Killings puzzle, anger friends

A sign proclaiming “Joy” hung next to the door of Tiffany Benoff’s mobile home.

Yet Wednesday, sorrow eclipsed the joy that Benoff radiated.

Benoff, an optimistic, smiling 28-year-old waitress at the Spokane Valley Mall IHOP, was shot in the head Tuesday.

Police believe her husband, William “Billy” Benoff III, killed his wife, then himself. Police found their bodies in a basement bedroom where Billy Benoff had been staying since the couple’s recent separation. Both were shot in the head. Police found a small semiautomatic pistol beside Billy Benoff. An investigation into the killings continues, police said.

The apparent murder-suicide – which left an 8-year-old girl without parents and a 9-year-old boy without a mother – has enraged and puzzled those who knew the couple.

Billy Benoff filed for divorce from Tiffany Benoff two weeks ago. Friends suspected it would get nasty. Tiffany Benoff had a new boyfriend and friends thought Billy was jealous. Benoff told friend and neighbor Tessa Coldiron that her husband was sometimes physically violent and that she was scared of him.

Yet friends thought Benoff’s optimism would help her survive the broken relationship and move on.

“I honestly didn’t know he was capable of this. I have a lot of anger towards him right now,” friend Shane Cantrell said. “Personally, he’s lucky he took his own life too. That’s what I feel about it.”

A divorce or separation can become a dangerous time for someone in an already violent or controlling relationship, said Jennifer Stapleton, executive director of the Spokane County Domestic Violence Consortium. It becomes even more dangerous if suicide is considered.

“It’s that notion of, ‘I can’t live without you and you can’t live without me,’ ” Stapleton said.

Coldiron said she suggested Tiffany Benoff get a restraining order against Billy Benoff. But Tiffany was unwilling.

Yet Coldiron didn’t think Billy Benoff was homicidal.

“He must have flipped his lid,” Coldiron said Wednesday as she stood on the steps of her mother’s mobile home.

The Benoffs lived about five years in the Rose Haven Mobile Home Court, a small cluster of aging trailers next to the Dishman Hills Natural Area.

When Cantrell and his girlfriend, Karyn Rogers, moved in, they became friends with the Benoffs. After a fire two years ago, Cantrell, Rogers and their three children had squeezed into the Benoff’s small mobile home and stayed there until they had enough money to move.

There was no clue that the couple was headed toward disaster, although lately they both seemed to want out of the marriage, Cantrell and Rogers said.

“She was always optimistic. She always put on a smile and made a point of making everybody happy,” Cantrell said.

The Benoffs grew up in the Port Angeles, Wash., area, according to court documents. They had a daughter together, Samantha Benoff, 8. Tiffany Benoff also had a son, Dylan, 9.

Two weeks ago, about the same time Billy Benoff filed for divorce, Tiffany had asked IHOP owner Jay Jordan for a leave of absence to deal with personal issues. He let her take time off because she was a good employee who had worked for him since the IHOP opened four years ago. But they didn’t talk about specifics, Jordan said.

“She just had a contagious personality,” Jordan said. “A lot of customers came to the restaurant every day because of Tiffany.”

Jordan said co-workers were devastated by the killing. Several had to leave work when told. Jordan set up a memorial fund to help her children.

Tiffany Benoff’s job at IHOP supported the family of four, according to court records Billy Benoff filed in the divorce. Tiffany made $24,200 a year from her waitressing job; Billy stayed home with their children and did not work, he said in court records.

While only Billy Benoff had filed paperwork at the time of their deaths, it looked like the divorce would be contentious. He wanted custody of Samantha until a hearing could be scheduled and wanted his wife to pay him child support.

Billy Benoff stated in court documents he worried his wife would get rid of joint possessions and would try to get custody of Samantha.

“Tiffany said I could have custody and signed a letter saying so. Tiffany has threatened to come take the child,” he wrote.

Tiffany Benoff went to the courthouse the day she died to ask for more time in responding to her husband’s charges, said Karyn Rogers, who drove Tiffany to the courthouse.

Rogers drove her to Billy’s sister’s house at 11105 E. 37th Ave. in Spokane Valley on Tuesday morning. Billy Benoff had been staying in the basement of the home for two weeks. Friends said they believe Benoff’s sister is currently caring for the children.

No one answered the door Wednesday. Traci Harvey is listed in county records as the homeowner.

Tiffany Benoff didn’t want to meet at the house. She wanted to meet Billy Benoff at a restaurant, Rogers said.

Rogers worried about her. She called about 11:30 a.m., and Tiffany seemed fine, Rogers said. Yet she went back later and there was no answer at the door. She left and got Cantrell. They went back. Still no answer.

They decided to call police.

“I just got sick to my stomach because I knew something was wrong,” Rogers said.

The Tiffany Benoff Memorial Fund has been set up by her co-workers at Sterling Savings Bank. Money raised by the fund will be used to help her children, Samantha and Dylan. Contributions can be made at any Sterling Savings Bank branch in Benoff’s name.