Report: Anna Benson was charged with murder in 1996

Report: Anna Benson was charged with murder in 1996, Anna Benson, the former wife of big league pitcher Kris Benson, was charged with murder in 1996 and then part of a national manhunt, according to a report in the New York Daily News.

Benson, then known as Anna Warren, was charged, along with Paul Dejongh, her boyfriend at the time, with the murder of an 18-year-old man in her Knoxville, Tenn., apartment. Authorities issued arrest warrants for both in the murder of Michael Evans, a college student who was getting ready to enlist in the Navy.

However, the murder charges against the then-19-year-old Benson were dropped. The later accessory charges against Benson were also dismissed because of a lack of "sufficient proof," said Knoxville County Deputy District Attorney Bill Crabtree, according to the Knoxville News-Sentinel.

After an argument between Benson and Evans, Benson allegedly said, "Get rid of him" to her boyfriend before the slaying took place, the lead investigator told the Daily News, quoting witnesses. Evans had been shot once in the back of the head and a second time as he tried to get to the door, a forensic expert said.

Police were called to the crime scene early on the morning of Jan. 22, 1996, with Benson and Dejongh the only ones missing of the five people determined to be in the apartment at the time of the incident, according to police. The two fled, prompting a national manhunt and a feature on America's Most Wanted.

Benson would be on the run for nearly five months, before being captured June 18 in Portland, Ore. Dejongh was caught that August around Atlanta. He was convicted of first-degree murder, but it was overturned on appeal. He eventual pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to 21 years, dying while in prison.

The murder charges against Benson were dropped, as prosecutors decided to charge her with an accessory charge. It was dismissed in May 1998, according to the Daily News.

Anna Benson was recently arrested in Georgia for allegedly threatening estranged husband, Kris, with a gun and whacking his computer terminal with a baton.