Aurora Hammer Slayer /// Part 2 /// 176 | Forensic Files

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that's enough of the business gather around grab a chair grab a fat tire let's talk some true crime
[Music] [Applause] thank you [Music] foreign in January of 1984 someone or someone's
they were going around to different homes and attacking people in their homes in the Aurora and Lakewood
Colorado areas now one thing we have tasked ourselves with for today Captain is there are
several common questions regarding these attacks now we should lay it out here quickly before we get to the questions
but in the first attack we have a husband and wife that are attacked in the middle of their night in the middle
of the night in their bedroom they both survived the attack the second attack happens just Days
Later where we have a 50 year old woman who's attacked inside of her town home she's raped and killed
the third attack a woman is sexually assaulted and attacked in her garage she basically has no memory no she's in a
coma for weeks yeah of the attack or the attacker and then the final attack that
we can see the fourth attack is the Bennett family in the middle of the night somebody snuck into the Bennett
family home they a fight ensued between the attacker and Bruce Bennett the father
and the attack left the father dead the mother dead the oldest child dead and the youngest child was sent to the
hospital who suffered horrible injuries and through many it took many surgeries to
try to um try to put it so that she could try to have a normal life after this attack and
having lost her family she would eventually go to on to live with her grandmother Constance Bennett now the
questions that we've seen that are common to these attacks in this cold case from 1984 Colorado
is were the four attacks connected and if there were no signs of forced entry how did the Intruder get into the
homes of these people how did the did the killer know the victims or if not how did he choose
these particular people or houses what was the motive for these attacks and the killings the attacks and the killings
ended with the Bennett family why why did the the killer stop did the killer himself die or did he just stop killing
or did he move to another state so several things to get to here today and I think if we can answer a lot of these
questions we might be able to have a better idea of who in fact perpetrated these attacks let's start with the
obvious question first were these attacks connected well that was a question that many people had speculated
on for nearly 20 years it was the thought of locals and the thought of a lot of armchair detectives that
it's likely that all four of these attacks were connected I mean we have the simple fact of we can't find any
sign of forced entry in any of these four attacks it appears that the same weapon was used or the same type of
weapon a hammer or something similar was used in all four attacks correct uh there where we have either a single
female or a family being attacked so the victimology is similar the the gaining entry to the home might be similar and
we also have the same weapon so it would have looked it would look that these attacks that all occurred mind you
within the span of 13 days in roughly the same area that they must be connected yeah and I think because
the timeline is so short you'd have you one would assume the problem that armchair detectives have had for those
for those 20 years or nearly 20 years I should say is that the details of the cases we don't have hardly any
information regarding the hobbins child case and that could be the first attack we do get some more information
regarding the second attack the attack that's the the death and murder of Patricia Smith and then there's a ton of
evidence or a ton of information out there on the Bennett family murders and that's the one that that's the cold case
that kind of resonated with the community and with the people of Colorado that's the one that they would
remind you of the anniversary of it and if there had been any movement in that case since since it had occurred in
1984. well one out of the four attacks two of the attacks people survived uh well actually in three of the attacks
somebody survived but the Bennett family case is you know it's it's pretty much the whole family yeah and all of those
attacks we don't really have anybody that's able to describe the attacker you know so if if we would have had a
surviving member of the family in each case go describe the attacker to us we could determine just based off of that
if they were in fact connected or potentially connected yes and I think I'm going to assume and we'll probably
get into this a little bit later but I'm going to assume that they had some um details about the attacker but not
enough where that they could you know make a sketch or anything the only details that I could find and I do I'll
give them to you now but it will Circle back to it later um was from the first attack from that
hobbins child attack there there is a rumor floating around and I want to be clear that I feel that it could be a
rumor there's information out there to suggest that Kimberly may have seen the attacker inside their home before she
was hit before she was struck over the head and in this situation she describes an African-American male who was in her
words well I I can't say for certain that these are her words that's why I want to be clear that this might be a
rumor was that she had stated that the man was well over six foot and and in in these
same reports I've also seen the word enormous used to describe this potential attacker but what we saw yeah I heard he
was a tall piece of [ __ ] or enormous piece of [ __ ] what we would later learn
