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

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let's talk some true [Music] crime [Applause] [Music] [Applause] in January of 1984 someone or someone's
they were going around 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 mhm 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 yeah 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 uh 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 mhm 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 it where we have either a single female or a family being
attacked so the victimology is similar the the the gaining entry to the home might be similar and we also have the
same weapon so it would have look 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'
have one would assume the problem that armchair Detective 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 mhm uh well actually in three of the attacks
somebody survived but the the Bennett family cases 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 I'll give them to you now but we'll 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 6 foot and and in in
these same reports I've also seen the word enormous used to describe this potential attacker but what so 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 in her home yeah they announced in 2002 that the DNA um 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 scient
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 bootprint that was found in the Bennett's garage okay so it
was OJ yeah it was OJ Simpson um they what they did was they actually cut this this
bootprint 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 bootprint that was left in the garage of
Donna Dixon mhm 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 cuz some of the other cases it 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 a 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 that a bit of that is
dramatized M 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 regarding 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 liar you're just saying you again who knows I mean the the attacker could be
wearing a mask the 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 PO ski mask ski right ski
mask you you wake up you're in the dark your eyes are adjusting maybe she believes she saw African-American male
but you 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 out a question that the person was wearing something to cover their face not only
for as a disguise but to to protect themselves from the elements um you know it being January in Colorado mhm anyway
way 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 said 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 three of them are connected the problem as we're pointing
out is the hobbins child attack has so little information right but their eviden is the DNA connection and the
boot print yes MH 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 is 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 ped 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 mhm they spent a ton of time looking at actually actual family
members of the Bennetts of having committed this murder the triple murder cuz 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 mhm 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 bennets maybe it's people that worked at
the family uh 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 uh
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 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
constant or Connie stating I called 911 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 911 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 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 this guy and his family are dog people they always own dogs uh
before the attacks good people dog good people they owned 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 and he cold Crime Files so he was kind of thinking back and reflecting on what he remembers
of the crime mhm in that night and he says the memory of that night was burnt in my mind the garage door door was open
all night he died of a slit throat his wife and daughter were budging 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 mhm 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 memory's burnt in my 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 mhm and
started walking into the home caused some noise he woke up the family and Bruce comes down the steps and they they
they fight now the reason why I read that other thing about Constant saying that she called 911 but couldn't
remember the the address remember they had only moved into that home about 3 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 911 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 Conant later used to call 911 to report her son and his family having been attacked act
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 mhm remember she
lived in a town home and I guess when I pictured this in my mind I was P 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
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little more information here Captain before we get back to our questions that we want to answer for this the a 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 uh 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 uh we need
to use is may look like um 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 off a DNA but 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 uh a description but I don't necessarily think they should do an actual drawing well you're right
there Captain I 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
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 guy is 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 that has had on Cosmo Kramer hideous Jerry itous 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 believ to have the ancestry of Northern and or Central European
ancestry they have fair to very fair skin color mhm 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 um 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 M 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 look almost exactly like the image which okay so may 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 in 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 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 beforehand where it makes you wonder had somebody seen something was there some kind of eyewitness that saw
somebody fleeing the scene or did somebody see possibly maybe another motorist happened 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 a white guy possibly the the interesting thing here is we can only we can only speculate as far as
with 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 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 hobbins child had stated that the attacker that attacked her and her husband James in their
bedroom that night in January 84 was a large africanamerican man mhm 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 four
of them are connected well and after what7 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 When Love Letters When a Killer would communicate with the media or the police mhm uh whether it be
letters or through phone calls um and 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 mhm 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 um 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 information's 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 S such a Time Gap that
you know if he 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 in 855 or 84 that more people would be aware of this business
right and you have 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 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 P p e t a w- c as in cat so p 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 so the second a 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 got to you got to 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 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 um layout of these letters would describe that the way that her pajamas
were at the time that they believe that those letters transferred to her clothing mhm was that there would have
been folds on those pajamas all right 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 or moved 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 aw- c and the
other is r i um very interesting stuff here I it doesn't really lead me to anything I but
but then again I'm also not aware of companies back then um you know companies in the area back then in '
8384 I do like the the chance of a possible name of Richard or Richard's 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 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 often times 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 Mo
you know uh mean late 60s and so I I wouldn't be surprised if it was a similar situation in this
neighborhood in color in these neighborhoods in Colorado um and you could simply have a
situation where the Bennetts 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 I you it's a good possibility that oh we're
having this little birthday party for our daughter and we're having some friends in family over and we're
drinking a little bit mhm you know and then it you get your kids to bed and and maybe the the husband uh 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 mhm I think this guy was
hellbent on rape and murder so when we talk about motive let's first jump to motive I think this guy was was hellbent
on rape and murder truly I think that's what I see here right I don't think he snuck into the benett 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 it's a crime of opportunity because if their garage door was open that it could be as
simple as this guy's trolling neighborhoods oh that garage door's open yeah go there he goes out at 2:3 in the
morning under the cover of of Darkness finds a 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 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
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 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 happen to leave garage doors open um
well but with two of the victims he 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's saw these two you know these two females driving and he didn't I he probably saw multiple females driving oh
I get he 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 hellbent on
murder and rape you're talking about four attacks in the course of 13 days that is somebody that is has
already spir 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 it really whenever the opportunity arises
for him where whenever he doesn't have to be accountable for his 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 uhuh 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 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 the 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 yeah 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 mhm that you know again Bruce put up one
hell of a fight and maybe he 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
end the murders mhm they could change the weapon that they use or stop alog together uh the the the Intruder Also
may have occurred an injury during that because you're and you're right to point
out the Bennett and I don't think that there I don't think that that's um I think that 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 in 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 at another attempted murder scene later 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 in
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
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 as well yeah I
think you're right I think suicide maybe like I said I believe it's a person that's already Spy World 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 escalate more 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 and
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 tempor 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 Dan maybe this guy worked in Denver and traveled to these are to attack but
think about this you know round 84 did a family member of yours commit suicide did a 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 these letters do you want to go over those letters again real quick do
yeah do they mean anything to anybody out there listening and the F the first guess was p t a w- c and the next set of
letters was r i c h and anyone with information should contact the Aurora police detectives at
303 739 6106 or the Lakewood Police Cold Case hotline at 3 33987 [Music] [Applause]
7474 all right Captain we want to thank everybody for listening thanks for filling up the fridge thanks for all
those little donations you know that 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] canva presents a true crime time of design in the office Maya spots something unusual in the presentation
what's this it was an off brand font her coworker explains I added the font I thought it was fun it was not Maya
solved it with canva open up canva one click and the font is on brand easy stay on brand and solve font crimes at
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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

A series of violent home invasions in 1984 Colorado, including the Bennett family murders, raises questions about connections and the killer's identity.

Key points

True Crime of Design. Maya solves a font issue at work with Canva, highlighting its ease of use.
Bennett Family Murders. A chilling account of a family's brutal murder in their home.
The Impact of a Triple Homicide. A neighbor shares how the Bennett family murder changed their lives and neighborhood.
DNA Technology in Cold Cases. Detective Steve Connor uses new DNA technology to create a suspect image.
The Mystery of the Bloody Letters. Investigators debate releasing information about letters found on a victim's pajamas.
The Killer's Motive. The discussion reveals the killer's likely motives as being purely opportunistic and violent.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

It's good to be seen and it's good to see you!

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2:01WatchNov 16, 2023

Tension

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