A bride-to be was strangled and her North Carolina apartment set on fire while her fiance was on his bucks party.
The autopsy performed by the Mecklenburg County Medical Examiner’s Office revealed Amanda Strous, 27, also suffered burns and blunt force injuries prior to her death on June 18.
Matthew Thomas Benner, 28, has been charged with first-degree arson and murder in her death.
Media outlets reported Benner lived in same apartment complex as Strous, and that he may have been stalking her.
Strous was due to marry her fiance Cory McCleaf, on July 30. He was celebrating his buck party in Maryland on the night of her dead. They didn’t live together.
McCleaf told WSOCTV, ‘She lit up a room when she walked in.’
Adding, ‘Her smile was just one of those things that people had to be with. When she smiled they smiled.’
‘She was the light of my world. She was one of the most positive people I’ve ever been around.’
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