Naman Shrestha
Investigation Discovery’s ‘Evil Lives Here: Badge of Evil’ delves into two homicides in California that rocked the entire community around the mid-1980s. The tragic passings of two young women, Janine Marie Benintende and Tracie Clark, sparked an investigation that led the police to realize that they were victims of the same perpetrator. As the detectives followed the trail of clues, they uncovered evidence that indicated someone from law enforcement was responsible for the killings. The documentary provides a detailed account of the murders, with the help of crime scene photos, evidence, and an interview with someone related to the killer.
Janine Marie Benintende’s Remains Were Discovered in a Canal Weeks After Her Disappearance
Born on February 13, 1965, in Rhode Island, Janine Marie Benintende was the beloved daughter of Rose Mary Saccoccia and Jack R. Benintende Jr. She spent her early years on the East Coast before relocating with her family to Southern California in the 1980s. The Benintendes settled in the sprawling city of Los Angeles, where they owned and operated a thriving cosmetics business in Hollywood. As a teenager, Janine gained early experience working in the family business. A few years down the line, her life turned upside down as cracks began to develop in the family life. According to the show, her father’s alleged departure, followed by her mother’s subsequent remarriage, hit Janine pretty hard, and she allegedly turned to drugs.
By the time 1986 rolled around, Janine had been residing with her mother. She would often spend the weekends away from home. According to reports and the documentary, she was a sex worker. Court records mention that the 20-year-old wished to move out of Los Angeles back to the East Coast. Sometime in late January 1986, Janine reportedly told her mother that she would be off for a few days. She and her friend soon headed to Bakersfield, and per reports, took a room on rent at a “hotel on the strip.” One evening, sometime between 7:30 and 8 pm, Janine was spotted by a sex worker on Union Avenue, getting into a vehicle near the Townhouse Motel.
As days went by without any information about Janine, her mother reported her missing to the police and even drove to Bakersfield to look for her daughter. Sadly, her worst nightmare came true several weeks later. On February 21, 1986, a farmer was around Rockpile Road when he spotted severely decomposed remains floating in the Arvin-Edison Canal and immediately contacted the authorities. As the body had “undergone extensive decomposition,” the identity of the remains was established as Janine Marie Benintende using fingerprint evidence. According to the show, the young woman was shot multiple times, including in the chest and back. The cause of death was determined to be a gunshot wound to the torso.
Tracie Clark Was Also Found Dead in the Same Canal as Janine
Born on June 10, 1971, in Seattle, Washington, Tracie Joanna Clark had a seemingly troubled childhood as she allegedly faced abuse growing up. Still in her teenage years, she left her Seattle home and arrived in Bakersfield, California, on February 8, 1987. Not long after checking into the El Don Motel, Tracie was last seen getting into a beige pickup truck by another sex worker in the area. A few hours later, her remains were found by two hunters in the same canal where Janine’s remains were found.
When the authorities arrived at the scene, they gathered several pieces of evidence, including tire marks and shoe marks near the remains. The autopsy revealed that the 15-year-old girl had been shot about five or six times and was six weeks pregnant at the time. As three of those fatal bullets were recovered, they were sent to the lab for analysis. It turned out that they were fired from the same gun that also killed Janine. The crime lab analyst also concluded that the bullets in both murders were semi-jacketed, 110-grain, and hollow-point rounds, which were typically issued to law enforcement officials.
Janine Marie Benintende and Tracie Clark Were Killed by a Law Enforcement Officer
During the investigation of Janine Marie Benintende and Tracie Clark’s murder, the detectives had suspicions about one of their own — David “Dave” Keith Rogers, a sheriff’s deputy who was also part of the investigation team for a while. A controversial incident in 1983 regarding a sex worker was what made the investigators look into the possible involvement of Dave in the murders. A 19-year-old sex worker had filed a formal complaint against Dave in 1983, claiming that he had allegedly forced her to take her clothes off before taking photographs of her in the back of his patrol car. Upon internal investigation, he was suspended from the force. After serving a 15-day suspension, he was reassigned to the downtown jail.
As the detectives dug deeper into Dave’s life, they reached out to one of the sex workers who had last seen Tracie. They drove her around Dave’s neighborhood and asked her to let them know if she saw a vehicle resembling the one that Tracie got in. Right outside Dave’s house, she pointed at his beige pickup truck as the vehicle in question. The investigators also showed her a photo lineup with six different men. She picked out Dave’s image and claimed that he was not only the truck’s driver but also her former customer. Next, a search warrant was obtained for Dave’s belongings. Upon searching his pickup truck, they found the murder weapon inside a bag. Moreover, his shoes matched the prints found at Tracie’s crime scene, and his pickup truck’s tires matched the tire marks on the crime scene.
On February 13, 1987, Dave was finally arrested and charged with two counts of murder. Although Dave admitted to killing Tracie, he denied having anything to do with Janine’s killing. In his confession, he claimed that he picked up Tracie and drove her to a secluded location. According to her, they got into an altercation over money. When she allegedly began running away, he shot her to death. At the time, the detectives were also looking into other 11 unsolved murders involving sex workers or homeless women. When questioned if he had anything to do with them, he didn’t deny his involvement or say that he didn’t commit the murders.
Dave Keith Rogers is Currently Incarcerated at a California Prison Facility
About a year after his arrest, in early 1988, David “Dave” Keith Rogers stood trial for killing two young women, Janine Marie Benintende and Tracie Clark. After an intense trial, on March 16, 1988, the jury found him guilty of first-degree murder of Tracie and second-degree murder of Janine. On March 29, the jury recommended that the former Kern County sheriff’s deputy receive the death penalty for his gruesome crimes.
He was eventually sentenced to death, a sentence which was overturned in 2019 by the state Supreme Court due to unreliable testimony. In January 2023, the first penalty phase retrial was held, but it ended with a jury deadlocked 10-2 in favor of him receiving the death penalty again. The killer is currently awaiting another retrial, which is scheduled for mid-August 2026. As of today, the 79-year-old Dave Rogers is incarcerated at California State Prison, Sacramento, in Folsom, California.
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