After finding Benjamin ‘Ben’ Amato dead at the bottom of the stairs in his own home, police quickly investigated and uncovered surprising details about his affair with a woman 20 years his junior, and their strained relationship after she told him she was pregnant.
Age difference relationship
Benjamin ‘Ben’ Amato was born in 1949 and grew up in Brooklyn, New York. In the 1980s, Ben left the hectic New York life to move to Pennsylvania.
In 1985, Ben dated a single mother with two daughters. They married and stayed together for 13 years. Ben was very close with his wife’s daughters, maintaining a strong bond with them until divorce.
After divorcing, Ben stayed busy with his construction business and volunteering as a firefighter. He was described as very kindhearted.
One day, Ben’s friend asked him for help. This was when he met the friend’s 29-year-old daughter, Cheryl Kunkle. Cheryl was a single mother to a teenage son named Gregory.
The two immediately took a liking to each other. Ben started visiting Cheryl almost daily. A romantic relationship quickly blossomed despite their 20-year age gap.
Cheryl was described as a vibrant and strong woman. She was delighted to have Ben by her and her son’s side. Meanwhile, Ben was excited to be a father again.
After dating for a year, Cheryl announced she was pregnant. However, contrary to expectations, Ben did not seem very happy. He suffered from bipolar disorder, depression, and a fear of having children.
Their relationship became strained from that point. Cheryl really wanted another child so decided she would raise it alone without Ben. Cheryl ended the relationship while pregnant.
In January 1998, Cheryl gave birth to a son. Now Ben wanted to be part of the baby’s life, but Cheryl did not.
The Body at the Bottom of the Stairs
In November 2001, the Monroe County police received an emergency call from one of Ben’s neighbors. The man told the dispatcher he had knocked on Ben’s door multiple times with no answer, suspecting something was wrong.
When police arrived, no one answered the door. They entered through the garage. As soon as they stepped inside, police smelled death and found Ben at the bottom of the stairs. The victim was deceased, his body in the stages of decomposition. There was a lot of blood at the scene but no murder weapon was found.
Ben’s stepdaughter came to the scene. She told police her father had battled depression for many years. This was also not the first time police had been called to his home. Ben had attempted suicide twice before. So Ben’s children thought he had killed himself.
However, the crime scene did not show that this was a suicide. There was a strange shoeprint at the top of the stairs. Ben was wearing sneakers at the time of his death and the strange shoe prints were determined to not be his. On the wall, police found an orange-colored smear.
The autopsy concluded the victim suffered severe blunt-force trauma to the head. Ben’s skull was fractured in 3 separate areas. There were over 30 impact points on the wall. Police believed the victim was beaten with a bat or blunt object.
The Troubled Relationship
The autopsy showed Benjamin ‘Ben’ Amato was severely beaten. Police believed the killer had waited for the victim to return home, then attacked him with a bat or blunt object like a baseball bat as he entered. A bag was found on the stairs. There were no signs of a robbery – Ben’s wallet with around $1,000 cash was untouched in his bag.
Detectives spoke to acquaintances about whether Ben had any enemies and learned the neighbor who called 911 requesting a check on Ben’s home prior to the body being discovered frequently entered Ben’s house even when he wasn’t home. However, when working with authorities, this neighbor insisted he never went to the victim’s home unless Ben was present.
The neighbor also regularly wore boots, making police suspicious enough to request shoe impression analysis. Ultimately, he was ruled out as a suspect since his shoes did not match the strange shoe prints at the scene.
Investigating Ben’s personal life, police learned that 3 years prior, Ben’s ex-girlfriend Cheryl Kunkle had given birth to their son. Speaking with police, Cheryl said she was home with her children at the time of the murder.
Cheryl also revealed her troubled relationship with the victim. According to Cheryl, Ben had dark sides and made her feel threatened after she gave birth. She said Ben would sneak to her home or drive by and yell through the windows.
Cheryl said she had moved from her previous residence and was dating a local police officer at the time of Ben’s death. Investigators were skeptical since police often carry batons and nightsticks.
