Crime Junkie - CAPTURED: Hammer Killer in Denver

Episode Date: November 14, 2024

This episode was originally released in September 2021, and is one of sixteen episodes from the archives we'll be bringing you every Thursday, now through end of year... for good reason! ;) We highly recommend you listen to each episode between now and end of 2024, and follow us on Instagram @crimejunkiepodcast so you're the first to know what's coming next!

Hi, Crime Junkies. I'm your host, Ashley Flowers. And today, we're headed to Colorado, specifically Denver, a city full of art, culture, and outdoor adventures. But as you know, major cities aren't always all rainbows and butterflies. There was a moment in time when the beauty of the area became overshadowed by fear and horror. And that's when a real life monster was roaming the streets. A monster who senselessly ripped families apart and took away precious lives that deserved so much more.

And he almost got away with it. So let me take you back to 2021 when I first told you how decades later, before it was almost too late, justice was finally served. Hi, Crime Junkies. I'm your host, Ashley Flowers. And I'm Britt. And the story I have for you today is one of the most terrifying kinds of Crime Junkie

stories, because it reminds us all that we're all vulnerable. That no matter who we are, where we are, evil can still come knocking at our door. Or come sneaking through the garage. This is the story of the Denver Hammer Killer. January 10, 1984 was cold in Aurora, Colorado. Even colder if you're lingering outside at a bus station waiting for your ride. And that's exactly what Sherry Lutton was doing. She had just taken the bus back from work that evening, and she was waiting for her mom Patricia to come pick her up. According to reporting by Kirk Mitchell in the Denver Post, this was their routine every weekday since Sherry and her two kids moved to Aurora to live with Patricia after Sherry's divorce.

Sherry kept staring down the road, waiting for her mom to pull up so they could go pick up the kids. Where was she? She tried calling her mom at home, but no luck. Which to Sherry meant she had to be coming to get her, yet she never showed. When Sherry could wait no more, she called her cousin to come get her, and together they rushed to pick up little Amber and Joe, who were six and four. By the time they pulled up to the complex of townhouses where they lived, it was dark. And that prickle that had started low in Sherry's spine

trickled up her back because what she saw was all wrong. Kevin Vaughn for Nine News reported on their podcast Blame that the detached garage door was open and there was Patricia's car. Also, there was what looked like a TV on, just flickering through a window upstairs. So her mom was definitely home. This was so unlike her. Sherry and the kids hustled out of the car and up to the front door, the kids like making

their way in front of Sherry. When Sherry unlocked the door and flicked on the light, I can almost see her, like hands on the kids' backs, ushering them in, taking a quick step towards the stairs to go see her mom before her whole world imploded. It was Amber who saw her grandmother first. She was lying, feet from the door, and though a Winnie the Pooh blanket was covering her face, the blood around her made it clear that she was dead, even to six-year-old Amber. Amber told Kirk Mitchell, quote,

"'It's definitely an image that never leaves your mind.'" Sherry swooped up her children as fast as she could and got them out of there, then ran to a neighbor's who called police. When detectives arrived and actually looked at the scene in more detail, what they saw was horrifying. There was a reason the killer had covered her head. She had been beaten with a blunt instrument. And it wasn't hard to guess what, because right next to her body was a hammer.

And it also wasn't hard to guess a motive, or motives. Some jewelry had been taken off of her, and her pants were pulled down. So police were thinking that the killer was motivated by robbery and sexual assault. But could they tell which one was the killer's main motive? No not yet, but there were some indicators if they looked closely. Yes, her necklace and rings were taken, but nothing else really was. Her purse was dumped, but the house was relatively untouched. Police did what they could to process the scene the best they knew how in 1984, dusting

for prints, collecting items, but of course, all without gloves, because what's DNA? Ultimately, they didn't find anything useful. Nothing to tell them who did this, or more importantly, why. Patricia didn't have any enemies. In a letter to the Denver Post in 1984, her friend wrote to say that she was gentle and sincere. In fact, here, Britt, why don't you read actually a few excerpts from that letter just to give everyone a better sense of like who she was.

