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brand [Music] [Music] never [Music] welcome to True Crime garage wherever you are whatever you are doing thanks
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this year's crime con 2018 all right that's enough of the business gather around grab a chair grab a fat tire
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let's talk some true [Music] crime [Applause] [Music] [Applause] in January of 1984 someone or someone's
00:04:58
they were going around around to different homes and attacking people in their homes in the Aurora and Lakewood
00:05:05
Colorado areas now one thing we have tasked ourselves with for today Captain is there are several common questions
00:05:13
regarding these attacks mhm now we should lay it out here quickly before we get to the questions but in the first
00:05:20
attack we have a husband and wife that are attacked in the middle of their night in the middle of the night in
00:05:24
their bedroom they both survived the attack the second attack happens just Days Later where we have a 50-year-old
00:05:32
woman who's attacked inside of her town home she's raped and killed the third attack a woman is sexually assaulted and
00:05:40
attacked in her garage she basically has no memory yeah she's in a coma for weeks
00:05:45
yeah of the attack or the attacker and then the final attack that we can see the fourth attack is the Bennett family
00:05:53
in the middle of the night somebody snuck into the Bennett family home they a fight ensued between the attacker and
00:06:00
Bruce Bennett the father and the attack left the father dead the mother dead the
00:06:06
oldest child dead and the youngest child was sent to the hospital who suffered horrible injuries and through many it
00:06:15
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
00:06:25
lost her family she would eventually go to on to live with her grandmother Constance Bennett now the questions that
00:06:32
we've seen that are common to these attacks in this cold case from 1984 Colorado is were the four attacks
00:06:43
connected and if there were no signs of forced entry how did the Intruder get into the homes of these people how did
00:06:50
the did the killer know the victims or if not how did he choose these particular people or houses what was the
00:06:57
motive for these attacks and the killings the attacks and the killings ended with the Bennett family
00:07:05
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
00:07:13
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
00:07:20
a better idea of who in fact perpetrated these attacks let's start with the obvious question first were these
00:07:27
attacks connected well that was a question that many people had speculated on for nearly 20
00:07:34
years uh it was the thought of locals and the thought of a lot of armchair detectives that it's likely that all
00:07:41
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
00:07:48
these four attacks mhm it appears that the same weapon was used or the same type of weapon a hammer or something
00:07:55
similar was used in all four attacks correct uh there it where we have either a single female or a family being
00:08:03
attacked so the victimology is similar the the the gaining entry to the home might be similar and we also have the
00:08:10
same weapon so it would have look it would look that these attacks that all occurred mind you within the span of 13
00:08:17
days in roughly the same area that they must be connected yeah and I think because the timeline is so short You'
00:08:25
have one would assume the problem that armchair Detective have had for those for those 20 years or nearly 20 years I
00:08:33
should say is that the details of the cases we don't have hardly any information regarding the hobbins child
00:08:40
case and that could be the first attack we do get some more information regarding the second attack the attack
00:08:47
that's the the death and murder of Patricia Smith and then there's a ton of evidence or a ton of information out
00:08:53
there on the Bennett family murders and that's the one that that's the cold case
00:08:57
that kind of resonated with the community and with the people of Colorado that's the one that they would
00:09:03
remind you of the anniversary of it and if there had been any movement in that case since since it had occurred in 1984
00:09:11
well one out of the four attacks two of the attacks people survived mhm uh well actually in three of the attacks
00:09:20
somebody survived but the the Bennett family cases you know it's it's pretty much the whole family yeah and all of
00:09:27
those attacks we don't really have anybody that's able to describe the attacker you know so if if we would have
00:09:35
had a surviving member of the family in each case go describe the attacker to us
00:09:40
we could determine just based off of that if they were in fact connected or potentially connected yes and I think
00:09:47
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
00:09:55
details about the attacker but not enough where that they could you know make a sketch or anything the only
00:10:01
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
00:10:09
first attack from that hobbins child attack there there is a rumor floating around and I want to be clear that I
00:10:15
feel that it could be a rumor there's information out there to suggest that Kimberly may have seen the attacker
00:10:22
inside their home before she was hit before she was struck over the head and in this situation she describes an
00:10:29
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
00:10:36
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