like I said nearly 20 years later this was in 2002 that they announced remember there was DNA collected at several of
the crime scenes the DNA of the person who murdered the Bennetts was found at the Bennett family home as
well as the person that murdered Patricia Smith and her home yeah they announced in 2002 that the DNA from both
of these crime scenes matched the DNA collected at the other crime scene right so those those two are at least
connected correct um we can say science with scientific proof that those two cases are connected
and those in fact involve all of the actual murders that only leaves the other two cases where people were
attacked left for dead but in fact recovered later at the hospital now in those situations we have there
was a bloody boot print that was found in the Bennett's garage okay so it was OJ
yeah it was O.J Simpson um they what they did was they actually cut this this boot print out and saved
it and preserved it for many many years probably to still to this day like Bigfoot the thing here is there was a
similar if not identical boot print that was left in the garage of Donna Dixon so
that would connect that one as well yeah there I found two reports of this so obviously this is not something that has
been widely reported but it appears that we have scientific evidence that that all the murders are in fact connected
and it's very likely that whoever attacked Donna Dixon in her garage was the same person uh that killed the
Bennett family is there any information about the first attack as far as missing items
no there's there's like because some of the other cases that will say you know she had diamond rings or
diamond earrings or something and those were taken but it seems like with the first one there is no report of items
missing okay so yeah not only is there no report of items missing but we also have some other lack of evidence or lack
of information regarding the hobbins child attack we don't other than it being stated that
no forced entry was used to get into the home we don't know how you know we don't
know how they either determine that or B the way that this person gained entry what we do know is that the two victims
were sleeping in their bedrooms so they didn't answer the door we can gather that much as you stated we don't
know if there was anything taken from the home we don't know if Kimberly was sexually assaulted like some of the
other females were in other attacks right doesn't mean she wasn't it just wasn't reported correct
um and we don't know how much of uh if there was any struggle at all before the actual attacks occurred so what we heard
in the first trailer there where I'm describing the actual attack a bit of that is dramatized okay because
there is no information the information that's received that that I have found would suggest that they were in their
bedroom sleeping when the attack occurred this makes me question if Kimberly in fact even would have seen
the attacker at all right it makes me question that was she struck before she could have had the opportunity to see
him or was the room dark enough that she couldn't make anything out regard guarding this person before she was
struck over the head you're talking about she was either struck over the head before she had the opportunity to
open her eyes or immediately after doing so and suffering such a terrible head injury also would make you question or
me anyway question the validity of what she thinks she may have saw yeah you're not calling her a liar you're
just saying again who knows I mean the attacker could be wearing a mask that the attacker could
be wearing face paint you know if you're breaking into a house at night is it really that absurd to think that maybe
the person would be wearing face paint you wake up poor ski mask right ski mask you wake up you're in the dark your eyes
are adjusting maybe she believes she saw African-American male but like you said
I'm with you how much can you trust what she what information she's putting out there I'd say probably none of it we
know that this was the the middle of the night we know that this attack occurred
in January of Colorado I can't State what the exact temperature was that night but I can tell you that I
wouldn't put it at a question that the person was wearing something to cover their face not only for as a disguise
but two to protect themselves from the elements um you know it being January in Colorado
anyway so the other thing though here Captain is I came across two detective interviews uh that occurred over the
years both of them have stated several times during these interviews that they believe that the Bennett family murders
were connected to two other cases uh one that we say said was proven by DNA and the second one they wouldn't say it
directly uh the Dixon the Donna Dixon attack but I'm I'm assuming that's what they mean that they they are pretty
convinced that the three of them are connected the problem as we're pointing out is the hobbins child attack has so
little information right but their evidence is the DNA connection and the boot print yes
okay so this is this is pretty interesting here Captain armed with the DNA evidence that they announced in
2002. now let's go to June of 2002. the then district attorney Jim Peters he obtained a John Doe arrest warrant
charging John Doe this would be the person uh whose DNA was left at those two crime scenes with 18 counts
including four first-degree murder charges and a bunch of sexual assault charges
why is this important um because this is interesting because they have this person's DNA they don't know who he
is but when there there's an opportunity that at some point this guy could commit
another crime could get picked up for some reason where they would be required to take his DNA enter that information