So the letter said, quote, Pat was a gentle, sincere woman with soft brown eyes and a sunder figure. She knew how hard life could be and why it was important to take the time to laugh, fast to respond to her friend's needs. Perhaps the person who took her life didn't know all of this about her, but I would like him to. He should realize that no matter what he was feeling when he took Pat's last breath of life, he took something from all of us who loved her.

He took her special qualities that touched our lives." End quote. That's honestly really beautiful and sweet. Who wrote this? Her friend wrote it, but wrote it anonymously. Because even when they sent this letter in, almost a week after Patricia's murder, the killer still hadn't been caught.

And everyone, especially those close to her, were afraid. Police didn't have any suspects. No one could figure out who did this, why, or if they would strike again. But here's the thing. To the public, this was a crime like no other. Completely out of the blue, unsolvable, because nothing like this had ever happened before. But that wasn't quite true. The public just didn't know about it before. But that wasn't quite true. The public just didn't know about it before.

Because similar attacks that never even made the newspapers or TV reports happened just days before Patricia was murdered. Wait, like, how many days? Well, the first similar attack happened six days before, and just a few hours away on January 4th in Aurora, Colorado. Now let me tell you about that attack. So in the wee hours of the morning, this guy, James, is up late while his wife Kim is sleeping. Jordan Chavez and Kristen Aguirre wrote in a piece for Nine News that James was making

this mixtape for his friend's aerobic class. As if you didn't need to be reminded that this happened in 1984. Truly. So he stays up till like 2am and by the time he does saunter into his bedroom, he's tired, he's distracted, and he's completely forgotten about the garage door he left wide open. But what you don't remember doesn't keep you up, and James drifts off to sleep. The next thing he knows, James is jarred awake by a slam to the left side of his head. When James recalled this moment to 9news, he said, quote,

I must have tried to wake up, and I put my hand up. The first thing I remember was my hand getting really big, hurting, looking down, and my hand was swollen. I saw the hammer and wondered where it came from." The fact that the blow didn't knock James out must have come as a surprise to his attacker, because he just threw the hammer at Kim's head and ran. And Kim, obviously awake at this point, called 911, and James looked all over the house to make sure this guy was really gone. Nothing was really taken except for Kim's purse.

But I guess that wasn't really taken per se either, because it was there, it was just kind of discarded, and nearby, all of the contents were kind of just dumped out. Now Kim and James were treated for their injuries, and police tried to get as much information as possible. According to an article for the Daily Sentinel from back in 84, Kim described her attacker as a black man with medium build, though she couldn't be more descriptive than that. And though I have to imagine police looked for this man and collected evidence, I don't have any proof of that because, again, that story was never picked up by the media, like, at all. Which seems so bizarre to me.

It seems like this is exactly the kind of story that you'd want to go out to the community. Like, does anybody know anything? Did you see anything? Oh, and also, this is happening. I don't know, maybe make sure your garage doors are shut, lock your doors, stuff like that. Yes, you'd think! And maybe if they would have made some announcement like, hi deranged hammer wielding psychopath is on the loose, be on the lookout, maybe Donna Dixon would have been looking over her shoulder a bit more in the wee hours of January 10th. Wait, January 10th isn't that the same day Patricia was attacked?

Yep, stay with me, I'm gonna lay it out for you. So in like the very late hours of January 9th and leading into the early hours of January 10th, a flight attendant named Donna Dixon is in her garage. I'm not sure if she's coming or going or just getting something, but while she's in there, she gets stunned by the blow of a hammer. According to a team of reporters for Fox 21 Denver, she is hit repeatedly and raped. Kevin Vaughn from 9 News says on Blame that the hammer gets left behind, along with most of the contents from her purse,

which are spilled out nearby. And again, there are no news reports about this attack. Like nothing, nothing at all. Not a thing. I mean, this dude is clearly escalating, and within like a matter of days. I know. So did Donna survive? Yes, she did survive her attack, but while she's in the hospital, that very afternoon

being treated for her injuries, that's exactly when Patricia Smith is being bludgeoned and raped in Lakewood, Colorado. Okay, so, zero excuses for me on why they didn't make these cases public in Aurora, but I'm not sure it would have prevented anything from happening to Patricia, you know? Like, the news of these attacks wouldn't have ever made it to her, especially in 1984. Well, no, you're right. I mean, I think even if the community in Aurora had been notified, it's unlikely that anyone in Lakewood would have even heard about it, to your point. And truly, even if they did, probably the last thing anyone thinks is that that kind of evil

