn't get sent to prison only because LE was so anxious to arrest and try the mother. By the sounds of it they have no evidence...not even circumstancial evidence.
 
Bobbi,

If I remember correctly, the video cameras showed the mother going in alone. That's why she was suspected right away.
 
Kynande has been added to Project Jason's Adopt a Missing Person program. Please consider helping reunite her with her family by wearing her photo button and sharing her story with others. For more details on how you can make a difference, please see:

http://www.projectjason.org/adopt.html
__________________
Kelly Jolkowski, Mother of Missing Jason Jolkowski
President and Founder,
Project Jason
http://www.projectjason.org
Read our Voice for the Missing Blog
http://voice4themissing.blogspot.com/
 
SewingDeb said:
Bobbi,

If I remember correctly, the video cameras showed the mother going in alone. That's why she was suspected right away.
Click to expand...



The mom said that when they were out in the parking lot she went to grab a cart and when she turned around her daughter was gone.

Even after re-reading the story I don't see how the jury found her guilty.
 
New Developments in Kynande Bennett Case
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OCTOBER 5, 2005 -- Nearly three years have passed without a trial in the Kynande Bennett case. That trial has now been set for one parent, and charges are dropped for the other.

Four-year-old Kynande was reported missing from the Whiteville K-Mart in the fall of 2002 and her parents were arrested in her disappearance. Both were charged with homicide by child abuse.



more at link: http://www.wect.com/Global/story.asp?S=3941940
 
Kynande went missing from Whiteville, North Carolina on September 29, 2002. When last seen she was supposedly at K- Mart with her mother. Kynande was reported wearing black sneakers, a FUBU t-shirt, with her hair in small braids tied with small bows and/or barretts.

http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/b/bennett_kynande.html

Although Kynande’s body was never found, her mother was charged with her murder and sentenced to twenty years in prison, Kynande’s father was charged with a battery of lesser crimes which were dropped later on.
On March 18, 2005, the skeletal remains of a child estimated to be between 5 - 9 years old was discovered in Monmouth County, New Jersey.

http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/479ufnj.html

The estimated date of the Jane Doe’s death is January 1, 2004. I don’t believe this precludes Kynande because we all know LE cannot be certain of the time of death, and the body was in sufficient atrophy that it was impossible to tell if the child was black or white, what color hair, etc. LE is leaning toward black.

If you compare the Jane Doe composite with the photo and the age progressed picture of Kynande, I believe there is a resemblance. Look at Kynande’s hair in the picture, then look at the Jane Doe. Those look like the EXACT same barretts holding each girl’s hair. How odd is that, unless they may have been found with the body?

A sneaker was found with the body which looks black to me, the same color as Kynande’s, but I could be wrong. There is also a strange item, possibly a piece of clothing, found with the body. Look at it carefully. Odd? I think so. Now, go to the FUBU t-shirt site

http://www.fillow.net/shopimages/products/extras/2803firmdetalle2.jpg

Blow up the picture and look at the lower design on either side of the "92 shield". It looks to me as if the piece of cloth found with the body may possibly be a piece of a FUBU t-shirt like the one Kynande was wearing. There are many colors and designs of FUBU t-shirts, but this one looks close to me. Maybe it is a piece of a FUBU t-shirt, and maybe not, but my hair stood on end when I saw it.

I realize the child disappeared from North Carolina and the Jane Doe was found in New Jersey. However, no one except her parents had seen Kynande for two days prior to her mother reporting her missing - plenty of time to dump the body out of state and be back for the fake K-Mart abduction.

This may be a stretch, but I’m leaning toward this Jane Doe being Kynande Bennett. What do you guys think, I need some opinions here.
 
I think you're on to something. I don't recall too many tennis shoes for girls in black. Mostly girls shoes are white, pink, etc. The age range of UID fits also it may have been placed older than Kynande because of height of the remains. The shoe size is definetly in toddler sized, which I believe go up to size 12. I doubt a 9 year old would have a size 8.5 shoe size, so I'm leaning the remains were of of a child no older than 6. I don't understand the 50# difference in the weight range. Maybe the piece of clothing had a size tag, or looked larger. But children do wear t-shirts oversized. I think this is a good possibility of being Kynande going by height and weight.
 
As for shoe size: My Monk is 2 and wears a size 7 shoe - his feet seem to be about average or slightly larger than average in size. So 8 1/2 for a four year old girl sounds just right.
 
I think you are definately on to something, there aren't many little girls that do wear black sneakers. Also my daughter is on the small side and she is 4 1/2 and wears a size 9-9 1/2 . So those shoes are definately the size of a 3-4 yr old. Also the piece of shirt does look like alot of Fubu shirts I have seen. I think for sure this is a great possibility, I would like to know if her parents visited that area in the days prior to the missing report. I think you should report it because it does match up majorly. Great Great find, I am praying for an answer, so this little girl can have peace.

Great Job,
Kel
 
Wow good find. I wonder what the grandma said that led to the charges.
 
dimples37398 said:
I think you are definately on to something, there aren't many little girls that do wear black sneakers. Also my daughter is on the small side and she is 4 1/2 and wears a size 9-9 1/2 . So those shoes are definately the size of a 3-4 yr old. Also the piece of shirt does look like alot of Fubu shirts I have seen. I think for sure this is a great possibility, I would like to know if her parents visited that area in the days prior to the missing report. I think you should report it because it does match up majorly. Great Great find, I am praying for an answer, so this little girl can have peace.

Great Job,
Kel
Click to expand...
I thought that too dimples...not many girls wear black sneakers. I also did some searching and could not find a missing child matching Kynande's description for NJ. Also...once a body decompses to bones, how can LE determine a time of death beyond that? I think a DNA test would be in order from the mother. Midnight, have you contacted authorities yet on this one? This appears to be too close of match to be ignored by LE.
 
Thank you, one and all for the replies. I have not contacted LE yet, I wanted to get some other opinions first. Now, I will contact them. You know, I hate so much to be a pain to LE if I'm wrong, but I guess there isn't any other way.

Thanks guys!
 
Even if it's not a match Midnight, LE knows there are people trying to find her. She is not a forgotten child. Go for it!!
 
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