00:10:47
these same reports I've also seen the word enormous used to describe this potential attacker but what so yeah I
00:10:55
heard he was a tall piece of [ __ ] or enormous piece of [ __ ] what we would later learn like I said nearly 20 years
00:11:02
later this was in 2002 that they announced remember there was DNA collected at several of the crime scenes
00:11:10
the DNA of the person who murdered the Bennetts was found at the Bennett family home as well as the person that murdered
00:11:17
Patricia Smith in her home yeah they announced in 2002 that the DNA um from both of these crime scenes matched the
00:11:25
DNA collected at the other crime scene right so those those two are at least connected correct um we can say scient
00:11:32
with scientific proof that those two cases are connected and those in fact involve all of the actual murders that
00:11:41
only leaves the other two cases where people were attacked left for dead but in fact recovered later at the
00:11:48
hospital now in those situations we have there was a bloody bootprint that was found in the Bennett's garage okay so it
00:11:57
was OJ yeah it was OJ Simpson um they what they did was they actually cut this this
00:12:06
bootprint out and saved it and preserved it for many many years probably to still
00:12:11
to this day like Bigfoot the thing here is there was a similar if not identical bootprint that was left in the garage of
00:12:20
Donna Dixon mhm so that would connect that one as well yeah there I found two reports of this so obviously this is not
00:12:27
something that has been widely reported but it appears that we have scientific evidence that that all the murders are
00:12:34
in fact connected and it's very likely that whoever attacked Donna Dixon in her garage was the same person uh that
00:12:41
killed the Bennett family is there any information about the first attack as far as missing items no there's there's
00:12:51
like cuz some of the other cases it will say you know she had diamond rings or diamond earrings or something and those
00:12:58
were taken but it seems like with the first one there is no report of items missing okay
00:13:05
so yeah not only is there no report of items missing but we also have some other lack of evidence or lack of
00:13:13
information regarding the hobbins child attack we don't other than it being stated that no forced entry was used to
00:13:21
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
00:13:29
person gained entry what we do know is that the two victims were sleeping in their
00:13:34
bedrooms so they didn't answer the door we can gather that much as you stated we
00:13:39
don't know if there was anything taken from the home we don't know if Kimberly was sexually assaulted like some of the
00:13:45
other females were in other attacks right doesn't mean she wasn't it just wasn't reported correct um and we don't
00:13:52
know how much of a if there was any struggle at all before the actual attacks occurred so what we heard in the
00:13:59
first trailer there where I'm describing the actual attack that a bit of that is
00:14:05
dramatized M okay because there is no information the information that's received that that I have found would
00:14:12
suggest that they were in their bedroom sleeping when the attack occurred this makes me question if Kimberly in fact
00:14:20
even would have seen the attacker at all right it makes me question that was she
00:14:25
struck before she could have had the opportunity to see him or was the room dark enough that she couldn't make
00:14:33
anything out regarding this person before she was struck over the head you're talking about she was either
00:14:40
struck over the head before she had the opportunity to open her eyes or immediately after doing so and suffering
00:14:47
such a terrible head injury also would make you question or me anyway question the validity of what she thinks she may
00:14:56
have saw yeah you're not calling her liar you're just saying you again who knows I mean the the attacker could be
00:15:03
wearing a mask the the attacker could be wearing face paint you know if you're breaking into a house at night is it
00:15:10
really that absurd to think that maybe the person would be wearing face paint you wake up PO ski mask ski right ski
00:15:17
mask you you wake up you're in the dark your eyes are adjusting maybe she believes she saw African-American male
00:15:25
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
00:15:32
say probably none of it we know that this was the the middle of the night we know that this attack occurred in
00:15:38
January of Colorado I can't State what the exact temperature was that night but I can
00:15:44
tell you that I wouldn't put it out a question that the person was wearing something to cover their face not only
00:15:49
for as a disguise but to to protect themselves from the elements um you know it being January in Colorado mhm anyway
00:15:58
way so the other thing though here Captain is I came across two detective interviews uh that occurred over the
00:16:05
years both of them have stated several times during these interviews that they believe that the Bennett family murders
00:16:11
were connected to two other cases uh one that we said said was proven by DNA and
00:16:18
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
00:16:25
they mean that they they are pretty convinced that three of them are connected the problem as we're pointing
00:16:31
out is the hobbins child attack has so little information right but their eviden is the DNA connection and the
00:16:39
boot print yes MH okay so this is this is pretty interesting here Captain armed with the DNA evidence that they
