Cold Case Files - REOPENED: Lone Survivor

Episode Date: June 4, 2026

Three-year-old Vanessa Bennett becomes the lone survivor of her family’s brutal massacre in early 1984. Investigators at the time suspect that a serial killer is at large, but decades later the suspect pool narrows down to just one man.This Episode is sponsored by BetterHelpApartments.com - To find whatever you’re searching for and more visit apartments.com the place to find a place.BetterHelp: Visit BetterHelp.com/COLDCASE to get 10% off your first month.Progressive: Multitask right now. Quote your car insurance at Progressive.com to join the over 28 million drivers who trust Progressive.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This episode contains descriptions of violence and sexual assault. Listener discretion is advised. I don't remember actually being sat down and being told, hey, your parents are dead. But I'm a living witness to what happened. I always thought that he would come back and try to kill me and finish the job. Just having that hanging over your shoulder puts a great deal of stress on you and anxiety. He took my sanity. He took that me, that person.

inside that I was supposed to be from me. I spent a long time, a long part of my life, being a victim. And I chose from then on that I would never be a victim again. There are 120,000 unsolved murders in America. Each one is a cold case. Only 1% are ever solved. This is one of those rare stories. It's January 16, 1984.

A frigid Monday morning, in Aurora, Colorado, just outside of Denver. Connie Large Bennett receives a disturbing phone call from her brother about her adult son, Bruce, and his wife, Deborah. Bruce and Deborah worked for Bruce's uncle as the regional distributors of Bassett furniture, but they had not shown up for work that morning, and calls to their house have gone unanswered. There had been a gathering at Bruce and Deborah's house the night before

for their eldest daughter Melissa's eighth birthday. Deborah's brother Larry recalls the occasion. It was a celebration of Melissa's birthday. She was turning eight. I remember the kids laughing and playing, and, you know, it was festive. Debbie made it special. When Bruce's mother learns that no one can reach the family the following morning, she races over to the house in a state of concern,

but nothing can prepare her for what she finds inside. Connie immediately calls the police for help and detectives Wilson Egan and Marv Brandt are among the first to arrive at the scene I arrived at the scene on East Center Drive at about 1045 patrol was already on the scene as were crime scene investigators I've been a policeman since 1969

I've been to different crime scenes but this was particularly vicious very vicious they led me from the garage into the kitchen. As I entered, I looked to my right on the floor. I saw the body of Bruce Bennett. Bruce was struck about the head and face with a hammer, and I also observed that his throat had been cut. They then took me up in the staircase. We then entered a master bedroom, and there on the bed, I saw a female that was bludging to death. They took me into a girls' bedroom. I observed the body of Melissa Bennett, seven years old.

Melissa was also struck with the hammer. And she'd been sexually assaulted. The ultra-violent scene is too much for many of the seasoned officers to handle. The level of brutality and a horror inside of the house is overwhelming. And three people are dead. There is a glimmer of hope. I was advised at that time that when the fire rescue got to the scene, that Vanessa, who was three years old, was found between the wall and the bed.

Three-year-old Vanessa Bennett is found by firemen, barely clinging to life. She is rushed to the hospital and the medical staff do everything they can to save her life. The toddler's jaw is shattered and she has extensive damage to her head. She needs surgery to insert a metal plate into her forehead. and a tracheotomy to help her breathe. Nine news reporter Paula Woodward recalls the reaction at the scene that day. I knew that a family had been attacked.

I did not know how they had been injured. It was only later in working sources that I found out what had happened. It was horrendous. It was inconceivable. One of the first responders that I talked to who was involved with saving Vanessa, said she was hurt,

so badly and every once in a while she would give out this little sound, this little moan and he said, it broke my heart. And he said, that's why I can't let go of. I need to know how she is. I need to know that she's okay. Vanessa miraculously survives the attack that has claimed the lives of her parents and sister. Vanessa, now in her 40s, recalls what she can from that awful time. remember the sticky things on my chest, the things that check your heart rate. I don't remember if I asked more than once, hey, where's my parents? I would assume that I would as any child would, but I don't remember actually being told, hey, your parents are dead. I'm pretty sure I got the picture. For me, being that young, I don't really remember their voices or anything about

but they were really good, honest people. Vanessa's memory of her parents, Bruce and Deborah, is spotty, but relatives like her uncle Larry helped to fill in the gaps. Deborah was our oldest sister. She was a very loving, very caring, very affectionate person. My mother died when we were young. Deborah was 12. I was 11. And if it wasn't for Deborah, none of us would have made it.

