Aurora Hammer Slayer /// Part 1 /// 175 | Forensic Files

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[Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] thank you Wednesday January 4th 1984 Aurora
Colorado in the middle of the night someone managed to enter the home of James and
Kimberly hobbin's child a young married couple they were both asleep when a homicidal
maniac crept into their bedroom the Intruder is dressed in dark clothing there are no lights on in their bedroom
and no light coming from the hallway as he entered the room he could feel his pulse start to speed up
the adrenaline in him escalating was almost as if he could feel the blood flowing from his chest to his arms and
legs and then down to his feet and hands his breathing became louder with each step as he slowly stepped one foot at a
time until he was at the side of James and Kimberly's bed he has been thinking about this for a
long time and now the time has finally come he was prepared and ready for what was
about to happen but the married couple sleeping in the bed were not the Intruder looked down at the sleeping
man James's head resting on a pillow the intruder with his weapon heavy in his right hand slowly raised the weapon
high above his head and as fast as he could with as much might as he could muster he brought his
fist down smashing the weapon into the center of James's skull James is not moving but the force of the
object hitting the Man created an earthquake effect on the bed and the Tremors awaken Kimberly
as she lifts her head from her Slumber she opens her eyes the Intruder bends over placing one hand on the bed to
sturdy himself and again he lifts the heavy weapon high above his head and as fast as he could
before Kimberly could turn and look at him he smashes in her head with some kind of heavy object
knocking her unconscious both James and Kimberly were hit multiple times before the Intruder left their home
somehow they both survived James and Kimberly suffered terrible head injuries due to
this attack neither could offer much of an explanation of who could have done this to them or why but what we do know
is sometime in the middle of the night on January 4th 1984. the terror had just begun
[Music] [Applause] [Music] thank you foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] 1983 50 year old Patricia Smith from
Nebraska she moved to Green Mountain Village Townhomes located in Lakewood Colorado she was helping out her
daughter Patricia's daughter Sherry Litton was only 29 years old Sherry was recently divorced and had moved with her
two children from rural Oshkosh Nebraska to Lakewood as well Patricia was a loving mother and
grandmother uh and moving in with them to help them out to help them adjust from the divorce and being relocated
over three hours away to Lakewood Patricia even though she was moving in with her daughter she was
happily married her husband Oliver had a government job in the state of Nebraska
and would have to remain there Oliver would often make the long drive to visit his wife daughter and grandkids on most
of the weekends Patricia her daughter Sherry and the grandkids this is six-year-old Amber and
four-year-old Joe they rented a town home at 12 610 West Bayard Avenue in Lakewood Lakewood is just a short drive
about eight miles Southwest of Denver Colorado and Sherry considered her mother Patricia to be her best friend
yeah Patricia was doing her best to brighten the lives of her family members during this this very tough time for
them and this to me Captain I think was this wasn't going to be a short-term Arrangement
um it you know Patricia was going to stay there as long as it took to get them settled in but it actually sounds
to me Captain like the plan may have been for Patricia's husband Oliver to eventually move out to Colorado to join
the rest of the family right so they could be closer to their grandkids yeah this would this would be either after
his contract was up with his government state job or maybe a upon retirement the two had a farm Patricia and her
husband had a farm out in Nebraska so obviously this would require selling the farm as well but Patricia started up her
own business after having moved to Lakewood Colorado she had a home interior design business
the family had established a daily routine for the school and work days the two ladies would get the kids ready in
the morning and get in Patricia's car and leave the house each morning they would first take Amber to school for
kindergarten then take Joe to church this is where he he attended a daycare center that was set up at the church
right and then they would continue on and Patricia would drop her daughter Sherry off at a bus station on 6th
Avenue Sherry used public transportation to get to and from her job Patricia would
continue on and go to work in the evening when both ladies were done working for the day Patricia would
then meet Sherry at the bus station and then they would go get the kids so pretty much the evening routine was the
reverse order of the morning routine yeah let's let's talk about Tuesday January 10 1984. yeah cause that evening
didn't go it didn't work out as usual you know Sherry the daughter she arrived her bus arrived at the station dropped
her off but her mother who was always there waiting to pick her up she was not there on this day her mother and the car
were nowhere in sight Sherry waited around for a bit and then started to get nervous
no matter where her mother was Sherry still needed to get her kids to go pick up her kids
so she used the pay phone and she started making phone calls she tried to call the town home where they lived and
there was no answer after several tries to the town home she then called a friend the friend took her
daughter from the school to the daycare she called her cousin and her cousin picked her up at the bus station and
from there they went to pick up the child the children from the daycare center and they drove back to their Town
Hall well when they arrived at the scene uh in front of the house immediately this
the scene felt strange to Sherry keep in mind by now it's it's dark out and it's evening time the first thing
that Sherry noticed was her mother's car was parked in the driveway it was parked
out in front of the Town Hall yeah now there were no outside lights on so you know how when there's no lights on if
