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Monica Bodden was in the west looking for answers:..

Monica Bodden reporting
This is what is left of the 8 by 8 wooden and zinc structure bungalow house. Its owner, 32 year old Dean Bennett was tortured inside as he was burnt to death beyond recognition.

The incident happened on Sunday morning around 2am in the village of Roaring Creek.

A neighbour, who saw smoke coming from the house, alerted Bennett's family.

They then rushed over to get Bennett out the house; but the front door was bolted with a padlock and a chain which made it almost impossible to get it open. By the time they managed to get the young man out the house, he was already burned to death.

Janet Valencia - Cousin of Decease
"When we came back here the place was already on fire. My other cousins tried to get in the house, but it was locked from outside with the padlock and the chain."

Monica Bodden
"He was locked inside his house?"

Janet Valencia - Cousin of Decease
"Yes, he was locked inside the house. When we came in the morning after 2, the house was locked, and he was inside burning. All we managed to do was to try to take him out."

"My mom managed to break a zinc that was on the house, the body fell, and they tried to pull him out the house."

Bennett was mentally challenged, and even though he lived alone, his family looked out for him.

Today they believe he was murdered and then set on fire. They say they noticed a large chop wound on his abdomen when they visited his body at the morgue.

Janet Valencia - Cousin of Decease
"Half of him was off the bed and the other half was on like in a sitting position with his head on the bed. He couldn't have burned so fast if they hadn't thrown gas on him."

Monica Bodden
"You guys believe that the house was set on fire?"

Janet Valencia - Cousin of Decease
"Yes the house was set on fire."

Monica Bodden
"Also I understand that you guys believe that he may have been dead before he was set on fire?"

Janet Valencia - Cousin of Decease
"That's what we thought might have happened because there was no noise. The neighbor didn't hear any screaming or anything. If they had put the house on fire with him alive in it, you would have heard some kind of noise, but there was no noise, no nothing."

"Somebody has tortured and killed him and then put him on fire for no reason. My uncle went to see him at the morgue yesterday and he (Dean) had a chop wound on his body with his guts already coming out. Somebody has killed him and then set him on fire."

"When they pulled his body from the fire, he didn't have - he became little."

Earlier on Saturday evening family members say Bennett was at a party and came home around midnight. He told them he had left the party because someone had kicked him in his groin area. He was later seen going into his house to sleep. What happened next, only the murderer can tell.

But from what we know is he was tortured inside a burning house. And this has left an entire community wondering why such a cruel end to such a harmless individual?

Janet Valencia - Cousin of Decease
"It's shocking because nobody knows Dean as someone who looks for trouble. We are feeling it."

Monica Bodden
"If you could say one thing to that person who did that, what would it be?"

Janet Valencia - Cousin of Decease
"We are feeling it right now. But they have it coming yet, God is not sleeping. This is not the first time they tried to hurt my family here, but they have it coming yet. Dean got burned in this fire yes, but trust me, they will get burned in more fire than this."