University of Idaho prof. Ernesto A. Bustamante kills grad. student Kathryn “Katy” Benoit before committing suicide: Police

Update

Reports say former professor Ernesto Bustamante had been suffering from multiple personality disorder and was obsessed with Kathryn Benoit.

Benoit called off her relationship in March of this year and filed a complaint against Bustamante in June.

Around 8:40 p.m. Monday, Benoit was on the porch of her off-campus apartment smoking a cigarette when Bustamante shot her to death with a .45 caliber gun.

Original story

Authorities in Idaho believe a 31-year-old college professor killed a 22-year-old student he had been having an affair with before he committed suicide on Tuesday.

Police were about to arrest Ernesto A. Bustamante for the shooting death of graduate student Katy Benoit when they found his body in a hotel room.

Authorities say Bustamante died from a single gunshot wound to the head.

Benoit was found suffering from multiple gunshot wounds outside her off campus apartment on Monday.  She was pronounced dead at the scene.

Events led police to Bustamante, a professor at the University of Idaho who had resigned from the school where Benoit was also a student, on August 20.

Detectives searching for Bustamante found his rental car early Tuesday morning outside the University Inn Best Western.  Officers went to his room and when he did not respond they fired tear gas through his hotel window.

A short period later, officers went inside the room and found the professor dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Reports say Bustamante and Benoit were involved in a romantic relationship.  There are no reports on what led to the murder-suicide.

Bustamante was a professor in the university’s Department of Psychology and Communication for the last four years until her resigned last Friday.