LONG PRAIRIE, Minn. — A Long Prairie man will spend the rest of his life in prison after pleading guilty to murdering his parents.
On Monday, Aug. 24, Dylan Bennett pleaded guilty in Todd County District Court to two counts of premeditated first-degree murder for the shooting deaths of his parents, Barry and Carol Bennett, in their Long Prairie home in August 2019.
He was then immediately sentenced to two concurrent life without parole terms in prison by Judge Shan Wang.
Barry Bennett was a former NFL football player who played a short time with the Minnesota Vikings.
Dylan Bennett’s case was scheduled to go to trial in September. He had entered a not guilty plea earlier this year. At his hearing on Monday, however, he changed his plea to guilty, resulting in the life without parole prison sentence.
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The 23-year-old was accused of shooting his parents in their Long Prairie home on Aug. 21, 2019. After evading authorities, which sparked an international manhunt, Dylan Bennett was taken into custody in Mexico. Local law enforcement, along with the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension and the FBI worked closely with the Mexican authorities to track down Bennett and arrest him. Federal Mexican agents ambushed him at his hotel in Mexico and he was later extradited back to the U.S. and brought back to Todd County.
The killing of Barry and Carol Bennett sent shockwaves throughout the community of Long Prairie. The couple were long-time members of the First Baptist Church in Long Prairie and Barry was a deacon at the church. Until his retirement in 2014, Barry Bennett was a physical education teacher for the Long Prairie-Grey Eagle High School and Carol Bennett was a tax preparer and volunteered her time as the treasurer of the First Baptist Church.
In addition to Dylan Bennett, the couple also had three daughters and two sons: Lindsi, Abbie, Lacy, Barry Jr. and Lenard.
Jason Brown, publisher and editor of the Long Prairie Leader, contributed to this article.
