Ill Priest Accused of Theft Possibly Killed

A Roman Catholic priest who died while under investigation of allegedly embezzling $1.3 million to pay for gambling trips and luxury cars may have been murdered in his hospital bed, police said. Father Walter Benz, 72, who had leukemia and a brain virus, died Friday at a Catholic nursing home in Pittsburgh. His intravenous line and oxygen tube had been removed. A couple who were in Benz’s room when an alarm went off slipped away without being questioned, police said. Police were awaiting a coroner’s report to learn the cause of death. Parishioners were shocked last month to learn that Benz admitted to police he had stolen $1,000 a week over 20 years at two suburban churches.