will show up that very same day in the middle of the day to their own front door. But as we know, it did. And it was worse here in Lakewood than anything they saw in Aurora. But police were sure someone this brazen and this violent probably wasn't a first-time offender. If they had to bet, they'd say that he'd done something like this somewhere before. So Kevin Vaughn said on episode 6 of Blame that the very day after Patricia's attack — now this would be January 11th — the police send out an APB to departments nationwide. They explained the details of their case and they asked for any departments that have crimes

with similar MOs to give them a call. But the phone doesn't ring. Not even from the Aurora police? Not even from them. I guess I'm stunned. How did they not see how similar this is? Honestly, I don't think they saw the APB. And this is one of those things that we've talked about before where like I think we on the outside have this very cute and neat tidy idea of what we think law enforcement

looks like because in our minds like surely there are processes and procedures in place so things like a little notification system or something. Yes. So like things don't slip through the cracks because we're talking about people's lives here. But Kevin Bond broke it down in his podcast basically when these APBs go out. This message comes through on the other end, and it's up to each individual department to decide what they do with that message. Do they mention it at the top of their shift meeting?

Maybe they hang it up on a cork board and just expect officers to take a peek when they get a sec. Honestly, I'm not even sure how you guarantee it makes it off the fax machine. Yeah, I was just kind of thinking about this temp job I used to have as a receptionist, where I had to sort mail for this huge corporation, and trying to figure out, like, even what to do with a simple envelope sometimes was incredibly messy and confusing. And that was just like 10 years ago. This is how long ago? Like, this isn't still happening. This is the 80s, right?" Well honestly, I have no idea and I'm truly a little afraid to find out.

But in 84, when this APB goes out, this is how things are run. And so no one from Aurora realizes that their guy has moved, or that he'll be coming back with a vengeance. And one of those people who was none the wiser about the dangers lurking in her own little town was Constance Bennett. On January 16th, Constance was at work when she got a phone call from her brother. Her brother worked over at their family business, this furniture store, and he was like, hey Connie, your son and his wife just didn't show today,

like, and I can't get a hold of them. Is something going on? She didn't know what was going on, but she didn't like it. So being just a short distance from her son's home that he shared with his wife and two daughters, she rushed over to make sure everything was okay. According to an affidavit of probable cause, when Constance pulled up to the house,

she noticed the garage door was open. As she got out of her car and got closer, she could tell that the door which led from the garage into the home's kitchen was open a couple of inches. When she pulled it open the rest of the way and stepped through, she saw her son in a way no parent, no human, should ever have to see someone. Her son, Bruce, was lying on the bottom few steps that led up to the second floor. Blood that had seeped from a large wound above the bridge of his nose, a wound on his left

jaw, his throat which had been slit, and cuts to his left finger soaked into the carpet beneath him. In a moment, Constance knew why Bruce had been on the stairs. He was trying to get to his family. His wife and two young daughters would have been up there. But Constance couldn't walk over her son to get them. She called out for them but didn't hear a peep, and she knew that she had to leave right then to find help.

And in part, she was probably terrified of what she'd find if she went any further into that house herself. Because if Bruce's wife, Deborah, had been alive, wouldn't she have called for help already? Like, wouldn't she have gotten the girls out? When police arrived, it took no time at all to realize they were dealing with a true monster. Just as Constance had suspected, Debra and the girls were upstairs. The affidavit of probable cause states that Debra was found on the floor of her and Bruce's

bedroom. The two girls, Melissa, who was seven, and Vanessa, who was three, were in their room. Melissa is found lying on her back, there on the floor at the end of their twin beds. Her arms were above her head, and she had visible markings of being struck with an object. But that wasn't even the most disturbing part. The first thing that everyone who entered that room saw was how her pajamas were cut at the waist. And I'll spare you the details, but it was clear that this little girl, this seven-year-old

little girl, had been raped. On one of the beds above Melissa was Vanessa. First responders initially saw blood, but then, just then, among all the carnage was a miracle. Vanessa wasn't dead. She was still breathing. She had been severely beaten too, and they had no idea what kind of fighting chance she had, but the paramedics rushed her to a children's hospital to find out.

