Uncle Indicted in Death of Brooke Bennett, 12
Michael Jacques indicted in death of 12-year-old Brooke Bennett.
Oct. 2, 2008 — -- A man charged with sexually assaulting and murdering his 12-year-old niece persuaded another young girl to help him by telling her he was part of a child sex ring that selected girls for "termination," according to a federal indictment.
Michael Jacques, 42, was accused in the indictment released Wednesday of drugging, sexually assaulting and then killing Brooke Bennett, whose body was found in July in a shallow grave near Jacques' Vermont home.
Jacques was also charged with five child pornography counts. His lawyers did not immediately return messages from ABCNews.com.
According to the indictment, Jacques persuaded another girl, identified only as J1, to submit to various sex acts and to help in Brooke's abduction by telling her that a powerful organization named Breckenridge would kill her.
Starting in 2003, Jacques told the girl, then 9 years old, that the fake organization sometimes "terminated" girls, the indictment says. He allegedly used her fear of Breckenridge to coerce her into allowing Jacques to videotape her while being sexually abused.
In May 2008, Jacques told the girl that Brooke had been selected for "termination" and that she was "causing significant difficulties for J1's father, resulting in him being suicidal," the indictment says. The pair allegedly lured Brooke to Jacques' house in June by telling her she would be a guest at a pool party.
In documents released earlier in the case, federal prosecutors allege that Jacques used a pair of online identities to manipulate J1 into thinking she was working with several men who were planning to initiate Brooke into Breckenridge.
The girl, now 14, confessed to helping Jacques bring Brooke to Jacques' home, according to federal criminal complaints released in July.
She allegedly told state police investigators that she had been involved in sex with Jacques since she was 9 years old, when she got a phone call and received a note under her pillow that Jacques would be her "trainer" in a sex program called Breckenridge. To graduate, she told investigators, according to the complaint, she had to achieve a specific "success" rate.
