CAPTURED: Hammer Killer in Denver
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High crime june's i'm your host, Ashley flowers. And today we're headed to colorado, specifically denver, a city full of art, culture and outdoor adventures. But as you know, major cities aren't always all rainbows and butterflies.

There was a moment in time when the beauty of the area became overshadowed by fear and horror, and that's when a real life monster was roaming the streets, a monster who senselessly ripped families apart and took away precious lives that deserved so much more. And he almost got away with IT. So let me take you back to twenty twenty one, when I first told you how decades later, before IT was almost too late, justice was finally served. High crime junkies. I'm your host, Ashley flowers.

and i'm bread.

And the story I have for you today is one of the most terrifying kinds of crime junkie stories, because IT reminds us all that we're all vulnerable, that no matter who we are, where we are, evil can still come knocking at our door or comes sneaking through the garage. This is the story of the denver hammer killer.

January hand th ninety eighty four was cold in a ra colorado, even colder if you're lingering outside at a bus station waiting for your ride. And that's exactly what Sherry letton was doing. He had just taken the bus back from work that evening and he was waiting for her mom attraction to come pick her up.

According to reporting by kk Mitchell in the denver post, this was their routine every weekday since Sherry and her two kids move to a Laura to live with. After sher's divorce, Sherry kept staring down the road, waiting for her mom to pull up so they could go pick up the kids. Where was he? SHE tried to calling her mom at home, but no luck, which to Sherry meant SHE had to be coming to get her yet SHE never showed when Sherry could wait no more.

SHE called her cousin to come at her. And together they rushed to pick up little Amber in jao, who were six and four by the time they pulled up to the complex of town houses where they live. IT was dark, and that crickling that had started low in Sherry spine trickled up her back because what he saw was all wrong.

Kevin von, for nine news, reported on their podcast, blame that the detached garage door was open and there was particia car. Also, there was what looked like A T, V, on, just flickering through a window upstairs. So her mom was definitely home.

This was so unlike her sharing in the kids, hostile out of the car and up to the front door. The kids like making their way in front of Sherry. When Sherry unlocked the door and on the light, I can almost see her like hands on the kids backs, ushering them in, taking a quick step towards the stairs to go see her mom.

Before her whole world exploded, he was Amber who saw her grandmother first. He was lying feet from the door, and though a winning the pooh blanket was covering her face, the blood around her made IT clear that he was dead even to six road. Amber, Amber told kk mitchill quote, it's definitely an image that never leaves your mind SHE.

We swiped up her children as fast as he could and got them out of there, then ran into a neighbors who called police when detectives arrive and actually looked at the scene in more detail. What they saw was horrifying. There was a reason the killer had covered her head.

SHE had been beaten with a blunt instrument, and IT wasn't hard to guess what, because right next to her body was a hammer. And IT also wasn't hard to guess a motive or motives. Some jewellery had been taken off of her and her pants were pulled down. So police were thinking that killer was motivated by robbery and sexual assault.

But could they tell which one was the killer's main motive?

No, not yet. But there were some indicators. If they looked closely, yes, her necklace and rings were taken, but nothing else really was.

Her purse was dumped, but the house was relatively untouched. Now police did what they could to process the scene the best. They knew how in one thousand eighty four, dusting for prints, collecting items, but of course, all without gloves, because what's DNA?

Ultimately, they didn't find anything useful. Nothing to tell them. Who did this, or more importantly, why? But russia didn't have any enemies. In a letter to the denver post in one thousand eighty four, her friend wrote to say, SHE was gentle and sincere, in fact, here. But why don't you read actually a few excerpts from that letter just to give everyone a Better sense, like who he was?

So the letter said, quote, pat was a gentle, sincere woman with soft Brown eyes and a thunder figure. He knew how hard life could be and when IT was important to take the time to laugh fast, to respond to her friend's needs, perhaps the person who took her life didn't know all of this about her, but I would like him too.

