Guntown man charged with 20-year-old homicide
Dec. 12—TUPELO — A Lee County man has been charged with first degree murder in connection with a homicide that happened in 2003.
Richard Wayne Truelock, 62, of County Road 1531, Guntown, was arrested by the Mississippi Bureau of Investigations Dec. 11 and booked into the Lee County Jail Monday evening around 5:30. He is being held on a $1 million bond.
The Lee County Sheriff's Office responded to a County Road 1792 residence on July 14, 2003, for a possible homicide. Wendy Gay Benson, 35, had been found strangled inside the residence that morning by her mother. Lee County Coroner Roy Barnett ruled that Benson's death was caused by ligature strangulation.
Over the next two weeks, investigators conducted interviews with six people, administered a number of polygraph tests and then-sheriff Larry Presley told the Daily Journal the department had several good suspects.
The case was actively investigated for several years but eventually turned cold. Recently, the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation met with Lee County investigators and reopened the case, thanks to new technology in forensic testing. A lengthy investigation resulted in new evidence, leading to the charges against Truelock.
Johnson did not release any details about what new evidence was recovered or how it tied Truelock to Benson's death.
The case will be presented to the next Lee County grand jury.
Truelock was previously charged with burglary of a dwelling in Itawamba County for a September 2020 incident. In June 2022, he was allowed to plead to the lesser charge of burglary of a building. He was sentenced to seven years with the understanding that if he completed two years of house arrest, the remainder of the sentence would be suspended.
But he failed to pay more than $2,000 in fines and restitution, so a circuit court judge set a September 2023 hearing to allow Truelock to show cause on why he should not be sent to prison. He did not show up for that hearing.
