Photo via @WFLAJustin/Twitter, Manatee County Sheriff’s Office
October 1, 2021, 1:21 pm
A Florida man walked into a police station and confessed to a murder from 10 years ago, saying that he had recently become a Jehova’s Witness and “couldn’t live with the guilt anymore.” Benjamin Moulton, 43, says he killed a full-service sex worker who was found dead in December 2011 and was arrested and charged with first-degree murder after providing details into the crime that had been kept secret from the public by the police.
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Video footage has been released of Moulton walking into the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office to confess to the murder of 29-year-old Nicole Rose Scott. He later steps back out with an officer to make his confession outside, in full view of the security camera.
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Moulton was questioned by Manatee officers back in 2011 due to the fact that he had interacted with the victim previously, potentially as a client, but they were unable to uncover the evidence necessary to make an arrest.
“We know that he had interactions with her back in 2011,” said Manatee County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Randy Warren. “We went to his home and questioned him but didn’t have evidence to put him at the crime scene.”
Scott’s body was found in a wooded area in Lakewood Ranch by a motorcyclist after he stopped to relieve himself, likely about a week after she was killed. A folding knife was reportedly found next to her body and medical examiners found evidence that she was strangled. A year later, Moulton was charged with aggravated battery and sexual assault with a weapon upon a pregnant woman and has a long list of other charges including marijuana possession, various theft charges, and resisting arrest.
He reportedly told detectives that he murdered Scott in a fit of rage and that he had “found Jehovah,” likely referring to the Christian denomination known as Jehovah’s Witnesses. These Christians believe that all of secular society is under the influence of Satan and have a number of unusual beliefs and practices, including refusing all military service and blood transfusions and rejecting holidays they consider to have pagan origins such as Easter and Christmas.
But, as is true in all Christian denominations that we know of, murder is still considered to be a sin.
“It almost never happens this way,” said Warren on the confession.
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“He had as he said found Jehovah and wanted to end this guilt. He told us things that only he would know if he had been out there and it turns out he wanted to get this off his chest as he told us because it was time.”
Friends of Scott said that she was starting to turn her life around after facing theft charges and struggling with drug addiction when she was murdered, leaving behind three children. In spite of her difficulties, which started in early childhood when her father was imprisoned and she was bounced around foster homes, she was described as a caring and generous person who would help out when she could, helping customers pay for their purchases at her gas station job.
“If she had $2 left in her pocket, she’d give it to them,” said friend Amy Scott.
“She was not a bad person,” said her sister’s mother-in-law Enrica Bywaters. “She was lost in the system.”
*First Published: October 1, 2021, 1:21 pm
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