He should realize that no matter what he was feeling when he took pats last breath of life, he took something from all of us who loved her. He took her special qualities that touched our lives and vote. That's onesta really beautiful. And swe.

who wrote this her friend, wrote IT, but wrote in anonymous ly, because even when they sent this letter in almost a week after petitioners murder, the killer still hadn't been caught, and everyone, especially those close to her, were afraid police didn't have any suspects. No one could figure out who did this, why or if they would strike again. But here's the thing to the public.

This was a crime like no other, completely out of the blue, unsolvable, because nothing like this had ever happened before. But that wasn't quite true. The public just didn't know about IT before because similar attacks that never even made the newspapers or tb reports happened just days before Patricia was murdered.

right? Like how many days?

Well, the first similar attack happened six days before and just a few hours away on january fourth in aora, colorado. Now let me tell you about that attack. So in the wee hours of the morning, this guy, James, is up late while his wife came is sleeping. Jordan chavez and Christian argue wrote in a piece for nine news that James was making this mixtape for his friends or robic class.

as if you didn't need to be reminded that this happened in nineteen and eighty four.

truly. So he's stays up to like two A M. And by the time he does saunter into his bedroom, he's tired, he's distracted and he's completely forgotten about the garage door he left wide open.

But what you don't remember doesn't keep you up. And James drifts off to sleep. The next thing he knows, James is jarred awake by a slam to the left side of his head.

When James were called this moment to nine news, he said, quote, I must have tried to wake up and I put my hand up. The first thing I remember was my hand getting really big, hurting, looking down, and my hand was swolen. I saw the hammer and wondered where IT came from.

And quote, the fact of the blow didn't knock James out, must have come as a surprise to his attacker because he just threw the hammer at kim's head. And ryan and kim, obviously awake at this point, called nine one one. And James looked all over the house to make sure this guy was really gone.

Nothing was really taken except kms purse. But I guess that wasn't really taken per say either because I was there, I was just kind of discarded. And nearby, all of the contents were kind just dumped out.

No, km. James were treated for their injuries. And police tried to get as much information as possible. According to an article for the daily sentinel, from back in eighty four, kim described her attacker as a black man with build, though he couldn't be more descriptive than matt, and though I have to imagine police looked for this mean and collected evidence, I don't have any proof of that because, again, that story was never picked up by the media like at all.

which seems so bizarre to me. IT seems like this is exactly the kind of story that you would want to go out to the community. Like, does did you see anything? Oh, and also what this is happening, I don't know. Maybe make sure garage doors or shed lock your doors.

stuff like that yeah have you think? And maybe if they would have made some announcement like high danged hammer wielding psychopaths on the loose beyond the lookout, maybe Donald dickson would have been looking over her shoulder a bit more. In the wee hours of january tenth.

we generate tenth. Isn't that the same day patra was attacked?

Yep, stay with me. I'm going to laid out for you. So in like the very late hours of january nth, and leading into the early hours of january tenth, a flight attendant name, Donald dickson, is in her garage.

I'm not sure if she's coming or going or just getting something, but while she's in there, SHE gets stand by the blow of a hammer. According to a team of reporters for fox twenty one, del SHE is hit repeatedly and raped. Kevin, born from nine new, says on blame that the hammer gets left behind, along with most of the contents from her purse, which are spilled out nearby. And again, there are no news reports about this attack.

Like nothing, nothing at all.

not a thing.

I mean, this is is clearly escalating and within like a matter of days.

I know.

So did not to survive.

Yes, he did survive her attack. But while she's in the hospital that very afternoon being treated for her injuries, that's exactly when for ricoh Smith is being blogging and rate in laid colorado.

okay. So there excuses for me on why they didn't make these cases public in aora, but i'm not sure that would have prevented anything from happening to partition. You know, like the news of these attacks wouldn't have ever made IT her, especially in one thousand nine hundred eighty.

No, you're right. I mean, I think even if the community in aura had been notified, it's unlikely that anyone in lake would have even heard about IT to your point. And truly, even if they did, probably the last thing anyone thinks is that that kind of evil will show up that very same day in the middle of the day, to their own front door.

