Warning: Graphic content, readers’ discretion advised. This article contains a recollection of crime and can be triggering to some readers discretion advised.
A pile of mangled metal on the side of a highway. The result of car going more than 100 miles per hour, then slamming into a guard rail.
It all started with a terrible car accident in Pennsylvania, but police say that wreck was hiding a truly sinister secret, an explosive wreck.
LANCASTER, Pa. — A central Pennsylvania man will serve 28 to 56 years behind bars for suffocating his girlfriend after she survived his deliberate, high-speed car crash.
Benjamin Klinger, 21, of Elizabethtown, pleaded guilty to third-degree murder and was sentenced Friday in Lancaster County Court. He apologized for the death of 17-year-old Samantha “Sammi” Heller, with whom he had a turbulent relationship, according to Lancaster Online.
At first glance it had all all the makings of a tragic accident. a young man racing down the highway at over 100 miles an hour. loses control his passengers is killed.
A truck driver who came upon the wreckage on Dec. 4, 2012, heard Heller screaming and was told by 911 operators not to move the crash victims. When police arrived, Klinger was sitting on top of Heller’s head and torso, according to the arrest affidavit.
A 19-year-old Pennsylvania man intentionally slammed his car at 100 mph into a guardrail, and then smothered his 17-year-old girlfriend by sitting on her head after learning that she might be pregnant, according to police.
Police filed homicide and other charges last week against Benjamin Daniel Klinger, 19, of Elizabethtown, for the December 4 death of Sammi Heller on an interstate near Manheim.
‘At first glance, this appeared to be simply another tragic vehicle accident,’ Lancaster County District Attorney Craig Stedman told the Intelligencer Journal/Lancaster New Era. ‘However, the police worked hand-in-hand with our forensic experts and saw this was far more complicated, sinister and certainly criminal.
In court Benjamin Klinger admitted to killing his girlfriend, saying he deliberately crashed the car they were in — then suffocated her as she lay injured on the side of the road.
Samantha heller was a social butterfly with a big heart.
she was just such a decent girl . sammy loved everybody.
But that may have also been her downfall.
samantha was just 15 when met an older boy. Named benjamin klinger.
It was around that same time that samantha´s friends started noticing, slight changes .
Her silly side was still there . she could still always make anyone aught.
but if you could still , you could slowly see, sam´s face turn into just like she was hurt she was hurting
Hurting because of how they say benjamin was treating her behind closed doors.
In the beginning he waa very nice , he acted very nice, made her feel like happy and meed her feel loved and then things just deteriorated after he got control over he and he knew that she was in love with him.
Things just started spiraling,downwards ,he started to say that she was clingy, he would call her **** .
Friends like,” why are you with him?”
I love him and he makes it better by saying”i´m so sorry”
she admitted that draws her back every time.A
And sam´s mom ” sandra “says :” every time ben drew her back in it drove her and her daughter futher apart.
She was starting to say , you know i should be allowed to stay out at these hours during a school night , all of that was really stemming from ben .yeah he actually would try to come over and convince us,she would sbe safe and i´ll make sure she gets her homework done and stuff like that .
At some point things within the house broke apart.
we had a found out that she was giving ben the house keys to sneak in the house at night. said sandra said.
when confronted her daughter. a huge fight ensued.it was a mess.
“And it´s one of the biggest misstake i made,because i kicked her out that day . and she ran back to ben.”sandra said.
Samantha would spend the next few months living under the klingers roof
And loved ones say that´s when the relationship really turned toxic.
samanthas mom wasn´t just standing idly by. the last straw in that situation was a phone call. that she being taken to the hospital. she found ouit that he had ran over her foot.
After that sandra was finally able to convince samantha to move ut of ben´s house and in with her. aunt .Leanne.
shortly after she moved in, ben decided to come ove and sit outside the aunt leanne´s house. and that made sammy really antsy . aunt leanne said . ” plesase can go out and talk to him.” so aunt leanne let her go out and talk to benjamin..
Leanne: she went out he took off with her.”
Not long after that , leanne gets a frantic call from her niece.
leanne:” she was scared because he was driving too fast.and he fas angry.”
attorney, craig stedman: klinger at that point he basically said you better get off the phone or i will , you know i´ll drive this car off the road .”
samantha was able to talk him down that night. and after that she appeared to break things off for good, even agreeing to move back home with her mom.
It was only then that sandra learned just how bad things have been. she found that not only was he phyical hurting her at times . that he was taking pictures of her and videos of sexually and sharing it with his friends.
before meeting him she didn´t do stuff like this.she was a good girl .
Sandra took action.she charged him for running over her foot.she charged him for for the pictures. he was going to be charged and labeled as a pedophile.
For the next six months with charges pending.ben seemed to stay away ..
