Suspect in Modesto teen's 1986 disappearance may have confessed to burying her in Yosemite

Report: Suspect in Modesto missing teen case may have confessed to burying body in Yosemite

MODESTO — The longtime suspect in the 1986 disappearance of Modesto teen Susan Robin Bender may have confessed to burying her in Yosemite National Park.

According to the SFGate, back in the 1980s, a woman who lived with Raymond Lewis Stafford said he confessed to killing a female and driving to a campground at Yosemite to bury her body.

Police say 15-year-old Bender was last seen getting into a green van at a Greyhound bus depot in Modesto.

Earlier this month, Stafford was arrested in Texas in connection to her death.

We recently spoke to Bender's mother about the breakthrough in the case.

"It's a godsend. It is. I ask God to please direct somebody either to find her body or direct somebody to put this thing together and just let me get on with my life,"Bender's mom Pat Chupco said.

According to Chupco, the pair were secretly seeing each other despite him allegedly being a married man with kids.

Police say Stafford is in jail on charges of murder with special circumstances. 

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