But as we know, IT did, and I was worse here in lakewood than anything they saw in aora. But police were sure someone this brazen and this violent probably wasn't a first time offender. If they had to bet, they'd say that he'd done something like this somewhere before.

So Kevin van said on episode six of blame that the very day after portraits attack, now this would be january eleven, the police sent out an A P, P to department's nationwide. They explained the details of their case, and they asked for any departments that have crimes with similar emos to give them a call. But the phone doesn't ring.

not even from the a. Police.

not even from them.

I think I stand. How do they not see how similar this is?

Honestly, I don't think they saw the A, P, B, and this is one of those things that we've talked about before were like, I think we on the outside have this very cute and neat tidy of what we think the enforcement looks like because in our minds, like surely there are processes and procedures in place. So things like a little .

notification system or something like things .

don't through the cracks because we're talking about people's lives here. But Kevin born broke down his podcast. Basically, when these APP s go out, this message comes through on the other end, and it's up to each individual department to decide what they do with that message.

Do they mention IT at the top of their shift meeting? Maybe they hang IT up on like a corkboard. Just expect officers to take a peak when they get a sec. Honestly, i'm not even sure how you guarantee IT makes off the facts machine. Yeah.

I was just kind of thinking about this tempt job I used to have as a reception is where I had to sort mail for this huge corporation and trying to figure out like even what to do with a simple envelope sometimes was incredibly messy and confusing. And that was just like ten years ago. This is how long ago. Like this isn't still happening. This is the eighties.

right? what? Honestly, I have have no idea, and i'm truly a little afraid to find out. But in eighty four, when this A, P, B goes out, this is how things are run.

And so no one from aurora realizes that their guy has moved, or that he'll be coming back with a vengeance. And one of those people who was none the wiser about the dangers lurking in her own little town was constant bennet. On january sixteen, constant was at work when he got a phone call from her brother.

Her brother worked over their family business, this furniture store, and he was like, hey, can I your son and his wife just didn't show today like, and I can't get a hold of them, is something going on? SHE didn't know what was going on, but he didn't like IT. So being just a short distance from her son's home that he shared with his wife and two daughters, SHE rushed over to make sure everything was okay, according to an affidavit, probable cause when constantly pulled up to the house, SHE noticed the garage door was open as he got out of her car and got closer.

SHE could tell that the door, which LED from the garage into the homes kitchen, was open a couple of inches when he pulled IT open the rest of the way and stepped through. SHE saw her son in a way no parent, no human should ever have to see someone. Her son, Bruce, was lying on the bottom few steps that LED up to the second floor blood that had seeped from a large wounds above the bridge of his nose, a wounds on his left jaw, his throat, which had been, and cuts to his left finger, soaked into the carpet beneath him.

In a moment, Constance knew why Bruce had been on the stairs. He was trying to get to his family. His wife and two Young daughters would have been up there, but constant couldn't walk over her son to get them. SHE called out for them, but didn't hear a heap. And he knew that he had to leave right then to find help.

And in part, SHE was probably terrified of what he found if SHE went any further into that house herself, because if Bruce e's wife debris had been alive, wouldn't SHE have called for help already? like? Wouldn't SHE have gotten the girls out right?

When police arrived, IT took no time at all to realize they were dealing with a true monster, just as constants had suspected debris in the girl's war. Upstairs, the affidavit of probable cause states that debris was found on the floor of herren Bruce's bedroom. The two girls, Melissa, who was seven, and the who was three, were in their room.

Melissa is found lying on her back there on the floor at the end of their twin beds. Her arms were above her head, and he had visible markings of being struck with an object. But that wasn't even the most disturbing part.

The first thing that everyone who entered that room saw was how her pajama, as, were cut at the waste. And i'll spare you the details, but IT was clear that this little girl, seven year old little girl, had been raped on one of the beds above. Melissa was vasa.