…and samantha seemed to return t oh er old self.
Then the night of december 4th. sandra is alresady asleep whenn she gets a text from samantha the kind you never erase.
sometime after that, samantha finds herself in the passagenger seats of benjamin klinger´s car. racing toward her own demise.
It seemed like she was finally, free .like 17 year old samantha heller . had finally broken away from her abuser benjamin klinger.
She had even moved back with her mom .
and was moving forward on assult charges. against her bpy as well as charges for fot sending explicit pictures of the underage girl to his friends.
But then after six months apart ,it seems ben found a way back in.
Apparently ben reached out to get samantha to drop the charges.espcially the one that would make him registered sex offender.
attorney, stedman:so , he gets her to sign something, says everyone press charges
Then just a few days before the end. samantha changed her mind -again.
attorney, craig stedman:she actually comes into our office here and starts explaining looking intimidated and “i really didn´t know what i was signing..” i dont want him to go to jail but i want some accountability.
Restitution as she put in this note to ben.A handwritten list of things she wanted to discuss. one big thing in particular.
December 3rd s she had gone to planned parenthood. she believed she was pregnant with ben´s baby.
and one of thet things on the note is she wanted child support.
samantha was no back with him , friends and loved ones was so angry because she was doing so well
It was the last time her friends would ever speak.
The day after samantha´s visit to planned parenthooud december 4th ,she tells her mom , she spending the weekend with a friend.Insteasd she was inside bens car. speeding down the highway.at nearly 120 .miles per hour.
It´s approximately 2 am when a truckdriver calls 9-1-1. to report seeing ben´s car careen off the highway.
and in to a guardrail.
It was a two – door car and that entire passenger side hade a huge amount of damage to it.
Samantha´s side of the car and yet she survives the initial crash.
In the 911 call you hear samantha screaming , it´s not clear what she´s saying but you can hear that she´s still alice and is screaming.
Following protocol the dispatcher tells the witness not to move the injured.
what he doesn´t know is exactly what the trucker sees.
samanatha was sort of half in hal out the the car .face down in the grass and the civilians saw mr klinger essentially sitting on samantha´s head.
Not long after that samantha falls silent.
By the time first responders arrive , samantha heller is gone.
Ben will later tell investigators that he doesnt remember exactly how the crash happened. but that it was all a tragick accident.
So he said he was ejected from the vehicle and landed up coincidentally through the passanger side of the vehicle and happens to land with his butt sitting on her face smothering her to death. just by coincidence
But almost immediately sergeant christopher keller and his team were finding evidence that this was no coincidence.
C .keller:“The witness said that he didn´t see any brake lights ans mr klinger was going off the road. that´s a pretty telltale sign that there´s something else going on.
attorney, craig stedman: you can see actuallly in the grass that he drove straight into the guardrail.itwas a controlled crash.
Police also found samantha´s handwritten note inside the wreck
and then there was that 9-1-1, those screams, though you can´t make out what samantha saying on that recording .
Another eyewitness says she heard everything.
attorney, craig stedman: “The car driver actually who pulled over , said, she actually could hear her saying;” get off ,get off me and could see her moving her leg”
It´was only a few hours before rhat when sandra mcfalls received a text message from her daughter.saying quot;I love you moma.
sandra: ” this was not tragic accident he murdered her .”
And Police took that claim, seriously especially after a pathologist determined samantha´s cause of death to be :
Manner of death homocide…..
The evidence showed he intentionally killed samantha.
Almost immediately after news spread that 17 years old samantha heller had been killed in sa crash. and that her abusive boyfriend ben klin ger was driving.
Everyone who knew the girl jumped to the same conclusion.
And samantha´s loved ones were telling investigators much
the same.
attorney, craig stedman:” One friend actually described it as her life was a living hell.he basically made her feel worthless every day of her life. In his phone contacts,she listed as “dumb ***” that´s who would come up on his contacts. it would come up ” dumb **** which is awful to say but that´s what he thought of her.”
And then there were ben´s lies……….
Shortly after the wreck kliner reportedly to the nurse at the hospital Quote:
attorney, craig stedman: he said shewas in the back seat , we could prove she wasn´t .
attorney, craig stedman: you can see the impact, the head impact here.
And for ben´s claims that he was thrown from the wreck and on to samantha……
attorney, craig stedman: we could prove he was 100 % lying, we know he had a seatbelt on because he had bruises on it and her and her consistent with it , but when you´r ejected the seat belts ripped or it´s ripped out of the casing or anything like that .
attorney, craig stedman: was absolutely no damage to the seat belt consistent with ejection and the other thing the reconstructions ….. this wre able to tell us was, theres no way that the driver would under this …. you know head -on collision with the guard rail would be ejected 90 degrees to his right through the passanger side vehicle and land up over her sitting on top of her.
