Missing Coventry Man: Lived In Somerset

COVENTRY, RI — John Benevides, 46, of Coventry, has been missing for one week. His family has been looking in places he liked to go in the hope they can find someone who saw him. But there has been no news, according to his niece Amanda Benvides.

"We cannot even find someone saying they saw him past 1 to 2 p.m. Friday" (June 17), she said. "The last sighting we have was a man saying he saw him around 1 to 2 p. m. Friday cross through Family Dollar parking lot and start walking up the street on the side of Shell. I don't know Coventry, but I think that's off Washington Street. I know there's a bike path over there to the right; besides that I saw just a neighborhood. His girlfriend and I focused on that area the other day searching all along the bike path in the woods and what not. There is also a little patch of water off Washington Street maybe a quarter-mile from there he likes to hang out at, so we were looking around down there, too. As hard as it is to do, we're just looking for answers."

Col. John MacDonald, chief of Coventry police, said Friday the police have no updates to report. People who have seen him or have information are asked to call the department at 401-826-1100. According to the Coventry police department's post, Benevides has been "known to travel to Providence via bus and frequent the river that runs along Washington Street in Coventry on foot."

Kimberly DeCosta, Benevides' fiancee, said the search has been frustrating.

"No one has even spotted him" since a week ago, she said. None of it makes any sense, she added. He left his money, his house keys and his cell phone at home. When she returned home, she found the door unlocked and open. She's particularly concerned because he recently received some bad medical news. He wasn't taking it very well, she said.

"He thought it was a death sentence," she said. "I think he felt doomed."

Benevides has been disabled since a car accident, and she has provided care, she said. Over the past few weeks, he has told her he felt sick. But despite his health problems, he was apparently in a good mood when he was last seen. He stopped by the liquor store. Employees told her he "seemed in great spirits," she said.

"He came in and was joking around," she was told. The last person to see him works at Family Dollar. He said Benevides asked him for a dollar for the bus. He stayed outside the store, though. The clerk gave him a dollar for the Number 13 bus.

"I don't understand," she said. "His money was left at home." Although he didn't need to ask anybody for help, she acknowledged, he might have asked if he realized he forgot his wallet.

After that, he was seen in the Family Dollar parking lot talking to a man no one recognized. He was described as between 55 and 60 years old, based on the receding hairline and completely gray hair. The unknown man wore his hair in a ponytail.

The clerk speculated that Benevides may also have asked this man for bus money.

"They made a transaction," she said. Then the stranger walked away toward the back of the store and the woods. Benevides walked up by the side of the Shell station. That's the last time anyone saw him, she said.

Benevides doesn't know a lot of people in Coventry, she said. The couple moved to Rhode Island in October from Somerset, Mass. They're newcomers, and they stayed mostly to themselves.

"We're each others' best friend," she said.

His niece hopes to organize some people to help look for him. Meantime, they're hoping someone will recognize his picture and call police.