She took the role of our mother and provided the love and the caring and the understanding that we all needed at a young age. On my 16th birthday, I moved out of the house, and Bruce and I became friends, became good friends. We lived together, and we're in several bowling leagues together. Bruce was a great guy. I mean, he really was a fantastic person. He liked a joke.

He was, you know, entertaining. I mean, I can picture him, you know, raising his leg as he turned around from the, from the throwing his ball and laughing at himself. Debbie and I are spending a lot of time together, having mutual friends, and, you know, things just happened. Bruce and Debbie got hooked up together, and Bruce really made Debbie happy. When Melissa was born, we were so happy to have the baby there, and Bruce figured out that he could join the Navy and provide a better life for Debbie and Melissa. And so that's what he did. Bruce is stationed in Hawaii when the couple welcomed their second child, Vanessa, in 1980.

They adore their girls, and after Bruce completes his service, the family returns to Aurora in November 1983. I remember the last Christmas. I remember my sister, you know, us playing together. Whenever we get in trouble, I'd play the victim. My great Aunt Mercy told me stories about how I would kind of put my sister to where she would get in trouble and I'd be the baby. Like, oh, she did it.

She did it. It's not me. I remember the kids laughing and playing, and Melissa was always smiling, always laughing. And Vanessa was a baby, barely walking. While Vanessa is recovering in the hospital, the investigators are told not to speak with her

because her condition is so serious. She was still suffering. She was still connected to the machines and the tubes and fighting for her life. At that time, we didn't know that we might be dealing with a serial killer. This really, really made me mad. It was like, I will catch this son of a bitch if it takes me forever. Finding the one can feel impossible.

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Back at the scene, investigators are scouring the area for the murder weapon. We never found the hammer that was used to commit the homicide, but there was a knife next to the driveway, which was in the snow, and that was used to cut Bruce Bennett's throat. Crime scene investigators are able to pull a usable fingerprint from the bloody knife that was found in the snow-covered driveway. Colorado District Attorney John Kellner recalls another crucial piece of evidence that's discovered in Melissa and Vanessa's bedroom. Investigators at the time found semen actually on the carpet that was underneath Melissa.

And then we also found on a comforter that was covering her body. There was also semen on that. We wanted DNA done on those items if they could do it. But you're talking about the mid-80s. Our state crime lab, CBI, said they weren't capable of doing it yet.

Investigators turned to the last people who saw the Bennets alive. The guests at Melissa's birthday party, Deborah and Bruce's family members. We knew they didn't have any enemies. I mean, they never would have had a negative impact on anybody. Bruce for no reason, Debbie for no reason, and certainly not the kids. You know, just trying to wrap my hands around it was just challenging all in itself. Bruce's mother Connie and his brothers Richard and Daniel were at the party until around 9 p.m. on the night before the murders.

And before he left, Bruce's brother noticed something. Richard told Connie, make sure you tell Bruce that the garage door is open and have him close it. She said she did, but Bruce, for some reason, didn't do it. And the girl was left open. It was an easy mark, and I believe that's why he went in. Detective Steve Connor recalls evidence that correlated with the theory that the killer entered the house. through the open garage. But there was a shoe print located in the garage

that didn't match anything else in the house, so they assumed this was the perpetrator's footprint. The investigators braced themselves for a tough investigation. But they received shocking news from a nearby city that concerns them. We got contacted by Lakewood that they had had a homicide

and pretty much looked like ours. On January 10th, six days before the Bennets were killed, Patricia Smith was a lot of, attacked in her Lakewood home. Patricia was sexually assaulted on the floor, bludgeon around the head with a hammer. Then the Benets came and said, well, we got a connection now.

And then more information started to come out that in the past 12 days before the Benetts were killed, there had been three other attacks. On January 4th, 1984, there was an attack on a, an attack on a couple inside their home. They were asleep in their bed. I think it was Kim first that realized someone else was in the room

and was attacking her with a hammer. She woke up, started yelling, and the perpetrator started running out of the house. Five days later, on January 9th, a woman named Donna Dixon was attacked with a hammer as she was getting out of her car. The door opened up, and the person grabbed her, and he hit her and raped her on the ground.

floor. He probably presumed she was dead, and by all means, she probably should have been. We've interviewed her numerous times, but she is unable to recall anything else about the case other than white male, shoulder-length hair. Fear grips the community as the investigators race to find a connection between the violent attacks perpetrated in January 1984. In addition to the weapon used, detectives identify another common thread in each incident. There was a lot of construction going on in that area. I mean, a lot of construction. Houses, departments, not only here, but also in Lakewood.

