Lee Benson
Appearances
The Binge Crimes: Finding Mom's Killer
The Arsonist Next Door | 1: You Build We Burn
I remember looking at the houses and thinking, whoever it is lives there or knows somebody there, because somebody has to be watching to know this guy left a few minutes early that day.
The Binge Crimes: Finding Mom's Killer
The Arsonist Next Door | 1: You Build We Burn
To him, this feels personal. I was getting pressure from neighbors to donate the land to the preserve, and people made me out to be like the devil. It was crazy.
The Binge Crimes: Finding Mom's Killer
The Arsonist Next Door | 1: You Build We Burn
For sure, I'm going to build again. Only by this point, he's got a new problem. Nobody would insure me. Lee can't rebuild until CSP is caught. So then my efforts just focused on how do I help find this individual so I can start building it again.
The Binge Crimes: Finding Mom's Killer
The Arsonist Next Door | 1: You Build We Burn
You know, it was super unfortunate and a little bit relieving for me personally when another home was burned down.
The Binge Crimes: Finding Mom's Killer
The Arsonist Next Door | 1: You Build We Burn
what, we've got all this time and money and effort to this point, like what the heck happened?
The Binge Crimes: Finding Mom's Killer
The Arsonist Next Door | 1: You Build We Burn
It was so hot that the concrete was sort of chipped up and coming apart.
The Binge Crimes: Finding Mom's Killer
The Arsonist Next Door | 1: You Build We Burn
But Lee Benson, he's not so sure. It's probably just some kids smoking cigarettes, dropped a match. I just assumed that it was an accident.
The Binge Crimes: Finding Mom's Killer
The Arsonist Next Door | 1: You Build We Burn
But then, a few weeks later, My builder put up a sign for his company, and somebody wrote on it, you build, we burn again. You build, we burn again.
The Binge Crimes: Finding Mom's Killer
The Arsonist Next Door | 1: You Build We Burn
Who is CSP? And why are they targeting Lee? Could there be somebody that, you know, has an issue with me? I just needed answers.
The Binge Crimes: Finding Mom's Killer
The Arsonist Next Door | 1: You Build We Burn
I just love the beauty of the desert. All the changing seasons, coyotes, javelina, bobcats, lots of rattlesnakes in the summertime. Phoenix, Arizona, the year 2000.
The Binge Crimes: Finding Mom's Killer
The Arsonist Next Door | 1: You Build We Burn
The walls are up, the roof is on, all the wiring is in. Every day coming to the construction site and watching this thing go up, it was so much fun. Everything is going according to plan.
The Binge Crimes: Finding Mom's Killer
The Arsonist Next Door | 1: You Build We Burn
Lee was not going to be influenced by the tension in the neighborhood. I'm on private property that I purchased not bordering any part of the preserve. It's all BS.
The Binge Crimes: Finding Mom's Killer
The Arsonist Next Door | 1: You Build We Burn
Hello and welcome to the Show Your Value podcast where we explore the art of value creation in three macro buckets.
The Binge Crimes: Finding Mom's Killer
The Arsonist Next Door | 1: You Build We Burn
Back at the time of the fire, Lee was hard at work, creating value. Right around 2000, I'm running my full-time Taekwondo martial arts school, and I'm operating three different aerospace-related businesses. Not only was the guy rich, he was fit, too. I've done lots of marathons, ultramarathons, competed in three different Ironmans. I just loved to exercise.
The Binge Crimes: Finding Mom's Killer
The Arsonist Next Door | 1: You Build We Burn
Not only was he rich and fit, he played guitar in a hard rock band. That's Lee on guitar. Band was called Three Degrees West. Played over a thousand nights on stages, clubs, concerts, all of that. So music's going on. Martial arts is going on. I've got my aerospace companies going on. Life is full and amazing.
The Binge Crimes: Finding Mom's Killer
The Arsonist Next Door | 1: You Build We Burn
Sometimes bad things happen and just deal with it. What was your reaction? There's no way I'm going to let somebody like that win. No way. It's like, okay, this happened. What's the plan and where do we go from here? The plan was this.
The Binge Crimes: Finding Mom's Killer
The Arsonist Next Door | 1: You Build We Burn
Just somebody to be on the property with a phone to call if there was any issues.
The Binge Crimes: Finding Mom's Killer
The Arsonist Next Door | 1: You Build We Burn
He wasn't supposed to, but he did.
The Binge Crimes: Finding Mom's Killer
The Arsonist Next Door | 1: You Build We Burn
I was angry. I can't believe this. This is such a waste of resources.