The night Benedetto and Piro disappeared, the couple had plans to attend a dinner party, per The Charley Project. Neither of them made it and things grew even more suspicious when Benedetto's truck was found abandoned in the parking lot of a nearby hotel three days later. Neighbors got in touch with family members of the couple. Benedetto's brothers flew down to Florida and searched for nearly two weeks before Piro's body was found in a freezer, in their garage.

It was later determined she had been strangled, and police then realized that more than $100,000 in jewelry was missing from their home. The Herald-Tribune reported that witnesses saw Benedetto take his boat out to go fishing the day he vanished, but he was not alone. It turns out Michael Koblan was with him.

Beyond being related by marriage, Benedetto had previously invested a good chunk of a $2 million workers compensation settlement into a trucking business co-owned by Koblan. Apparently it wasn't doing well. Enough circumstantial evidence was present for police to make an arrest in June 2003. Though he was found guilty, Koblan never confessed and of course died before anyone could find out what happened to Benedetto. He took his secrets to his grave.