Vanessa Bennett, now 42, witnessed the horrific deaths of her parents, Bruce, then 27, and Debra, then 26, and her older sister, Melissa, then seven, after a man broke into their Aurora home in Colorado and killed them. with a hammer in 1984. The then-toddler narrowly survived the horrific attack – suffering broken jaws and skull, as well as broken bones in both her arms and legs. Now, she has opened up about the aftermath of the horrific incident in an upcoming episode of People Investigates magazine, admitting it affected her for years, leading to her turning to drugs as a teenager and trying to kill herself at 17. On January 16, 1984, a man named Alex Ewing, now 61, broke into the Bennett home through their unlocked garage. Vanessa’s dad Bruce tried to fight him off, but Ewing eventually bashed his head in with a hammer, before slitting his throat with a knife he had taken from their kitchen. A woman who watched her family brutally murdered by a hammer-wielding stranger when she was just three years old has spoken out about the horrific attack. He is depicted as a child Vanessa Bennett (seen right with her family), now 42, witnessed the horrific 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 home in Aurora, Colorado and beat them with a hammer. He then sexually assaulted the girls and their mother, before striking all three of them with the tool, causing Debre and Melissa to die from the attack. The then-toddler narrowly survived the horrific attack – suffering broken jaws and skull, as well as broken bones in both her arms and legs. He is depicted as a child However, Vanessa somehow made it out alive and 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 report while discussing the episode, titled The Colorado Hammer Killer, which will air July 11 on Investigation Discovery and Discovery+. In the years since the attack, Vanessa also told A&E in May that she suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and attempted suicide by slashing her wrists. “As a kid, I don’t think I really recognized what happened, but I was teased by other kids,” he explained. “I grew up with my paternal grandmother. I had insomnia and was always angry. “I have borderline personality disorder, PTSD, bipolar disorder, and attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder. When I was a teenager, I was a cutter and I cut my wrists.’ She was eventually sent to boarding school but became pregnant at 18. However, three months after she had a son, he was taken away from child protective services as she admitted she “didn’t know how to be a mother”. Then she started doing cocaine and heroin at 19. She also had run-ins with the law and was homeless for many years. “I’ve been homeless. I lived under a bridge with my boyfriend. We went to a nearby hospital to wash our hair,” she recalled to A&E. “I’ve been 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 been clean ever since. Now Vanessa (who appeared in 2018) has opened up about the aftermath of the horrific incident in an upcoming episode of People Investigates magazine On January 16, 1984, Ewing broke into the Bennett home (pictured) through their unlocked garage. He bashed Bruce’s head in with a hammer, before slitting 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 hopes of helping other people. She currently lives in Tucson, Arizona, with Frankie and their pet cat, and dreams of finishing her degree and becoming a drug counselor. Vanessa also bonded with her son in 2018, telling A&E, “He’s a straight-A student. It’s nice to see that I created someone … who portrays good things, because I felt like I was so bad. He knows he can call me if he wants.’ He then sexually assaulted the girls and their mother, before striking all three of them with the tool, causing Debre and Melissa to die from the attack. Vanessa appears recently “I’m in a better place [now]she continued. “We pass. I am very resourceful. “Everyone throughout my life has asked me how I could go on without my parents. For me, it is 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 wreaked havoc in Aurora and other nearby Colorado towns over a 12-day period in 1984, breaking into several other homes in the middle of the night and attacking more victims — including Patricia Smith, Jim and Kim Haubenschild and Donna Holm. the last three managed to survive. “I woke up in the wee hours of the morning in this incredible pain,” Kim recalls in the upcoming People Investigates episode. “It was just off the top of my head. “I immediately sat up and there was a person standing at the foot of the bed who had a hammer. “I saw the silhouette of him raising 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 officers can be seen outside her house In the years since, Vanessa (who appeared in 2018) told A&E that she suffered from PTSD and attempted suicide by slitting her wrists. She also struggled with drug addiction, but is now clean Ewing wreaked havoc in Colorado over a 12-day period in 1984, breaking into several other homes and attacking more victims before being arrested for attempted murder He then moved to Arizona where he continued his rampage, attacking a man named Roy Williams in his home. He also tried to kill Nancy and Chris Barry in Nevada with an ax, which resulted in his arrest 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 murders of the Bennett family. Ewing was later found guilty of the crimes and is now serving four consecutive life sentences. In 2018, while he was already in prison, DNA evidence linked him to the attack and murders of the Bennett family. Ewing was later convicted of the crimes and is now serving four consecutive life sentences “Some people might call him an animal, but I won’t because I believe animals have a purpose in this world,” Vanessa’s grandmother, Connie Bennett, told 9Wants in court during his trial. “I feel that he has no regrets for what he has done. I won’t say it has ruined our family lives. We are a strong family and lead productive lives. “However what he has done has left us with great sadness and a sense 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 mind. “I look in the mirror every day and I 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 she was “shocked” to discover the killer had been identified, more than three decades after the tragic incident. “I thought they’d never catch him,” he admitted. “I thought he was either in jail or dead. There are only so many ways you can go with this. When asked if he felt relieved, he explained: “Not really. My life was already ruined. “I felt like it was [catching the killer] it made everyone comfortable, it was great, and it should be. But for me, the damage was already done.’