They requested to examine the police gear used by Cheryl’s boyfriend. There were no signs the baton had been used. This man had also never been near Ben’s home. He was ultimately ruled out as a suspect.
The Suspicious Break-In
Detectives shifted their attention back to Cheryl. She was combative when they requested to speak with her older son Gregory. Cheryl did not allow this since Gregory was under 18.
Around 3 months before Ben was killed, Cheryl had reported a break-in. She claimed thousands of dollars of her money had been stolen.
Cheryl had named two potential suspects. The first was April Steinhauser, a former close friend of Cheryl’s who had also previously dated Cheryl’s brother. However, Cheryl then declined to prosecute, which struck police as odd given the large sum allegedly stolen. At the time, they thought perhaps Cheryl had been threatened into dropping the charges.
The second name mentioned was Nathaniel Evans, who had been arrested on an unrelated charge. From jail, Nathaniel claimed Cheryl had offered to pay him to kill Ben. Cheryl provided Nathaniel with a photo of Ben, told him where he lived, and how she wanted it carried out.
Nathaniel said he and April were paid an upfront sum by Cheryl. But instead of killing Ben, they broke into Cheryl’s home and stole the remaining money. Cheryl then called the police but Nathaniel threatened to reveal she had hired them to kill Ben.
Nathaniel was incarcerated at the time Ben was murdered, so he was ruled out as the killer.
The Stalled Case
Police learned that the victim Benjamin “Ben” Amato and his ex Cheryl Kunkle were in a custody dispute over their son. Ben had been granted overnight visitation rights to have the son stay at his home. Cheryl was furious about this.
Nathaniel Evans, the man arrested on an unrelated charge, claimed Cheryl had offered to pay him to kill Ben. Nathaniel said he and a woman named April Steinhauser were paid an upfront sum by Cheryl. But instead of killing Ben, they broke into Cheryl’s home and stole the remaining money.
Confronted by police, Cheryl denied Nathaniel’s story. She insisted she could prove her innocence. Cheryl then went to April’s home and recorded their conversation.
On the recording, police could hear Cheryl ask April if she deliberately dragged Cheryl into a made-up story for revenge over their previous disputes. April eventually admitted she had to make something up because she spent some of the stolen money and didn’t want to go to jail. April stated she had lied to the police to protect herself.
Unable to find further evidence implicating anyone in Ben’s death, the case stalled until May 2004.
In May 2004, police were called to the horrific scene of a murder. The victim was 17-year-old Kristin Fisher and her 7-month-old daughter. Kristin was found with a ligature around her neck while her daughter lay in an upstairs bathroom. The deaths were ruled homicides.
The Family of Killers
When police asked Kristin’s mother who would want to harm her and her grandchild, she named Gregory Rowe, the father of Kristin’s daughter. They were in a custody battle.
Shockingly, police discovered Gregory was Cheryl’s older son. Gregory was arrested and also became a suspect in Ben’s years earlier death.
Gregory was 18 at the time of his arrest, so Cheryl could no longer prevent police from speaking to her son as before. In questioning, Gregory admitted he was at Ben’s house the day he was killed. However, he said it was his own mother who fatally beat Ben.
At 15 years old, Gregory was instructed to drive his mother to Ben’s residence. Cheryl told him to drive down the street and wait an hour while she went inside Ben’s house and waited for him to return from the store. Cheryl then attacked Ben as he began walking up the stairs, beating him to death with a baseball bat.
On cue, Gregory picked his mother up an hour later. On the drive back, Cheryl disposed of her bloodied clothes and the baseball bat.
Police also learned the recorded conversation between Cheryl and April was staged. Cheryl had threatened and coerced April into going along with it.
Cheryl was charged with murder. Gregory testified against his mother, describing her as a controlling and evil person.
After 5 hours of deliberation, Cheryl was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole. Meanwhile, Gregory also received two life sentences for the killings of Kristin and her infant.
