Andrew Urdiales

Andrew Urdiales (born June 4, 1964 in Chicago , Illinois - † November 2, 2018 in San Quentin State Prison , California ) was an American serial killer .

Life

Early life

Little is known about Andrew Urdiales' childhood and adolescence. In June 1978, shortly before his 14th birthday, he was angry and beat the family dog ​​to death with a baseball bat and lied to his parents that the animal was fatally injured in a fall. After successfully graduating from high school , Urdiales entered the United States Marine Corps . Between 1984 and 1991 he was in the Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton ( California stationed). Here Urdiales completed hand-to-hand combat and combat training, which he subsequently used to kill people.

Series of murders

Urdiales committed the first murder that the authorities could prove on the evening of January 18, 1986. He ambushed the 23-year-old art student Robbin Brandley on the campus of the Saddleback Community College in Mission Viejo . For no apparent reason, he stabbed the defenseless woman 41 all over her body with a knife; Brandley died on the spot.

Two years later, in July 1988 - the exact date is unknown - he shot his pistol caliber type .45 ACP The 29-year-old prostitute Julie McGhee. Authorities found her body in a ditch near Cathedral City . Just two months later, in September 1988, Urdiales struck San Diego . Here he killed the 31-year-old prostitute Mary Ann Wells, whose body, riddled with pistol bullets, was found by police officers on September 25, 1988 in an empty warehouse. Urdiales found his fourth victim, 18-year-old Tammy Erwin, on April 17, 1989, also on the street in Palm Springs .

After the murder of Erwin, Urdiales temporarily interrupted his series of murders. In 1991 he was discharged from the Navy with full military honors and moved back to his parents in Chicago. But already in September 1992 he came back to California on vacation.

Here 19-year-old Jennifer Asbenson escaped at the last moment. She got into the car on September 27th to see Urdiales, who offered to take her to work. After her shift, her Urdiales lay in wait again and was able to persuade her to get into his car. Suddenly Asbenson had a knife at her throat and Urdiales, after he had raped, handcuffed and gagged her, put her in the trunk of the rental car. When Urdiales had to stop at an intersection, Asbenson managed to open the lid of the trunk and at the last moment escaped. Urdiales returned his rental car the same day and flew back to Illinois.

For three years Urdiales did not commit a murder for fear of discovery. When he ended up in California again in March 1995, he fell on the 32-year-old prostitute Denise Maney in Cathedral City, forced her into his car and drove her into the California desert. Here he shot her, undressed her and left the corpse to the scavengers.

Urdiales now believed he could just as easily commit murders in and around Illinois. As a security guard in a shopping center in Chicago, he enjoyed great trust among customers, but also in his family environment. He crossed the state line and committed suicide in April 1996 in Bloomington ( Indiana ) his next murder of 25-year-old Laura Ulyaki. Her body was found on April 14th of the same year in Wolf Lake , Cook County, Illinois. On July 14, 1996, police officers had to retrieve the body of 21-year-old Cassandra Corum in Livingston County from the Vermilion River . Urdiales' blood toll was increased on August 2, 1996 when the body of Lynn Huber, 22, was found in Wolf Lake . Huber was probably Urdiales' last victim.

In December 1996, Urdiales was arrested by the police because he did not have sufficient weapons authorization, but was quickly released after a sum of money had been paid. Urdiales made his last attempted murder a few months later, in April 1997. Here, a prostitute whom he had threatened with a pistol and whom he tried to handcuff, escaped from his vehicle screaming.

Arrest and trial

Andrew Urdiales' freedom ended on April 23, 1997 when the police tried to check his weapon in connection with the series of murders and he was taken to the police station. While the ballistic tests were still in progress, Urdiales made a full confession in all murders. Laboratory tests that followed supported Urdiales' confession and involvement in the Laura Ulyaki , Cassandra Corum and Lynn Huber murders . Illinois law enforcement began drafting the indictment in collaboration with the California Police Department. Urdiales had no rational motive and said he was excited when the women begged for their lives.

Compared to other US trials, the Andrew Urdiales case proceeded relatively quickly. On April 29, 1997, charges were brought against him. However, legal and political debates delayed the opening of the trial by four years. The question was whether Urdiales should be punished with the death penalty . At the time, there was a discussion in Illinois about whether the death penalty should not be abolished entirely. It was not until April 30, 2001 that the public prosecutor decided to apply for the death penalty for Urdiales if he was found guilty. The trial of Urdiales opened on April 8, 2002 and was supposed to focus on the Laura Ulyaki and Lynn Huber murders . Urdiales was found guilty of both murders on May 23, 2002, and sentenced to death by the court seven days later, on May 30, 2002.

The Andrew Urdiales case briefly became a political issue. After a study by Northwestern University of Illinois revealed that some death row inmates were innocent and that this innocence could never have been recognized in court after a sentence was executed , the Governor of Illinois, George Ryan , ordered on January 11, 2003, that all 167 people sentenced to death in Illinois at the time would be pardoned and the sentences commuted to life imprisonment . Andrew Urdiales also fell under this pardon.

Now the public prosecutor's office is preparing an indictment for the previously untroubled Cassandra Corum murder case . The trial opened on April 24, 2004. Encouraged by his defense attorney Stephen Richards, Urdiales changed his tactics, pleading guilty but claiming he was "insane". Presiding Judge Harold Frobish disregarded the defendant's allegation and on May 10, 2004, sentenced to death again .

Andrew Urdiales was serving much of his sentence on death row at the Menard Correctional Center in Chester , Randolph County, Illinois.

In May 2018, the trial opened in California for the crimes committed there. On October 5, 2018, he was sentenced to death again. He was in San Quentin Prison at the time . On November 2, 2018, Andrew Urdiales was found dead in his cell, subject to the results of an autopsy , suicide is believed to be the cause.

Sources and further reading

1. ↑ Greg Lee: Serial killer Andrew Urdiales sentenced to death in murders of 5 women in Southern California. October 5, 2018, accessed November 18, 2018 . 
2. ↑ AP : California Prison - Death row inmates found dead. November 6, 2018, accessed November 18, 2018 . 
3. ↑ Sean Emery: Serial killer Andrew Urdiales dies of possible suicide on San Quentin's death row. November 5, 2018, accessed November 18, 2018 . 

• Michael Newton: The Great Encyclopedia of Serial Killers . 5th updated and expanded edition. Verlag für Collectors , Graz 2009, 534 pages, ISBN 978-3-85365-240-4 .
• Peter Murakami, Julia Murakami: Lexicon of serial killers. 450 case studies of a pathological type of killing. Ullstein Tb, Munich March 2000, 639 pages, ISBN 3-548-35935-3 .