First responders initially saw blood, but then just then, among all the carnage was a miracle. Vsa wasn't dead, he was still breathing. He had been severely beaten to, and they had no idea what kind of fighting chance he had.

But the paramedics rushed her to a children's hospital to find out. Meanwhile, police continued to process the bennet house for any clue as to who did this. Bruce, Deborah and malicious bodies were sent off for odd topsy, which was gonna be rushed and done the very next day.

And they didn't mind waiting the day because they actually had himself to work off of at the house while they waited, first of which was a footprint. IT was found on a computer that was between the two Young girls, and the computer itself was soaked in blood. And the perpetrator had left a print right there clear as day. They also noticed something interesting, something that they had seen before. There was apparently no forced entry, and nothing from the house seemed to be taken, except there was a woman's purse, which the affidavit says was found, dumped out and left on the ground outside the house near the garage door.

Okay, so liquid d wasn't connected. I get IT, but I mean, truly they see this connection, right? Like the case of a couple of the flight attendant who took place, like but that was all just like .

a week before they do, which is what I mean when I said that they had planned to work off. There is clearly a pattern here. yeah. Police are brushing up on those other cases and talking to members of the betta family when the autopsy results come in the next day, Bruce suffered sixteen blows to the head, and they were consistent with a claw hammer.

Debra was hit five times in the right shoulder, twice in the face, eight times in the top and back of her, and SHE had a broken jaw. All the wounds in her case were also consistent with a la hammer. Mulisch was hit nine times on her head with the hammer, and would anyone who saw her in that room already knew was confirmed SHE was sexually assaulted.

Now, though these autopsies confirmed a lot for them, especially as they were drawing connections to the other cases in aora, IT didn't provide any more information on their suspect. So on january sixth, police decide to do two things. First, they put a call out to the public in a daily central article. They say that they are looking for the public to help in locating people, that they want a question. The first is a group of, quote, hippies who were repeatedly cited near the benet's former or or a home last november, like they just recently moved into this home actually, and they tell the public that they are also looking for, quote, a black man involved in a predawn hammer attack on in a war couple earlier this month.

Okay, but this is the first time the public is even hearing about this quote, pre on human attack last month. right?

yes. Now the other thing they do, according to another daily central article, is that they send a lot of their evidence to this high tech lab in love, texas.

And eighty.

they specifically sending things off that could have fingerprints. I guess this specific lab had like the super sophisticated laser machine that they were using on some items. So they don't say exactly what items, but they also send off items from their other to attacks with IT.

So at this point, they're pretty confident that all the aura attack, at least, are committed by the same guy at this point, calls from the public art flooding in, pointing to this personal, that person, drug dealers, teenagers, you name IT and police are trying to follow all of the leads by the twenty first. Police have confirmed that they're questioned at least six people about the benet's murders, but none of them were named as suspects yet. Now, at this point, this cases all over the news, unlike all the other stories i've talked about, IT, is all anyone in town can talk about. And investigators are trying to pour every resource into finding the killer. But on at the twenty second, they have to divert their attention a little.

why? What on earth could be more important than this? It's not like this cases cold. It's not even a weak e out yet.

Well, they need all hands on deck to prevent another attack because you see by now police have discovered a pattern, and if they're right, the killer is going to strike again that very night. Because of all the press the bennet murders was getting, IT, of course, caught the eye of investigators over in liquid, and they told aurora police about the attack on Peter smith. And that's when he jumped out of them, the pattern six days.

Every six days their attacker struck first on january fourth with James and kim, then on january tenth with the flight attendant dona and petrusha, who is the same day, then again on the sixteen with the Bennett family, detective freg told the daily central quote, we've noticed this six day pattern, and if IT holds, the next would occur sunday. So they put cars out, patrolling up and down the streets. Every minute that passes, they held their breath. Every crackle that came over the radio made their hearts stop for a second, but the night came and went without a single report. And on one hand, everyone is happy, but on the other IT .

almost like they're waiting for the shooter drop. Like.

when is he going to attack next? exactly. The people in town are afraid, like really afraid. They show up to community meetings about safety.

