California teen Susan Robin Bender, who went missing 37 years ago, may be buried in Yosemite National Park, according to police
- Susan Robin Bender was 15 when she was last seen at the Modesto Greyhound station on April 25, 1986, on her way to visit a friend in Carmel.
- An eyewitness saw Bender get into a green van: On August 15, Raymond Lewis Stafford, who had briefly worked with Bender’s mother, was arrested in Texas
- A woman who lived with Stafford in the 1980s said he confessed to killing a “woman” and burying her at the Big Oak Flat entrance to Yosemite.
A 76-year-old man arrested in Texas earlier this month on charges of murdering a California teenager nearly 40 years ago confessed to burying a body near Yosemite, according to reports.
Raymond Lewis Stafford was arrested on August 15 in Wills Point, 50 miles east of Dallas, where he had lived for about five years.
He has been charged with the murder of 15-year-old Susan Robin Bender, who was last seen getting into a green van at a Greyhound Bus Depot on April 25, 1986 in Modesto, California.
On Monday, it emerged that Stafford allegedly told a woman he lived with in the 1980s that he had killed “a woman” and buried the body near Yosemite.
He said so according to court documents obtained by SFGate.comthat he drove to a campground near the Big Oak Flat entrance to Yosemite National Park and dug the grave.
The name of the campsite has not been made public.
Susan Robin Bender was 15 when she disappeared in 1985. On August 15, Raymond Lewis Stafford, 76, (right) was arrested and charged with murder
It is believed Bender knew Stafford, who worked for her mother, SFGate reported.
The eyewitness who saw Bender get into a green van said she seemed willing to go.
Stafford was known to own a green van, and a month after the teen disappeared, he was arrested on suspicion of an unrelated burglary.
Stafford seemed to be hiding in plain sight for decades.
Less than a year after Bender disappeared, Stafford, then 38, ran for Modesto City Council.
He was asked by the Modesto Bee newspaper about his criminal record, but according to SFGate, he told the paper in July 1985 that it was a result of him being “in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
Bender was last seen boarding a green van at a Greyhound bus station in Modesto, California
Patricia Chupco, Susan Robin Bender’s mother, knew Stafford as he had worked for her
Stafford reportedly told a woman in the 1980s that he had buried a woman near a campground near the Big Oak Flat entrance to Yosemite (pictured)
His arrests included soliciting sex from an undercover cop, operating an unlicensed private detective business, and carrying a badge that said he was a PI.
Stafford said his campaign focused on policies to protect children from sex offenders.
“We don’t spend time rounding up the people who are harassing our children,” he said.
Five months later, in December 1986, Stafford was convicted of setting fire to a business and pleaded guilty to making a false police report.
Stafford allegedly staged a kidnapping to avoid appearing in court, the paper said.
In 1994, he reappeared on law enforcement’s radar and was placed on the sex offender registry under the alias Gregg Tunningley for assaulting a 13-year-old girl in California.
Patricia Chupco, Bender’s mother, told the Bee that her daughter’s clothing and diary had been found in the possession of a man, whom she was unable to name because he was not publicly identified as a suspect.
New court records, accessible through SFGate.com, identify the man as Stafford.
He is expected to be extradited to California where he will face trial.