And the boot print is what they call a clutter boot, which at that time it was a pretty common type of boot for this area. It was made for construction type work. So my thought was the guy that's committing these offenses here, he's familiar enough with the area because he's working the construction in that area. The Aurora Police Department were pulling lists of anybody who had worked construction in the area.

Somebody hasn't seen something, but nobody had any information. Nothing. After being discharged from the hospital in March, three-year-old Vanessa is taken to the Center for Abuse Children, where she's examined by a therapist as investigators watch from behind a pain of glass. I remember there was a time

when I was younger in some like people were asking about, what did he look like? I don't remember anything, nothing. Once he started asking her about what had gone on, she became very, very agitated, and did they just stop the interview? Two months have passed since the brutal attack on the Bennets, and the detectives hit a dead end.

They have no eyewitnesses, and the physical evidence they have can't lead them to the killer. The case goes cold, and Vanessa Bennett moves in with her grandmother Connie to try to give her some semblance of normality. But life is an uphill battle for the young child survivor. Kids made fun of me when I was in elementary school for having no parents.

My parents were murdered. Don't go to her house. The hammer man will come get you. And kids would always be like, what's wrong with your face? It was embarrassing. It hurt. You know, I never wanted to be me. and just anything to be somebody else.

So it made me, like, kind of pull back and kind of isolate from people. And this is why I grew up so angry. I honestly just remember always being in trouble. I was always being a bully. My anger exploded a lot no matter where I went. Five years have passed with no arrests. And by January 1989, Detective Marv Brandt, steers the investigation back to the physical evidence that was found on the carpet

and the comforter in the girl's bedroom. We wanted DNA done on those items, but they weren't capable of doing it yet. We did check in all the time with them and ask, are you capable of doing this now? There was always something there that prevented them. But they said, we keep trying. Anticipating scientific advances, Detective Brandt asks for DNA samples from everyone who was at Melissa's birthday party on the night before the murders. We had them coming into the police department

so we could obtain their blood and hairs, you know, for testing purposes. Bruce's brother Richard presents himself for testing in February 1989. And what starts as a routine conversation takes a strange turn. When Richard was there, he was making statements to us about him being. at the party that night. He had a few beers that night. And he says, he went home that night with his mother, Connie Bennett.

And he told us about how he was floating around in a bubble. And I said, what do you mean? Floating around in a bubble. He said, floating around in a bubble. And I could see in the master bedroom window. And then subsequently, the bubble popped and he was inside the bedroom.

And then he went downstairs. And when he got downstairs, He was being chased by a person to the point where Richard ran up to the kitchen, tripped and fell. And when he tripped and fell, he looked over when he saw his brother's body. He said, I dreamed that. I says, do you actually think that that happened, Richard? And he says, well, it did to me.

Richard's statement about his dreamlike vision of the murder of his brother and his family raises the investigator's suspicions. Richard worked construction. So I thought, hmm, this might be somebody that might be wearing a pair of boots. And he did admit that he did have a pair of clutter boots at one time, but he threw him away. So that got us on the possibilities of him being involved. We started thinking of him as a good suspect. So we worked him as a suspect.

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Investigators now turn their focus on Bruce's brother Richard as a suspect. With Richard's background in construction and the likelihood that he owned a pair of boots similar to the kind that left the print found at the Lakewood crime scene, they asked those closest to the family if they think Richard could be responsible for the horrific triple murder. We were asked if there was a chance that Bruce's brother Richard could have committed this crime. and that really threw everybody for a loop. You know, just like, you know, what? I told Connie Bennett and the mother of Richard Bennett

about the dream or portions of it, and she said she didn't understand what that was all about, but she confirmed the fact that he did have his boots. They were very old, and he threw him away long before the murders. I don't believe he had an alibi other than he went home that night. There was nothing that other than his own statement. and his own dream that puts him at the crime scene. We didn't think we had enough to arrest him at that time.

We said, if this thing called DNA ever works out and if it pops up as him, then obviously it's different. It's now 2001. 17 years after the murders and the Colorado Bureau of Investigation are finally equipped to extract and compare DNA profiles. CBI found DNA, which only one. One person out of 18 million could have deposited that DNA. They said, if you get this person, that's the person that did your crime right there. We tested Richard's blood and the entire family's blood as far as DNA. None of this DNA that came off these items coincide with anything from the family.

