Shortly after midnight this morning, Kurt Benjamin, the third of four suspects in the alleged rape of a woman at the Cowart Hunting Camp on March 20, was booked in at the Flagler County jail.
Benjamin, 26, of 31 Pointsettia Lane in Palm Coast, surrendered himself on a warrant charging him with sexual battery (that is, rape) and kidnapping. He was booked into the jail at 12:47 this morning and is being held on $100,000 bond.
That leaves one suspect at large: Frank Goggans, 31, who is charged with false imprisonment.
His brother, Daniel Goggans, turned himself in Thursday evening and is being held on $100,000 bond on charges of sexual battery and kidnapping. Charles Larkin Cowart turned himself in Wednesday. He is charged with sexual battery and kidnapping. He is being held without bond on an additional charge of violation of probation.
U.S. Marshals are involved in the search.
For the moment, all three suspects are being held at the county jail, but separately. Steve Cole, the Sherif’s Office’s head of investigations, said that despite physical constraints at the jail, the suspects will not be in the same cells, or allowed to mingle together. The Sheriff’s Office also has the option of sending one or more suspect to a neighboring county jail should that be necessary.
Anyone who has information on any of the suspects is asked to call the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office at 386-313-4911 or Crimestoppers at 1-888-277-8477. You may remain anonymous and you could be eligible for a reward of up to $1,000.
rhweir says
Standing outside cutting the grass about 3 PM today and about 2 dozen sheriff cruisers go by on Leidel with heavy rescue and a fire truck headed toward the Goggan houselhold. Still no update on what went down, no roads closed, nothing said. Did they get the suspect? I assume Frank was in town.
Robert Lewis says
Sheriff Manfre had this slime ball in custody in April after an altercation. State Attorney Larizza reduced the charges!!!!! So this slime ball commits a crime and is investigated in March, is arrested and released for aggravated assault with a firearm in April… and now is at large in November…
Someone help me here…. Has the State Attorney and our Sheriff screwed the pooch on this one or what?
Anonymous says
These are accusations. I have known the Goggan boys for 10 years. Dianne and Steve are good people. Let the whole truth come out before you start calling people names.
Anonymous says
If you ask me ole Sheriff Manfre needs to do some major investigating and cleaning up with the west part of the county. Starting with the Cowarts and moving on to the Kinneys, Baylors and Seays. They are all a bunch of renegades who not only think but, have proven to be above the law because there families have millions of dollars and thousands of acres of land. All of the boys are hell raisers and get nothing more than a slap on the wrist. If I’m not mistaken a Kinney boy just married a Cowart girl. I hope I’m around long enough to see what kind of offspring they produce. I hope that this is a wake up call and that Skeeter is no longer treated or tried any differently because of his last name.
jp says
The truth? Good men don’t take a drunk women and violate her…..Every good man know you don’t take advantage of a drunk woman. Rape is rape……