into certain databases and it would link the two now the problem here is if he were arrested in Aurora or
Lakewood it's very likely that they um you know they would they would keep him immediately
the thing here is let's say this guy committed a crime in Maine or in Florida or in Washington and he's picked up
somewhere and they collect his DNA and it hits on in one of these databases well now the the local authorities of
wherever this man is arrested can go you know what we know we only picked you up
on a DUI and we would typically release you for this but we can't release you because there's an arrest warrant for
you in the state of Colorado right so he would be held until he could be extradited and charged with these and
brought to trial but there was another thing learned by this right yeah by the release of these of the DNA being
connected between the two cases the other reason why this is so valuable and one thing that they told us when they
released this information was that the police actually spent a lot of time when investigating the murders of the Bennett
family members they spent a ton of time looking at actually actual family members of the Bennetts of having
committed this murder right the triple murder because it was so heinous well not only that but it I think it's more
for this point that earlier that night that same night that they were attacked just hours before they had that birthday
party right where they had a bunch of people that they knew and a bunch of family members to their home
and I think that the police were working on a theory that maybe either someone had returned to the home like some like
I could go back to the home hours later and go hey I forgot I forgot my hat or I
forgot my coat and gain entry into the home that way yeah or you could be like I forgot my wig the other thing though
too is the thought that maybe somebody had concealed themselves somewhere in the home waiting for the family to go to
sleep and then decided to attack them in the middle of the night um the DNA evidence was used to test
against people that they were looking into whether it be Bennett family members or people that knew the Bennetts
maybe it's people that worked at the Family Furniture store they were able to use this DNA to clear those people and
with this information we could definitively say that three of the four attacks are connected then the question
becomes how did this Intruder get into the house if there's never a sign of force entry okay so I was able to track
down a couple of different news articles that took place that were written well after the crimes took took place this is
from 1994 from the Rocky Mountain news and I'm not going to read the entire article but there are some things that I
think that we should highlight here and in this article the person that is being
interviewed is Constance Bennett now in this article she's going by Connie I'm assuming that that's what her friends
and family actually called her but she's re she's recounting what took place 10 years ago from this interview and she's
stating that the next morning when the couple had failed to show up at work she remembers thinking that she better go
check on them because of something like carbon monoxide poisoning or carbon monoxide leak in the house yeah she
stated that when she arrived to the home she walked up the sidewalk she saw Deborah's purse lying on the front lawn
with its contents Spilled Out once inside the home she found Bruce inside the bloody spattered house on a
Stairway leading from the main floor to a lower level he was bludgeoned and his throat was cut
this is a direct quote from Constance or Connie stating I called 9-1-1 I couldn't
remember the address she said I had to run outside to get it I was hysterical I guess we'll get back into a bit of that
in a little bit but the other thing that she states here is she says after she called 9-1-1 the
important information here is that she says 10 years after the attack I believe whoever
committed this crime crept through the unlocked garage door in the quiet Darkness maybe on a mission to kill
could have been looking for money maybe high on drugs and she states that she doesn't think that it was anyone who
knew the Bennetts now I took this information then I I looked at this other article that was found from The
Denver Post in September of 2003 and this article is different this one is written by a neighbor who is kind of
he he doesn't talk so much about the crime itself yeah uh but he's kind of talking about the neighborhood and about
his family and what what having lived next door or lived across the street from this triple homicide and how it has
affected them and their neighborhood and he's stating you know that ever since that day this guy and his family are dog
people they always own dogs uh before the attacks good people he said that they people they own Irish Setters they
had always had Irish Setters before but now after the Bennett family was killed that they own Dobermans that they got a
more aggressive uh dog because of this attack now the thing here is though that he
states he had been watching a E's cold Crime Files one night before writing this article
and he stated that he he thought that the almost forgotten Bennett case was a perfect uh would be perfect for this TV
show Annie's cold Crime Files so he was kind of thinking back and reflecting on what he remembers of the crime in that
night and he says the memory of that night was burnt in my mind the garage door was open all night
he died of a slit throat his wife and daughter were bludgeoned to death little Vanessa survived so
in the case of the Bennett family we have the mother speculating that the killer entered through the unlocked door