Gun sales in the area go through the roof, and they all hold their breath waiting for the next attack. But day after day passes, and that doesn't come. And unfortunately, definitive answers don't come from logic either.

With nowhere else to turn, the aura police turned to the FBI and hoes that they can create a profile of their killer that might narrow down the suspect pool. Or I guess, in this case, like show you which body of water to even start looking. In a little less than two weeks after the family's murder, ron Walker from the FBI arrives in colorado.

According to get another denver post article by curr, Walker spent two weeks interviewing aura and liquid detectives and reading police and forensic reports. And quote ron Walker agreed with police, is assessment. All four of these cases were definitely connected, definitely done by the same perpetrator, ant ant. He had an idea about what that person might be like in here. Brd, i'll have you give everyone kind of the low down from this denver post piece.

okay. So basically, Walker suspected this guy was an unsophisticated criminal, especially when looking at the few items that were taken from the victims. Would you mention all the is nothing big or super valuable, was ever removed by the houses, just a little bit jewellery from petition, and then all the cases had this purse that was dumped out.

And that's because Walker thinks guy doesn't really know how to get rid of big stuff like he doesn't know how to lift like a stereo or TV and sell IT to someone else just like very easy small person to person transactions. And they think this guy probably has some sort of criminal history, but it's probably pretty petty like baby trust passing and maybe even some of his earlier crimes that weren't even reported. And he also think it's plausible that maybe he broken places before he got caught and that's when he started Carrying the ham around kind of to use as a weapon if he did get caught while breaking in somewhere.

And as far as the guys background, Walker thinks there might depend some form of violence in his own past. And he probably has issues with drugs and or alcohol now, and is probably kind of a longer now. In each case, there were no signs of forced entry.

And Walker doesn't think this is because the attacker is like super skilled. Or you think he thinks he was really just targeting the easiest houses, like the ones with open ruged doors or even unlocked doors? This quote I found really interesting. He said, quote, he was a very juvenile in his approach. How does he gain entry into homes? He walks on the street and giggles doors and quote, so, uh, ron was like, you guys just need to be looking for evidence, not just at the bennet home or the homes for the other attacks happened, but thus prints on all the doors, the neighborhoods too, like the ones that locked you might get lucky yeah and overall, Walker basically concludes that what drives the sky is rage and he's going to keep going until he stopped oh.

that's the thing. The cases had stopped by this point. So to investigators, that meant one of two things, either this guy had gotten busted for something else and was sitting in jail, or he was dead.

Decades past, five hundred people interviewed and nothing as quickly as this killer ripped apart colorado. He seemed to be gone. Vasa had a slow recovery, and SHE eventually went on to live with family.

But her life was hard. SHE told nine news that all you have to do is look at her to see the damage. This man did her, not just physically, but emotionally too.

SHE spent her whole life struggling with substance use issues as a way to num the physical and emotional pain. But part of her substance use, SHE says, is because he just got in with the wrong crowd. They were the only ones who accepted her as is and bread.

I have said this before on this show, kids are awful little dems. But I never believe that more than I do coming out of this story, because get this, Venus a told nine news that all through her childhood, kids made fun of her for what happened, made lights fun of her because her family was murdered. They wouldn't invite her to sleep overs because they said that the hammer man would .

come for all of them if he was there.

Like, oh, is raising these kids and can we please do Better people like, they're getting this from summer? Like, that got me so freaking heated. This girl has been through hell and couldn't even get support.

I was like, the one time I mentioned to you that a kid had said something that upset you. Like, at school, you're like, okay, who is he? Where can I find them? The child is going to have to have a talk with me like I am raging at this point. This is unacceptable people.

right? So, I mean, again, like he was already up against like the worst. And the world made IT even worse for her as the year's past. The case wasn't forgotten. As technology and science advanced, every now and then, the evidence would get pulled out and retested.