there are any lights on inside the home if there's no lights outside but there's
lights inside the home you can pretty much see everything you know right away yeah well Sherry could see lights
changing color and flickering coming from the upstairs bedroom window yeah and most people like once it starts
getting dark they turn on the outside lights right I like to keep everything dark and wear night vision goggles
I feel like it gives me the advantage well the lights that were flickering they're coming from Sherry's mother's
bedroom window so other than the odd thing of no lights it appears that Sherry's mother Patricia
was at the home by now when you say flickering I mean just like turning on and off or no
Flicker and I'm glad you asked that the TV is on okay in the upstairs one of the
upstairs rooms and so when you see the lights changing and flickering it's just the TV yeah that's always a kind of a
creepy look by this time it's about a little after 6 15 p.m of course the alarming thing here
Captain is if Patricia was already at the home by this time why had she not picked up her daughter from the bus or
at the very least picked up the phone when her daughter had tried calling her several times yeah Sherry and the kids
got out of the car and they walked to the front door the door was locked Sherry started to get her keys out the
kids stepped in front of her both wanting to be the first to get inside out of the cold Colorado winter evening
Sherry unlocked the door and Amber her daughter pushed past her and little Joe and ran inside
unfortunately little Amber was the first to find her grand her grandmother on the
floor and an image in her own words that she said would never leave her mind fifty-year-old Patricia was lying on the
floor near a sofa just about four feet from the front door she was lying on top of a Winnie the Pooh comforter the
comforter was slightly folded so that part of it covered Patricia's head her hands and arms were crossed over her
chest even to little Amber's untrained eye it was clear that her grandmother had been killed and posed as if she were
lying in a casket left near the front door right where the next person to come in the home would
immediately find her Patricia's genes were pulled down nearly to her ankles her boots were still on
and she was wearing a sweater there was a large amount of blood on Patricia's face and around her head someone had
left a hammer lying on the floor next to her Sherry immediately gathered the children
and took them next door to the neighbor's home the neighbor man ran back to the town home and saw Patricia's
dead body and upon this he returned to his home to call 9-1-1 the police were quick to respond the
family remained at the neighbor's home while the police searched the crime scene for Clues
I'm guessing with a a killer on the loose and a murder scene they may have gone to stay with the with other family
members you know they had in the Denver area the homicide investigation was pretty
thorough the they quickly determined that Patricia had been raped during the attack there was no sign of forced entry
into the home and they figured out that she had been killed between the hours of
1pm and 3 P.M however the initial report was that she had been killed between the
hours of 3 pm and 5 PM well also this is 84. so a lot of people are not locking their doors
especially during the day maybe maybe more people would lock their doors at night but it was it was less likely or
more likely that people would have unlocked doors back in 84 than now so let's talk about real quick the the
no sign of forced entry as you're as you're getting towards there um the couple scenarios there are two
scenarios to talk about here Patricia was on her her lunch break okay um and this is what the police were able
to determine that she had gone to a Wendy's uh restaurant to pick up lunch for herself
she had returned home and she was attacked as she opened her front door this was the police Theory
um the problem with this police theory is there's evidence to suggest that Patricia was actually home for some time
before the attack took place right first of all remember we talked about the TV being on upstairs her body was found
near the front door on the main level of the Town Hall all right so she gets her
Wendy's she goes home she's gonna maybe watch a little daytime TV while she eats
her lunch and then knocked knock knock on the door she answers to the door the attack happens there well
right and and that's what I'm pointing out here at the very least she couldn't have been attacked as she was opening
the door because she had to have enough time to get in the home go upstairs turn
on the TV at the very least yeah and the and if she had food and she was attacked
when she's going in that wouldn't there be food everywhere okay and you you hint
to something there very important because the family had their own Theory the family suggested that Patricia who
had grown up and recently lived in a small town before moving to the larger City of Lakewood they said they think
that the killer knocked on the door thinking Patricia was just a trusting person and probably would have not have
hesitated to open the door letting the killer in and he attacked her immediately uh as upon her opening the
door again right and again this would not be uncommon for 1984. I don't think it would be that uncommon for today
you know you're at home during the day somebody knocks on your door there's so many of these solicitors how many people
are opening up the door for just whoever you know I actually have a problem with
both the the initial police Theory and the family's Theory Okay and like I said the TV being on points to me that she
probably was not attacked as soon as she had opened the front door the problem I have with her when she's
going inside when she's going first going into the home and and here's why so the police later find a receipt for
the Wendy's food that she picked up upstairs so we know she went there this wasn't a TV that was left on from the
morning time this was a TV that was turned on unless the killer for some reason decided to take the receipt to
her fast food upstairs and put it in her bedroom the the food I believe was found
up there as well it sounds to me I don't know it sounds to me like she didn't sit
down and consume much of this meal before she was interrupted right here's the thing that makes me believe that she
