Ben is a man of security and full-force combat, as viewers quickly got to see when he rescued Jessica Chappell Arlington from a near-fatal car wreckage. Sadly, it appeared this would be his first and final heroic act, as he, Jessica and his wife were assumed dead following the car's massive explosion.
In May of 2001, however, Ben and his wife were revealed to have been recuperating at their cottage. His recuperation was met with a period of instability between Shanna (his wife) and Jessica, whose friendship took a dramatic turn following the explosion. During Shanna and Jessica's brief spell of antagonism, Jessica let it slipped while in the presence of Ben that Shanna had been married previously to Terrell Bryce while living in Louisiana. Ben, who knew nothing about his wife's past marriage, wanted some answers from Shanna, but she was adamant that she did not want to reopen that chapter in her life. Instead of accepting his wife's wishes, he decided to do a little digging around of his own and secretly flew off to Louisiana, leaving Shanna in the care of his best friend, Derek Guittierrez. Once Shanna got wind from Derek where Ben had wandered off to, she phoned Ben erratically, telling him that he had no right being in Louisiana and needed to come home immediately. When he refused, Shanna convinced Derek to go after him on her behalf, but Derek had even worse luck convincing Ben to come home. Of course, when the trail for information on Terrell Bryce ran cold, Ben left Louisiana. Shanna was relieved when her husband returned, but her relief was soon squashed when her hubby learned that Derek had gone missing while in Louisiana. Shanna had no choice, but to come clean with Ben about what happened to Terrell Bryce and why she would never darken the streets of Louisiana again. The fact that her ex- husband was murdered and she did nothing to seek retribution for his death made Ben ill. Furthermore, she was willing to leave his friend their to his own devices, when history threatened to repeat itself... well, Ben was not about to have that and instructed her that she would be going to Louisiana whether she liked it or not. Realizing it was futile to argue with her husband, she braced herself for the trip of a lifetime.
While in New Orleans, Shanna and Ben eventually stumbled onto Shanna's parents secret quarters. However, before Ben could do anything to stop Shanna's father, Shanna's mother (Charlotte Mallory) shot Ben with a tranquilizer gun. With lights out for Ben, and Derek doped up in the back room, hope for Shanna escaping alive seemed dim as she inquired what would happen next. Her father told her that she would have to die, but before he could act, a team of cops stormed the place. Despite being on the edge of killing his own daughter, Mallard was shocked that Shanna had betrayed him and her mother to the cops and promised her that she would regret it. However, seeing her father finally going down for his crimes was enough to convince her that he would no longer be a threat to anyone she cared about again. As a result, life for the Hemmings quickly return to normal, but you know what they say... things never stay quiet for too long.
Derek begin receiving ominous calls, which he attributed to his involvement with Shanna. Derek's problems with Shanna left him vulnerable to attack when a mysterious and very beautiful woman spiked his drink, and then proceeded to initiate intercourse with him. Derek was initially very suspicious of the young woman, whom he later learned was his wife, due to the warnings he received prior to their meeting. However, after getting to know the fair Shalia Mendez, he begin to warm up to her. Ben wasn't as accepting and felt Derek should find out more about this woman from an objective source before allowing his emotions to cloud his judgment. When Ben finally received a huge docier that would reveal all about Shalia, his suspicions against Shalia increased full-force when during a black-out, the docier disappeared. Despite chasing the culprit through the woods, Ben was not able to match their speed and he/she got away. When Shalia showed up the next morning at Derek's shop, Ben noticed the bruises on her arm (distinct cuts that one might get if she were running through the woods, and happen to scratch her arm on a couple of branches here and there) and confronted the vixen about it. Not believing her explanation, he went to Derek with his suspicion, but Derek refused to believe that Shalia was as calculating as Ben thought and feared that Ben was letting his anxiety over his wife's own duplicitious past shape his opinions of Shalia. Needless to say, the two men got into a disagreement, which led Ben to confront Shalia at her beach house. When he arrived at her beach house, he was not surprise to find that Shalia had no plant gardenfor miles, proving that her gardening story was a lie. He informed the vixen that her past will soon be common knowledge to everyone, especially Derek. Shalia decided not to let his declarations faze her until she learned that Ben was snooping around in New Orleans. Fearing what he would find, Shalia pleaded with Andrew to take care of Ben. Unbeknownst to Shalia, Ben had been in contact with Derek about his movement patterns and informed Derek that he was on to something big. Ben mysteriously disappeared while enroute to Coral Springs.
After weeks of not knowing what happen to Ben, Derek learned that the plane carrying his friend had crashed into an abandon field while enroute to Coral Springs. Despite Andrew admitting to Shalia that he orchestrated the crash, CSI officials have ruled the crash accidental. Before his death, Ben left a note to his wife saying his final good-bye.
