Loretta Bowersock was a 69-year-old Tempe, Arizona, woman who was killed by her live-in boyfriend, Taw Benderly, on December 13, 2004, after she discovered he had secretly driven her home into foreclosure. Benderly reported her missing the next day with a false story about a Tucson shopping trip, then died by suicide nine days later before he could be arrested. Her remains were found in a shallow desert grave in January 2006.
Who She Was
Loretta was a divorcee who had helped her daughter, Terri Bowersock, build Terri’s Consign & Design Furnishings, a consignment furniture chain that grew into a multimillion-dollar business with stores across Arizona and several other states. She appeared in the company’s television commercials and became a recognizable figure locally.
Around 1986 or 1987, she placed a classified ad seeking a roommate for her Tempe home. Taw Benderly answered it. He told her he was a wealthy Scottish entrepreneur and CEO. They became a couple and lived together for roughly 17 to 18 years. None of the story he told her was true. “Taw Benderly” was an assumed name, he was not Scottish, and he had recently been released from prison with a history of seducing and defrauding women.
The Fraud Behind the Relationship
Throughout the relationship, Benderly worked Loretta’s finances. He asked her repeatedly for money to fund inventions he claimed to be developing, including a business chair and a sideways-cutting lawnmower blade, and had her sign legal documents by telling her he wanted her and her family to benefit from the work. He also drew Terri into investing in his schemes, including a purported surround-sound system.
Out of Loretta’s sight, he opened eight credit cards in her name and ran up roughly $40,000 in charges. He intercepted her mortgage payments for months and kept the money. Her house slipped into foreclosure without her knowing. Investigators later found boxes of late notices, unpaid bills, and foreclosure warnings hidden in the garage.
The Day She Disappeared
On December 13, 2004, Loretta learned that her home was in foreclosure and confronted Benderly. Police later concluded that the confrontation turned violent and that Benderly placed a plastic bag over her head and held it there until she suffocated.
The following day, December 14, he reported her missing. He told police the two had driven to Tucson for a shopping trip and that he had dropped her at Park Place Mall, where she disappeared. The account collapsed under scrutiny. Mall security footage showed no sign of her. Officers found her purse inside the Tempe home, wrapped in a towel, still holding her driver’s license and credit cards. Benderly had said she took it with her.
What Investigators Found
Tucson police opened the case and then transferred it to the Tempe Police Department after they could not corroborate Benderly’s story. The Gila River Indian Community Police, the Arizona Department of Public Safety crime lab, and the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office also became involved.
A search of the Tempe home turned up blood evidence along with the purse. Benderly’s van contained a pickaxe and a shovel that looked recently used. Cell phone records placed him in the desert near Casa Grande for about two hours on the day Loretta disappeared, not at the Tucson mall. Investigators told reporters at the time that the evidence was largely circumstantial and that they did not yet have enough to arrest him.
Benderly’s Suicide
On December 23, 2004, nine days after Loretta vanished, Tempe officers conducted a welfare check at the house. They had already checked on Benderly at a Phoenix hotel earlier in the week after concerns about a possible suicide attempt. This time they found him dead in the garage, hanging from an electrical cord. No charges had been filed against him.
A week later, investigators located a briefcase labeled “To give to Terri.” Inside were Benderly’s laptop, jewelry, several hundred dollars in cash, a power of attorney signed over to Terri Bowersock, and an unsigned typed note in a cursive font. It read: “Loretta and I promised to be together for eternity, and so we shall.” For the family and investigators, the note confirmed he knew Loretta was dead.
The Desert Grave
With the prime suspect dead and no body recovered, the case stalled. Desert searches produced nothing. Terri organized volunteer search parties that at one point involved 60 people and continued for more than a year.
On January 10, 2006, a man named Randall Johnson was walking in the desert roughly 1.5 miles southwest of the Vija Truckstop near Stanfield, about 15 miles west of Casa Grande. Heavy rains over the previous year had eroded the dirt and rocks covering a shallow grave. When Johnson kicked a large boulder, he uncovered a human skull. The Pinal County Sheriff’s Office responded, and on January 12, 2006, the Pima County Medical Examiner’s Office identified the remains as Loretta Bowersock’s through dental records. The cause of death was asphyxiation.
The grave sat behind an abandoned motel whose exterior, sign, and adjacent playground were all painted blue. Investigators noted that Loretta and Benderly had previously stayed there.
No One Was Ever Prosecuted
Because Benderly died before charges could be filed and no other suspects were identified, the case was classified as resolved without a prosecution. No one stood trial for Loretta Bowersock’s murder.