Meanwhile, police continued to process the Bennett house for any clue as to who did this. Bruce, Deborah, and Melissa's bodies were sent off for autopsy, which was going to be rushed and done the very next day. And they didn't mind waiting the day because they actually had some stuff to work off of at the house while they waited. First of which was a footprint. It was found on a comforter that was between the two young girls. And the comforter itself was soaked in blood, and the perpetrator had left a print right there, clear as day.

They also noticed something interesting. Something that they had seen before. There was apparently no forced entry, and nothing from the house seemed to be taken. Except there was a woman's purse, which the affidavit says was found dumped out and left on the ground outside the house near the garage door. Okay, so, liquid wasn't connected, I get it, but I mean, surely they see this connection, right? Like, to the case of the couple, to the flight attendant who took place, like, but that was all just like a week before. They do, which is what I mean when I said that they had plenty to work case of the couple, to the flight attendant who took place, like that was all just like a week before.

They do, which is what I mean when I said that they had plenty to work off of. There is clearly a pattern here. Yeah. Police are brushing up on those other cases and talking to members of the Bennett family when the autopsy results come in the next day. Bruce suffered 16 blows to the head, and they were consistent with a claw hammer. Deborah was hit five times in the right shoulder, twice in the face, eight times in the top and back of her skull, and she had a broken jaw. All the wounds in her

case were also consistent with a claw hammer. Melissa was hit nine times on her head with the hammer, and what anyone who saw her in that room already knew was confirmed. She was sexually assaulted. Now though these autopsies confirmed a lot for them, especially as they were drawing connections to the other cases in Aurora, it didn't provide any more information on their suspect. So on January 19th, police decide to do two things. First,

they put a call out to the public. In a Daily Sentinel article they say that they're looking for the public's help in locating people that they want to question. The first is a group of quote hippies who were repeatedly cited near the Bennetts former Aurora home last November, like they had just recently moved into this home, actually. And they tell the public that they are also looking for, quote, a Black man involved in a pre-dawn hammer attack on an Aurora couple earlier this month. Okay, but this is the first time the public is even hearing about this,

quote, pre-dawn hammer attack last month, right? Yes. Now, the other thing they do, according to another Daily Sentinel article, is that they send a lot of their evidence to this high-tech lab in Lubbock, Texas. For what? I mean, my mind immediately goes to DNA, but we're talking Lubbock in 84.

Well, they're specifically sending things off that could have fingerprints. I guess this specific lab had, like, this super sophisticated laser machine that they were using on some items, though they don't say exactly what items, but they also sent off items from their other two attacks with it. So at this point, they're pretty confident that all the Aurora attacks at least are committed by the same guy.

At this point, calls from the public are flooding in, pointing to this person or that person, drug dealers, teenagers, you name it, and police are trying to follow all of the leads. By the 21st, police had confirmed that they'd questioned at least six people about the Bennetts murders, but none of them were named as suspects yet. Now, at this point, this case is all over the news, unlike all the other stories I've talked about. It is all anyone in town can talk about, and investigators are trying to pour every resource into finding the killer. But on the 22nd, they have to divert their attention a little. Why? What on earth could be more important than this? It's not like this case is cold.

It's not even a week out yet. Well, they need all hands on deck to prevent another attack. Because you see, by now, police have discovered a pattern. And if they're right, the killer is going to strike again that very night. Because of all the press the Bennett Murders was getting, it of course caught the eye of investigators over in Lakewood, and they told Aurora police about the attack on Patricia Smith. And that's when it jumped out at them.

