Santa Clarita / Antelope Valley : Landscaper Arrested in Elderly Man’s Disappearance : Crime: Michael Benanti moved into James Young’s house and told neighbors he ran away with a new love.

A 37-year-old landscaper, who told neighbors and investigators that he had been left to handle the business affairs of a 73-year-old man who disappeared 17 months ago, was arrested Thursday on suspicion of murdering the older man, authorities said.

Michael Benanti, who lived in James Young’s house for almost a year following Young’s disappearance, was arrested at a mobile home park on Antrar Boulevard in Palmdale about 7 a.m. Thursday, said Sgt. Ron Spear of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

Investigators served search warrants at homes of Benanti’s friends and relatives in Chatsworth, Canyon Country, Simi Valley, Palmdale and Northridge and found jewelry, collectible coins and other personal items belonging to Young, said Sheriff’s Detective Mike Scott.

Benanti was booked at the Antelope Valley sheriff’s station and is being held without bail, Scott said.

Investigators also identified forged checks on Young’s account for thousands of dollars and recovered several vehicles that belonged to Young, authorities said.

Since Young’s disappearance in February, 1993, a motor home, motorcycles and a classic Porsche have slowly disappeared from his back yard, which one neighbor called a “junk collector’s dream.”

And even though Young was described by several neighbors as a cantankerous old man, dozens said they could not believe the account Benanti gave: that Young met a Mexican woman in Las Vegas, abandoned his previous life and all his possessions and moved to Mexico with her.

“Everybody would ask him (Benanti) about Jim, and he’d say he’d spoken with him but he didn’t have a (telephone) number or things like that,” said one neighbor who declined to be identified. “He once said he’d met him up north and given him legal papers because his wife didn’t like coming to the Antelope Valley.”

Young’s disappearance and Benanti’s explanation gave sheriff’s investigators cause for doubt, but with 20,000 missing-person reports to check each year, Young’s case was put together slowly, Scott said.

After almost a year, about 35 neighbors and friends signed a petition that called for the Sheriff’s Department to renew the investigation into Young’s disappearance.

“We knew this was not right, and it never did sit right with the department,” Scott said. The department was looking into the case, “but what you have to understand is that sometimes a missing person is voluntarily missing,” he said.

When Benanti moved into Young’s house after Young’s disappearance, those who knew and eccentric old man could not believe the landscaper’s story.

“He was very possessive of his property and belongings and it just seemed strange that he would let someone come in his house, when I know he would never let anybody do that,” said Pat Weese, a contractor who worked at Young’s house.

“Anyone who knew James Young knew that something like that would never happen. It would be completely out of character.”