Suspected killer of Modesto teen who went missing almost 40 years ago pleads not guilty
Raymond Lewis Stafford, 76, pleaded not guilty in Stanislaus County Superior Court on Friday to murder charges with special circumstances in the 37-year-old case of missing Modesto teen Susan Robin Bender.
Bender, 15, was last seen in public getting into a green van, suspected to belong to Stafford, at a bus depot in downtown Modesto on April 25, 1986. From the start, Stafford was a suspect in her disappearance but fled to Texas and wasn’t arrested until Aug. 26 of this year.
During Stafford’s arraignment hearing, the prosecution stated it would not seek the death penalty.
Several of Bender’s friends and her mother, Patricia Chupco, attended Stafford’s arraignment. Chupco briefly worked for Stafford before her daughter’s disappearance and said she’d been putting pressure on investigators for nearly four decades and always believed Stafford was responsible for the crime.
“I’m not gonna let (Stafford) intimidate me, I’m going to show him that he hasn’t broken my spirit completely... I’m not afraid of this guy. I’m not. It’s just somebody that has a past history of being an evil person all the way up until he got tired of running,” Chupco said about why she attended the arraignment.
Judge Dawna Reeves said several media outlets asked to film and/or photograph the trial. Chief deputy public defender Reed Wagner asked Reeves to reject the requests on the basis that approval would prejudice the trial.
“We always are concerned about the image of our client, because right now (Stafford) is innocent,” Wagner said. “And so an image of someone wearing a jumpsuit, being circulated around can be very problematic in terms of that because it can prejudice people.”
Deputy District Attorney Larissa Jones, prosecuting the case, did not object to Wagner’s request. The DA’s Office was not immediately available for comment following the arraignment.
As for where she’s been emotionally for all these years, Chupco said it changes from day to day.
“Some days, I’m just really good and just looking positive. And then the next day it’s like I’m back to being a walking dead woman. ... I can try and explain it to people, but until they go through (this), everybody goes through tragedy differently. But for a mother, it’s worse. It’s like somebody has taken my heart and just completely just stomped on it.”
Stafford’s next scheduled court appearance is March 15.
This story was originally published November 17, 2023 at 4:08 PM.
