In the winter of 1984, Patricia Louise Smith, a 50-year-old white female, was establishing a new life in Lakewood, Colorado. Having recently moved to help her daughter, Chery, who was going through a divorce, Patricia was a beloved mother and grandmother. She had started her own interior decorating business and was a vibrant member of her community.
On January 10, 1984, Patricia's life was brutally cut short in an act of shocking violence.
After grabbing a sandwich for lunch, she returned to her residence at 12610 West Bayaud Avenue. There, between 1:00 p.m. and 3:00 p.m., she was sexually assaulted and bludgeoned to death with a hammer. The grim discovery was made later that day by her daughter and two young grandchildren. The crime scene had been staged, with Patricia's body carefully placed on a folded comforter.
For more than three decades, the murder of Patricia Smith remained a painful and unsolved mystery for her family and investigators. A significant breakthrough came in 2010 when DNA evidence collected from the scene of Patricia's murder was linked to the brutal murders of the Bennett family in Aurora, which had occurred just six days after her death. This connection confirmed that a single, unidentified suspect was responsible for both horrific crimes.
The case took a dramatic turn in July 2018 when investigators received a notification of a DNA match that identified Alex Christopher Ewing, an inmate in a Nevada prison, as the suspect in both cases. Following a prolonged legal battle over his extradition, Ewing was finally brought to Colorado to face justice.
In 2022, nearly four decades after Patricia's death, a Jefferson County jury found Alex Christopher Ewing guilty of her murder. He was subsequently sentenced to life in prison. This verdict came after Ewing had already been convicted and sentenced to three life sentences for the murders of Bruce and Debra Bennett and their seven-year-old daughter, Melissa. The successful prosecution, made possible by advancements in DNA technology and the persistent efforts of law enforcement, finally brought a measure of closure to the family of Patricia Louise Smith.
