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Criminal Records - Most Wanted |
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Profile |
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Name: Michael Dale Benson
(Michael Dale Blue, Michael Robinson )
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Sex: Male |
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Race: White |
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Age Now: 45 |
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Height: 5'11" |
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Weight: 170 lbs. |
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Hair (Color, Description, Facial Hair): Brown
May have shaved off his mustache and ponytail |
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Eyes (Color and Correction): Brown
Glasses |
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Other Physical Characteristics: Has serious psoriasis and eczema on his hands and feet that requires anti-itch medication
Sometimes wears glasses
Benson may have cut himself squeezing through the 8-by-14-inch hole in his window to escape.
Of Native American descent |
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Wanted for :
Escape, St. Peter, MN;
Apr 15, 2006
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Location(s) |
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Last Seen : St. Peter, MN
Cops say Benson was last seen around 7:45 pm on April 15, 2006 at the St. Peter Regional Treatment Center in the Minnesota Security Hospital. |
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Possible Location : Minnesota
Police are following up on sightings of Benson in Ontario, Canada. But after stealing a car in Minnesota, Benson could be anywhere. |
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Last Known : St. Peter, MN
Cops say Benson had been living at the Minnesota Security Hospital since 1993. |
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Traits |
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Police say Benson is extremely dangerous and is likely to strike again |
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Authorities say Benson is known to be a good planner and is very intelligent |
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Is an avid chess player |
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Very physically fit and like to work out |
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Skilled in the construction trade |
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Police say he can be a discplined loner and a charismatic charmer |
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Case Story |
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Toronto Cops On High-Alert for Escaped Predator |
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Canadian authorities say every fugitive-hunting unit in the province of Ontario is on alert after receiving a promising lead from an AMW viewer. The tipster is a truck driver who is positive that he picked up escaped convict Michael Benson outside of Buffalo, NY, and dropped him off in St. Catherines, Ontario, on April 28. The truck driver says his passenger was using the name "Chris Benson" and he wanted directions to get from St. Catherines to Toronto. The tipster also gave investigators some important clues about Benson's appearance: He says Benson has a shaved head, no mustache or beard, and several cuts and nicks on his face. Benson reportedly told the truck driver he got the cuts while shaving, but police have another theory about where those cuts came from.
Police say Benson sawed through a steel and concrete window bar and smashed an 8-by-14-inch hole through the security glass in his room at the St. Peter Regional Treatment Center in Minnesota. Benson and three other patients then squeezed through the tiny opening and ran from the facility on the night of April 15. The dried blood on the jagged edges of the glass is clear evidence that several of the escapees may have been injured while squeezing through the window. Within hours, three of the four escapees were back in custody -- all except for 42-year-old Benson.
Benson had been in the treatment facility for more than 13 years and is a Level 3 sex offender, which police say is one of the worst types of criminals. Benson was civilly committed to the treatment center in 1993 after serving three and a half years in prison for breaking into a woman's home, sexually assaulting her, and threatening to kill her. Moreover, court documents show that Benson has refused to participate in rehabilitation treatment.
According to police, Benson himself says there are more victims -- including at least four stranger rapes in California and Colorado. Court documents show that Benson has also admitted to sexual fetishes like voyeurism and sadomasochism. Police also consider Benson a person of interest in the 1987 disappearance of Vickie Sundgaard of Alexandria, Minn. Police say Benson was one of the last people to see her and that he has even suggested that he was somehow involved in her disappearance. This all points to just how dangerous Benson is, cops say.
"In our minds at this time, it's not a question of if he'll re-offend," says David Boll of the FBI Minnesota Fugitive Task Force. "It's a question of when he'll commit another sexual assault."
Even though authorities now think Benson masterminded the entire escape, they say he still got some help from the outside -- namely from his father.
In a letter obtained exclusively by AMW, Benson writes to his father about his plan to escape the treatment facility and flee. He even asks his father to consider being on-call as a getaway driver.
On April 24, police arrested Benson's father Dale Blue on charges of aiding and abetting his escape. Authorities say Blue sent his son a pair of boots with a hacksaw blade hidden in the sole. Hospital officials found that blade hidden in the air vent of Benson's room after his escape. |
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All In The Family |
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Benson never called his father to show up at the bowling alley because one of the other escapees' parents showed up at the bowling alley for "getaway duty." Police say Katherine Hill, the mother of St. Peter resident Donald Hill, was likely waiting for the escapees when a police car showed up to investigate a suspicious person hanging out in the bowling alley parking lot. According to police, that suspicious person was Michael Benson.
Another tipster called police to say Benson threw a bag of clothes into Katherine Hill's car. When the police arrived, Benson ran off and Katherine Hill drove away from the rendezvous spot. Officers spotted her car a short time later and pulled her over for questioning. Katherine Hill was arrested for DUI. Without a getaway vehicle, the escapees were left hanging -- literally. |
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Stuck Between A Rock And A Sharp Place |
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While Benson squeezed through the window and descended the hospital walls with little difficulty, the nearly 300-lb. Hill got himself into a tight predicament. Although Hill had greased himself up with baby oil to make it easier to get through the window, he actually got stuck in the window for about 20 minutes, leaving Benson to flee and forcing the other two men to literally push Hill through the tiny opening. When Hill finally popped through the window, he fell two stories and landed on his back. Hill told Rick Segall "I injured my ribs a little bit and knocked the wind out of me. Nothing serious." But after his capture, Hill was taken to the hospital for several stitches -- the result of cutting himself on jagged shards of glass while squeezing through Benson's window.
Police say that after leaving his co-conspirators behind, Benson stole a forest green 1997 Crown Victoria with Minnesota license plate MXB801 on Easter morning. Police bloodhounds picked up his scent from the farm where the vehicle was stolen. In the days after the escape, there was one credible sighting of the stolen green Crown Victoria on April 17 in northern Minnesota near Bemidji. |
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