Cold case hits critical stage
Police to hold news conference Friday about 1984 serial murders in Aurora and Lakewood involving hammers
Authorities have reached a critical stage in the investigation of a string of infamous rapes and murders a few days apart in 1984, including the homeinvasion murders of three members of an Aurora family and the bludgeoning of a Lakewood grandmother, Lakewood police say.
A joint news conference about the case involving Aurora and Lakewood police and the Colorado Bureau of Investigation is planned for Friday.
A killer used a hammer to kill Patricia Louise Smith, 50, in Lakewood on Jan. 10, 1984, and a different hammer to kill Bruce and Debra Bennett and their 7-year-old daughter, Melissa, six days later in Aurora. Only one family member, then-3-year-old Vanessa, survived, but with severe facial injuries.
The Colorado Bureau of Investigation previously submitted a DNA profile taken from frozen evidence from Smith’s murder to the FBI’s Combined DNA Index System. A match was found with evidence submitted by Aurora in 2002 from the Bennett case. The killer had sexually assaulted Smith and days later Debra Bennett and her young daughter.
On Tuesday morning, The Denver Post received a tip that a DNA match had recently been made between the suspect in the Lakewood and Aurora killings and a prison inmate in Nevada. The tip included the prison booking number and the name of the offender serving a lengthy prison term for attempted murder and use of a deadly weapon.
Brooke Santina, spokeswoman for the Nevada Department of Corrections, said she could not comment on any link between the Nevada inmate and the Colorado murder cases. Santina confirmed that an inmate matching the name and prisoner num-
ber The Post provided is incarcerated in Nevada and is eligible for parole in 2021.
When asked whether authorities had made a DNA match between the specific Nevada inmate and DNA taken from Colorado murder victims, Santina said she had been in contact Tuesday with Arapahoe County authorities and was awaiting their approval before commenting.
Denver television station 9News reported Tuesday that multiple law enforcement sources confirmed that they are looking at a suspect who is being held in another state.
Aurora police spokesman Bill Hummel declined to comment Tuesday.
The alleged suspect in the case has been convicted of previous crimes, including attempted murder, use of a deadly weapon, burglary and aggravated escape.
The description of the Nevada inmate matches some aspects of a genetic snapshot of the 1984 suspect produced by Parabon NanoLabs, a Virginia company that created a profile using DNA predictions of the suspect’s ancestry, eye color, hair color, freckling and face shape.
In June 2002, thenArapahoe County District Attorney Jim Peters obtained a John Doe arrest warrant in the Bennett killings based on the DNA. Peters charged John Doe with 18 counts, including three counts of first-degree murder, two counts of sexual assault, first-degree assault and two counts of sexual assault on a child and burglary.
The same killer is believed to have first struck Jan. 4, 1984, when he slipped inside an Aurora home and used a hammer to beat James and Kimberly Haubenschild. James Haubenschild suffered a fractured skull and his wife had a concussion. Both survived. On the same day, a man using a hammer attacked flight attendant Donna Dixon in the garage of her Aurora home, leaving her in a coma. Dixon survived.