Northwest Indiana Bureau

Man In Custody For Decades Old Indiana Cold Case

DNA Technology Used To Match Sample From Victim To Suspect

CROWN POINT, Ind. (CBS) ― The victims of a brutal crime finally got closure Tuesday after seeing the man accused of murdering their loved one arrive in police custody.

CBS 2 Northwest Indiana Bureau Chief Pamela Jones reports 47-year-old Mark Erler walked into the Lake County, Indiana, jail, charged with a murder more than two decades old.

Erler is accused of targeting 22-year-old Linda Bennitt back in 1984. She had left work at a Merrillville department store and was abducted from her apartment near 52nd and Harrison.

Days later Bennitt's body was found at a nearby school, her throat slashed.

The sight of Erler walking into custody caused the victim's sister to collapse, overcome by emotion.

"Just seeing his size and his strength I just kept picturing her, trying to get away from him and I was just replaying in my head what she may have gone through," said Bobbi Marksberry.

"He just looks like an animal. He just looks like an animal," said the victim's mother, Joan King. "He didn't look our way."

Erler was extradited from a hospital for sexually violent predators in California.

"He was very respectful the whole way back, didn't have any trouble," Lake County Sheriff's Department Detective Tom Huber said.

"It was very horrific… the way that he raped her, as we believe, the evidence would show, the suspect did this," said Lake County, Ind., Sheriff Roy Dominguez.

Back in the 1980s, investigators didn't have the DNA technology they needed to tie Erler to the case. But this year, they say they found that a sample saved from Bennitt's body matched a sample from Erler.

"It feels good to bring the family closure and that's what we're here to do," said Det. Robert Bridgeman of the Lake County Sheriff's Dept. 

The victim's family is trying to bring something positive out of this tragedy by expanding a scholarship in her name to include honors for the officers involved in cracking this case. The scholarship will go to people wanting to study criminology.

To apply for the Linda Bennitt Memorial Scholarship, click here. You'll find the link on the scholarships page.

They also want to raise funds to tear down the school near which Bennitt was found. It is now abandoned and the family hopes to create a park there where children can play.

(CBS 2 and the Post-Tribune are news partners covering stories in the communities of northwest Indiana. Send story tips to tips@cbs2chicago.com. (© MMVIII, CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

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