Nobody in the family was involved in this murder, and that includes Richard. With Richard cleared, Detective Brandt runs the killer's DNA profile against every database available in 2001. Not every state had the same sort of DNA collection laws or the same sort of DNA preservation laws that would get these profiles into CODIS in a way that we could ultimately use. So we did what we could, but nothing ever popped up. There was nothing from the feds or from Colorado or anywhere else. And now by this time, you know, I mean, I'm getting ready to retire, and I'm going, well, I'm sorry, but I'm done.

It was hard to step away from. I knew we were getting very close. Luckily, it was given to the right person, Steve Conner. After 18 years, Detective Steve Connor takes over the Bennett murder case. It was a case that occurred when I'd been on the department in just three years. I was a field training officer at the time. I actually went in, and it kind of freaked me out. I had never seen a crime scene like that.

The image of Melissa laying on the floor, I think that was the one that probably impacted me the most. And it always kind of lingered. Detective Connor isn't the only one who can't forget the awful tragedy. Vanessa Bennett has been trying to recover from it for almost two decades. There was a lot of miscommunication and misguided anger. My grandmother did the best she could with what she had. She couldn't handle me.

And the older I got, the worse I got. She sent me to boarding school. And then when I came home that summer, I cut my wrists. And so she sent me into the psych ward. And then I went to group home from there. And then I was out on my own at 18. I'm a living witness to what happened. So I always thought that he would come back

and try to kill me and finish a job. Just having that hanging over your shoulder puts a great deal of stress on you and anxiety. And I started using when I was, I was 19. You know, I used heroin to make myself just go, everything go away. And that went on for a good 15 years. And I did end up homeless because of my addiction.

The fact that the murder of her parents and sister has been unsolved for so long compounds the fear Vanessa feels. I had this picture in my head, this monster who could do this to, you know, a child. I just wanted to see what you look like. To put a face to those nightmares, to have somebody to say, this is your fault. But I wasn't sure if the cops were doing anything,

if I felt like I was put on the back burner. I didn't think anybody would catch the guy. It's now 2018. And the detectives have run the DNA profile through databases every few years for more than three decades, but they are unable to have. identify a suspect through CODIS.

Detective Connor and Chief Deputy D.A. Kellner take on a new approach and team up with genetic genealogist Dr. Colleen Fitzpatrick. She would go into open databases that had the DNA information from like 23 and Me or Ancestry.com and she would just start mining different areas looking for close matches to the DNA that she had. She told me that if I got her a sample of the DNA extracted and analyzed, that she could tell me the last name of who the suspect was. Detective Connor shares the killer's DNA profile with Dr. Fitzpatrick.

She goes, I'll be back to in a few days. It was less than a week, and she called back and told me. She gave me the last name of Ewing. That name had never appeared on any of the reports that I could find. It's been 34 years since the Bennetts were murdered, and detectives finally have a promising lead. A man with the surname Ewing. Detective Connor,

wastes no time chasing it. I went to our prison database, and there was like three or four incarcerated Ewing's at the time, but the Colorado Bureau of Investigation was able to tell me that the ones that were incarcerated in Colorado were in no way related to the Ewing that we were looking for. So I went into our own in-house database of all the names of people we've contacted or arrested.

I didn't realize there were that many Ewing's. The number just in our database alone was huge. There were more than 40 people with the last name Ewing in the Aurora Police database. The next step in the research would be which part of the tree did they come from and then it would be my job to go out and start contacting people

within that family group. The process could take years. It's a case that's gone on for over 30. years. It's something that we continue to look into. But I had a bunch of other cases at the time that I was doing follow-up on. And in the back of my mind, I kept telling myself, you know, this guy's deceased. So I just kind of set it aside. And then on July 10th, 2018, at about 915 in the evening, I received a call from my boss. They got a codicid on the Bennett case. I go, from where? And he goes some inmate out in Nevada.

I got a phone call from Steve Connor. He says, you won't believe it. We know who our suspect is. He's been in prison since August of 1984. I said, well, what's his name? The individual's name was an Alex Ewing. Investigators pour over 58-year-old Alex Ewing's criminal record and discover that he had been arrested just 12 days after the Bennett's were murdered. Not long after the Bennett family murders,

Ewing popped up on the radar in Kingman, Arizona, or he allegedly bludgeoned a man with a rock. Alex Ewing was arrested for the Arizona case. He was in jail waiting trial, but because of what I was told was overcrowded conditions. He was transported to a jail up in St. George, Utah. The transport vehicle pulled off into a gas station to use the facilities in the Henderson area of Nevada.

and Alex Ewing escaped their custody. He entered the home to get away from being apprehended and attacked the homeowners. He bludgeoned nearly to death two people with an axe handle. He was captured in Nevada, and he was ultimately convicted of that attack for attempted murder. The crime was so horrendous that the judge in Nevada imposed a record sentence of 110 years.

