CARBONDALE - The 30-year-old son of Southern Illinois University Carbondale fundraiser Nancy Martin stands accused of strangling her to death earlier this month, during an argument over the house she kept in Pitman, N.J., officials said Thursday.

Gloucester County, N.J., Prosecutor Sean Dalton has charged Benjamin H. Martin with the first-degree murder of his 51-year-old mother. The alleged act occurred March 10, the day she arrived in New Jersey from Carbondale on university business, officials said. The accused son is the person who initially reported his mother missing March 19.

Martin turned himself in to police Wednesday and led investigators to where he allegedly dumped his mother's body in Monroe Township, roughly 10 miles from Martin's house in Pitman, the prosecutor said. Police found the body late Wednesday night.

Autopsy results confirm Ms. Martin died from "blunt force trauma to her neck area by strangulation." Benjamin Martin is being held in the Gloucester County Jail in Woodbury, N.J., on a $250,000 cash bond.

"This is a serious offense," Dalton said in a press conference Thursday. "Based upon our investigation, it appears that when Ms. Martin came to the house in Pitman, she confronted her son. The house was in a state of disarray. An argument ensued, and at that point Mr. Martin killed his mother."

Benjamin Martin had been living in the house Nancy Martin kept in the 300 block of Columbia Avenue in Pitman. She moved there in 2004 but continued to own the home even after taking a job with SIUC in September. Officials said Benjamin Martin has been unemployed for some time.

Officials said they believe Martin didn't dispose of his mother's body until March 14, when he reportedly drove a rented Chrysler 300 to an abandoned property in Monroe Township, hid the body in some bushes; then supposedly drove to nearby Washington Township, where he abandoned the vehicle in a parking lot. Police discovered the car the night of March 21.

Investigators said they've obtained surveillance video from a nearby business that shows Benjamin Martin leaving the vehicle. A search of the Martin home also turned up blood stains currently being tested by the New Jersey State Police, officials said.

SIUC officials issued a statement Thursday afternoon but did not take questions from the press. Martin was a 1976 graduate of the university and a development officer with the SIUC College of Science.

"On behalf of the SIUC family, we offer our condolences to those who knew and loved our colleague Nancy Martin. We extend our deepest sympathy to those who are struggling with this tragedy," said SIUC Department of Public Safety Director Todd Sigler. "When she (Martin) returned here in September, she was excited about being back on the campus of her alma mater. It's difficult for all of us, because we had hoped she would spend many years here."

One week ago, university officials hosted Martin's younger son, 27-year-old Matthew Leschan, as he and his wife asked for information into the disappearance of his mother. Leschan reportedly traveled to New Jersey this week and, along with 19-year-old brother, Joshua, convinced Benjamin to turn himself in to authorities, investigators said.

caleb.hale@thesouthern.com

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