A woman who watched her family get brutally murdered by a hammer-wielding stranger after he sexually assaulted her, her sister, and her mother when she was just three years old has spoken out about the harrowing attack.
Vanessa Bennett, now 42, witnessed the horrifying deaths of her parents, Bruce, then 27, and Debra, then 26, as well as her older sister, Melissa, then seven, after a man broke into their Aurora, Colorado, home and bludgeoned them with a hammer in 1984.
The then-toddler narrowly survived the gruesome assault – suffering from a shattered jaw and skull, as well as broken bones in both of her arms and legs.
Now, she has opened up about the aftermath of the hideous incident in an upcoming episode of People Magazine Investigates, admitting that it affected her for years, resulting in her turning to drugs as a teen and attempting to take her own life at age 17.
On January 16, 1984, a man named Alex Ewing, now 61, broke into the Bennett house through their unlocked garage.
Vanessa’s dad Bruce tried to fight him off, but Ewing ultimately bashed his head in with a hammer, before slashing his throat with a knife, which he had taken from their kitchen.
A woman who watched her family get brutally murdered by a hammer-wielding stranger when she was just three years old has spoken out about the harrowing attack. She is pictured as a kid
Vanessa Bennett (seen right with her family), now 42, witnessed the horrifying deaths of her parents, Bruce, then 27, and Debra, then 26, as well as her older sister, Melissa, then seven
In 1984, a man named Alex Ewing (pictured in 1984), now 61, broke into their Aurora, Colorado, home and bludgeoned them with a hammer
He then sexually assaulted the little girls and their mother, before beating all three of them with the tool, resulting in Debra and Melissa dying from the attack.
The then-toddler narrowly survived the gruesome assault – suffering from a shattered jaw and skull, as well as broken bones in both of her arms and legs. She is pictured as a child
However, Vanessa somehow made it out alive, and she was found unconscious by her grandmother the next morning, covered in blood and clinging to life.
‘There’s no fixing what he took from me,’ Vanessa told the outlet while discussing the episode, entitled The Colorado Hammer Killer, which will air on July 11 on Investigation Discovery and Discovery+.
In the years after the attack, Vanessa also told A&E back in May that she suffered from post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and attempted suicide by cutting her wrists.
‘As a child, I don’t think I really acknowledged what happened, but I was made fun of by other kids,’ she explained. ‘I grew up with my paternal grandma. I had insomnia, and I was always angry.
‘I have borderline personality disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, bipolar disorder and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. When I was a teenager, I was a cutter and I slit my wrists.’
She was eventually sent to boarding school but became pregnant at age 18. However, three months after she welcomed a son, he was taken from her by child protective services since she admitted she ‘didn’t know how to be a mother.’
She then started doing cocaine and heroine at age 19. She also had run-ins with the law and was homeless for many years.
‘I have been homeless. I lived under a bridge with my boyfriend. We went to a hospital nearby to wash our hair,’ she recalled to A&E.
‘I was in jail for things like shoplifting, assault, domestic violence, trespassing, drug possession.’
However, when she turned 30, she decided to ‘stop being a victim’ and has since gotten clean.
Now, Vanessa (seen in 2018) has opened up about the aftermath of the hideous incident in an upcoming episode of People Magazine Investigates
On January 16, 1984, Ewing broke into the Bennett house (pictured) through their unlocked garage. He bashed Bruce’s head in with a hammer, before slashing his throat with a knife
She is now married to a man named Frankie Willard, 39, and works as a public speaker, sharing her story with the world in the hopes of helping other people.
She currently lives in Tucson, Arizona, with Frankie and their pet cat, and dreams of finishing her college degree and becoming a drug counselor.
Vanessa also connected with her son in 2018, telling A&E, ‘He is a straight-A student. It’s nice to see that I created somebody … that portrays good things, because I felt I was so evil. He knows he can call me if he wants to.’
He then sexually assaulted the little girls and their mother, before beating all three of them with the tool, resulting in Debra and Melissa dying from the attack. Vanessa is seen recently
‘I am in a better place [now],’ she continued. ‘We are getting by. I am very resourceful.
‘Everybody throughout my life asked me how could I go on without my parents. For me, it’s my will to live.
‘My will to live was so strong that I never gave up. Especially as an adult – in any situation, I don’t give up.’
She added to People that she is ‘unbreakable’ and ‘a survivor,’ while calling Ewing ‘a coward.’
Ewing wrecked havoc in Aurora and other nearby Colorado towns over the span of 12 days throughout 1984, entering into many other homes in the middle of the night and attacking more victims – including Patricia Smith, Jim and Kim Haubenschild, and Donna Holm; the latter three were able to survive.
‘I woke up in the early hours with this incredible pain,’ Kim recalled in the upcoming People Investigates episode. ‘It was right on the top of my head.
‘I immediately sat up and there was a person standing at the foot of the bed and he had a hammer.
‘I saw his silhouette lift up the hammer and I screamed. At that point, he threw the hammer at me.’
However, Vanessa somehow made it out alive. She was found unconscious by her grandmother the next morning, clinging to life. Police are seen outside her home
In the years after, Vanessa (seen in 2018) told A&E that she suffered from PTSD and attempted suicide by cutting her wrists. She also struggled with drug addiction but is now clean
Ewing wrecked havoc in Colorado over the span of 12 days throughout 1984, entering into many other homes and attacking more victims before he was arrested for attempted murder
He then moved to Arizona where he continued his spree, attacking a man named Roy Williams in his home.
He also tried to kill Nancy and Chris Barry in Nevada with an axe, which resulted in him getting arrested on August 9, 1984, for attempted murder.
He was found guilty and sentenced to 40 years in prison; then, in 2018, DNA evidence linked him to the other attacks, including the assault and slayings of the Bennett family.
Ewing was later found guilty for the crimes, and he is now serving four consecutive life sentences.
In 2018, while he was already in prison, DNA evidence linked him to the assault and slayings of the Bennett family. Ewing was later found guilty for the crimes, and he is now serving four consecutive life sentences
‘Some people may call him an animal, but I won’t because I think animals have a purpose in this world,’ Vanessa’s grandmother, Connie Bennett, told the court during his trial, per 9Wants.
‘I feel he has shown no remorse for what he has done. I will not say that he has destroyed our family lives. We are a strong family, and we’re leading productive lives.
‘However what he has done has left us with extreme sorrow and a feeling of loss, and a wound that will never heal.’
Vanessa added, ‘I didn’t just lose my parents and my sister. I lost my trust in people and my dignity and pride. I lost the person I was supposed to be. I lost my sanity.
‘I look in the mirror every day and look at myself and I hate who I am. And I hate what I had to go through and still go through.’
She told A&E that she was ‘shocked’ when she found out the killer had been identified, more than three decades after the tragic event.
‘I figured they would never catch him,’ she admitted. ‘I figured he was either in jail or he was dead. There’s only so many roads you can go with that.’
When asked if she felt any relief she explained, ‘Not really. My life had already been ruined.
‘I felt like if it [catching the killer] made everybody comfortable, it was great, and it should be. But for me, the damage had already been done.’
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