And according to the affidavit, this happened in one thousand hundred and eighty nine when they retested the computer found in the girl's room, and they actually found what they believed to be seen on. And though at the time they couldn't really do anything, DNA profile lies. All they could do is test for blood type. But something else happened in one thousand nine hundred eighty nine, according to another news, dine piece by Kevin van published this very year. Venesta had a memory of that night comed her, he went to police and that he remembered something about her attacker that he was, quote, a White man with Brown or light Brown hair who was wearing blue jeans, a multicolored shirt and fuzzy gloves, and quote.

didn't you say that at some point that all the other tasks described the black man as attacker?

OK, so, yes, so this is a little sideways to me, and i'm not sure when things changed. So technically, the only time a black men is described was by kim, but he told the news that police had told her that all the victims described the same man. But I don't know that actually true because I I don't have that anywhere from police.

And so I don't know if and when police gave up that description and i'm not even sure if they were always just tentative about that. I mean, they did put IT out there in that call in that paper saying that they're looking for member, they're looking for a group of hypes or in this black eye who was invoked in another attack. So I don't know if the nexus statement got them to change IT or if IT at least expanded, they are pool of suspects. Or if they were already expanded beyond that.

I have no idea, right?

But even if they use this updated description, I didn't get them anywhere by one thousand eight ninety nine, the computer was submitted again, along with carpeting from the girl's room to test for actual DNA. And by two thousand one, they were able to successfully extract a DNA sample. According to the affidavit, the sample from the carpet matched the sample from the computer, so they knew that I was a single perpetrator they were looking for. Not that anyone really doubted that, but I was at least confirmed. And with this, DNA and arrest .

warrant was made in two thousand.

Two your horses, there were no hits in any of the database, so they made an arrest warrant for a john dough who matched the specific genetic profile they had. And I think this was done for a couple of reasons, but i'm not a hundred percent sure. So I think one, I was just to show some progress, like, hey, we have this guy, we just can't put a face to IT or name to IT, but also some of the charges were for sexual assault.

And I know the way that works in most states is that once you you find a DNA profile, that statute of limitations clocks starts ticking for filing charges or issuing an arrest one. So by doing IT for this john du, whenever they found him, they could still charge him. He could still be held accountable for all of the charges, and not just murder. So this arrest, warm, felt really big, but with no name and no phase, they were no further along.

honestly shocked, define that there were no hit. I mean, you said earlier, they didn't think this was the first time crime like this guy had to .

done this before over certain. I mean, they even had a guess how many times before, right, like at least three other attacks before. But technically that was still a hunch.

And IT wasn't until two thousand and ten that DNA from Patricia Smith case was officially submitted for comparison. And finally, they were able to determine that all their suspicions were correct. Those cases were a hundred percent connected, a hundred percent done by the same guy.

But once again, knowing this didn't help find that guy. And really, they had been working under that assumption all along. So the years just tick on by two thousand and eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen.

In two thousand sixteen, the detectives try something new again. When theano typing becomes a thing, they use the genetic profile to guess what he look like, which definitely confirms that the do is White, but not much more than that. The denver post published the phenotype picture in August of two thousand sixteen and here, but you can take a look.

Yeah, actually I may be onest. This is really, really cool. The first, like two or three times we saw this happen.

but they look the same, right? I get everything you see.

yeah. Like the only thing that kind of interesting specific about this one is they do do an age progression on IT. So like what he would have looked like at the time versus what he may look like now. But like you said, a pretty generic right guy.

It's so generic. yeah. So surprise, surprise. No one knows who this guy is.

but he's like everyone in no one at the same time. Yeah so you have enough for final typing, which means I assume they can do geneology from that, right?

Well, they came, but they don't have to because in two thousand and eighteen there was a codex hit. In june two thousand and eighteen, law enforcement gets the call. They waited decades for the killer of the Bennett family was a man named alex ewing and .

the killer of smith.

Here's an odd tidbit. Apparently the DNA profile from pettis case had been pulled out of codas because they we're gonna due geneology. So there actually wasn't like that profile from her case in the system to get a match.

