Clearfield County woman facing homicide charges

A woman from Clearfield will be arraigned Monday on homicide charges.

State police at Punxsutawney launched the investigation into Richard Bennett’s death, which was caused by a woman stabbing him in the chest with a steak knife, according to an affidavit. The incident occurred at about 1 a.m. Sunday at a residence off Ridge Road in Bell Township.

Bennett’s body was found about 30 feet away from the residence, and state troopers interviewed his child’s mother about the incident.

Kayce Lee, 31, of Mahaffey told troopers Bennett and she had been drinking. She accused Bennett of drinking Fireball whiskey, falling asleep and waking up in an agitated state, which caused an argument over whether their daughter should be in bed.

Lee alleged that Bennett hit her while she was holding the child and that he prevented her from leaving their house. She said he hit her two more times and on the third time, after having retrieved a knife to try to scare him, she stabbed him.

Bennett left the house, and Lee took her daughter to a relative’s home.

Lee proceeded to call multiple relatives to find out if anyone had seen Bennett, without luck, according to the affidavit. She also returned to their home three times and cleaned up blood on the kitchen floor before calling a hospital and police to try to locate him.

State troopers told Lee, given her story, that she would have driven directly past Bennett’s body on three occasions. They also told her that he had been stabbed in the chest. Lee maintained that she hadn’t seen him, but admitted she might have stabbed him harder than she initially indicated, according to the affidavit.

State troopers observed that the only injury Lee had was a small scratch on her neck, which they did not believe would have been produced from an assault, according to the affidavit. There were no injuries to her face that indicated she had been hit three times.

A friend of Bennett and Lee was also interviewed by investigators, and he said it wasn’t the first time Lee stabbed him. About a month ago, the friend told state troopers, Bennett traveled to his house covered in blood. Bennett said that Lee had stabbed him with a knife in the arm and tried to stab his chest. The friend’s wife told police she observed injuries to Bennett as far back as the summer when he had a black eye, which she believed was caused by Lee.

Lee was charged with felony criminal homicide, felony aggravated assault, misdemeanor simple assault and harassment, a summary charge.

This story was originally published February 5, 2018 at 2:42 PM with the headline "Clearfield County woman facing homicide charges."