Machete Murder Fugitive in Glen Cove

by Nick Baxter

Police have arrested a Glen Cove resident who is wanted for a gruesome machete murder in Maryland. Santos Benitiz, age 45, was arrested last week in Hempstead, after police investigators tracked him to a house and job in Glen Cove.

Benitez is wanted in the July, 2020 stabbing murder of a 37-year-old woman in Frederick, Marland. Benitez is charged with luring the woman into the woods, and then brutally killing her with a knife or machete.

Benitez attempted to conceal the woman's body in some brush, and then fled Maryland as a fugitive to return to Glen Cove.

According to police, Benitez worked at a Glen Cove flooring company, and gained access to dozens of private homes in the Glen Cove and Locust Valley areas through his Glen Cove employer.

Benitez resided in a multi-family boarding house on 3rd Street, in Glen Cove, according to police.

New York is processing the extradition of Benitez back to Maryland, and he will be held in the Nassau County Correctional Center in East Meadow until his extradition.