00:16:48
announced in 2002 now let's go to June of 2002 the then district attorney Jim Peters he obtained a John Doe arrest
00:16:59
warrant charging John Doe this would be the person uh whose DNA was left at those two crime scenes with 18 counts
00:17:07
including four first-degree murder charges and a bunch of sexual assault charges why is this important um
00:17:16
because this is interesting because they have this person's DNA they don't know who he is but when there there is an
00:17:25
opportunity that at some point this guy could commit another crime could get picked up for some reason where they
00:17:32
would be required to take his DNA enter that information into certain databases and it would link the two now the
00:17:41
problem here is if he were arrested in Aurora or Lakewood it's very likely that they um you know they would they would
00:17:49
keep him immediately the thing here is let's say this guy committed a crime in Maine or in Florida or in Washington and
00:17:57
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
00:18:06
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
00:18:15
typically release you for this but we can't release you because there's an arrest warrant for you in the state of
00:18:22
Colorado right so he would be held until he could be extradited and charged with
00:18:26
these and brought to trial but there was another thing learned by this right yeah
00:18:31
by the release of these of the DNA being connected between the two cases the other reason why this is so valuable and
00:18:38
one thing that they told us when they released this information was that the police actually spent a lot of time when
00:18:45
investigating the murders of the Bennett family members mhm they spent a ton of time looking at actually actual family
00:18:54
members of the Bennetts of having committed this murder the triple murder cuz it was so heinous well not only that
00:19:01
but it I think it's more for this point that earlier that night that same night that they were attacked just hours
00:19:08
before they had that birthday party right where they had a bunch of people that they knew and a bunch of family
00:19:14
members to their home and I think that the police were working on a theory that maybe either someone had returned to the
00:19:23
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
00:19:32
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
00:19:39
that maybe somebody had concealed themselves somewhere in the home waiting for the family to go to sleep and then
00:19:46
decided to attack them in the middle of the night mhm um the DNA evidence was used to test against people that they
00:19:55
were looking into whether it be Bennett family members or people that knew the bennets maybe it's people that worked at
00:20:01
the family uh furniture store they were able to use this DNA to clear those people and with this information we
00:20:09
could definitively say that three of the four attacks are connected then the question becomes how did this Intruder
00:20:18
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
00:20:26
articles that took place that were written well after the crimes took took place this is from 1994 from the Rocky
00:20:35
Mountain news and I'm not going to read the entire article but there are some uh
00:20:40
things that I think that we should highlight here and in this article the person that is being interviewed is
00:20:47
Constance Bennett now in this article she's going by Connie I'm assuming that that's what her friends and family
00:20:53
actually called her but she's re she's recounting what what took place 10 years ago from this interview and she's
00:21:03
stating that the next morning when the couple had failed to show up at work she remembers thinking that she better go
00:21:09
check on them because of something like carbon monoxide poisoning or carbon monoxide leak in the house yeah she
00:21:16
stated that when she arrived to the home she walked up the sidewalk she saw Deborah's purse lying on the front lawn
00:21:24
with its contents Spilled Out once inside the home she found Bruce inside the bloody spattered house on a Stairway
00:21:33
leading from the main floor to a lower level he was bludgeoned and his throat was cut this is a direct quote from
00:21:42
constant or Connie stating I called 911 I couldn't remember the address she said
00:21:49
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
00:21:56
other thing that she states here is she says after she called 911 the important information here is that she says 10
00:22:07
years after the attack I believe whoever committed this crime crept through the unlocked garage door in the
00:22:16
quiet Darkness maybe on a mission to kill could have been looking for money maybe high on drugs and she states that
00:22:24
she doesn't think that it was anyone who knew the Bennetts now I took this information then I I I looked at this
00:22:30
other article that was found from The Denver Post in September of 2003 and this article is different this
00:22:38
one is written by a neighbor who is kind of he he doesn't talk so much about the
00:22:46
crime itself yeah uh but he's kind of talking about the neighborhood and about his family and what what having lived
00:22:55
next door or lived across the street from this triple homicide and how it has affected them and their neighborhood and
00:23:03
he's stating you know that ever since that day this this guy and his family are dog people they always own dogs uh
00:23:10
before the attacks good people dog good people they owned Irish Setters they had
00:23:16