did not answer the door and this makes this makes the no sign of forced entry very tricky because we're
saying she she may not have been attacked Upon returning home and she did herself didn't open the door
Trisha wore a wig the wig was found upstairs and you know I don't wanna I don't want
to receive any crappy email for this but here's here's my guess okay send Nick crabby emails if here's my guess if I
wore a wig uh somebody knocks on my door I'm gonna put on my wig before I go answer the
door does that sound like a fair statement I thought you did wear a wig you should see the these locks man this
is my real hair not my real color Madison Reed thank you no but um that's just a guess I'm just guessing there
maybe that's not true 100 of the time all of the time but I'm going I'm going off the assumption that if I were
wearing a wig somebody knocks on the door I would probably put the wig on before going downstairs to open up the
door all right so your theory is that she gets food she goes inside the house she goes upstairs to watch TV while
she's going to eat her lunch and the Intruder comes in the door's unlocked yeah that makes the most sense to me
yeah yeah and it well and and like I said it's just the idea that sometimes when when break-ins happen and
they go there's no Force no sign of a fourth Century sometimes people just don't lock the door
it happens well and I also want to talk about real quick Captain why the um well real quick though sorry but to
me this points as an individual if she didn't have if she didn't consume much of her meal that this is not just some
random attack where he just picked this house for no reason or he was just riding by on his bike and sees this lady
in the window watching TV I think this was probably somebody that saw her getting the food
um you know fancied her on some level and Then followed her back to her place and
probably she you know studied the scene a little bit just kind of figure out is she by herself are there other people
in the house right and and and I think they kind of got the feeling the attacker
had this uh the feeling that no it's just her you know and he just went in well the other thing too is if you're
watching from the outside depending on how light it was out that day um you may you may be able to observe the
town home and see that from the windows even if the shades are closed that there's likely no lights on in the home
right and if she returns home and you're watching her as you said and you see boom a light turn on as soon as she
walks in the front door boom a light turn on in the upstairs bedroom you can you might one might assume she's the
only person in the home but there was nobody there before she returned the other evidence Captain the autopsy
showed that the cause of death was several very hard and violent hits to her head
um this of course consistent with the hammer that was found lying next to her as the most likely murder weapon whoever
killed the woman had removed two diamond rings from her fingers and removed a gold necklace that was around her neck
nothing else was stolen from the home in fact the killer didn't even check the rest of the home this is according to to
the police to see if there were other valuables that he could take evidence of a sexual assault was collected from the
body one thing that her daughter Sherry would point out in a later interview was that there were no defensive wounds
on Patricia's hands and arms this suggesting that she was knocked out by one or more blows to the head before the
sexual assault took place let's get back to the case of the Aurora hammered Slayer after this quick beer break
foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] we're back cheers mates cheers Captain
stay safe out there it's uh it's all snowy where we're at so hopefully it's uh warmer wherever you are all right so
in our timeline of the hammer Slayer we have the first attack and that is of the couple yeah so that
is James and Kimberly hobbin's child that were attacked in the middle of the night inside their home on January 4th
1984 but they survived yes and then we have the second attack which is going to be of Patricia Smith and she
unfortunately did not survive correct later that same day January 10th by now it's evening time the attack and murder
of Patricia Smith took place in Lakewood now I know this is the same day but this
next part of the story is going to take us back to Aurora Colorado remember from
the first trailer the first attack took place in the middle of the night in Aurora so Aurora is just about 15 miles
from Lakewood give or take depending on how far west and Lakewood you are and how far east you would be in Aurora I
don't have an address for Donna Dixon so we will just have to use the 15 mile distance as some thing to keep in mind
in Aurora 28 year old flight attendant Donna Dixon who worked for Frontier Airlines
she is driving home she pulled into her driveway and parked her car in her garage
as she got out of her car she was attacked she was struck in the head something very hard smashed into her
left temple she dropped to the ground her attacker pulled and stripped her clothes off of her Donna was sexually
assaulted on the concrete garage floor after the attacker fled the scene Donna Dixon was left bloodied very badly
beaten and unconscious her attacker had left her there to bleed out or to succumb to her head injuries and die
there on the cold concrete floor eventually Donna and the Bloody scene were discovered a call was placed for an
ambulance to transport her to the nearest hospital Donna was in a coma but somehow she survived the brutal assault
but because of the severity of her injuries Donna spent weeks relearning how to talk
which was important here Captain because the police were hoping that she could tell them who had attacked her right uh
later when Donna Dixon would describe the attack she says that the attacker bashed in her
head with a sledgehammer and beat her head against the wheel well another curious thing though is that
that same article that same news article where the crime reporter had asked Donna
to describe the attack and give her insights into the case there's a troubling phrase in there where it is
stated Donna's attacker or attackers had used a sledgehammer to attack her and why is that a troubling phrase well I
