Andrew Urdiales

Early life

Little is known about Andrew Urdiales' childhood. In June 1977, shortly before his 12th birthday, he fiercely beat the family dog with a baseball bat and told his parents that the animal had been fatally injured in a fall. After successfully completing high school, Urdiales joined the United States Marine Corps. Between 1984 and 1991 he was stationed at the Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton in California. Here Urdiales completed melee and combat training, which he then used to kill people.

Murder series

Urdiales committed his first alleged murder on the evening of January 18, 1986. At the Saddleback Community College campus in Mission Viejo, he stalked 23-year old Communication Arts student Robbin Bradley and stabbed her 41 times with a knife; Bradley died on the spot.

Two years later, on July 17, 1988, he shot 29-year old sex worker Julie McGhee with a .45 ACP caliber pistol. Her body was found in a ditch near Cathedral City. Two months later Urdiales struck in San Diego, where he killed 31-year old sex worker Mary Ann Wells, whose body was found by police on September 25, 1988, in an abandoned warehouse. His fourth victim, 18-year old Tammy Erwin, was found on the streets of Palm Springs on April 17, 1989.

In 1991, he was honorably discharged from the Marine Corps and moved back to his parents' home in Chicago and in September 1992 he returned to California for a holiday. On September 27, 1992, 19-year old Jennifer Asbenson met Urdiales when he offered to take her to work. The next day, Urdiales lurked around until Asbenson ended her shift (around 6 am) and persuaded her to get in his car. He drove her out to the desert, raped her, then put her in his trunk and drove off (presumably in an attempt to find a place to kill her). When he stopped at an intersection, Asbenson managed to open the lid of the trunk and flee. She reported the incident to police but they did not take her seriously.^[1] Urdiales returned his rental car the same day and flew back to Illinois.

For three years he committed no murders due to fear of being discovered. When he returned to California in March 1995 he was in Cathedral City and happened upon 32-year old sex worker Denise Maney, forced her into his car, and drove her into the Californian desert. There he shot her, undressed her, and left the corpse for the scavengers.

Urdiales now believed that he could just as easily commit murders in Illinois and the surrounding area. As a security guard in a Chicago mall, he enjoyed great trust among customers as well as in his family environment. He crossed the state line into Bloomington, Indiana in April 1996, where he murdered 25-year old Laura Ulyaki. Her body was found on April 14 of the same year in Wolf Lake, which is located in Cook County, Illinois. On July 14, 1996, police found the body of 21-year old Cassandra Corum in the Vermillion River mountains in Livingston County. Urdiales' death toll was increased on August 2, 1996, when the body of 22-year old Lynn Huber was found in Wolf Lake. Huber is presumed to be Urdiales' last victim.

In December 1996, Urdiales was arrested because he did not have sufficient weapon licensing, but was released after paying a fine. Urdiales made his last attempted murder a few months later, in April 1997. Here, a sex worker, whom he threatened with a pistol and wanted to handcuff, escaped from his vehicle.

Arrest and procedures

Andrew Urdiales' freedom ended on April 23, 1997, when the police wanted to check his gun in connection to his murder series and he was therefore taken to the police station. While the ballistic tests were still going on, Urdiales made a full confession in all murder cases. The subsequent lab tests supported Urdiales' confession and his involvement in the murders of Ulyaki, Corum and Huber. In collaboration with the California police, Illinois law enforcement agencies began drafting the indictment. Urdiales had no rational motive and said he was agitated when the women had begged for their lives.

Compared to other US processes, the case of Andrew Urdiales was relatively quick. On April 29, 1997, the indicment was brought against him. However, legal and political debates delayed the trial opening for four years. The question was whether Urdiales should be punished with the death penalty. At that time in Illinois it was discussed whether the death penalty should be completely abolished. On April 30, 2001, the prosecutor decided to apply Urdiales for the death penalty. His trial opened on April 8, 2002, and the murders of Ulyaki and Huber were the topic. Urdiales was found guilty of two murders on May 23, 2002, and sentenced to death seven days later, on May 30, 2002.

The case of Andrew Urdiales became a political issue for a short time. After a study by Northwestern University, Illinois, that some death row inmates had been innocent, and that innocence could no longer be judicially recognized, the Governor of Illinois, George Ryan, ruled on January 11, 2003, that all 167 people sentenced to death in Illinois at this time would be commuted and sentences would be converted to life imprisonment. Andrew Urdiales also fell under this commutation.

Now, the prosecution prepared for indictment of the previously unresolved Cassandra Corum murder case. The process was opened on April 24, 2004. Urdiales, encouraged by defender Stephen Richards, changed his tactics, pleading guilty but claiming that his was not mentally ill. The Presiding Judge Harold Frobish did not attach importance to this allegation of the defendant and re-sentenced Urdiales to death on May 10, 2004. This death sentence was commuted to life in prison in March, 2011 when Pat Quinn abolished the death penalty in Illinois.^[2][3][4]

Today, Andrew Urdiales is incarcerated in the Menard Correctional Center in Chester, Illinois.