A former flight attendant who was sexually assaulted and nearly bludgeoned to death during a spree of 1984 hammer attacks said she is “elated” that a Nevada prisoner has been identified as a suspect in a pair of related cold cases.
“I am elated that this person, who continued his violent path into another state, has spent these years in prison,” Donna Holm, 62, of Aurora, said in a statement on Monday. “I know I am one of his victims and I am elated that the killer has been identified and has been locked up for all these years.”
Holm, who was 28 at the time of the assault, was attacked after pulling into her garage in Aurora on the evening of Jan. 9, 1984. Her attacker struck her in the left temple with a hammer and raped her on the concrete garage floor.
“I was fortunate that I was able to move forward with my life through the love and support of my husband, my family and friends,” Holm said in her statement.
On Friday, district attorneys from Arapahoe and Jefferson Counties said they are pursuing murder charges against 57-year-old Nevada inmate Alex Christopher Ewing, who is serving a 40-year prison term following his 1985 conviction on two counts of attempted murder of a Henderson couple in August 1984.
Holm’s attack was part of a string of fatal and maiming hammer attacks in 1984. 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.
Police believe the spree killer 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.
Because of similarities between the Haubenschild, Holm, Bennett and Smith cases, they have all long been considered victims of the same attacker, according Ron Walker, a retired FBI profiler who wrote about the hammer attacker.
Holm’s case was not part of charges amended Friday in Arapahoe County District Court.