always had Irish Setters before but now after the Bennett family was killed that
00:23:21
they own Dobermans that they got a more aggressive uh dog because of this attack
00:23:28
now the thing here is though that he states he had been watching A&E's cold Crime Files one night before writing
00:23:36
this article and he stated that he he thought that the almost forgotten Bennett case was a perfect uh would be
00:23:44
perfect for this TV show and he cold Crime Files so he was kind of thinking back and reflecting on what he remembers
00:23:51
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
00:23:58
all night he died of a slit throat his wife and daughter were budging to death little Vanessa survived so in the case
00:24:08
of the Bennett family we have the mother speculating that the killer entered through the
00:24:13
unlocked door from the garage mhm nowhere in that article does she state that the garage door was open when she
00:24:21
arrived at the scene however we have a neighbor saying stating that that memory's burnt in my the garage door was
00:24:29
open all night so what I think we can gather from that is that it's very likely that the Bennetts accidentally
00:24:37
left their garage door open most people don't lock the man door that goes from your whatever room into your garage
00:24:44
that's sexism and it's it's likely that the killer walked in through the garage through that unlocked door mhm and
00:24:55
started walking into the home caused some noise he woke up the family and Bruce comes down the steps and they they
00:25:02
they fight now the reason why I read that other thing about Constant saying that she called 911 but couldn't
00:25:08
remember the the address remember they had only moved into that home about 3 months before they were attacked and
00:25:15
killed so it's you know not unheard of that the mother wouldn't remember the address they had only lived there a
00:25:21
short time but the reason why I read that bit was one thing that I had always wondered about this case Captain was if
00:25:28
this fight would have taken some time between Bruce and the attacker and the Intruder I had always wondered why
00:25:35
Deborah his wife hadn't called 911 and and I had always speculated that possibly the killer before entering the
00:25:43
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
00:25:50
the same phone line that Conant later used to call 911 to report her son and his family having been attacked act
00:25:58
right okay so how did the killer gain entry into these different homes I think here we can't say with definitive proof
00:26:06
that he entered through the garage door but then I started looking at the Patricia Smith case mhm remember she
00:26:14
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
00:26:20
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
00:26:27
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
00:26:35
multiple town homes they all share the same numbered address but they are distinct by a letter so I couldn't
00:26:45
confirm which one was actually hers the home that she was killed in what I could
00:26:50
confirm was looking at that bank of town homes they all had garages I just assumed her home never had a garage
00:26:58
because her daughter describes pulling up and seeing her mother's car outside parked outside right that doesn't mean
00:27:07
that she didn't park her car outside open the garage door and then go in through the
00:27:13
door leaving that that door unlocked right and again she could have heard her attacker come into the home she goes
00:27:24
downstairs to investigate or she's still upstairs by the time he gets upstairs to
00:27:29
attack [Music] [Applause] [Music] her this show is sponsored by better help do you look forward to the holidays
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hp.com canva presents a true crime of design in the office Maya spots something unusual in the presentation
00:28:43
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
00:28:53
solved it with canva open up canva one click and find is on brand easy stay on brand and solve font crimes at canva.com
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00:29:50
little more information here Captain before we get back to our questions that we want to answer for this the a Cold
00:29:58
Case Squad there is a detective there Steve Connor uh he asked the parabon Nano Labs company this is a company
00:30:06
based in Virginia to use its newly developed technology to create an image of the perpetrator based on DNA
00:30:15
predictions to determine the suspect's ancestry eye color hair color freckling and face shape now remember some of you
00:30:23
will remember we've discussed this on cases before this is newer technology and they had DNA from two of the crime
00:30:30
scenes this is that snapshot DNA Imaging uh and we we've discussed this on several other cases one that comes to
00:30:38
mind is the April Tinsley case there are some things to discuss here Captain the
00:30:43
images generated as requested by the detective show the what the perpetrator may look like key word here uh we need
00:30:52
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
00:31:01
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
00:31:10
detective at his request yeah there's a part of me that likes that they do this but the more information I find about
00:31:19
this because basically what it's doing is it's coming up with a composite sketch based off a DNA but but this DNA
00:31:29
doesn't tell you certain it only tells you it's so vague so it's almost to me where it's like do
00:31:38
the DNA test do uh a description but I don't necessarily think they should do an actual drawing well you're right
