What happened to Eric Somuah? Details explored, as seen on Dateline episode While He Was Sleeping

Dateline Season 23 Episode 66, titled While He Was Sleeping, featured the cold-blooded murder of a fancy car salesman, Eric Somuah. While the detectives assigned to this case did not find any solid evidence or suspects, they did have their eyes set on Katrina Ben, Eric's neighbor and recent love interest.

Eric Somuah was murdered in June 2012 in his bed while he was sleeping in the comfort of his home. He was shot with a handgun.

However, there was no hard evidence linking Katrina to her lover's murder in June 2012, which stalled the case for about a year. Eventually, police found the murder weapon, which linked it to Katrina's father, and she was finally arrested for Eric's murder, as seen on Dateline.

More on Eric's murder, as seen in Dateline Season 23 in our story.

Dateline episode While He Was Sleeping Eric Somuah was a 'ladies' man.' Exploring details of his cold-blooded murder

Eric Somuah, a 33-year-old, dashing car salesman, worked at Manhattan Jaguar and Range Rover in North Bethesda. He had two elder sisters and one brother, who confirmed their young brother's 'casanova' lifestyle.

As per the sleuthing done by Montgomery County Police Det. Dimitry Ruvin, and told on Dateline, Eric would frequent bars and often picked new women every day and went home with them.

But what was shocking was that somebody had killed this young and promising man in cold blood at the comfort of his bed while he was sleeping. The police found him shot dead, tucked under his sheets, two days after his death.

Since there were no signs of a break-in or violence, the police suspected suicide. But the gun was nowhere to be found, and Eric's brother confirmed that his baby brother couldn't have taken his own life because he 'loved life' and there was foul play.

Who killed Dateline victim Eric Somuah?

Dateline Eric Somuah was killed by his girlfriend Katrina Ben (Image via JustThoughtLounge)

Detective Ruvin found a lead in the form of the handgun, which was Eric's murder weapon, almost a year after his murder.

This discovery took him to Eric's neighbor and recent romantic interest, Katrina Ben, who later confessed to the murder of her lover. Katrina was a traveling nurse from rural Mississippi who moved as Eric's next-door neighbor, and assuming from the salesman's flirtatious reputation, the two started going out.

As seen on Dateline, Katrina revealed that the two quickly became lovers and started sleeping together. But she got to know that she is one among the many women Eric sleeps with every day of the week (Monday), and feeling betrayed, she decided to kill him.

On the fateful night of June 2012, Katrina was watching a baseball match with Eric in his bed, where she was hiding her father's shotgun to murder him. Just as her lover dozed off to sleep, she shot him square and quietly left the apartment, unnoticed by anyone.

She later disguised herself as a concerned lover in front of Ruvin and tried to throw him off the case with false stories from that night.

As shown on Dateline, Assistant State's Attorney Jessica Zarrella confirmed that this was a murder out of jealousy:

“This is a cold, manipulative and devious woman...This was not a crime of necessity, this was a crime without explanation ... murder over the oldest motivation in the book: jealousy, anger and revenge.”

She added:

“He was sleeping, his hands tucked under his chin, under the blanket ... this was an execution-style, close-range, cold-blooded, premeditated murder...[Kathrina Ben] killed him because of a place she was relegated to on his social calendar and that is inexcusable.”

Katrina was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.