it's not so much that that in particular super troubling it's that a lot of people over the years have looked at the
you know now we've discussed three different attacks three separate attacks and a lot of people have looked through
the details of those attacks to determine if in fact they are all connected right if they were all
committed by the same perpetrator so some people have pointed out through the years that well while a hammer what what
we would believe to be a traditional Hammer was left next to the body of Patricia Smith and then we have this
next account the third attack where we have the victim describing a sledgehammer and I think there's a
couple things there to consider first of all if a traditional Hammer was used to
kill Patricia Smith and was left at the scene right well then the attacker just hours later would would not have that
same weapon to use on his next victim now where she says the word Sledgehammer I don't think we're looking at or
thinking about the same thing that you and I would consider a traditional Sledgehammer with the long handle I'm
thinking that we're probably talking about something that is just um right it's still a short Hammer
correct you can have a short Hammer Sledgehammer I mean a watch Property Brothers before
and but here's one thing that I want to point out to the listeners when when thinking about if these attacks are
connected and if in fact the details of these different uh attacks could lead one to believe that or take you away
from believing that with Donna Dixon in that news article uh there where she gives this account years
later of how the attack went down he is giving you information that was provided to her by the police okay where
she says that she was hit in the head with the sledgehammer and pulled to the to the ground and then her head was
bashed against the wheel well this information didn't come from her witnessing this attack
she actually had no memory of the attack at all other than getting out of her car
basically for Donna Dixon she got out of her car and then she woke up many days later in the hospital right
and that's as far as she remembers and and I know me and I'm sure a lot of people out there the same way that would
have happened to me the first thing I'm asking the police is one who did this why did they do this and describe the
attack to me as the evidence points out to you because I want to know what happened to me right it's probably a
crazy fan that you made mad that's probably what would happen well and I'm sure that she's able to give
this account because the police are relaying what they can see from evidence to to tell her you know hey you were
attacked immediately as soon as you got out of your car right you were attacked in your garage and we can tell by blood
that you left on the wheel well that your head struck that wheel well at least once if not multiple times well I
mean I guess the bright side of this is that she does not remember the attack and that she doesn't have those memories
that would haunt her right right and it was a long recovery but she would make a
full recovery and go on to live a normal life not affected by those injuries many
years later and one question that has come up time and time again regarding this case regarding the hammer Slayer
case is people have always been curious why the police would move the reported time of death regarding Patricia Smith
remember early on it was reported that she was killed sometime between 3 and 5 PM but then later reported that she was
actually killed between 1 and 3 P.M now the police the reason why this remains a question Captain is the police
offer no information or no insight as to why they changed that time frame I think
here if we look at the events of that day and if we look into the lives of these of the victims involved that we
can probably piece together why they made that change make some inferences here and what I think I would point out
is what did what do we know about Patricia Smith well we know that she is living at
that town home with the sole purpose of helping her daughter and her grandkids we talked about their daily routine
during the work week while their daily routine was to get up drop off the kids and then drop off the
her daughter at the bus station for her to go off to work so what inference can we make from that
is that their work day Patricia Smith's work day and her daughter Sherry's work day
is based more off of the kids schedule what time they need to arrive to school and what time they need to be picked up
after school yeah so we know that her body was discovered around 6 15 p.m that night my guess is that 3 P.M around 3
P.M was the first time that she was known to be missing she was not where she was supposed to be meaning she had
not picked up her daughter she wasn't waiting at the bus station phone calls are made to the town home
where we know she's ultimately found dead later so one can assume that they came up with the idea of three to five
being that she was unaccounted for starting at 3 P.M and she's found by 6 PM dead and we know that we had to have
some time for the attack to actually occur and for the attacker to flee the scene
so you come up with that three to five marker right yeah I think I think it makes more sense to take a look at her
receipt see if there's a Time on it you know that would be the starting point wasn't it well and I think that's
where you are exactly right my friend because now later they're going to tell you that the attack probably most likely
occurred between the hours of 1 pm and 3 P.M okay well why would that move we have to again look at the victim and
what that person was doing that day and like you said they found a receipt did it have a time stamp on it it would
have had a time stamp on it yes this information was not released to the public you mean the the time was not
released correct time stamp but what we can the inference we can make from what police did release stating that we
believe she returned home on her lunch break meaning that their that time stamp is
going to point them more towards a traditional lunch hour time um and then we know that she would have
had to have been killed or most likely would have had to have been killed before 3 P.M because that's when she is
now unaccounted for so if you take a look at that receipt as you had pointed out and the receipt says