00:31:47
there Captain I I I actually think they should do the drawing but the reason why
00:31:51
I say that you're right is that as much as this could help your investigation locating this perpetrator it could hurt
00:31:57
hurt you in a sense that there's a chance that the actual offender today may not resemble either of these
00:32:05
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
00:32:13
say you know what I know he lived in the Aurora area back in ' 84 and he suddenly
00:32:18
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
00:32:24
anything like the guy is because you you have some pretty generalities here of based off of what the person would look
00:32:31
like let's say the the older image showing him at age 55 well this is showing this to me it only shows the
00:32:39
face you know from the neck up and this appears to be somebody that would be of average weight well one thing that would
00:32:46
would change his General facial appearance simply would be if he was thinner than this or more heavy set than
00:32:54
this yeah also you can't factor in how hard of a life has this person lived is this somebody that's been drinking
00:33:00
constantly for the past 30 Years and may may have wrinkles and and not look anything like this or or a smoker or
00:33:07
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
00:33:16
effects that that has had on Cosmo Kramer hideous Jerry itous look away so the the uh Cold Case Detective he states
00:33:27
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
00:33:36
the physical description that is given because of this information and stating that we are you know we're looking at a
00:33:45
Caucasian person this is somebody that would believ to have the ancestry of Northern and or Central European
00:33:52
ancestry they have fair to very fair skin color mhm eye color would be green or blue eyes hair color would be brown
00:34:03
or blonde hair and would have a few would have few to some freckles um so obviously we can't figure
00:34:11
out how tall the person is how much they may weigh what kind of lifestyle choices
00:34:16
that they've made since then that could change their appearance in some different ways talking about Colorado
00:34:22
and talking about this uh snapshot DNA I did see one where the where Colorado used this technology M to create an
00:34:32
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
00:34:42
somebody saw the image of this person and sure enough made the right phone call and this guy was picked up and they
00:34:48
were able to determine that it was in fact him the the funny thing here well not the funny thing but the thing here
00:34:55
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
00:35:02
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
00:35:08
several cases I've only seen one case where it's actually led to the apprehension of the
00:35:14
actual in individual and this is why I said that I think they had some evidence that
00:35:20
this murderer was Caucasian because you know one of the things that Steve Connor
00:35:27
said was this gave us proof that they were Caucasian oh that they had some thought that this was a Caucasian male
00:35:36
and then this DNA evidence proved that thought and I I kind of wondered maybe it could have just been a speculation
00:35:43
obviously but he he said that now we have definitive evidence and so again that makes me feel like he they knew
00:35:52
something beforehand where it makes you wonder had somebody seen something was there some kind of eyewitness that saw
00:35:58
somebody fleeing the scene or did somebody see possibly maybe another motorist happened to see somebody
00:36:06
driving or tailing Donna Dixon in a car behind her and it was all I can tell you
00:36:12
was it was a white guy or one of the people that survived you know later said hey I
00:36:18
believe it was a a white guy possibly the the interesting thing here is we can only we can only speculate as far as
00:36:26
with the survivors go so we according to the information we have that was reported in the papers and the media the
00:36:35
three-year-old that survived she has no recollection of the attack now is that simply that police said you know what
00:36:42
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
00:36:48
Lone Survivor of the Bennett family attack right uh you know she's a minor we also have Donna Dixon could be the
00:36:56
same thing thing they could be protecting her I have heard one of the detectives say in an interview that
00:37:02
Donna Dixon has no recollection of the attack as far as Donna Dixon knows she got out of her car and next thing she
00:37:09
knows she woke up a week later in a hospital bed and and has no clue what happened you bring up an interesting
00:37:15
thing here though because we said earlier that there was some Loosey Goosey information out there that
00:37:21
possibly Kimberly hobbins child had stated that the attacker that attacked her and her husband James in their
00:37:28
bedroom that night in January 84 was a large africanamerican man mhm and with this DNA evidence what that would point
00:37:36
out to us is is one of two things either either a uh this is not connected these
00:37:44
three other attacks are not connected to the first attack right or B for whatever
00:37:50
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
00:37:56
of them are connected well and after what7 some episodes yeah with you uh I'm starting to learn a couple things about
00:38:07
what fascinates you about cases and you're a sucker for letters yeah well uh yes I am if I'm I'm
00:38:15