Ewing had never had his DNA taken while he was in prison because it wasn't required back then in either state, but a law was eventually passed that meant that convicted felons had to submit their DNA. It's a viable lead and the investigators spring into action. They head to Carson City, Nevada, to interview Ewing on July 12, 2018. After an hour of questioning, the detectives broached the topic of Colorado and learned that Ewing lived in the area for a while, and he worked in construction.

Ewing asks for a lawyer, and the interview stops. He was looking at trying to get out of prison in the next year or two. He was eligible for parole, and I think he knew at that point that wasn't going to happen. After 34 years, Alex Ewing is charged with the first-degree murder of Bruce, Deborah, and Melissa Bennett. Prosecutors are unable to try Ewing for the... the two hammer attacks in which the victim survived, because 1984 Colorado law set the statute of limitations of attempted murder charges at just three years. But Ewing can be charged with the

Lakewood murder of Patricia Smith. Thirty-seven years after the murders of the Bennett's and Patricia Smith, Ewing pleads not guilty to four counts of first-degree murder. The Bennett's case is the first to go to trial on July 26, 2021. With the original first responders as witnesses, now District Attorney Kellner gives a horrific account of that night in January 1984. January 15th was a happy day.

When the happy family, partygoers left, they left the garage door open. Tragically, that's how Ewing got into the home. Even though Bruce was a big guy, he was caught off guard. And he was struck about the head first time. Deborah and the kids probably heard it going on were probably just scared to death.

I'm sure that Bruce was trying his best to get back upstairs to get to the kids and Deborah. Bruce fought for his family, fought for his own life, and it was a violent, bloody struggle, one that he lost. We had several firefighters and paramedics testify about what they saw. And it's something to behold when you see them cry. People that have seen terrible things that rushed into fires to save lives on the witness stand choking up. As they go back to the horror of that scene, I've prosecuted a lot of murder cases.

And oftentimes, when you pull back the layer of the onion, you see the motivation was something like greed. Maybe it was a gang rivalry. This case was pure evil. Ewing's motivation for committing this crime was absolute bloodlust for violence. Ewing's defense team argues that 34-year-old DNA evidence can't be trusted. But the jury doesn't buy it. Alex Ewing is found guilty on all three counts of murder. I came back at the end of the trial for this victim statement.

I told him that he took my sanity. He took that me that I was supposed to be, that person inside that I was supposed to be for me. And when it comes to my family, that was the most important thing to me in the world. Ewing wouldn't look at anybody, not because of a sense of shame, but because he didn't care. And then the judge asked him, do you want to say anything? And he said, no, thank you. The judge was particularly succinct, calling it an abomination, and sentenced him in Colorado

to three consecutive life sentences. In April 2022, Ewing was found guilty of the murder of Patricia Smith. He received a fourth life sentence for the fourth murder he committed during a 12-day spree of horrifying violence. The long-awaited justice

gives Vanessa the motivation she needs to change her life. I stood outside the courtroom thinking people. I went and hugged all the firemen. and all the policemen that saved my life. And then I started getting sober. And I started taking accountability for my actions. And started going to classes.

I went to school for psychology to be a drug counselor. I wanted to help people like me. I didn't want to be a victim anymore. I was tired of being a victim. I spent a long time, a long part of my life, being a victim. and I chose from then on them and I would never be a victim again.

Cold Case Files is hosted by Paula Barros. It's produced by the Law and Crime Network and written by Eileen McFarlane and Emily G. Thompson. Our composer is Blake Maples. For A&E, our senior producer is John Thrasher and our supervising producer is McCamey Lynn. Our executive producers are Jesse Katz, Mai Te Cueva, and Peter Tarshis.

This podcast is based on A&E's Emmy winning TV series Cold Case Files. For more cold case files, visit AETV.com. At first, I didn't think it was real. I woke up to this blinding light, and I was transported to another place. Pluto TV! Then I heard a voice. Come with me if you want to live. There were thousands of movies and shows, and they were all free.

The truth is our scene. It's just so beautiful. On Pluto TV, free streaming of Terminator 2, Fringe Arrow, the 100 NX files may cause excitement, loss of sleep, and sudden belief in extraterrestrials. No credit cards or alien encounters necessary. Pluto TV, stream now, pay never.