12 30 12 45 12 50. and we know that she's not accounted for starting at 3 P.M then it's looking like this attack
occurred sometime between the hours of one to three my guess is that they had not discovered that receipt upon
releasing that initial information yeah possibly and then what like you said depending on what that time stamp is
let's say it is uh 12 30 then she has this travel time to get back to her house and and again with the reports
it's stating that well she didn't consume much of this food so unless she was interrupted with a phone call which
we'd have phone records of that um if there wasn't something uh hindering her or being a hindrance it's
not even the right word yeah let's go with that let's go with that word but for whatever
reason she has her food and she didn't she didn't eat all the food you know so you would assume that that
the attack happened pretty quickly once you returned home some other things though here Captain is that
they after these attacks they started rounding up um construction workers and home builders in the area and I mean the
area of Aurora and Lakewood right apparently both of these neighborhoods um in both of these cities were I mean
it was a housing boom for both of these cities during this time period of of late 83 early 84. so there's a lot of
homes being built and a lot of houses going up everywhere yeah and their thought was the weapon is commonly used
tool and construction yes the tough thing about this tool is it's not this is also a household object you know
most houses have uh a hammer and then the question becomes is this is this person showing up without a hammer and
finding one at the scene or is he bringing a hammer with him well that's you bring up an interesting point
because first off in the Patricia Smith murder the hammer was left meaning that when they state that the hammer was left
that means that they've shown it to the people the remaining people that lived at that home and said was this Hammer
here before this event happened and to the you know the accounts they're getting from these these people the
family members of Patricia Smith are no that's not that was not in this house prior to this attack
then in the situation with Donna Dixon I don't think that we have a hammer that was left or a sledgehammer that was left
at the scene there's no report of that um one thing I wondered though with them rounding up all of the construction
workers and the home builders and this might sound this might sound silly but sometimes it's these silly little things
that can solve a case or at least give you a decent lead all right let's hear your little silly idea okay so we know
that at least one hammer was left at a crime scene on January 10th yeah I would be curious to know if there were
any if they if they spent time looking at Hammer purchases on the 11th or the 10th or the 12th or
the 13th and the only reason why I'm pointing that out is obviously like you had said a common tool used by
construction workers and and home builders is in fact a hammer um or you know anybody in that a similar
trade right but my thing is if the perpetrator at least left one hammer at a crime scene
is there a chance he needs to replace that I I mean here's what I'm getting at if you have a you have an area like
Lakewood or Aurora and there's these attacks going on and it's fairly well known that the weapon used in the murder
was a hammer that was left there and then two days later you and I are at a site we're working together in some form
of uh you know where Craftsmen or we're we're Builders or something of that nature yeah I'd be the foreman yeah you
would be the boss and I say hey Foreman uh captain and I'd say go fetch me that concrete you mule and and I would go I
would I I'll fetch you the concrete but do you have a hammer I can borrow and you'd go Nick
ah I'm tired of you showing up without your tools all right let me try it Nick I'm tired of you showing up here you
gotta you got a future you got some real skills natural gifted but you can't can't show up empty-handed my my friend
you need to show up with your tools I'm just kidding it would it be a little uh suspicious if all of a sudden one of
these guys are showing up without that very common Tool uh yeah but look if there's let's say there's a hundred
construction sites that probably happens every day it might happen every day but
where I'm going is to the hardware stores and looking to see hey has anybody purchased hammers in the in the
past 24 48 72 hours I don't think that your idea is that silly but I think you would want to take it one step further
if there is some kind of evidence uh based on the autopsy that it was a different kind of hammer not the
traditional Hammer you know that maybe you should look into was there multiple purchases was there a purchase of an uh
the traditional hammer and then one of the smaller Sledgehammer I think if you could find that because those were the
same day those purchases might have been made at the same time but it's also per
it's also possible that um whoever this nut job is going around attacking people with a hammer
is you know let's say he's living with his mom his father has passed away but his father was into construction these
could be tools that you know that that would be another question that was not reported
was the hammer that was left what kind of condition was this in was this a 10 year old Hammer yeah did it look
purchased recently or yeah that's a good that's a good insight there well and the
reason why I wonder that is because I personally probably own I don't know five six different hammers right me I
would say I own it minimum three maybe four or five and yeah and there's a you know they all vary in age you know and I
have a couple older hammers that I probably should throw away but you know sentimental value Grand grandfather's
hammer or whatever so um I I don't know that that's one thing I'd like to know is this a new Hammer
you know uh and and then then you're again they probably did this if it was a new
Hammer if it was New Hammer they probably were checking local hardware stores right uh and and like I said
though I also think it would be worth checking and in case this person needed to replace it immediately for their
occupation if they believed that now the other thing though is we got to keep in mind we've not even determined that
