ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, July 17, 1996 TAG: 9607170087
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C4 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: MANASSAS
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
Police are investigating whether a former FBI agent charged last month with abducting his estranged wife's pastor planned to kill the wife and blame another woman for her death, prosecutors said.
A Northern Virginia woman, who has been identified in court documents only as a confidential informant, told The Washington Post that Eugene Bennett hired her as a private investigator.
The informant, who spoke to the newspaper on condition that she not be identified, said she unwittingly became involved with Bennett's plans after answering a newspaper advertisement he placed in February.
She said police told her that Bennett may have planned to kill her and his wife and make their deaths look like a murder-suicide of lesbian lovers. Bennett has alleged in court documents dating to 1993 that his wife is a lesbian.
``People are telling me I'm lucky to be alive today. But sometimes I feel the opposite. Maybe I'd have been better off [dead],'' the woman said.
The informant's testimony ``will be important to the prosecution's case,'' because she can shed light on what might have led Bennett to take the minister hostage and lure his wife to a Manassas church, said Prince William Commonwealth's Attorney Paul B. Ebert.
Ebert confirmed that the woman's allegations are consistent with her statement to police.
The woman said she trusted Bennett, whom she described as ``normal, sympathetic and compassionate.''
The informant said Bennett told her to insure her own life for $1 million with policies benefiting Bennett's estranged wife, Marguerite, and one of the couple's daughters.
Bennett used a fake name and she did not know he was married to Marguerite, the woman said.
The informant said Bennett told her that Marguerite Bennett and the minister were involved in an insurance scam and that she and Bennett would be paid as much as $40,000 apiece for exposing the fraud.
LENGTH: Short : 46 linesby CNB