Meaning that to end up on samantha ben had to actually unbuckle his seat belt after the crash and walk around to the other side of the car.
After week of collecting evidence prosecutors were ready to make that case.
Keller: he was charged with criminal homicide for the death of samantha
But what was it that authorities say finally pushed ben over the edge. district attorney craig stedman says ; take you pick.
attorney, craig stedman: it is a cresendo of motives that are coming together at this period of time um… that lead to the murder… i mean, you´ve got the unwanted pregnancy that he thinks is happening , you´ve got her charges so he´s mad at that …plus one of the other things that um .. we found out later was he actually had another girl he was seeing who he actually said at the hospital something to the effect of ,”well at least we don´t have to worry about her getting in between you and i . in the future.
It is only later that investigators learned samantha wasn´t pregnant after all. but ben didn´t know that at the time.
and according to his arrest affidavit he was either angry because he was going to be a father . or jealous. because he thougt it was someone else ´s baby.
either way prosecutors believe they had him dead to rights.
attorney, craig stedman:we felt we had a very strong case from for first-degree murder.we can prove that he was lying. what took place,him at the hospital telling his girlfriend that now we can be together ,we had all that stuff of the …pregnancy and the former threats.
i mean threats not just threats but threats to kill her by driving a car off the road.he did exactly what he said he was going to do. multiple times to her .
But it turnes out the case would never go to trial ……
attorney, craig stedman:we felt we had a mountain of evidence for first degree , but when you have these cases….you know its not jsut about what you can prove. it´s about dealingwith the surviving victims and the family members.
and for samantha´s mom. pursuing the first degree charges would mean reliving the unimaginable.
So when attorneys worked out a deal that would avoid a trial in exchange for klinger pleading guilty to third degree murder. with a minimum sentence of close to to 30 years.
sandra:i just wanted to go home and grieve and… so i made a choice to allow him to have that plea deal.
First degree was off the table.but ben was off the streets.
Benjamin (Ben) Klinger was sentenced to 28 to 56 years.
As part of his deal ,benjamin klinger also pleads to several other charges ,uncluding explicit photos of his underage girlfriend to friends.
At sentencing he´s given the chance to adress samantha´s family saying Quiote;
In respons lancaster county judge margaret miller delivers the following statement;
After that ,21 year old benjamin klinger is taken away to serve out his 28 to 56 year sentence.
End of story …? not exactly .
what happened in the post-conviction hearing.?
attorney , craig stedman:well, the guy pled guilty, this wasn´t a trial where he went down saying “i didn´t do this , you got the wrong guy.I´m innocent ,i was framed . he admitted in court to the judge that he did this things that i´ve described and he took the benefit of the bargain and now he wants a do-over.
samantha´s heller´s family avoided a trial when benjamin klinger pleaded guilty to third degree murder.
But then roughly four years into his 28 to 56 year sentence , klinger suddenly files an appeal to have his plea overturned.
Ben trying to step up and want to take this plea deal off the table.
sandra:” he makes me mad.”
So what changed?why does samantha´s confessed killer now say he isn´t gulity of deliberately taken her life.
One story he says is much different than the version most people have heard…what ben is calling stories were all true.including one in which samantha called her aunt from inside bens car.
Ben screaming Quote;
But ultimately that is what happened Ben was behind the wheel during the crash that ended samantha´s life.
So what does he have to say about that tragic night?
Convenient excuse….
benjamin;” i had such a severe cncussion,the doctor at the hospital told my family that they dont would´t be suiprised in the slightest if i never remember anything.because of the severity of the concussion that.. i dont remember hours before and days after.
how or why
samantha even ended up in his car all a blank and his not sure how that handwritten lsit of demands ended up in his car.either.
Including one….
…very big point,a request for child support
benjamin:“as far as , um, child support, having child suport would never have been a problem.with me. Im really family- oriented.
And he says he´s equally confused by some of the other things
he´s been reported saying after the crash. like he ended up on samanthas´s head after being ejected from the car.
Ben continue to stand firm that despite what he sworn in court he didn´t murder samantha heller at least he doesnt remember doing it.
So far a judge has rejected klinger´s efforts to have his plea overturned
But Ben is currently appealing that ruling and if he does get a second chance…..
attorney, craig stedman: I´ll tell you something. i´m really kind of okay with the do -over because a do-over doesn´t give him a less sentence .A do-over gets him back to square one , you have a trial and he faces life in prison ,so i´ll put this in the category ” be careful what you whis for”
And samantha´s loved one say Ben wont be facing the same people he did before.
sandra: by some slim chance his appeal is granted, i will fight this and i will sit through a trial and i will tell every tiny little thing and so everybody else that has contact and knows what happened to sammy.