these three attacks are actually connected yet it's looking that way there are similarities that would have
you believe there are there's no sign of forced entry into Patricia Smith's home
there's no sign of forced entry into the hobbins child's home right um we also and then we have Donna Dixon
who's attacked outside of her home in her garage but there was a fourth attack and I want to start off by saying this
you know when when you do a very simple Google search of this case uh and you can look it up in under several
different tags yeah um that's that's the hardest thing about this case yeah you could look it up
under the title we chose the Aurora Hammer Slayer um I've also seen it called Colorado Hammer man or any of the
many many different tags given to these cold cases you will get about one of three different articles reporting the
fourth attack uh so what we have done for this this portion is sort of compiled those three
uh more popular articles regarding the fourth attack to to tell to tell you the details uh of that fourth attack and in
relation to uh the next part of our Cold Case investigation because there are plenty of questions in this case but I
think let's go through this fourth attack first and get to those questions after but before we do the fourth attack
we have to take you back a bit to tell you about a man named Bruce Bennett uh Bruce married his high school sweetheart
Debra um they were they were young they were actually just out of high school when
they got married after they married Bruce joined the Navy he was there he served a four years stationed at Pearl
Harbor from 1976 to 1980. uh Bruce was a sonar analyst after the Navy Bruce was enrolled in college and he was training
or trained as an air traffic controller Bruce's family owned a family-run furniture store and Bruce was working
there however he was excited for a possible future career as an air traffic controller now Bruce Bennett and his
wife Deborah Bennett they both enjoyed living uh what others would later describe as a quiet life
the two along with their small children we have seven-year-old Melissa and three-year-old Vanessa they had moved to
a nice home in the 16 300 block of East Center Drive in Aurora Colorado Bruce and Deborah are pretty young
themselves Bruce is 27 and his wife is 26. they moved there over the course of the long Thanksgiving holiday weekend in
1983. where we left off in our case so far is January 10 1984. but we're going to move forward to
January 15 1984. this is a Sunday Melissa the Bennett's seven-year-old daughter she's going to be turning eight
years old later in the week so the Bennetts are going to celebrate Melissa's birthday on that Sunday so
they had some other family members over that day to join in the celebration so you know sometime on Sunday evening
things are winding down people have to work in the morning so their guests are starting to leave
I can't say for certain here what time the last guest or guest left but I do have something in my notes Here
suggesting that the last guests were leaving around nine o'clock maybe as early as nine o'clock or as late as 10
P.M Bruce and Deborah they cleaned up the party and put the children to bed sometime during the night
a cat burglar entered the home armed with a knife and a hammer trying to steal cats a noise must have awoken
Bruce and upon which he went to investigate the noise Bruce encountered the Intruder on the stairs to the home
and immediately a fighting suit yeah from the way it looks this was was quite the fight we have an intruder here
with a weapon and Bruce presumably unarmed uh regardless of how unfair this fight is this this would be
but what I can say is Bruce did the best to he could to protect his family well he said the Intruder had a hammer and a
knife correct yeah he he Bruce did the best he could to protect his family he he had been slashed uh he was slashed
several times in this attack he was hit over the head with the hammer um but yet
even though he had all these injuries he repeatedly crawled the stairs up the stairs covered in blood trying to
save and protect his family however he was unsuccessful the Intruder went to the master bedroom and he pummeled and
sexually assaulted the 26 year old Deborah leaving her head bashed in next he walked the hall to
seven-year-old Melissa's room where he did the same and then he walked into the youngest girl's room Vanessa and
repeatedly hit her in the head and face with a blunt object presumably a hammer and fast forward ahead a little bit to
January 16th at 10 A.M that's going to be the discovery of the bodies yeah and this happens because Bruce has not shown
up for work yet and as we said it's a family-owned business so one of the people that works there not sure maybe
if if she's the owner of the company but this is Bruce's mother Constance and like others I'm sure at the store was
just at the Bennett residence the day before for the birthday party and it's not like Bruce to miss work certainly
without notifying someone so Constance tries calling the house several times and with no luck she decides to go to
the Bennett house later she would say that she was afraid of something like Co poisoning
uh all right yeah so that maybe you know maybe the whole family had fallen asleep
for forever because of Co poisoning so she makes the drive and Bruce's Body was discovered that morning by his own
mother Constance Bennett who immediately called police now the Bennett house was a horrible scene
as you can imagine and and these attacks that took place I mean the the house and the rooms were so bloody
and the the victims so badly beaten and Constance having arrived at a home to see the unimaginable well she failed
to notice something very important that out of all the Death that had taken place in those dark early morning hours
death had missed the little three-year-old girl Vanessa yeah Bennett didn't know that Vanessa had had
survived the attack until a paramedic rushed out of the house cradling The Battered little girl in his arms
she was in very bad shape but she was rushed off to the hospital the other three family members of the of
the Bennett family Bruce Deborah and Melissa sadly were killed that night and pronounced dead at the crime scene
Bruce was found on the stairs Deborah in her bedroom and Melissa in her bedroom Melissa go ahead I was just going to say
