For 26 years, detectives wondered what — other than the gruesome manner of death — connected two heinous crimes committed six days apart on opposite sides of metro Denver.
They finally have an answer.
DNA discovered at both scenes likely belongs to the man who 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.
Cold-case detectives from Lakewood and Aurora hope the new link will help them solve cases that separately bedeviled both departments.
“I think it can open up avenues. It could be someone who is still out there,” Connie Bennett, Bruce Bennett’s mother, said at a news conference in Lakewood on Tuesday.
The Colorado Bureau of Investigation recently submitted a DNA profile taken from frozen evidence from Smith’s murder into the FBI’s Combined DNA Index System. Two weeks ago, 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.
But though there are thousands of DNA profiles in the system from men convicted nationwide of violent crimes, none has matched the sample.
The two agencies had long been suspicious that the cases were linked and had, on occasion, compared notes from their investigations. But the DNA confirmation will now lead Lakewood and Aurora to exchange thousands of pages of evidence, said Lakewood cold- case Detective Alex Jameson. They will scour the documents for common witness or suspect names as a starting point.
“There was something that was missed before. What was it?” Jameson said.
Detectives already know of a few important similarities between the murders. In 1984, new-home construction was booming in the two suburbs, said Melissa Stone-Principato, Jameson’s partner in the cold- case unit.
The killer could have been a carpenter who worked for a construction company that had jobs in both cities. Or he could have lived in one city and worked in the other.
“We’re asking anyone who may know of any ties to come forward,” Stone-Principato said.
Smith’s townhome at 12610 W. Bayaud Ave. in Lakewood and the Bennett home at 16387 E. Center Drive in Aurora were both within a few blocks of Alameda Avenue.
There was something else in common.
“The brutality was unbelievable,” said Sgt. Scott Pendleton, who supervises Aurora’s cold-case detectives.
Although victims in both cases were sexually assaulted, the killer was primarily motivated by rage, Jameson said. He could have brought a gun. Instead, a hammer was his weapon of choice, he said.
“That’s how he got his kicks. That’s just beyond horrendous,” Jameson said.
Smith’s mother discovered her partially clothed body in her Green Mountain town home, now the Panorama subdivision. A hammer was lying next to her body. She had been killed between 1 and 3 p.m.
“That’s pretty brazen,” Jameson said. “It shows he was confident, familiar.”
Six days later, between midnight and 6 a.m., the same man sneaked into a home occupied by the four members of the Bennett family, another act of brazenness for someone armed with a hammer and a knife, Jameson said.
Only one family member, then-3-year-old Vanessa, survived, but with severe facial injuries.
Aurora police went to great lengths to solve the case, removing part of the concrete garage floor to preserve a shoe print. A laser was used to get fingerprints from inside the home.
“The investigation has taken us to many states,” Aurora Detective R.J. Wilson said.
Police had also found similarities between the attacks on Smith and the Bennetts to random attacks days earlier along the High Line Canal and Alameda Avenue corridor.
Smith had recently started her own interior decorating business, and left behind a husband, children and grandchildren.
In June 2002, former Arapahoe 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.
Connie Bennett said the killings seem as if they happened a short time ago.
“It’s still fresh,” she said. “I know it has changed my life.”
Kirk Mitchell: 303-954-1206 or kmitchell@denverpost.com