The pattern. Six days. Every six days, their attacker struck. First on January 4th with James and Kim. Then on January 10th with the flight attendant, Donna, and Patricia, who is the same day. Then again on the 16th with the Bennett family. Detective Frick told the Daily Sentinel, quote, we've noticed this six day pattern, and if it holds, the next would occur Sunday. So they put cars out patrolling up and down the streets. Every minute that passes, they held their breath. Every crackle that came over the radio

made their hearts stop for a second. But the night came and went without a single report. And on one hand, everyone is happy. But on the other, it's almost like they're waiting for their shoe to drop. Like when is he going to attack next? Exactly. The people in town are afraid, like really afraid. They show up to community meetings about safety, gun sales in the area go through the roof,

and they all hold their breath waiting for the next attack. But day after day passes, and that doesn't come. And unfortunately, definitive answers don't come from Lubbock either. With nowhere else to turn, the Aurora police turn to the FBI in hopes that they can create a profile of their killer that might narrow down their suspect pool. Or I guess, in this case, like, show you which body of water to even start looking in. A little less than two weeks after the family's murder, Ron Walker from the FBI arrives in

Colorado. According to yet another Denver Post article by Kirk Mitchell, quote, Walker spent two weeks interviewing Aurora and Lakewood detectives and reading police and forensic reports, end quote. Ron Walker agreed with police's assessment. All four of these cases were definitely connected, definitely done by the same perpetrator. And he had an idea about what that person might be like. And here, Britt, I'll have you give everyone kind of the lowdown from this Denver Post piece.

Okay, so basically Walker suspected that this guy was an unsophisticated criminal, especially when looking at the few items that were taken from the victims. What you mentioned in all the cases is nothing big or super valuable was ever removed from any of the houses, just a little bit of jewelry from Patricia, and then all the cases had this purse that was dumped out. And that's because Walker thinks this guy doesn't really know how to get rid of big stuff. Like he doesn't know how to lift like a stereo or a TV and sell it to someone else.

Just like very easy, small person to person transactions. And they think this guy probably has some sort of criminal history, but it's probably pretty petty, like maybe trespassing and maybe even some of his earlier crimes weren't even reported. And he also thinks it's plausible that maybe he broke in places before and got caught, and that's when he started carrying the hammer around, kind of to use as a weapon if he did get caught while breaking in somewhere. And as far as the guy's background, Walker thinks there might have been some form of violence in his own past, and he probably has issues with drugs and or alcohol now,

and is probably kind of a loner. Now in each case, there were no signs of forced entry, and Walker doesn't think this is because the attacker is like super skilled or anything. He thinks he was really just targeting the easiest houses, like the ones with open garage doors or even unlocked doors This quote I found really interesting. He said quote. He was very juvenile in his approach How does he gain entry into homes? He walks on the street and jiggles doors end quote So duh Ron was like you guys need to be looking for evidence

Not just at the Bennett home or the homes where the other attacks happened, but dust prints on all the doors in the neighborhoods too. Like the ones that were locked, you might get lucky. And overall, Walker basically concludes that what drives this guy is rage and he's going to keep going until he's stopped. But that's the thing. The cases had stopped by this point. So to investigators, that meant one of two things.

Either this guy had gotten busted for something else and was sitting in jail, or he was dead. Decades passed. 500 people interviewed and nothing. As quickly as this killer ripped apart Colorado, he seemed to be gone. Vanessa had a slow recovery and she eventually went on to live with family, but her life was hard. She told Nine News that all you have to do is look at her to see the damage this man did to her. Not just physically, but emotionally too.

She spent her whole life struggling with substance use issues as a way to numb the physical and emotional pain. But part of her substance use, she says, is because she just got in with the wrong crowd. They were the only ones who accepted her as is. And, Brett, I have said this before on this show. Kids are awful little demons. But I never believed that more than I do coming out of this story because get this, Vanessa told Nine News that all through her childhood, kids made fun of her for what happened. Made fun of her because her family was murdered. They wouldn't invite her to sleepovers because they said that the hammer man would come for

all of them if she was there. Like oh my god. that the hammer man would come for all of them if she was there. Like, who the fuck is raising these kids? And can we please do better people? Like they're getting this from somewhere. Like that got me so freaking heated. This girl has been through hell and couldn't even get support. I would say the one time I mentioned to you

that a kid had said something that upset Eli at school You're like, okay, who is he? I'm gonna find where can I find them? The child is going to have to have a talk with me like I am raging at this point. This is unacceptable people right so I mean again like she was already up against like the worst and The world made it even worse for her. As the years passed, the case wasn't forgotten. As technology and science advanced, every now and then the evidence would get pulled out and retested. And according to the affidavit, this happened in 1989, when they retested the comforter

found in the girl's room, and they actually found what they believed to be semen on it, though at the time they couldn't really do anything DNA profile-wise. All they could do was test for blood type. But something else happened in 1989. to be semen on it, though at the time they couldn't really do anything DNA profile wise. All they could do was test for blood type. But something else happened in 1989. According to another newsdying piece by Kevin Vaughn published this very year, Vanessa had a memory of that night come to her. She went to police and said she remembered something about her attacker.

