September 22, 2011 A Transportation Security Administration official who began his career at Chicago's O’Hare Airport is charged with the murder of a female colleague in Mississippi.
Ruben Orlando Benitez's career with the TSA began at Chicago's O’Hare Airport where he was promoted from a screener to TSA manager before being transferred to the Jackson, Miss. Airport, where he was assistant federal security director, according to the TSA.
On Saturday evening or earlier, investigators say Ruben Orlando Benitez and Stacey Wright, co-workers at TSA involved in a heated affair, got into a physical altercation at Stacey Wright's apartment that escalated and eventually ended in the murder of the 43-year-old mother.
A D’Iberville, Mississippi Police Department spokesman, Clay Jones said the 45-year-old murder suspect Ruben Orlando Benitez and Ms. Wright worked together at Jackson Airport and had a relationship.
D'Iberville Police Chief Wayne Payne said that after Wright’s family contacted police, saying she wasn’t answering calls, a well being check by a security officer at the Landmark Apartments complex lead to the discovery of her deceased body with multiple stab wounds at her home on Sunday. "She had been dead for two or three days and there was evidence of a struggle or altercation," said Payne.
Wright had recently been transferred to the coast after accepting a TSA promotion, according to authorities. Both the suspect and the victim were married. but reportedly seperated from their spouses. Benitez's family, including his wife, Marianne still live on Chicago's Near Northwest Side. Mrs. Benitez declined to comment on the incident.
Ruben Orlando Benitez is currently being held in the Harrison County Adult Detention Center where his bond is set at $3,000,000.00.
Since the U.S. Department of Homeland Security created the TSA in 2002, there has been plenty of controversy surrounding the hiring and training policies of the agency. One extremely controversial topic has been how well the agency conducts background checks and the qualifications of TSA employees.
The "hot-topic" usually heats the debate following bad behavior by TSO's or screeners, such as theft in which make headlines weekly, often daily. However, an Assistant Federal Security Director alledgedly killing a TSA Agent should prompt the long overdue changes of TSA's hiring practices.
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