Lone Survivor of 1984 Colorado Hammer Killer Attack Misses the Family He Stole: 'Inside I Cry Every Day'

Mar. 15, 2025

The Bennett Family.Photo: Courtesy Vanessa Bennett

Vanessa Bennett barely has any memories of her mother, father or sister.

“I don’t remember anybody specifically,” Bennett, 42, tells PEOPLE. “I just remember bits and pieces.

“I remember my sister telling me a story to kind of scare me,” she says. “That’s about it.”

When Bennett was just 3, she lost her entire family when a cold-blooded assailant snuck into their home in Aurora, Colorado, on a snowy January night in 1984 and bludgeoned them all with a hammer.

Vanessa’s father Bruce Bennett, 27, her mother, Debra Bennett, 26, and her older sister, Melissa, 7, were all killed.

Vanessa, who was curled up in her twin bed in a small bedroom she shared with Melissa when the intruder snuck in and attacked her, somehow survived.

Vanessa Bennett.Courtesy Vanessa Bennett

That horrific night, Ewing shattered Vanessa’s jaw, skull, arms and legs, leaving her with a lifetime of physical and emotional pain.

Vanessa Bennett.Investigation Discovery

“There’s no fixing what he took from me,” Vanessa says in the most recent issue of PEOPLE, which hit newsstands last Friday.

Her story is also featured on tonight’s episode ofPeople Magazine Investigateson Investigation Discovery and discovery+. Airing at 9 p.m. ET, the episode takes an in-depth look inside the case and how authorities finally brought Ewing to justice. (An exclusive clip is shown below.)

Bennett was living under a bridge in 2018 in Tucson, Ariz., when she learned that Ewing, 61, had been arrested and charged with her family’s murders.

“I didn’t believe it at first,” she says.

For more on Vanessa Bennett’s harrowing story of survival and hope,subscribe now to PEOPLEor pick up this week’s issue, now on newsstands.

At the time, she didn’t know that the man who attacked her was one of the most vicious serial killers ever to prey upon Colorado.

Ewing’s violent spree continued 11 days later in Arizona when he attacked Roy Williams with a rock as he lay sleeping in his Kingman home. It finally ended on Aug. 9, 1984, in Nevada, where he was arrested for attempted murder for attacking Nancy and Chris Barry in Henderson with an ax handle.

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Convicted in 2021 for the Bennett’s murders and in 2022 for killing Smith, Ewing is serving four consecutive life sentences for his crimes.

A Lifetime of Physical and Emotional Pain

Vanessa is relieved that Ewing will remain behind bars for the rest of his life, but still grapples with the fallout from that night in her early childhood.

After waking up from her coma many weeks after the attack, she had to learn how to walk “and do everything” all over again.

“My legs were smashed,” she says. “My ankles were smashed. My pelvic area was smashed. My arms. I had braces on my legs like Forrest Gump.”

Even today, she says she has trouble with balance. “I’m very wobbly,” she says. “My ankles are forever damaged, and when your ankles are damaged and crooked, it makes everything else crooked as you go up.”

The emotional and mental anguish she has suffered has been even worse, causing her in the past to turn to drugs such as heroin to numb the overwhelming pain of losing her family, being brutally attacked and sexually assaulted — and being made fun of for all of it.

“I would get people that’d say, ‘You don’t have parents. … You’re not normal.’ That’s what really got me,” she says.

“When I was a child, teenagers and children would say, ‘What happened to your face?’ That’s the first thing they would ask.”

She ended up getting diagnosed with PTSD and bipolar disorder, and her conditions would keep her wide awake for stretches of time, she says.

“I wasn’t able to hold down a job because I couldn’t sleep,” she says. “I couldn’t manage time. I couldn’t manage sleeping. I couldn’t manage organizational skills. … So I spent the last 20 years just trying to get over those hurdles. And now I got them down. I’m a late bloomer.”

Today, Vanessa is clean — and has been for several years.

“I’m definitely thankful and grateful for everything that I have,” she says. “I think around the age of 30 is when I tried to stop being a victim and turning it into empowering myself and turning it into being a survivor.”

Her dream is to one day buy a house and to help other people who are struggling with addiction.

“I’ve been in their shoes,” she says. “I was that person that wanted to take my life. That’s why helping others is an ambition for me.”

See more on the murders of the Bennetts and Alex Ewing’s other crimes onPeople Magazine Investigates(“The Colorado Hammer Killer”), airing tonight at 9 p.m. ET on Investigation Discovery and also streaming on discovery+.

source: people.com