How Alex Ewing Was Brought To Justice After More Than Three Decades.

Inside the story of the Hammer Killer

By Rare StoriesPublished 11 months ago • 4 min read

The Hammer Killer Attack

During the early morning hours on January 16th, 1984, Alex Ewing, later identified as the hammer killer, murdered three members of the Bennett family in Aurora, Colorado.

The victims included Bruce, 27, his wife Debra, 26, and their 7-year-old daughter Melissa. Bruce confronted Ewing at the top of the staircase, where a struggle ensued, causing them to tumble down the steps and destroy some of the staircase's spindles.

Despite Bruce's efforts, Ewing overpowered him and used a hammer to bludgeon him to death, then slit his throat with a butcher knife from the kitchen. Ewing then proceeded to sexually assault Debra and the girls, and beat them with the hammer.

The only surviving member of the family was Vanessa, the couple's youngest daughter, who was only 3 years old at the time of the attack. Unfortunately, Ewing also attacked Vanessa with the hammer, causing severe injuries to her jaw, skull, arms, and legs.

The morning of the attack, Vanessa was discovered between her bed and the wall, drenched in blood and unconscious from the hammer strikes, but miraculously still alive.

Between January 4th and January 16th of 1984, Alex Ewing carried out a series of four attacks in the Denver metropolitan area, causing widespread terror. The first three attacks occurred in Aurora, where he targeted Jim and Kim Haubenschild, and Donna Holm, who survived, along with the fatal attack on the Bennett family. The fourth attack took place in Lakewood, a neighboring city, where Ewing murdered 50-year-old interior designer Patricia Smith.

Over the course of the 12-day crime spree, Ewing's actions left many in the Denver area living in fear and on high alert.

Following the attacks in Colorado, Ewing continued his violent behavior and targeted Roy Williams 11 days later in Arizona, where he was struck with a rock while sleeping in his Kingman residence.

However, Ewing's violent spree eventually came to an end on August 9th, 1984, when he was arrested in Nevada for attempted murder. This was in connection with his attack on Nancy and Chris Barry in Henderson, where he used an ax handle. He was tried and sentenced to 40 years in Nevada prison.

How The Hammer Killer was identified by DNA

the Hammer Killer murders in Colorado remained unsolved. Despite weeks, months, and years passing by, there were no new leads. It wasn't until 1989 that the Aurora Police Department realized that they had not sent the semen-stained comforter and carpet found at the Bennett home to the Colorado crime lab for testing.

However, since DNA testing was still in its early stages, it took another year for the results to come back, and even then, the analysts could only retrieve a partial profile from the DNA found on the comforter, which wasn't enough to work with.

Nearly a decade went by without any progress in the case. Then, in 1999, the Colorado Bureau of Investigation discovered more semen samples from the comforter and carpeting at the Bennett crime scene. Finally, in 2001, they were able to extract a full DNA profile from these samples.

In 2016, investigators realized the DNA from the Bennett home matched the one recovered from the crime scene where Patricia Smith was murdered.

Parabon Nanolabs produced DNA profile of the killer(left)

To further help track down the killer, the investigators submitted the DNA to Parabon NanoLabs, they created a phenotypic representation of the killer.

Additionally, investigators sought the assistance of forensic genealogist Colleen Fitzpatrick, who employed the same techniques that were used to identify the Golden State Killer. Through her work, she was able to narrow down the list of suspects to a probable last name: Ewing.

Meanwhile, the Aurora PD continued to search the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) for potential matches. However, not all states were contributing to the database, and Nevada had been particularly reluctant to provide DNA samples from inmates. Eventually, the Nevada Attorney General ruled that the prison system was required by law to collect and submit DNA samples from all inmates.

Although it took some time for the Nevada prison system to comply with this ruling, Ewing's DNA was finally uploaded into CODIS in July 2018.

Remarkably, just one week later, the Colorado Bureau of Investigation (CBI) was able to confirm a match between the DNA found at Smith's crime scene and that of Ewing. Detectives traveled to Nevada to obtain a second DNA sample from Ewing (for confirmation) and to interview him.

The subsequent DNA test conducted on Christopher Ewing confirmed that his DNA was present at both the Bennett and Smith crime scenes.

Ewing, who is now in his 60s, was found guilty in 2021 for the murders of the Bennett family and in 2022 for the killing of Patricia Smith. As a result, he is now serving four consecutive life sentences.