from the garage nowhere in that article does she state that the garage door was open when she
arrived at the scene however we have a neighbor saying stating that that memories burned my mind the garage door
was open all night so what I think we can gather from that is that it's very likely that the Bennetts
accidentally left their garage door open most people don't lock the man door that
goes from your whatever room into your garage that's sexism and it's it's likely that the Killer
walked in through the garage through that unlocked door and started walking into the home caused some noise he woke
up the family and Bruce comes down the steps and they they fight now the reason why I read that other thing about
Constance saying that she called 9-1-1 but couldn't remember the the address remember they had only moved into that
home about three months before they were attacked and killed so it's you know not
unheard of that the mother wouldn't remember the address they had only lived there a short time but the reason why I
read that bit was one thing that I had always wondered about this case Captain was if this fight would have taken some
time between Bruce and the attacker and the Intruder I had always wondered why Deborah his wife hadn't called 9-1-1 and
and I had always speculated that possibly the killer before entering the home had cut the phone line outside we
now know that that wasn't the case he never cut the phone line because that's the same phone line that Constance later
used to call 9-1-1 to report her son and his family having been attacked right okay so how did the killer gain
entry into these different homes I think here we can't say with definitive proof
that he entered through the garage door but then I started looking at the Patricia Smith
case remember she lived in a town home and I guess when I pictured this in my mind I
was picturing you know like a condo but what I started doing was I got on Google
and I googled her address and I couldn't find that creepy it would only show me like the bank of town homes
let's say um you you have the Main Street there and then you would turn in and you have
multiple town homes they all share the same numbered address but they are distinct by a letter
so I couldn't confirm which one was actually hers the home that she was killed in what I could confirm was
looking at that bank of town homes they all had garages I just assumed her home never had a garage because her daughter
describes pulling up and seeing her mother's car outside parked outside right that doesn't mean that she didn't
park her car outside open the garage door and then go in through the door leaving that that door unlocked right
and again she could have heard her attacker come into the home she goes downstairs to
investigate or she's still upstairs by the time he gets upstairs to attack her [Music]
[Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] all right cheers mates cheers a little more information here Captain
before we get back to our questions that we want to answer for this the Aurora Cold Case Squad there is a detective
there Steve Connor uh he asked the parabon Nano Labs company this is a company based in Virginia to use its
newly developed technology to create an image of the perpetrator based on DNA predictions to determine the suspect's
ancestry eye color hair color freckling and face shape now remember some of you will remember we've discussed this on
cases before this is newer technology and they had DNA from two of the crime scenes this is that snapshot DNA Imaging
and we we've discussed this on several other cases one that comes to mind is the April Tinsley case
there are some things to discuss here Captain the images generated as requested by the detective show the what
the perpetrator may look like key word here we need to use is may look like but it shows what the perpetrator may have
looked like at the ages of 25 and 55 years old now keep in mind we don't obviously we
don't know the age of the offender these are just two ages picked by the detective at his request yeah there's a
part of me that likes that they do this but the more information I find about this because
basically what it's doing is it's coming up with a composite sketch based on the
DNA but this DNA doesn't tell you certain it only tells you it's so vague so it's
almost to me where it's like do the DNA test do a description but I don't necessarily
think they should do an actual drawing well you're right there Captain I I actually think they should do the
drawing but the reason why I say that you're right is that as much as this could help your investigation locating
this perpetrator it could hurt you in a sense that there's a chance that the actual offender today may not
resemble either of these pictures given and and meaning it could hurt you in the
fact that where you and I on the street might look at a guy and say you know what I know he lived in the Aurora area
back in 84 and he suddenly moved uh and and he's been here for 30 years but he doesn't look anything like the guy well
why would he not look anything like the guys because you you have some pretty generalities here of based off of what
the person would look like let's say the the older image showing him at age 55. well this is showing this to me it only
shows the face you know from the neck up and this appears to be somebody that would be of average weight well one
thing that would would change his General facial appearance simply would be if he was thinner than this or more
heavy set than this yeah also you can't factor in how hard of a life has this person lived is this somebody that's
been drinking constantly for the past 30 Years and may may have wrinkles and and
not look anything like this or or a smoker or somebody that's tan or or what if he was using his apartment for a
