Bender Sentenced To 80 Years For Murder Of Wife, Two Sons

Mark Bender was sentenced today to 80 years in prison for the 1980 hatchet murders of his wife and two sons, whose bodies were discovered last summer in a Federal Way storage locker.

Bender, 50, stared blankly downward and slowly stroked his beard as King County Superior Court Judge Anne Ellington imposed the sentence. Bender's stepdaughter shrieked when the sentence was read and his current wife wept.

Ellington's sentence was only about half as stiff as what prosecutors had sought but is still what amounts to a life sentence. Bender would have to spend at least 50 years in prison before he could be considered for release.

"The last 10 years Mr. Bender has had strong family relationships, good work history and a law-abiding behavior," Ellington said. "I suppose it would be possible to review that as a time for atonement. But that doesn't change the fact that he murdered his entire family and with astonishing brutality."

In a prepared statement read to the judge by his defense attorney, Theresa Olson, Bender said he was hounded by guilt during his 12 years of freedom. Each April, on the anniversaries of the murders, he would leave his new family and work and reflect on what he had done.

"I know many people believe I killed my family and easily went on with my life," he said, "but that's not the way it was. After a while I wanted to surrender. The guilt was tremendous."

Deputy Prosecutor Howard Schneiderman asked for an 180-year sentence to ensure Bender would never be released. He said Bender not only brutally killed his family but lied to their relatives for 12 years while he enjoyed freedom.

"He carried on his life as if nothing happened," said Schneiderman.

Bender's current wife, Ann, of Nampa, Idaho, told the judge she would still feel safe living with him even knowing what she knows now.

The skeletonized bodies of his first wife, Barbara, 35, and two sons, Mark Jr., 15, and Brian, 8, were found last summer amid household items stowed in the locker.

A Puyallup man who purchased the contents sight unseen when Bender fell behind on the payments he'd made for 12 years discovered the remains. Each body was wrapped in bedsheets and garden plastic and bound with wire.

Bender pleaded guilty on the eve of his trial last month after Ellington ruled the jury could hear his taped confession.

Bender contended he killed his children because they were trying to stop him from harming his wife, but King County senior Deputy Prosecutor Craig Peterson said forensic evidence indicates the boys likely were killed in their beds.

Dr. Corrine Fligner of the King County medical examiner's office determined each of the victims was killed by blows to the head by a blunt object, likely a hatchet found in the locker.

Fligner found that the boys were probably struck while lying down and their bodies had no defensive wounds.

Bender told King County police Detective Randy Mullinax in a taped confession shortly after his arrest last summer that his wife had been threatening to leave and take the children.

He said he had been drinking heavily the night of the murders and got into a heated argument with Barbara Bender as soon as he got home. Saying he "just lost it," Bender described going to the garage, picking up the hatchet and killing his family.

He continued to lie to friends and Barbara Bender's family for more than a decade, telling them his wife and children were somewhere in California.

Bender was caught when his current wife secretly stopped paying the rent on the storage locker and the contents were auctioned by the company.

A staff psychiatrist at Western State Hospital who ruled Bender was mentally competent to stand trial warned Judge Ellington that he should be considered a suicide risk.

Dr. Robert Cary wrote before the trial that Bender was far more worried about being the object of extreme news coverage than being convicted of murdering his family.

"Despite his numerous legal problems," wrote Cary, "Mr. Bender is, nevertheless a proud, somewhat narcissistic individual who seems more worried about the shame and humiliation during a highly visible trial than he is about a lengthy sentence."