a sucker for When Love Letters When a Killer would communicate with the media or the police mhm uh whether it be
00:38:25
letters or through phone calls um and you're kind of in a roundabout way getting to what I know
00:38:32
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
00:38:40
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
00:38:47
of the victims this wasn't released to the public until 2015 the way that this works is this so
00:38:55
when the when the Killer lifted Melissa's body this is the seven the seven-year-old when he lifted Melissa's
00:39:01
bloody body from her bed there were letters embroidered on this person's shirt that transferred that were
00:39:10
transferred in blood to the little girl's pajamas mhm so investigators have always believed that the letters could
00:39:19
identify the killer's name or possibly the business where he worked or had worked at one time
00:39:27
this was something regarding the release of this information this was something that police and detectives they debated
00:39:35
for many many years on whether or not they should release this information to the public yeah because okay so the the
00:39:43
arguments for both sides would be one the Killer is probably very likely unaware that he left this evidence at
00:39:51
the crime scene and this could be deadly information when you find this person and you have him in the interrogation
00:39:59
room is he once you finally present this information to him how's he going to be
00:40:04
able to explain it away right um so that could help to make an arrest then on the
00:40:10
other you have where if he knows about this information going into the questioning he may come up with a
00:40:15
plausible excuse or just be set off ready to deny it emphatically from the get-go right
00:40:22
because he knows the information's out there so regarding this this was something that the police actually
00:40:27
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
00:40:36
you know if he worked for a business that is now closed or closed way back in let's say
00:40:41
85 then like if you would have released this information in 855 or 84 that more people would be aware of this business
00:40:51
right and you have 30 years that have gone by by the time they finally do release the information this information
00:40:58
may be no good to to maybe it was only good to somebody that's not around anymore right uh that that could have
00:41:04
provided you the proper tip the police they did work this information for quite some time before releasing it to the
00:41:11
public they actually sent it to two different labs to try to decipher what the letters were or what they actually
00:41:19
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
00:41:35
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
00:41:42
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
00:41:54
like the name Richard or Richards or Richardson so why why would they come up with two completely different things
00:42:03
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
00:42:09
you and I and other garage listeners could probably figure out is depending on how the killer picked up this girl
00:42:18
how he was holding her when the when they transferred the letters transferred in blood could mean several things
00:42:25
either the letters would be upside down they would be backwards simple things like that that you and I and others
00:42:31
could fairly you know easily figure out right the other issue though too is think about how this is not like you're
00:42:39
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
00:42:46
paper and it dries immediately and it stays there no this is something that blood soaked clothing the victim is
00:42:53
wearing potentially blood soaked clothing that the Killer is wearing as well there could have been and there's
00:42:59
hours before the bodies are discovered so you're talking about swelling of these letters uh you're also talking
00:43:07
about Distortion of these letters and from the reports that I have been able to find that talk about the details of
00:43:16
this actual um layout of these letters would describe that the way that her pajamas
00:43:24
were at the time that they believe that those letters transferred to her clothing mhm was that there would have
00:43:30
been folds on those pajamas all right right not and not only just folds but you're going to have also a situation
00:43:38
where he might have picked up the victim pressed his body against her released her a little bit pressed his body
00:43:45
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
00:43:53
you press your body against and then when you release if then her pajamas fold in a different manner this is why
00:44:00
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
00:44:10
other is r i um very interesting stuff here I it doesn't really lead me to anything I but
00:44:20
but then again I'm also not aware of companies back then um you know companies in the area back then in '
00:44:28
8384 I do like the the chance of a possible name of Richard or Richard's or Richardson um something to that effect
00:44:37
but back to our questions Captain you know we talked about the DNA we connecting some of these cases we've
00:44:44
talked about the how would the killer gain entry to the homes with no signs of forced entry personal belief of mine is
00:44:52
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
00:44:58
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
00:45:06
family were home during the daytime by simply looking out your door or going down the street on your bike and seeing
00:45:12
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
00:45:21
