Marine charged with murdering reality TV’s Tshey Bennett
An active-duty Marine has been charged with murdering a contestant from a racy reality TV show whose body was found in a pond a week after she vanished 50 miles away while working as an escort.
Willie Ellington, a 20-year-old Marine based on Naval Air Station Pensacola, was arrested Wednesday, the same day that 26-year-old Tshey Bennett’s body was found in a pond in an abandoned neighborhood in Mobile, Alabama, according to the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office.
Bennett — one of the exotic dancers who appeared on HollyHoodTV series Skrippa Bootcamp earlier this year — was last seen 50 miles away in Pensacola on Saturday, officials said.
She “was working as an escort and had met the suspect at the Sweet Dream Inn at the time of her disappearance,” the sheriff’s office said.
Police have not said how Bennet was killed or how she ended up in the pond, but evidence indicates that Bennet was killed in Northwest Florida, WKRG reported.
Lee County Sheriff Jay Jones said they were able to quickly apprehend the murder suspect after receiving a tip he may be on a bus stopping in Opelika, Alabama — about 230 miles both Mobile and Pensacola.
“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,” Jones said.
Ellington was charged with first-degree murder and possession of child pornography.
The suspected killer is a private first class in the US Marine Corps, Capt. Jacoby Getty from the branch’s Training and Education Command confirmed to the Pensacola News Journal.
He was assigned to Marine Aviation Training Support Group-23 (MATSg-23), which is housed onboard NAS Pensacola and specializes in training Marines in aviation, cyber, explosive ordinance disposal (EOD) and combatant dive communities, the paper reported.
“Training command is aware of the ongoing investigation and is committed to working closely with local authorities to support their efforts,” Getty said.
Ellington is being held at the Lee County Detention Facility in Oplikea, Alabama.
Ellington appeared in the first season of Skrippa Bootcamp, in which 12 dancers lived together in the hopes of “bettering their exotic performance careers.”
Additional information will be available once Bennett’s family is notified of her death, according to the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office, which is leading the investigation.