place for smokers to go to yes we've seen the effects that they've seen on Cosmo Kramer hideous Jerry hideous look
away so the the uh Cold Case detective he states that one thing he wants us to focus on is not so much the image that
has been created but that we should focus more on the physical description that is given
because of this information and stating that we are you know we're looking at a Caucasian person this is
somebody that would be leave to have the ancestry of Northern and or Central European ancestry they have fair to very
fair skin color eye color would be green or blue eyes hair color would be brown or blonde hair and would have a few
would have few to some freckles so obviously we can't figure out how tall the person is how much they may
weigh what kind of lifestyle choices that they've made since then that could change their appearance in some
different ways talking about Colorado and talking about this uh snapshot DNA I did see one where the where Colorado
used this technology to create an image of somebody and this was a um a person that I believe he was guilty of
a couple of rapes and had moved away and somebody saw the image of this person and sure enough made the right phone
call and this guy was picked up and they were able to determine that it was in fact him
the the funny thing here well not the funny thing but the thing here Captain is the guy he did look almost exactly
like the image maybe I should take back my no I don't think so I think I think it's right to
have a little bit of concern I we've seen it we've seen it used in several cases I've only seen one case where it's
actually led to the apprehension of the actual individual and this is why I said that I
think they had some evidence that this murderer was Caucasian because you know one of the things that Steve Connor said
was this gave us proof that they were Caucasian oh that they had some thought that this was a Caucasian male and then
this DNA evidence proved right that thought and I I kind of wondered maybe it could have just been a speculation
obviously but he he said that now we have definitive evidence and so again that makes me feel like he they knew
something before him where it makes you wonder it had somebody seen something was there some kind of eyewitness that
saw somebody fleeing the scene or did somebody see possibly maybe another motorist happen to see somebody driving
or tailing Donna Dixon in a car behind her and it was all I can tell you was it was a white guy or one of the people
that survived you know later said hey I believe it was a white guy the this thing thing here is we can only we
can only speculate as far as what the survivors go so we according to the information we have that was
reported in the papers and the media the three-year-old that survived she has no
recollection of the attack now is that simply that police said you know what we're going to state that in the media
so that this this guy doesn't come out of the woodwork and come looking for the Lone Survivor of the Bennett family
attack right uh you know she's a minor we also have Donna Dixon could be the same thing they could be protecting her
I have heard one of the detectives say in an interview that Donna Dixon has no recollection of the attack as far as
Donna Dixon knows she got out of her car and next thing she knows she woke up a week later in a hospital bed and and has
no clue what happened you bring up an interesting thing here though because we said earlier that there was some
loosey-goosey information out there that possibly Kimberly hobbin's child had stated that the attacker that attacked
her and her husband James in their bedroom that night in January 84 was a large African-American man and with this
DNA evidence what that would point out to us is is one of two things either either a uh this is not connected these
three other attacks are not connected to the first attack right or B for whatever reason she thinks that she
saw a black man and it wasn't possible it was actually this guy and it's all four of them are connected one after
what the hundred and seventy some episodes yeah with you uh I'm starting to learn a couple things
about what fascinates you about cases and you're a sucker for letters yeah well uh yes I am if I'm I'm a
sucker for with letters When a Killer would communicate with the media or the police uh whether it be letters or
through phone calls um and you you're kind of in a roundabout way getting to what I know
you know uh we need to get to at this point is the bloody letters that were left at the Bennett crime scene yeah and
could this be when we say letters though we mean could this be the name of the killer that was left on the body of one
of the victims this wasn't released to the public until 2015. the way that this works is this so
when the when the killer lifted Melissa's body this is the seven the seven-year-old
when he lifted Melissa's bloody body from her bed there were letters embroidered on this person's shirt that
transferred that were transferred in blood to the little girl's pajamas so investigators have always believed that
the letters could identify the killer's name or possibly the business where he worked or had worked at one time
this was something regarding the release of this information this was something that police and detectives they debated
for many many years on whether or not they should release this information to the public yeah because okay so the the
arguments for both sides would be one the Killer is probably very likely unaware that he left this evidence at
the crime scene and this could be deadly information when you find this person and you have him in the interrogation
room is he once you finally present this information to him how's he going to be able to explain it
