MURDER CHARGE: Benitez In Polk County Jail

The man accused of killing Judy VanLo is in the Polk County Jail. 

Nineteen-year-old Raymond Benitez was taken into custody in June in Texas as he tried to cross the border into Mexico. He was wanted on a material witness warrant in the homicide of 18-year-old Judy VanLo.

VanLo was found dead at her parents’ Des Moines home on June 17^th. Medical examiner reporters list her cause of death as blunt force trauma.

Des Moines police detectives traveled to Texas Wednesday and interviewed Benitez. At the conclusion of the interview he was charged with first degree murder and is in the Polk County Jail with a $500,000 cash-only bond.

Friends tell Channel 13 VanLo was two-months pregnant at the time of her death and Benitez was her boyfriend.