Why why like? So when you get pull for further testing, IT leaves cos I don't .

know this is something like totally beyond my my scope of knowledge. I know that it's not like you're dealing with the actual symbol.

It's just it's like the profile. It's like a document, right, right?

And the profile isn't even the same. The kind that is put in to code versus what you do for geneology is totally different. So in my mind, I mean, I get you're like hay's been this long, we haven't got to hit, we probably never will.

But it's also like not like a vile of sample that you're taking that like the harmony .

be in in yeah like my mind is blown .

here and I have a lot of questions but maybe not for this episode yeah so for .

our law enforcement, home is out there like if you could just like write IT and let us know. I would love to know because IT doesn't make any sense to me. But once the detectives in pettish case heard about the match of the benefits ase, they obviously put IT back in. And sure enough.

that got a hit as well. Okay, so who is this guy and how was the off .

radar for so long? You're never, I believe this. This guy was sitting in prison right under their noses the whole time, literally since less than two weeks after the murders.

What's after alex killed the Bennett family? He high tailed IT out of colorado. But police were right. This guy couldn't be stopped, and he did keep going until he was caught on january twenty seven, just the eleven days after he slaughter the bennets yelling was in king man arizona, sneaking into the house of a man.

Roy Williams, according to Kevin van on the podcast, blame roy was a sleep when using bashed him on the side of the head with a rock. And I didn't knock roy out. He just startled him awake, and he began to talk to his attacker.

He threw him off his game. And the attacker, ryan, when police arrived, they were able to see these very clear footprints, or shoe prints, left by the attacker, which they followed for miles until they disappeared. The whole department, without looking for this guy, when an officer spotted a suspicious may on on the side of a highway and he pulled over, tries talking to the guy.

And this guy is like engaging at first, but as soon as the officers like, hey, i'm looking for this guy, quick way to clear this up. Can I see the bottom of your shoes? The guy bolts.

Now he doesn't get far. Within thirty minutes, he's arrested. Eventually, he was charged with attempted murder, but due to overcrowding, he was moved to utah for a, until he's court appearance.

Okay, but I mean, this point king man is on a, should have had that original .

report .

from a ra colorado looking for me. This in a hammer is a rock, but it's someone breaking in and bashing .

someone had in yeah in the middle of the .

I feels pretty similar to me yes.

And this is where again, like was no one reading the quark board or I just like I don't know like whose .

inbox has has been sitting in for eleven day yeah and they haven't read IT IT.

yeah. And if they would have read IT, they should have read IT, they would have made the connection. And that would have spared another couple from an attack.

Wait, they just let him out of prison.

No, he escaped, according to a denver post piece by curt mitchill, from back in twenty eighteen, authorities were transporting, doing from u. Top back to arizona for ren appearance in court. And apparently the transport team stopped for a bathroom break.

And somehow, no, yep, they've freaking let this guy escape and do like runs to a nearby kmart, changes out of his prison uniform in this some short and just like disappeared among the crowds or something, because he, just like straight up was like in the wind. And what does this guy do? The second, he is free.

He can't even control his rage for long enough to hide. He goes right on the crawl again. Obviously, as soon as they know there's a conflict on the loose, dispatches notified and people are out looking for him. But then other disturbing calls start coming into dispatch. Kirk von reported that one person called in and said that there was a man wearing their doorbell saying something about calling a tow truck, but something about IT felt off, probably because the guy was just like roaming ing around in gym shorts and no shirt. Another call comes in about the same shirtless guy running through yards and that's because dude was going door to door seeing what house he could get into.

just what the f failure predicted like that's exactly what they said he was going to happen.

yep. And before they could catch him, he found an unlocked door. IT was the home of a couple, Christopher and Nancy and their new baby.

According to kirk Mitchell reporting, Nancy had gotten out of bed to get the baby a bottle when he saw you in, come through the back door and into her house. SHE ran for her husband, waking him up with her screams. And by the time he was in the room, so was ewing.