I mean it's it's so so sad I mean one you know you applaud Bruce for trying you know to save his family and his
little girls and then I think just sometimes when it's uh when there are kids involved in an attack like this it
just seems like uh you know like this one just feels different than the other attacks well
it's a lot it's a lot to it's really a lot to take in all at once there and but then now we have this
you know very young victim that's alive that maybe they could give us some information yes and that's that's what
we're hoping Vanessa had skull fractures to both sides of her head um her jaw was shattered which ended up
sending Jagged bones into her windpipe um and I and I don't say that to paint a horrible picture for you I only say that
to try to too late well I only say that to try to describe how right this is it was you're yeah whoever did this has to
be a [ __ ] monster well and the thing here is Captain I point that out because I believe that whoever did this didn't
know that the girl was still alive I think that she probably looked so bad after he had attacked her that he
believed that she was dead a massive investigation had begun obviously uh this produced very little
leads regarding the house itself the early reports indicated the following that there again was no signs of forced
entry into the home there was also no obvious motive for the killings for the police nothing was taken taken from the
house except for a knife used to slash Bruce and a purse belonging to Debra which was scattered the the contents of
the purse were scattered in the front yard outside and the purse was left in the front yard as well and you'd think
with all these attacks happening that people would start locking their doors not saying that they didn't lock their
doors just because there's no sign of force entry right doesn't mean that somebody doesn't know how to pick a lock
right doesn't know how to get you know I could break into a lot of homes and you
wouldn't know that I actually broke in there like there wouldn't be any sign of that
I probably shouldn't have said that out loud no you shouldn't have uh regarding Bruce uh the early report stated that he
had been cut and slashed numerous times and struck in the head with a hammer the
district the I'm sorry the deputy district attorney had this to say quote it was quite clear he had fought with
the Intruder it's apparent he had struggled with his attacker in more than one location and on more than one floor
of the house he had numerous this is this is this is where you like it's sad because you're you're sad that Bruce
didn't survive the attack right but you're all you're in a way kind of proud of him yeah uh because because you know
why because [ __ ] the Intruder you know well and this is this is from the deputy
District Attorney's mouth you know she says that that Bruce had numerous injuries that could have killed him
that's how that's how hard he fought and how badly he was hurt during the course
of that fight and he wouldn't stop fighting it's going to sound a little silly but this
you get attacked right and then it's time to you know you're down on the ground you
got to make a decision right are you going to get up right you're going to fight you're going to keep fighting you
have your wife there you have your your children and I bet he pulled one of the Hulk Hogan moves you know where he
started waving his finger up well at round two you know and and yeah did he did he stop him no but like I said
that intruder you know had his hands full and and like you said it's it's a weird thing to I
guess say that you're proud of him but I you know I I don't know what else to call it right yeah it's it it sounds
weird to say that but I mean there's no other way to put it for me okay so let's
talk about this because I said that we took kind of you know three newspaper articles uh of the more of the immediate
ones that will pull up when you go to look into this case and kind of smash them together to present the whole thing
to you as far as the fourth attack and the murders of the Bennett family go um and I want to point out a couple
things here because many armchair detectives many web sleuthors have taken a look at this case over the years and
tried to figure out a lot of things about this case regarding the details about you know we've always heard the
devils and the details so that's why we pour through the details and try to see if we can gain anything or learn
anything about the potential attacker or attackers that committed these crimes I
want to First address one thing it has been it has been brought up several times
over the years that potentially if if all four of these attacks are in fact connected
that the killer was escalating meaning that he he chose to bring a knife and a hammer with him to the fourth attack
where on the first second and third there's no evidence of a knife being present but later in that story we hear
that the knife was probably taken from the Bennett family home and then it was it the bloody knife was found out in
front of their home was thrown down near the purse in the front yard yeah when we try to
figure out this person this this attacker and if in fact they were escalating I I would suggest maybe not
because it doesn't appear that this attacker brought the knife with him it appears that he in fact took the knife
from the Bennett home and used it during the attack my guess is that he went looking for the knife that he had
encountered Bruce he had this fight with Bruce he probably hit Bruce in the head
multiple times with the weapon he brought with him the hammer and when Bruce kept getting up at some
point this attacker believed that his own weapon was failing him and that he went looking for the knife and decided
he needed to use a different a different weapon a different method to kill the man that's trying to stop him inside the
home that he's entered and we know this because Bruce's Bruce's throat was Slash so ultimately
he he used a different method to to kill Bruce however we heard the uh Deputy Deputy district attorney stating Bruce
had suffered many injuries that would have killed most people yeah so where I say that people of question was this
this attack or this Intruder escalating I would guess I would say no and for the
simple fact that I think that this was an unplanned portion of this guy's attack you know we saw the previous
