S.L. man arrested in 1976 slaying

Twenty-eight years after she was brutally raped and killed, an arrest was made in Carolyn Sarkessian's case Thursday after DNA technology finally linked evidence from her slaying to a Salt Lake man who has a long criminal history that includes assault and rape.

Gayle G. Benavidez, 48, is being held without bail in the Salt Lake County Jail, booked for investigation of one count of aggravated murder, Salt Lake Police Chief Rick Dinse announced Friday. Benavidez was "a person of interest" at the time of Sarkessian's slaying and was questioned by police but never confessed or was proved to be the killer, Dinse said.

In February, homicide detective Mark Knighton gave the case a fresh look and sought a warrant to obtain a DNA sample from Benavidez. Soon after, state crime lab chemist Louize Smith made the match.

The case is the first apparent success for the so-called "cold case squad" established by Dinse in August 2003 to review the department's unsolved homicides. Prosecutors are expected to screen the case Monday, Knighton said and the department is "very confident" that Benavidez will be convicted of the crime.

Benavidez's arrest brought some much needed closure to Sarkessian's family and friends, her sister Jackie Benn said Thursday.

"Carolyn was a wonderful person," said Benn, who described her sister as her best friend. "Now, justice can finally be served. When you go all these years without really knowing what happened, you always wonder. You wonder what was done, what could have been done."

Sarkessian's family made many inquiries of police about the investigation over the years but never knew anything about Benavidez, Benn said.

"I was totally unaware of him," Benn said. Based on information she now has, she agrees that police will be able to prove their case. "There were other people in her life that I thought were possible (suspects). She never knew him."

How Sarkessian and Benavidez's might have intersected and exactly what transpired before the woman's death remain unknown, Dinse and detectives said. What they do know, however, is that on March 5, 1976, Sarkessian went to a location near a halfway house to meet her boyfriend.

Her body was found the next day amid debris in a trailer behind the old Salt Lake Probation halfway house, near 300 West and North Temple, a facility that no longer exists. An autopsy showed that Sarkessian, 24, died from strangulation. She had also been raped and beaten. A large visible wound to the back of Sarkessian's head initially was thought to have been the cause of death, according to a story from Deseret Morning News archives.