2000: Drew Edward Planten moves to Snipe Creek Lane in North Raleigh near Lake Lynn Drive.

JULY 2001: Stephanie Bennett moves into the nearby Bridgeport Apartments.

MAY 21, 2002: Police find Stephanie Bennett's body in her apartment. Bennett, 23, had been bound, gagged, sexually assaulted and strangled.

NOV. 2004: Investigators begin reviewing the case and re-investigating old leads.

MARCH 2005: Planten's name surfaces as a "person of interest."

SUMMER 2005: Planten is targeted as a suspect.

OCT. 17, 2005: Police obtain a pair of gloves worn by Planten while at work.

OCT. 19, 2005: SBI agents match Planten's DNA from the gloves with DNA left at the crime scene. Police arrest Planten that afternoon at the state Department of Agriculture lab where he works and charge him in Bennett's murder.

NOV. 1, 2005: Wake County prosecutors announce they will likely seek the death penalty against Planten in the murder of Stephanie Bennett.

NOV. 17, 2005: Wake Senior Resident Superior Court Judge Donald Stephens rules that the Bennett case will be tried as a capital murder case.

JAN. 2, 2006: Drew Planten hangs himself.

COMPILED BY STAFF WRITER JENNIFER BREVORKA AND NEWS RESEARCHER LAMARA WILLIAMS-HACKETT

NEWS REPORTS