The Case of Patricia Louise Smith

Patricia Louise Smith, 50, was sexually assaulted and beaten to death with a hammer inside her Lakewood home on January 10, 1984. The case remained unsolved for decades until DNA evidence linked Alex Christopher Ewing to the murder. Ewing was convicted in 2022 and sentenced to life imprisonment.

Patricia Louise Smith was an outgoing and sophisticated woman who had recently started her own interior decorating business. She lived in a Lakewood townhouse with her daughter and grandchildren. On January 10, 1984, Patricia was at home when she was attacked. Her daughter and grandchildren later returned to the residence and discovered her body. The killing occurred during a series of violent hammer attacks in the Denver metropolitan area that investigators would eventually connect to the same offender. Patricia's murder occurred six days before the Bennett family murders in nearby Aurora, where Bruce and Debra Bennett and their seven-year-old daughter Melissa were killed. DNA evidence eventually established a forensic connection between the two cases.

Patricia was murdered inside her residence at 12610 West Bayaud Avenue in Lakewood between approximately 1:00 p.m. and 3:00 p.m. on January 10, 1984. She had been sexually assaulted and fatally beaten with a hammer. Investigators recovered biological evidence from the scene, including evidence associated with the sexual assault. That evidence would remain crucial to the investigation decades later.

The Lakewood Police Department investigated Patricia's murder, but the initial investigation failed to identify her killer. Evidence from the crime scene was preserved as the case remained unsolved. In 2010, DNA evidence from Patricia's case was compared with evidence recovered from the Bennett family murders. Investigators determined that the same person was responsible for both cases. A breakthrough came in 2018 when DNA testing linked the evidence to Alex Christopher Ewing, who was already serving a lengthy prison sentence in Nevada for an unrelated violent attack. Ewing was subsequently extradited to Colorado to face charges in the Smith and Bennett murders. Ewing's first trial for Patricia's murder ended in a mistrial in October 2021 after the judge granted a defence request for a competency evaluation. He was tried again in 2022.

On April 7, 2022, a Jefferson County jury found Alex Christopher Ewing guilty of Patricia's murder. He was convicted of premeditated first-degree murder as well as felony murder charges connected to the killing. On April 12, 2022, Ewing was sentenced to life imprisonment for Patricia's murder. He was already serving three consecutive life sentences for the murders of Bruce, Debra and Melissa Bennett.

Patricia's children and grandchildren provided statements during Ewing's sentencing. Her daughter, Chery Lettin, had waited decades for justice and described the murder as something that had continued to haunt the family.