An active-duty Marine has been charged with the murder of a missing reality star and escort after her body was discovered in an Alabama pond.
Willie Richard Ellington, 20 – who was stationed at NAS Pensacola, on Florida’s Gulf Coast – was charged with first-degree murder and possession of child pornography Saturday, said the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office in a Facebook post Thursday.
Ellington is alleged to have murdered missing 26-year-old Tshey Ronaie Bennett – a mother of one – after the pair met up at the Sweet Dreams Inn in the town of Pensacola along the Sunshine State’s Panhandle, around 4 p.m. Friday, said police. Investigators believe that she was working as an escort at the time she met up with the suspect.
After “suspicious circumstances surrounding her disappearance” her body was found ditched in a pond over 50 miles away across state lines in an abandoned neighborhood in Mobile, Alabama, Thursday, said officials.
Lee County Sheriff Jay Jones praised the investigative efforts of his office and Escambia County and revealed that a tip-off led them to the suspect.
Jones said, as per WKRG: “Escambia County investigators tipped us off their suspect might be on a bus scheduled to stop in Opelika.
“Our team quickly scrambled to the station and set up a surveillance operation. When the bus arrived, investigators spotted and apprehended a man matching the suspect’s description.”
Officials then found Bennett’s body – who they say was murdered in Northwest Florida before her body was bizarrely dumped in Mobile.
Police did not specify how the victim’s body ended up in the pond nor did they reveal the exact cause and manner of her death.
In the Thursday statement, police shared: “Throughout the investigation, it was determined that Tshey Bennett was working as an escort and had met the suspect at the Sweet Dreams Inn at the time of her disappearance.”
Her friend, Muranda Newson, posted a heartfelt tribute to the 26-year-old mom and her son on Facebook: “I hate that I’m typing this. I hate that handsome boy who is hurting.
“I really really hate someone did this to you baby you didn’t deserve this at all. So sweet so smart so about your money baby I just don’t understand.”
Bennett had worked as an escort and even made an appearance earlier this year on Season 1 of the HollyHoodTV series Skrippa Bootcamp – a reality television show that followed the lives of 12 women and their exotic dance careers.
Police also shared the investigation had been further complicated by information released prematurely before they were able to notify her family and before investigators were able to locate Ellington.
He is reportedly being held at the Lee County Detention Facility and will face extradition, according to WRBL.
