Legendary Forensics Sculptor Frank Bender Dies

Frank Bender lost his battle with cancer on Thursday

Forensics sculptor Frank Bender has died. Caretakers say the 70-year-old lost his battle to cancer at his Center City home on Thursday.

Bender, whose wife died of cancer last year, was a legend in Philadelphia. He made “hand molded busts” that helped police identify murder victims and aged killers.

His most famous case involved John List. List was the New Jersey man who killed his family in 1971 and disappeared.
   
“America’s Most Wanted” asked Bender to create a bust of what List would look like 18 years later. That sculpture led to List’s arrest.

Bender’s last project was making a bust for a woman found in the woods in Northampton County, back in 2001.
 

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