He started swinging in x handle at Christopher. As Nancy tried to shield her husband with every blow. Part of Nancy literally broke her risk, her arms.

SHE tried to call nine one one, but you when, after her and SHE had to hide under the bed, and after blow, after blow, SHE finally pretended to be dead, which was the only thing that made him leave. Ewing makes a run for IT after that, but he was apprehended two days later and fifteen miles away at lake meat. By february of the next year. He finally went to trial, and a jury found him guilty. So IT was there that he said all these years, while the Bennett and Smith case, when unsolved, he was there riding into newspapers and online forums looking for women to write to specifically curr born, read from some of his post, quote, lonely inmate, thirty five years old, looks twenty five, Brown hair Green, nice desires to write down to earth woman interested in getting to know someone that wants to build relationship on honesty and trust.

Actually, you didn't tell me he's gonna to puke during this episode. I'm sorry, you give me a warning.

He did multiple writings of these trying to get correspondence with women, and I get all from prison. And he was there counting down the days until he was eligible for parole, which would have been in twenty, twenty one.

Okay, I guess i'm strugling to like wrap my head around something like how just be sitting at this whole time and like there was never any sort of code s connection or cota said, like obviously there was like that weird anomaly with particia sample. whatever. Are there laws that felons have to have their DNA tested submit into profile and system?

So yeah, here's a thing. There are laws like that. yes. But IT wasn't for a long time until after he was put away, according to the blame podcast in like the mid nineteen ninety ish na va, which is where he was made.

The law that said all felon should have their DNA collected. But this only applied to people who were convicted of a felony after the law was passed OK. Now at some point someone like, hey, we got a lot of people in jail. Maybe they did something, well.

good, good dad.

genius, right? So in two thousand and thirteen they made an amendment that said, okay, anyone currently in jail for a felony, you're getting tested too. Apparently the administration at the prison he was that was basically like math, like they just ignore red IT.

And they ignored IT for five years until the atti general, the attorney general, had to come in and force them to do IT. And what do you know in two thousand and eighteen, when they start testing boom, one of the biggest cold cases in colorado gets solved OK. When you were gonna explain this.

I fully were expect you to say like IT took so long because testing took so long because we see that happens so often to know, but they just weren't testing. You're just telling me that .

they just weren't doing IT just weren't doing this been .

involved five years ago. Cl, cl, awesome.

Ewing tried to deny his involvement. His defense argued that there probably more than just one person there, and the investigation was nearly focused. And they point IT to the fact that there was other DNA apparently found at Patricia crime scene, and IT was the DNA of an unknown mail.

Now, great. We're not talking. See and like like touch DNA on. I think IT was like her blouse and maybe even the hammer.

And the truth is the scene was contaminated, right? I told you early on, officers weren't using gloves. This is something that came out in court.

Now the defense also pointed out that evidence was not stored properly, or like stuff wasn't seal, the chain of custody couldn't be proven. But at the end of the day, IT was ewings sperm on the carpet and the comforter between the two benet girls. And that petition that is hard to argue with. So the same year, ewing thought he might have a shot at, a shot at getting out and starting his rain of terror all over again. He was found guilty, and he will never have the chance to hurt another family again. But I gotto tell you, this case really got me thinking about other ones, cases like Jeffery mcDonald, who was like a father and a husband, who was thought to be guilty of his family's murder, because no one could comprehend why a stranger would come into a family's home in the middle of the night, and a illiterate, a family with no warning and no real motive other than violence itself. But that's exactly what .

happened here.

right? And there's actually another story like that where, according to police, a father had to be the killer because nothing else made sense. And IT happened right here in the midwest. But maybe knowing about monsters like ewing will make you make all our listeners look at that case with more of an open mind. So I wanna tell everyone that story next week.

You can find all the source material for this episode on our website, crime junky podcast dot com. And if you love digger into this case, I highly recommend the podcast blame by nine .

news and be sure to follow us on instagram at me. Je cast.

Crime junky is an audio chuck production, so what do you think chuck do you approve?