That he was, quote, a white man with brown or light brown hair, who was wearing blue jeans, a multi colored shirt and fuzzy gloves, end quote. Wait, didn't you say that at some point that all the other attacks described a black man as the attacker? Okay, so, yes, so this is a little sideways to me and I'm not sure when things changed. So technically, the only time a black man is described was by Kim. But she told the news that police had told her that all the victims described the same man.

But I don't know if that's actually true because I don't have that anywhere from police. And so I don't know if and when police gave up that description. And I'm not even sure if they were always just tentative about it. I mean, they did put it out there in that call and that paper saying that they're looking for, remember, they're looking for a group of hippies or in this black guy who was involved in another attack. So I don't know if Vanessa's statement got them to change it or if it at least expanded their pool of suspects, or if they were already expanded beyond that. I have no idea.

Right, right. But even if they used this updated description, it didn't get them anywhere. By 1999, the comforter was submitted again, along with carpeting from the girls' room to test for actual DNA, and by 2001, they were able to successfully extract a DNA sample, according to the affidavit. The sample from the carpet matched the sample from the comforter, so

they knew that it was a single perpetrator they were looking for. Not that anyone really doubted that, but it was at least confirmed. And with this DNA, an arrest warrant was made in 2002. Wait, so they got a DNA match? No, hold your horses. So there were no hits in any of the databases, so they made an arrest warrant for a John Doe who matched the specific genetic profile they had. And I think this was done for a couple of reasons, but I'm not 100% sure. So I think one, it was just to show some progress.

Like hey, we have this guy, we just can't put a face to it or a name to it. But also some of the charges were for sexual assault. And I know the way it works in most states is that once you find a DNA profile, that statute of limitations clock starts ticking for filing charges or issuing an arrest warrant. So by doing it for this John Doe, whenever they found him, they could still charge him. He could still be held accountable for all of the charges and not just murder. So this arrest warrant felt really big,

but with no name and no face, they were no further along. I'm honestly shocked to find that there were no hits. I mean, you said earlier, they didn't think this was a first time crime. Like this guy had to have done this before. Oh, for sure. And I mean, they said earlier they didn't think this was a first-time crime. Like, this guy had to have done this before. Oh, for sure. And I mean, they even had a guess how many times before, right? Like at least three other attacks before.

But technically that was still a hunch. And it wasn't until 2010 that DNA from Patricia Smith's case was officially submitted for comparison. And finally, they were able to determine that all their suspicions were correct. Those cases were 100% connected, 100% done by the same guy. But once again, knowing this didn't help find that guy. And really, they had been working under that assumption all along. So the years just tick on by. 2011, 12, 13, 14, 15. In 2016, the detectives try something new again when phenotyping becomes a thing.

They use the genetic profile to guess what he'd look like, which definitely confirms that the dude is white, but not much more than that. The Denver Post published the phenotype picture in August of 2016, and here, but you can take a look. Yeah, Ashley, I'm gonna be honest. This was really, really cool. The first like two or three times we saw this happen. But they look the same, right?

Like everything you see? Yeah, like the only thing that's kind of interesting specifically about this one is they do do an age progression on it, so like what he would have looked like at the time versus what he may look like now. But like you said, pretty generic white guy. It's so generic. Yeah, so surprise, surprise, no one knows who this guy is.

Right, he's like everyone and no one at the same time. Yeah. So you have enough for phenotyping, which means I assume they can do genealogy from that, right? Well, they can, but they don't have to. Because in 2018, there was a CODIS hit. In June 2018, law enforcement gets the call they waited decades for. The killer of the Bennett family was a man named Alex Ewing. And the killer of Patricia Smith.