away right so that could help to make an arrest then on the other you have where
if he knows about this information going into the questioning he may come up with
a plausible excuse or just be set off ready to deny it emphatically from the get-go right
because he knows the informations out there so regarding this this was something that the police actually
worked on right but the other side of the coin was that if you don't release it that you have such a Time Gap that
you know if you worked for a business that is now closed or closed way back in let's say 85. then like if you would
have released this information n85 or 84 that more people would be aware of this
business right and you had 30 years that have gone by by the time they finally do
release the information this information may be no good to to maybe it was only good to somebody that's not around
anymore right uh that could have provided you the proper tip the police they did work this information for quite
some time before releasing it to the public they actually sent it to two different labs to try to decipher what
the letters were or what they actually said uh they sent it to a Canadian lab who came up with the letters
[Music] p-e-t-a-w Dash c as in cat so p-e-t-a-w-c now the strange thing here though
Captain is they sent it to like we said two Labs the other was an Arizona lab which came up with something completely
different they came up with r-i-c-h-a-r so the second a c a i c h a r could be like the name Richard or Richards or
Richardson so why why would they come up with two completely different things well okay
you gotta you gotta keep in mind a couple of factors here first of all the obvious that would be something you and
I and other garage listeners could probably figure out is depending on how the killer picked up this girl how he
was holding her when the when they transferred the letters transferred in blood could mean several things either
the letters would be upside down they would be backwards simple things like that that you and I and others could
fairly you know easily figure out right the other issue though too is think about how this is not like you're taking
a like you're taking a stamp you know as something you dip in ink and then and then stamping it onto a piece of paper
and it dries immediately and it stays there no this is something that blood-soaked clothing the victim is
wearing potentially blood-soaked clothing that the Killer is wearing as well there could have been and there's
hours before the bodies are discovered so you're talking about swelling of these letters uh you're also talking
about Distortion of these letters and from the reports that I have been able to find that talk about the details of
this actual layout of these letters would describe that the way that her pajamas were at
the time that they believed that those letters transferred to her clothing was that there would have been folds on
those pajamas or right not and not only just folds but you're going to have also
a situation where he might have picked up the victim pressed his body against her
released her a little bit pressed his body against her again see what I'm saying or moved so removed her you know
friction right so the so the first time you if you press your body against and then when you release if then her
pajamas fold in a different manner this is why there could be such confusion right right so again those the two that
the labs came up with one is p-e-t-a-w-c and the other is r-i-c-h-a-r um very interesting stuff here I it
doesn't really lead me to anything but but then again I'm also not aware of companies back then
um you know companies in the area back then in 83 84. I do like the the chance of a possible name of Richard or
Richards or Richardson um something to that effect but back to our questions Captain you know we talked
about the DNA we connecting some of these cases we've talked about the how would the killer gain entry to the homes
with no signs of forced entry personal belief of mine is that the killer came in through the garage door I know that
when you and I you know you and I are roughly the same age and I know in my neighborhood growing up when I was a kid
oftentimes you could tell if your friend and his family were home during the daytime by simply looking out your door
or going down the street on your bike and seeing if their garage door was open yeah and you know when I was growing up
that and I grew up in the late 80s early 90s well you know uh I mean late 60s and so I I wouldn't be surprised if it
was a similar situation in this neighborhood in Colorado in these neighborhoods in Colorado
um and you could simply have a situation where the Bennett's having a busy house
full of people for the birthday party forgot or failed to close the garage door for whatever reason before going to
bed right well it's a good possibility that oh we're having this little birthday party for our daughter and
we're having some friends and family over and we're drinking a little bit you know and then it you get your kids to
bed and and maybe the the husband um you know passed out on the couch or whatever
you know personally I believe and it's just my speculation but I believe that would be the case with the hobbins child
case as well where the killer slipped in through the garage into the locked door
and then crept up into their bedroom in the middle of the night yeah now the next question we have to address Captain
would be did the killer know his victims and if not why did he choose these particular people or houses and I guess
you can throw in with that question what is his motive yeah I think you could um
for me anyway I mean my answer is is pretty much this I don't think that this guy knew his victims at all