scenes where there was no knife used but he also left all of those victims in a manner which I believe he thought they
were all dead when he left there and I think he broke into the home with the intention of killing who was ever inside
and doing whatever he wanted while he was in there um but I don't see escalation here I
think that it's just happenstance that those people survived and thankfully they survived but don't you think that
with some of these attacks there it suggests that he would be casing uh the house or case in whatever situation he's
going into you know we talked about that earlier where you know you could have watched
Patricia Smith's home from the outside and judging by whether she turned on lights and there were no lights on
before that that would indicate that she was in fact alone but the problem I have with that is if
that were the case he could he could essentially do this in each one of these attacks you know Donna
Dixon was by herself so maybe he followed her in her car saw her driving home decided to start following her and
then he he Blitz attacked her as soon as she got out of her car he could have parked near her and just ran up and
started attacking her in her garage knowing that she either was alone or if there was somebody inside the home they
would have he would have a few minutes to gain control of the situation yeah you could have potentially followed
Patricia Smith home and and figured out if she was in fact home alone or not these other two cases
the the females not by themselves you know if in fact that that was his goal we know that that there was rape
involved in several of these cases um if if you're trying to get a female alone that was not the case with the
hobbins child attack or the case in the Bennett house so therefore that tells me one thing or
one of two things either um he's casing the houses as you suggested and maybe the whether there's a man
present or not does not affect his determination of going into the home right and my that's what my argument
would be is that to me it's a clear sign of escalation if the person case the house and knew
that it wasn't even just two people in the house but that there were four but they're the four and that there were
children involved and that you know I wanted that be by definition escalating it it would be but then you have the
other situation um part two of my answer would be maybe he's not watching the houses and does
not care who or what is inside yeah that he's just going to go in and take over the scene and leave a horrible horrible
bloody mess when he's done let's talk about questions here because one thing that we've tasked ourselves
selves with with this case because this is a you know this is a fascinating Cold
Case and there I've I've come across many common questions that people have come
up with within the first few years after these attacks had happened now we said Cold Case so you need to keep in mind
it's cold for a reason there were these four attacks that may or may not be linked but there were no more attacks
that we can find that were similar that could be linked to this so the questions that we've tasked
ourselves with answering and we're going to have to do this in the next episode because we're getting a little a little
lengthy here today but um that's what she said of the of the the first question is this it's not
clear if all four of the January attacks are connected so we'll try to answer that one tomorrow
um also because there were no signs of forced entry into the homes how did the Intruder get into the Bennett home or
the other homes did the killer know his victims and if not did he how did he choose these
particular people or houses also what was the motive for these attacks or killings
why was Patricia killed during the day and the Bennetts killed overnight and then also as we had already stated
the killings ended with the Bennett family murders why did the did the Killer die or did he just stop killing
or maybe he moved to another state so we're going to do some additional digging and see if we can answer these
questions for you [Applause] thanks for listening thanks for subscribing and thank you for telling a
friend until next time be good be kind and don't litter thank you [Music] [Applause]
[Music]

Aurora Hammer Slayer /// Part 1 /// 175

Part 1 of 2

www.TrueCrimeGarage.com

January 1984- A hammer wielding monster is attacking individuals and families in the cities of Aurora and Lakewood, Colorado. Two cities just 15 miles apart and both south of Denver. In several of these cases the attacker entered the victim's homes. It is not known how he gained access. All of the attacks were brutally violent and in each he either killed the victim or left them for dead. This sent a panic to all residents in the greater Denver area. Home alarm system sales and gun sales increased as people tried to protect their families. The killer who local police and detectives said would never stop seemingly did. The Hammer man slipped back into the nightmare from which he emerged. Tonight we discuss the details from the attacks and murders in this Colorado cold case.Beer of the Week - Fat Tire Belgian White Ale Garage Grade - 3 and 3 quarter bottle caps out of 5

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Brief Summary

The episode discusses violent attacks in Colorado in January 1984, detailing multiple victims and potential connections between the cases.

Key points

The Attack on James and Kimberly. In the dead of night, an intruder attacks a sleeping couple, leaving them for dead.
Patricia Smith's Tragic Fate. Patricia Smith is found murdered in her home, raising questions about the attack.
A Disturbing Discovery. Amber finds her grandmother's body, a haunting image that will stay with her forever.
The Attack on Donna Dixon. Flight attendant Donna Dixon was brutally attacked in her garage, leaving her in a coma.
Confusion Over Time of Death. Questions arise about the police's changing timeline regarding Patricia Smith's murder.
The Intruder's Attack. Bruce Bennett fought valiantly against the intruder but was ultimately overpowered and killed.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

The terror had just begun.

Describing the start of a horrific event.

6:00WatchNov 26, 2022

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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