Man who helped his father behead an Idaho teen 24 years ago is accused of shooting Olympia-area woman, fleeing scene

A man who helped his father behead a 14-year-old girl in Idaho’s wilderness 24 years ago is in custody again, this time for shooting a woman in the head, law enforcement says.

Thurston County Sheriff’s deputies arrested 40-year-old Cody A. Merritt Wednesday on suspicion of first-degree assault and firearms charges, according to Lt. Mike Brooks.

Law enforcement says Merritt shot an Olympia-area woman in the head Sunday on his property in Yelm and fled the scene. The woman sometimes stays on the same property, so the two know each other. Her condition is unknown, Brooks said.

Merritt is known by deputies in the Thurston County area, he said. Brooks is also aware of Merritt’s criminal history in Idaho.

Merritt spent five years in an Idaho prison for assisting his father in the rape, murder and decapitation of 14-year-old Carissa Benway in 2000 when Merritt was just 16 years old. Benway would frequent the Merritts’ trailer in Post Falls, according to previous reporting from The Spokesman-Review. She disappeared during a Fourth of July weekend.

Benway’s remains were found by a group of hunters in the Coeur d’Alene National Forest in October of that year. Merritt eventually told police that his father, David, took Benway camping and zip-tied her to a pole inside a tent while he stood outside and chose not to seek help. Merritt told police he participated in order to earn a black rose tattoo, a tattoo for a “brotherhood” of those who have killed people.

David Merritt, who was already a registered sex offender in Washington, was sentenced to life in prison for the crime; Cody Meritt received five years in exchange for information against his father.

Cody Merritt was released from prison in 2007 while in his early 20s, records show. David Merritt died in prison in 2006 from natural causes, according to a Spokesman-Review report.

At the time of his release, Kootenai County Sheriff’s Office Sgt. Brad Maskell told The Spokesman-Review, “My biggest fear is he is going to come out of prison without any help after participating in a gruesome and nasty criminal act; and that he could act out aggressively. I fear he doesn’t grasp the weight of the crime.

“I have a lot of concern about how he’s doing and whether or not he’s going to be able to make a successful re-entry into society.”