I think that these were probably crimes of opportunity I think this guy was hell-bent on rape and murder so when
we talk about motive let's first jump to motive I think this guy was was hell-bent on
rape and murder I truly I think that's what I see here right I don't think he snuck into the Bennett home for any
other reason he wasn't there to steal anything he was there to attack whoever was in that home I don't think he knew
who was there right and you're saying there's a crime of opportunity because if their garage door was open yeah it
could be as simple as this guy's trolling neighborhoods oh that garage door's open yeah he goes out at two
three in the morning under the cover of of Darkness finds a home that happened to leave their garage
door open and here's the thing I would you know maybe you know that theory could be proved wrong whether these
garage doors were left open or not I think there's evidence to point that they were in fact open therefore to me
for it for for a victim that he wanted to Target to happen to leave their garage door open the probability of that
is crazy you can't even start to think about those numbers so this to me is a crime of opportunity how does this carry
over to Patricia Smith and to Donna Dixon I think he saw those two driving we know they were both returning to
their home shortly before both attacks occurred yeah so he'd be out trolling you know for maybe possible situations
later in the day and he just sees these females yeah and I mean they're they're attractive ladies that are driving
they're returning to their home both brunettes I don't know if he had a type or not it's tough to say that he had a
type when we're when I'm also saying that he he just picked houses because they happened to leave garage doors open
um well but with two of the victims he saw them driving yeah and I I think that that it's just that simple I think this
guy I mean you're talking about if it was in fact the same guy we know three of the attacks were but let's lump in
the fourth one well right but what I'm arguing is that you could kind of say that maybe he does have a type because
he saw these two you know these two females driving and he didn't I mean he probably saw multiple females driving oh
I guess we chose these two he chose to follow those two yeah and they they look similar I mean one's a little older but
you know they do look similar and the reason why I pick the motive is and I know it seems like I'm kind of not
giving a great answer here for motive but I don't think it's crazy to suggest that this guy was just hell-bent on
murder and rape you're talking about four attacks in the course of 13 days that is somebody that is has already
spiraled out of control this is somebody that is is attacking at a frequency that is unheard of well and
this kind of answers the next question you know why were some attacks you know during the day and some at night and
really like you were saying it could just be opportunity yeah we can't really whenever the opportunity arises for him
where whenever he doesn't have to be accountable for his time or whereabouts right and he sees a potential victim
whether it be women that he's followed in cars or homes that appear easy to get into he strikes and that makes him an
extremely dangerous and scary individual individual we're talking about nice communities too and whether it be a nice
Community poor Community bad Community whatever these are these are vicious horrible crimes yeah
so then I guess the final question is then why did they stop I mean obviously this person is a monster a monster like
this just doesn't just stop because they they seemingly have stopped and when we
say that you know the thing here is they they have stopped in that area and we can say that for certain the other
thing is they have his DNA and they have his DNA on file if somebody crept into somebody's home in the middle of night
and murdered a family and left his DNA there whether it be 15 20 years later right on the other side of the country
we're going to know that this killer didn't stop but they might have escalated you have a
lot of factors to throw in there I think well I think the first Factor you throw
in is that the last quote-unquote Hammer Slayer attack that you know again Bruce put up one
hell of a fight and maybe he'd maybe this murderer said you know what that's too risky I can't take that chance
anymore this this Hammer thing doesn't make any sense anymore because if I if I'm faced
with somebody like Bruce again I might not come out Victor right and so they could change
um you know the way in which they uh the weapon they use in the in the murders they could change the weapon that they
use or stop altogether uh the the the Intruder Also may have occurred in injury during that because you and
you're right to point out the Bennett and I don't think that I don't think that that's
um I think that there's plenty of proof there that there's good reason why that potentially may have been the last
attack or certainly the last known attack because the major thing that's different between that attack and the
previous three attacks is he actually has to fight with somebody yeah we got we got to put in some other factors here
so it's 1984 right it's we don't know much about DNA at the time yeah they collected it at two of the crime scenes
he may have left it most likely left it as a result of the rapes that occurred at those two crime scenes
the thing here is though that I keep kind of going back to is this guy whoever was doing this these are
extremely risky crimes that this guy is committing these are extremely risky attacks and murders
that he's committing we have two where he enters a home in the middle of the night and presumably doesn't know what's
