CHARLOTTE, N.C. — New details are out in the case against Mathew Brenner, who is charged with killing a college counselor and setting her Charlotte apartment on fire.
Channel 9 anchor Stephanie Maxwell discovered that the search warrants in connection to the homicide at Toscano Way show that investigators searched both the apartment of the victim, Amanda Strous, and Benner's apartment.
Authorities found a significant amount of evidence that someone had set a fire in Strous' apartment.
Some of the evidence collected from her burned apartment included matches and lighter fluid, police said.
In Brenner’s apartment, which was right above Strous', authorities found more matches, lighters, gloves, firearms and ammunition, they said.
Police told Channel 9 some of Strous' belongings were found in Benner's apartment.
Investigators seized clothing, keys, laptops, a notebook computer and tablet computer as part of their search. There's no word of what may have belonged to Strous, who police said was killed inside her apartment on June 18.
Investigators said the fire was set to cover up the crime.
One of the witnesses in the warrant is described as his friend of five years. He told police that Benner confessed to killing Strous and told him he was leaving the state. Benner was later captured in Nevada.
Legal expert Tony Scheer said those types of confessions don't always hold up in court.
“What the police say is a confession, what they'll characterize as a confession, is really frankly not a confession at all,” Scheer said. “It doesn't implicate the person in the ways they would like it to. I think that's one of those things you have to see whether he said anything damning.”
Other witnesses said they saw blood on Benner's legs before he left the scene.
Strous moved to Charlotte last summer. She grew up in York, Pennsylvania, and spent years as an assistant field hockey coach at her alma mater, Shippensburg University.
The 27-year-old was set to get married this month.
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