When she was 19 Bruce was personal secretary to, and in a relationship with, actress
Brenda Benet, who was recently divorced after ten years of marriage to actor
Bill Bixby. Benet had been distraught over the death of her and Bixby's six-year-old son who had recently died from a sudden throat infection. Bruce called the police on April 7, 1982, after she had entered the home she shared with Benet in Mandeville Canyon in west Los Angeles and found the bathroom door locked. Police came and broke down the door to find Benet dead from a self-inflicted .38 caliber gunshot wound to the head.