Marine Charged With First-Degree Murder Of Reality TV Contestant

Willie Ellington was charged with first-degree murder of exotic dancer Tshey Bennett.

Willie Ellington, an active duty Marine, has been charged with murder of Tshey Bennett, whose body was discovered in a pond in a secluded Mobile, Alabama, neighborhood. According to the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office, the 20-year-old Marine was taken into custody on Dec. 18.

Ellington was charged with murdering Bennett, who worked as an exotic dancer on the HollyHoodTV series “Skrippa Bootcamp.” The Marine was based on the Naval Air Station Pensacola in Florida, and Bennett was last seen alive just 50 miles away in Pensacola last Saturday.

The Sheriff’s Office shared that Bennett “was working as an escort and had met the suspect at the Sweet Dream Inn at the time of her disappearance.

The murder of the 26-year-old Bennett resulted in the NAS Pensacola Marine being arrested on charges of first-degree murder and possession of child pornography in connection to her killing.

According to the Independent, police currently suspect that a PlayStation power cord was used to kill her but have refrained from making official statements before the conclusive autopsy report determination.

Jay Jones, Lee County Sheriff, described how Ellington was ultimately arrested. After receiving a tip that he was on a bus stopping in Opelika, Alabama, Jones said, “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.”

Sheriff Chip W. Simmons recounted several disturbing pieces of evidence uncovered during the education that led to Ellington being ultimately charged. He said, “Throughout the investigation, we completed ten total search warrants on cars, hotel rooms, and phones, and we discovered that the suspect had Googled, before his encounter with the victim, things such as ‘What does a dead body look like after two days?’, ‘How many prostitute murders go unsolved?’, and ‘If you’re strangled can you still scream?’”

The suspected murderer is a private first class in the U.S. Marine Corps. After further searching of his phone, investigators also found child pornography on his device, which led them to hit him with additional charges.

Ellington was out onto police radar after law enforcement received multiple concerned calls from Bennett’s family members on December 14. After searching the Sweet Dreams Inn where she was believed to be, they discovered the hotel room door left open and Bennett’s car still parked outside. There were also two cellphones, a PlayStation cord, and a bed stripped of its bedding left in the room. The concerning scene prompted authorities to continue searching for Bennett, which led to her body ultimately being discovered.

Bennett was featured in the first season of “Skrippa Bootcamp,” a show where 12 exotic dancers lived together to attempt to “[better] their exotic performance careers.”