CHARLOTTE — A North Carolina man will serve up to 49 years in prison for the murder of 27-year-old Amanda Strous, a York County native who relocated to Charlotte.
Mathew Benner, 30, pleaded guilty Thursday to second-degree murder, first-degree arson and malicious damage to occupied property with an incendiary device, the Mecklenburg County District Attorney’s Office confirmed to FOX43.
Strous, a 2007 graduate of Dallastown High School and a Shippensburg University alum, was strangled by Benner in her apartment in June 2016. Benner then set the apartment on fire. Charlotte firefighters were able to pull Strous from the burning apartment but she was pronounced dead at the hospital.
Benner was a neighbor in Strous’ apartment complex. Investigators believed that Benner stalked her prior to the attack.
Strous was employed as a counselor at Central Piedmont Community College when she was killed.