on this other side of that door yeah he doesn't know how many people are in the home doesn't know if there's dogs in the
home to our knowledge I would consider that extremely risky event the other thing is the other two
crimes happened during the daytime one where one where he attacks a woman in her garage yeah she may have arrived
at home by herself but you don't know if there's somebody inside that home right
same with Patricia Smith who came home she happened to come home by herself and there happened to be nobody inside the
home I think what what may have occurred here and this is pure speculation on my
part but I think that Bruce God bless him I think he injured this guy in some manner during the the fight that took
place in the Bennett household yeah I think this guy might have been injured and chose to move elsewhere or attack
elsewhere because of this injury I think that the the injury could have been a giveaway
I think this guy was actually either apprehended or killed at another CR at another
attempted murder scene yeah because chances are he's breaking into places so he could have broke into a place had the
cops called he went to jail for burglary or breaking and entering they didn't know he was a murderer but also during
this time period they didn't collect DNA so if you're arrested now they're going
to collect DNA put you on file but this is before this mandate so he would have to have been arrested before that
mandate now did he get out and just kind of stop who knows I would say that somebody like
this this kind of monster is probably not going to stop the other question here too is
you know it seems like his motivation was you know sexual in nature so was there an opportunity
the garage doors open he goes in struggles has this fight and then there's kids involved and is
that just enough for this monster to come back after the attack know that his time is running out
and maybe with these kids involved decides to take his own life that's a possibility yeah as well yeah I think
you're right I think suicide maybe like I said I believe it's a person that's already spiraled out of control before
some of these attacks occurred right yeah suicide could be very likely um again I think that if he didn't kill
himself that you're looking at a situation where the frequency of these attacks I wouldn't expect him to stop I
would expect him to continue to attack and probably fairly soon maybe because well maybe because of the injury that I
believe may have occurred at the Bennett house that he took some time off let's say to recover I think that for somebody
a little psychological thing here that I would throw in is somebody willing to enter a home in that does not know
what's going on in that home or who is in that home or what weapons that the members of that family may have
this might be somebody that's very confident in their physical ability and when they sustain an injury they may
be limited in the sense where they for a temper temporarily are not confident in
their physical ability they take a take some time off and then attempt another one of these high risk Crimes by
entering someone's home or attacking someone in broad daylight in another location and the police didn't just they
just didn't connect the the two and maybe he went off and spent some time in prison and maybe it was a lengthy prison
sentence by the time he gets out he's no longer confident in his physical ability
because he's older or maybe some injuries occurred while in prison or maybe he passed away during that prison
sentence yeah all kinds of factors here I think the only thing that we have to go off of is a couple things one the
letters the bloody letters so I would say anybody that's listening to this case that is from that area
from Lakewood or Aurora or Denver maybe this guy worked in Denver and traveled to attack
but think about this you know round 84 to the family member of yours commit suicide to family member of yours
go away for a time period maybe passed away in jail or maybe one was sick and passed away
but maybe this family member or a friend of a friend was a little kind of shady do these letters do you want to go over
those letters again real quick yeah do they mean anything to anybody out there listening and the fir the first guess
was p-e-t-a-w-c and the next set of letters was r i c h a r and anyone with information should
contact the Aurora police detectives at 303-739-6106 or the Lakewood Police Cold
Case hotline at 303-987-7474 foreign [Music] [Applause] we want to thank everybody for listening
thanks for filling up the fridge thanks for all those little donations you know it helps keep the heat on in the garage
and it's freaking cold my friends so everybody you stay warm out there until next time be good be kind and don't
litter [Music] thank you

Aurora Hammer Slayer /// Part 2 /// 176

Part 2 of 2

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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 analyzes four violent attacks in 1984 Colorado, discussing connections, motives, and evidence surrounding the cases.

Key points

The Bennett Family Murders. In January 1984, a series of brutal attacks occurred in Colorado, culminating in the Bennett family tragedy.
DNA Evidence Connects Cases. In 2002, DNA evidence linked multiple attacks, confirming connections between the murders.
The Bennett Case Reflection. A chilling recollection of the night of the Bennett family's murder.
DNA Imaging Technology. Exploring the potential of new DNA technology to identify suspects.
Debate on Releasing Evidence. The risks and benefits of releasing evidence to the public.
Speculating on Motive. Analyzing the possible motives behind the attacks.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

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