Paris Bennett was 13 when he murdered his 4yo sister - to punish his mum

 “I found a way to take away both her children in one fell swoop.” Please note: sensitive topics. 

Just after midnight on Super Bowl Sunday, 2007, police arrived at the diner where mum Charity Bennett was working. 

They told her that her four-year-old daughter, Ella, had been hurt; when she insisted on going to her, they confessed she had been murdered.

Charity had left Ella at home with her son, 13-year-old Paris, and a babysitter. The mother immediately became concerned about Paris’ safety but police informed her that she also couldn’t see him - he was in their custody.  

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Paris Bennett murders his four-year-old sister, Ella

Earlier that night, at around 10pm, Paris had convinced the babysitter she could go home. Soon after, he went into the room where Ella was sleeping; he sexually abused, punched, and choked her, before stabbing her 17 times to death. 

In her 2020 memoir, How Now, Butterfly?: A Memoir of Murder, Survival & Transformation,  distraught and heartbroken Charity shared a devastating diary entry about Ella’s final moments. 

“…[Paris’] stabs were slow and methodical, not frenzied, not an uncontrollable rage,” she recounted. “Not all were deep. Most were shallow jabs and punctures. He told the detectives he stabbed her and pulled the knife out slowly; that it felt like stabbing a mattress or a marshmallow.”

After killing his sister, Paris called his school friend and talked to them for six minutes before deciding to ring emergency services. 

Initially, Paris told 911 he had experienced a hallucination of Ella laughing at him, appearing in a demonic state. He was given instructions over the phone on how to perform CPR, but according to Charity, there was no evidence he ever tried to resuscitate his sister. 

Why Paris killed his little sister

Later, Paris claimed he had planned to murder someone, but originally intended for his mother to be the victim. 

Charity wrote in her memoir, “[He realised] if he’d killed me, I only would have suffered for five, 10, 15 minutes. But, if he left me alive [without Ella], I would suffer for the rest of my life.” 

Paris told Piers Morgan in a 2019 interview that, “I found a way to take away both her children in one fell swoop.”

But why would he want to do that?

In the year prior to Ella’s murder, Charity - a former heroin addict - had relapsed on cocaine. According to her, Paris was angry that she chose drugs over him, and wanted to get revenge. 

To him, it was as simple as that. Of course, his actions were really much more complex. Paris displayed warning signs of violence before the murder and has since admitted to feeling homicidal tendencies as a young child.

“[Paris] sexually abused her that night, and he admitted the more violent he became, the more excited he became, ending in death for her and climax for him,” Charity recounted in her memoir.

Later that year, Paris plead guilty to capital murder and was sentenced to a maximum of 40 years in prison, with a possibility of parole in 2027. 

Image: Facebook & Investigation Discovery

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"My son is a psychopath. I can't give up on him"

Since that horrific night, Charity channelled her efforts into advocacy, founding the ELLA Foundation, but has “forgiven” her son. 

“I love my firstborn with as much intensity as I have since the day I found out I was pregnant with him,” she said in her memoir. 

“My son is a psychopath. I can’t help him. That may not matter in the long run. What may matter is I can’t, not at this point, give up on him either.”

Paris was evaluated by a psychiatrist at 15, who advised that if he was an adult he would have been diagnosed as a sociopath. Since turning 18, Paris has refused further psychiatric testing.

Image: Facebook

"The Family I Had"

In a 2017 documentary, The Family I Had, Charity shared that she still visited her son, but was afraid for her safety. When his release is planned, it has been recommended she go into hiding, for her protection and also for her youngest son, Phoenix, who is not yet a teen. 

Charity said that Phoenix, who was born years after Ella died, wasn’t allowed to visit Paris in jail. However, she encouraged the siblings to get to know one another over the phone. 

“I am setting an example for Phoenix. An example of how unconditional love and forgiveness look and behave.”

However, according to a Facebook post made by Charity three years ago, which was shared in a Reddit thread, she had stopped visiting her first-born son. 

“I completely walked away from my eldest child and have not looked back,” she allegedly wrote.

“I finally accepted it is okay to love him as my son, but really dislike the man he has become.”

She also confirmed she had shut down the ELLA Foundation, saying she had spent over a decade processing her own and others’ trauma. 

“I reached the point where I finally felt I have kept my promise to Ella…to make something meaningful come from her death.”

Paris will first be eligible for parole in February 2027. If he is never granted parole, he will be released in February 2047.

Originally published as Paris Bennett was 13 when he murdered his 4yo sister - to punish his mum