CBS3 Mysteries: West Coast Video Store Double Murder From Nearly 30 Years Ago Still Haunting Bucks County DA's Office
WARMINSTER, Pa. (CBS) -- In this week's CBS3 Mysteries, two families are searching for answers. Nearly 30 years ago, Bryan Benson and Seann Campbell were fatally stabbed while finishing their shifts at a Warminster video rental store. Bucks County authorities have had a few leads, but the case remains a priority.
It was closing time at the West Coast Video in the Rosemore Shopping Center in Warminster.
Both Campbell and Benson were on the clock.
The two 20-year-olds were wrapping things up when they were brutally attacked.
"It's a terrible case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time," Bucks County District Attorney Matt Weintraub said.
It was November 10, 1993. The men were repeatedly and savagely stabbed.
The double murder investigation has remained open and on the books, with Bucks County detectives and prosecutors hoping someday they'll catch a break.
This investigation has haunted the Bucks County District Attorney's Office for almost 30 years.
"It has. It's haunted my office, it's haunted me personally because I was a brand new ADA when these two young men got murdered. And not only that, they grew up in the town that I grew up next door in. We went to the same high school. We were only a few years apart from each other. So this really resonated with me and has stuck with me now for three decades," Weintraub said.
The case, deeply personal for those in the highest reaches of law enforcement in the county, roiled the quiet Warminster community. Both Campbell and Benson were well-liked. A leading theory is that this deadly crime was a robbery gone bad.
Weintraub says some early theories turned out to be incorrect, including the discovery of an earring that was early on suspected to be the killers. Weintraub says that wasn't so.
"We did locate an earring at the scene of these two murders and that has taken on this mythological proportion in the eyes of the public," Weintraub said. "Unfortunately, or fortunately, we've been able to defuse that myth -- at least professionally in that earring is not connected to the killers. I wish that it were because it might lead us to somebody."
Last year, Eyewitness News spoke with Benson's mother Janice Benson after the families donated unused reward money to charity.
"No matter what, there will never be any closure," she said. "You don't close something like that."
Even with the passage of time, it is hoped a killer will be found.
The case remains open and very active.
"It would give me not only great professional satisfaction but a lot of personal satisfaction if I could bring these two young man's killers to justice," Weintraub said.