Well, here's an odd tidbit. Apparently the DNA profile from Patricia's case had been pulled out of CODIS because they were going to go do genealogy. So there actually wasn't like that profile from her case in the system to get a match. Wait, why? Like, so when you get it pulled for further testing, it leaves CODIS? I don't know. This is something that's like totally beyond my scope of knowledge. I know that it's not like you're dealing with the actual sample. Like, it's just a- I was gonna say, it's like the profile. It's like a document, right?

Right. And the profile isn't even the same. The kind that gets put into CODIS versus what you do for genealogy is totally different. So in my mind, I mean, I get you're like, hey, it's been this long. We haven't gotten hit. We probably never will.

But it's also like not like a vial of sample that you're taking out that like cannot be. Yeah, what's the harm in leaving it in? Yeah, like my mind is blown here and I have a lot of questions, but maybe not for this episode. Yeah, so for our law enforcement homies out there, like if you could just like write it and let us know, I would love to know because it doesn't make any sense to me.

But once the detectives in Patricia's case heard about the match to the Bennett case, they obviously put it back in and sure enough, that got a hit as well. Okay, so who is this guy and how was he off the radar for so long? Brit, you're never going to believe this. This guy was sitting in prison right under their noses the whole time, literally since less than two weeks after the murders. What? After Alex killed the Bennett family, he he hightailed it out of Colorado.

But police were right, this guy couldn't be stopped, and he did keep going until he was caught. On January 27th, just 11 days after he'd slaughtered the Bennets, Ewing was in Kingman, Arizona, sneaking into the house of a man named Roy Williams. According to Kevin Vaughn on the podcast Blame, Roy was asleep when Ewing bashed him on the side of the head with a rock. And now it didn't knock Roy out, it just startled him awake, and he began to talk to his attacker.

He threw him off his game, and the attacker ran. When police arrived, they were able to see these very clear footprints or shoe prints left by the attacker, which they followed for miles until they disappeared. The whole department was out looking for this guy when an officer spotted a suspicious man on the side of a highway. And he pulls over, tries talking to the guy, and this guy is like engaging at first, but as soon as the officer is like, Hey, I'm looking for this guy quick way to clear this up

Can I see the bottoms of your shoes the guy bolts now? He doesn't get far and within 30 minutes. He's arrested Eventually, he was charged with attempted murder, but due to overcrowding He was moved to Utah for a while until his court appearance Okay, but I'm at this point Kingman Arizona should have had that original report from Aurora, Colorado, looking for- That APB. Yeah, like looking for similar M.O.s, similar crimes cases, anything like that.

Like, obviously if this isn't a hammer, it's a rock, but it's someone breaking in and bashing someone's head in. Yeah, in the middle of the night- Feels pretty similar to me. Yes, and this is where again, like was no one reading the corkboard? Or I just like like I don't know But like whose inbox has this been sitting in for 11 days? Yeah, and they haven't read it yet

Yeah, and if they would have read it, they should have read it They would have made the connection and that would have spared another couple from an attack Wait, they just let him out of prison. No, he escaped according to a Denver Post piece by Kirk Mitchell from back in 2018, authorities were transporting Ewing from Utah back to Arizona for an appearance in court. And apparently the transport team stopped for a bathroom break and somehow... No. Yep, they freaking let this guy escape. And dude like runs to a nearby Kmart, changes out of his prison uniform into some shorts and just like disappeared among the crowds or something

because he just like straight up was like in the wind. And what does this guy do the second he is free? He can't even control his rage for long enough to hide. He goes right on the prowl again. Obviously as soon as they know there's a convict on the loose, dispatch is notified and people are out looking for him. But then other disturbing calls start coming into dispatch. Kirk Vaughn reported that one person called in and said that there was a man ringing their doorbell,

saying something about calling a tow truck, but something about it felt off, probably because the guy was just like roaming around in gym shorts and no shirt. Another call comes in about the same shirtless guy running through yards. And that's because dude was going door to door, seeing what house he could get into. Just like what the FBI profiler predicted. Like that's exactly what they said was going to happen. Yep. And before they could catch him, he found an unlocked door. It was the home of a couple,

