Murder-Suicide shooting at the University of Idaho

[Jill1228]

The victim was an Alpha Gamma Delta alumna


http://m.spokesman.com/stories/2011/...aduate-school/
August 24, 2011

Kathryn Benoit was excited about the future – just starting grad school at the University of Idaho in the psychology department – when Moscow police say she was killed by a former assistant professor Monday.

Benoit, a 22-year-old Boise resident when she wasn’t at school in Moscow, was mourned by family and friends Tuesday who knew her as Katy.

“Katy was a beautiful, intelligent and musically talented woman, and we are so saddened by her tragic death,” parents Janet and Gary Benoit said in a statement Tuesday afternoon. “Katy was a friend to many people and a loving daughter, sister, granddaughter, niece and cousin. Thank you to our many friends and the communities of Moscow and Boise for your love, support and prayers.”

Benoit earned her undergraduate degree in psychology at UI last year. She was a member of the Alpha Gamma Delta sorority.

Police say assistant psychology professor Ernesto A. Bustamante, 31, shot Benoit several times outside her Moscow home Monday night.

They also say Bustamante shot himself in the head as officers were in the process of serving a search warrant on his motel room Tuesday morning.

Benoit played cello as a member of the Boise High School Orchestra that toured Europe.

She also was an excellent piano player and all-around musician, said Wendy Hartman, who taught Benoit music from eighth grade to her senior year in high school.

“She was just so extremely bright, it’s hard to find the words to describe her … she cared about other people,” Hartman said. “It was a joy to know her. … She and the rest of her family are just special people.”

“We are all reeling from the loss. … She was a profoundly gifted girl,” said Sarah Halbach, a friend of the Benoit family whose kids grew up together. “She was so excited about the future. She was about to teach intro to psychology. … It seemed like she had found her place.”

University officials have not said if Benoit was ever Bustamante’s student.

Bustamante had no prior criminal record in Idaho outside of a few traffic tickets in Latah County, according to court records. He attended the University of Central Florida and Old Dominion University, where he graduated with a doctorate in human factors psychology, according to his résumé page on the website Linkedin. Among the academic specialities he listed is “decision-making.”