you know uh mean late 60s and so I I wouldn't be surprised if it was a similar situation in this
00:45:31
neighborhood in color in these neighborhoods in Colorado um and you could simply have a
00:45:36
situation where the Bennetts having a busy house full of people for the birthday party forgot or failed to close
00:45:44
the garage door for whatever reason before going to bed right well I you it's a good possibility that oh we're
00:45:52
having this little birthday party for our daughter and we're having some friends in family over and we're
00:45:57
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
00:46:04
out on the couch or whatever you know personally I believe and it's just my speculation but I believe that would be
00:46:10
the case with the hobbins child case as well where the killer slipped in through
00:46:14
the garage into the locked door and then crept up into their bedroom in the middle of the night yeah now the next
00:46:20
question we have to address Captain would be did the killer know his victims and if not why did he choose these
00:46:27
particular people or houses and I guess you can throw in with that question what
00:46:32
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
00:46:41
guy knew his victims at all I think that these were probably crimes of opportunity mhm I think this guy was
00:46:52
hellbent on rape and murder so when we talk about motive let's first jump to motive I think this guy was was hellbent
00:47:00
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
00:47:07
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
00:47:14
there right and you're saying it's a crime of opportunity because if their garage door was open that it could be as
00:47:21
simple as this guy's trolling neighborhoods oh that garage door's open yeah go there he goes out at 2:3 in the
00:47:28
morning under the cover of of Darkness finds a a home that happened to leave their garage door open and here's the
00:47:36
thing I would you know maybe you know that theory could be proved wrong whether these garage doors were left
00:47:42
open or not I think there's evidence to point that they were in fact open therefore to me for for for a victim
00:47:50
that he wanted to Target to happen to leave their garage door open the probability of that is crazy you can't
00:47:55
can't even start to think about those numbers so this to me is a crime of opportunity how does this carry over to
00:48:02
Patricia Smith and to Donna Dixon I think he saw those two driving we know they were both returning to their home
00:48:09
shortly before both attacks occurred yeah so he'd be out trolling you know for maybe possible situations later in
00:48:17
the day and he just sees these females yeah and I mean they're they're attractive ladies that are driving
00:48:22
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
00:48:28
when we're when I'm also saying that he he just picked houses because they happen to leave garage doors open um
00:48:35
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
00:48:44
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
00:48:50
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
00:48:55
he's saw these two you know these two females driving and he didn't I he probably saw multiple females driving oh
00:49:02
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
00:49:09
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
00:49:15
giving a great answer here for motive but I don't think it's crazy to suggest that this guy was just hellbent on
00:49:20
murder and rape you're talking about four attacks in the course of 13 days that is somebody that is has
00:49:29
already spir spiraled out of control this is somebody that is is attacking at a frequency that is unheard of well and
00:49:37
this kind of answers the next question you know why were some attacks you know during the day and some at night and
00:49:45
really like you were saying it could just be opportunity yeah we can't it really whenever the opportunity arises
00:49:52
for him where whenever he doesn't have to be accountable for his his time or whereabouts right and he sees a
00:49:59
potential victim whether it be women that he's followed in cars or homes that appear easy to get into uhuh he strikes
00:50:08
and that makes him an extremely dangerous and scary individual individual we're talking about nice
00:50:15
communities too and whether it be a nice Community poor Community bad Community whatever these are these are vicious
00:50:22
horrible crimes yeah so then I guess the final question is then why did they stop
00:50:29
I mean obviously this person is a a monster a monster like this just doesn't just stop because they they seemingly
00:50:37
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
00:50:45
for certain the other thing is they have his DNA and they have his DNA on file if
00:50:49
somebody crept into somebody's home in the middle of the night and murdered a family and left his DNA there whether it
00:50:56
be 15 20 years later right on the other side of the country we're going to know that this killer didn't
00:51:03
stop yeah but they might have escalated you have a lot of factors to throw in there I think well I think the first
00:51:11
Factor you throw in is that the last quote unquote Hammer Slayer attack mhm that you know again Bruce put up one
00:51:21
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
00:51:31
this this Hammer thing doesn't make any sense anymore because if I if I'm faced with somebody like Bruce again I might
00:51:39
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
00:51:49
end the murders mhm they could change the weapon that they use or stop alog together uh the the the Intruder Also