Christopher and Nancy, and their new baby. According to Kirk Mitchell's reporting, Nancy had gotten out of bed to get the baby a bottle when she saw Ewing come through the back door and into her house. She ran for her husband, waking him up with her screams, and by the time she was in the room, so was Ewing. He started swinging an axe handle at Christopher as Nancy tried to shield her husband. With every blow, part of Nancy literally broke her wrists, her arms. She tried to call 911, but Ewing went after her. And she had to hide under the bed, and after blow

after blow she finally pretended to be dead, which was the only thing that made him leave. Ewing makes a run for it after that, but he was apprehended two days later and 15 miles away at Lake Mead. By February of the next year, he finally went to trial trial and a jury found him guilty. So it was there that he sat all these years while the Bennett and Smith case went unsolved. He was there writing into newspapers and online forums looking for women to write to. Specifically, Kirk Vaughn read from some of his posts, quote, Lonely inmate, 35 years old, looks 25, brown hair,

green eyes, desires to write down to earth woman interested in getting to know someone that wants to build relationship on honesty and trust. Ashley, you didn't tell me I was gonna have to puke during this episode, I'm sorry. You need to give me a warning. He did multiple writings like these, trying to get correspondence with women

and again all from prison and he was there counting down the days until he was eligible for parole, which would have been in 2021. Okay I guess I'm struggling to like wrap my head around something like how could he just be sitting there this whole time and like there was never any sort of CODIS connection or CODIS hit like obviously there was like that weird anomaly with Patricia's sample, whatever. But aren't there laws that felons have to have their DNA tested and like submitted into a profile and a system and- So yeah, here's the thing. There are laws like that, yes.

But it wasn't for a long time until after he was put away. According to the Blame podcast in like the mid 1990s ish Nevada, which is where he was, made the law that said all felons should have their DNA collected. But this only applied to people who were convicted of a felony after the law was passed. OK, now at some point someone was like, Hey, we got a lot of people in jail, maybe they did something. Oh, good question. Good thought. Genius, right? So in 2013, they made an amendment that said, Okay, anyone currently in jail for a felony, you're getting tested too. But apparently, the administration at the prison he was at was basically like Nah, like they just ignored it and they ignored it for five years until the attorney general

Yeah, the attorney general had to come in and force them to do it. And what do you know in? 2018 when they start testing Boom, one of the biggest cold cases in Colorado gets solved Okay when you were gonna explain this I fully were expecting you to say like, it took so long because testing took so long because we see that happen so often. Oh, no, no, no. But they just weren't testing. You're just telling me that they just weren't doing it.

They just weren't doing it. Yeah. This could have been solved five years ago. Cool. Cool. Awesome. Ewing tried to deny his involvement. His defense argued that there were probably more than just one person there and the investigation was narrowly focused. And they pointed to the fact that there was other DNA apparently found at Patricia's crime scene. And it was the DNA of an unknown male. Now, granted, we're not talking semen, we're talking like touch DNA on, I think it was like her blouse and maybe even the hammer. And the truth is the scene was contaminated, right?

I told you early on officers weren't using gloves. This is something that came out in court. Now the defense also pointed out that evidence was not stored properly or like stuff wasn't sealed the chain of custody couldn't be proven. But at the end of the day, it was Ewing's sperm on the carpet and the comforter between the two Bennett girls and at Patricia's. That is hard to argue with. So the same year Ewing thought he might have a shot at probation, a shot at getting out

and starting his reign of terror all over again, he was found guilty. And he will never have the chance to hurt another family again. But I gotta tell you, this case really got me thinking about other ones. Cases like Jeffrey McDonald, who was like a father and a husband, who was thought to be guilty of his family's murder because no one could comprehend why a stranger would come into a family's home in the middle of the night and obliterate a family with no warning and no real motive other than violence itself. But that's exactly what happened here. Right, right. And there's actually another story like that where, according to police, a father had to be the killer because nothing else

made sense. And it happened right here in the Midwest. But maybe knowing about monsters like Ewing will make you, make all of our listeners, look at that case with more of an open mind. So I want to tell everyone that story next week. You can find all the source material for this episode on our website, CrimeJunkiePodcast.com. And if you love digging into this case, I highly recommend the podcast Blame by Nine News. And be sure to follow us on Instagram at Crime Junkie is an AudioChuck production.

So, what do you think Chuck? Do you approve?