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Jefferson County DA charges Nevada inmate in 1984 hammer killing of Lakewood grandmother

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The Jefferson County District Attorney’s Office has formally charged a 57-year-old Nevada prisoner with first-degree murder and first-degree sexual assault in the 1984 hammer bludgeoning death of a 50-year-old Lakewood grandmother.

Alex Christopher Ewing, 57 ...
Nevada Department of Corrections
Alex Christopher Ewing, 57

Alex Christopher Ewing faces four counts of murder in the first degree and two crime of violence counts in the death of Patricia Smith. Her death was later connected by DNA to the murders of three members of an Aurora family.

Ewing is serving a 40-year prison term for two counts of attempted murder and two counts of assault with a deadly weapon in the Aug. 9, 1984, attacks on a Henderson, Nev., couple. Nevada authorities took Ewing’s DNA in May and later entered that in the FBI’s national DNA database. The day after it was entered, a Colorado Bureau of Investigators crime analyst found a match between Ewing’s DNA and that found at Smith’s crime scene.

Ewing was 23 when he allegedly entered the townhome Smith shared with her daughter and two grandchildren at 12610 W. Bayaud Ave. on Jan. 10, 1984. Smith’s grandchildren discovered her partially clothed body soaked in blood near the entrance of their home. The Jefferson County Coroner’s Office concluded she had been struck 16 times in the head with a Craftsman brand auto body hammer that was found near her body, according to an arrest warrant affidavit.

Ewing also faces 18 felony sexual assault and murder charges including three counts of first degree murder in the Jan. 16, 1984, hammer bludgeoning deaths of Bruce and Debra Bennett and their 7-year-old daughter, Melissa. Only one family member, then-3-year-old Vanessa, survived, but with severe facial injuries.

In June 2002, then-Arapahoe County District Attorney Jim Peters filed the charges against John Doe in the Bennett killings based on the DNA. Arapahoe County District Attorney George Brauchler’s office amended the complaint Friday adding Ewing’s name.

“We are moving for extradition and at this stage it is a waiting game,” said Terry Combs, a spokeswoman for Brauchler.

The same killer who killed Smith and the Bennetts 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 Holm in the garage of her Aurora home, leaving her in a coma. Holm survived.

  • The Denver Post archive

    Snow was stuck to the knife that authorities removed from front yard of the Bennett home so it was tapped off on pavement Jan. 16. 1984. Coroner is at right.

  • Aurora Coroner's officers and police officers remove one of the three bodies from house at 16387 E. Center Dr.

    Denver Post Archive

    Aurora Coroner's officers and police officers remove one of the three bodies from house at 16387 E. Center Drive on Jan. 16 1984.

  • Family photo

    DNA evidence has linked Alex Christopher Ewing to the 1984 murders of three members of the Bruce and Debra Bennett family. Only 3-year-old Vanessa (on right) survived.

  • Photo courtesy of Smith family

    Patricia Smith: Two small children rushed into their home to find their grandmother. They found her immediately. The 50-year-old woman was lying on the floor next to the front door. Someone had beaten her to death with a hammer.

  • The Denver Post archive

    Aurora detective Eganies still hunting clues in to the Bennett case as he reads a lab report on his way to this office where the bulk of his work is done April 21, 1984.

  • Susan Biddle, The Denver Post archive

    Chester Atwater of Bennett Fire Dept. With his truck Jan. 20 1984. In background is Mike Williams, also a volunteer from fire department, and his truck.

  • Eric Bakke, The Denver Post archive

    Co-worker Augie (no last name for protection and advice of police) talks of the Bennett's at his place of work Jan. 17, 1984.

  • Patricia Smith ...

    Photo courtesy of Lakewood Police Department

    Patricia Smith

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