00:51:57
may have occurred an injury during that because you're and you're right to point
00:52:02
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
00:52:09
there that there's good reason why that potentially may have been the last attack or certainly the last known
00:52:16
attack because the major thing that's different between that attack in the previous three attacks is he actually
00:52:22
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
00:52:30
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
00:52:36
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
00:52:44
to is this guy whoever was doing this these are extremely risky crimes that this guy is committing
00:52:53
these are extremely risky attacks and murders that he's committing we have two where he enters a home in the middle of
00:53:00
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
00:53:08
in the home doesn't know if there's dogs in the home to our knowledge I would consider that extremely risky event the
00:53:15
other thing is the other two crimes happened during the daytime one where one where he attacks a
00:53:23
woman in her garage yeah she may have arrived at home by herself but you don't know if there's somebody inside that
00:53:30
home right same with Patricia Smith who came home she happened to come home by herself and there happened to be nobody
00:53:37
inside the home I think what what may have occurred here and this is pure speculation on my part but I think that
00:53:44
Bruce God bless him I think he injured this guy in some manner during the the fight that took place in the Bennett
00:53:52
household yeah I think this guy might have been injured and chose to move elsewhere or attack elsewhere because of
00:54:01
this injury I think that the the injury could have been a giveaway I think this guy was actually
00:54:08
either apprehended or killed at another at another attempted murder scene later yeah because chances are he's breaking
00:54:16
into places so he could have broke into a place had the cops called he went to jail for burglary or breaking in
00:54:25
entering they didn't know he was a murderer but also during this time period they didn't collect DNA so if
00:54:31
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
00:54:37
been arrested before that mandate now did he get out and just kind of stop who knows I would say that somebody like
00:54:44
this this kind of monster is probably not going to stop the other question here too
00:54:51
is you know it seems like his motivation was you know sexual in nature so was there an
00:55:02
opportunity the garage doors open he goes in struggles has this fight and then there's kids involved and
00:55:11
is that just enough for this monster to come back after the attack know that his time is running
00:55:20
out and maybe with these kids involved decides to take his own life that's a possibility as well yeah I
00:55:28
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
00:55:34
before some of these attacks occurred right yeah suicide could be very likely um again I think that if he didn't kill
00:55:42
himself that you're looking at a situation where the frequency of these attacks I wouldn't expect him to stop I
00:55:49
would expect him to continue to attack and probably fairly soon maybe because escalate more well maybe because of the
00:55:57
injury that I believe may have occurred at the Bennett house that he took some time off let's say to recover I think
00:56:04
that for somebody a little psychological thing here that I would throw in is somebody willing to enter a home and
00:56:11
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
00:56:18
may have this might be somebody that's very confident in their physical ability and when they sustain an injury they may
00:56:27
be limited in the sense where they for a tempor temporarily are not confident in
00:56:33
their physical ability they take a take some time off and then attempt another one of these high-risk Crimes by
00:56:41
entering someone's home or attacking someone in broad daylight in another location and the police didn't just they
00:56:47
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
00:56:54
sentence by the time he gets out he's no longer confident in his physical ability
00:56:59
because he's older or maybe some injuries occurred while in prison or maybe he passed away during that prison
00:57:06
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
00:57:14
letters the bloody letters so I would say anybody that's listening to this case that is from that
00:57:21
area from Lakewood or Aurora or Dan maybe this guy worked in Denver and traveled to these are to attack but
00:57:29
think about this you know round 84 did a family member of yours commit suicide did a family member of yours go away for
00:57:40
a time period maybe passed away in jail or maybe one was sick and passed away but maybe this family member or a friend
00:57:50
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
00:57:58
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
00:58:08
letters was r i c h and anyone with information should contact the Aurora police detectives at
00:58:16
303 739 6106 or the Lakewood Police Cold Case hotline at 3 33987 [Music] [Applause]
00:58:36
7474 all right Captain we want to thank everybody for listening thanks for filling up the fridge thanks for all
00:58:42
those little donations you know that helps keep the heat on in the garage and it's freaking cold my friends so
00:58:49
everybody you stay warm out there until next time be good be kind and don't litter
00:58:54
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