Andrew Urdiales

Andrew Urdiales is a deceased American serial killer, stalker, and abductor of women in California and the Midwestern United States over the course of a decade.

Early Life and Crimes[]

Little is revealed about Urdiales' past. Accounts in his defenses at trial say Urdiales had mental illness in his family, and that he was physically battered by his parents, raped by his sister and a male cousin when he was a child, that a fall with his sister down the stairs left him with head trauma and possible brain damage, and that he was bullied for having Tourette's Syndrome. Around when Urdiales turned thirteen, he bludgeoned his family's dog with a baseball bat and lied to his parents the dog died in a fall. An average student and mostly a loner at school, Urdialies joined the U.S. Marine Corps when he graduated. Urdiales served in Camp Pendleton in California, trained in combat, and was stationed as a military radio operator at Twentynine Palms. Urdiales was also a veteran of of the Persian Gulf War. Urdiales admitted to having a relationship with a 15-year-old girl, who ended up pregnant; fearing the girl's parents and military discipline, Urdiales had the girl get an abortion. After being honorably discharged in 1991, Urdiales returned to Chicago to live with his parents, finding work in a mall as a security guard. He went for psychiatric therapy at a veteran's hospital in Chicago, where he was diagnosed with anger issues, which he was encouraged to express more for treatment.

Murders and Trials[]

For unknown reasons, Urdialies' first confirmed murder was in 1986. After communications arts student Robbin Brandley left a jazz piano concert in Mission Viejo on January 18, Urdiales abducted her and stabbed her more than 40 times. Acquiring a pistol sometime within the next two years, Urdialies went to Cathedral City and killed Julie McGhee, who was found in a ditch in July 1988. Urdialies then went to San Diego in September and murdered Mary Ann Wells, who was left in an abandoned warehouse. He then killed Tammy Erwin in Palm Springs in 1989.

In September 1992, while Urdialies was on vacation in California, he offered Jennifer Asbenson a ride to her job as a nurse. He let her out, and in spite of her giving him a fake number, Urdialies stalked her to meet her after her shift and offer her another ride. After he mentioned to her the number was fake, he tied her up and cut off her clothes, but he failed to rape her. She screamed at him he was a coward and to get killing her over with, to which he beat her and bit her neck. After Asbenson was shoved into the trunk, she untied herself and fled out the trunk. Urdiales tried to catch her while wielding a machete, but two Marines who rescued her scared him off. Urdialies delayed his killing spree for several more years due to Asbenson being able to identify him.

Returning to Cathedral City in 1995, Urdiales killed Denise Maley in the desert. Urdialies then decided to kill women closer to his home in 1996, starting with Laura Ulyaki in Bloomington, Indiana in April. She was found murdered on the state line between Illinois and Indiana, in Wolf Lake, Illinois. In July, Urdiales then picked up Cassandra Corum for sex, but after she said something he didn't remember then enraged him he beat and murdered her, leaving her dead in the Vermillion River. Lynn Huber was killed by Urdiales in August and also left in Wolf Lake.

Andrew Urdiales Mugshot — Urdiales' mugshot in California, shortly before his death

Urdiales was arrested that December for unlawful possession of a loaded snub-nosed revolver, but released after paying a fine. After a sex worker named Patricia Kelly, who was solicited by Urdiales, came forward reporting he wanted her tied up for sex, Urdiales was arrested in 1997 and the gun was arranged for testing. He confessed to all his murders, and the ballistics matched the bullets extracted from the women he shot. Urdiales argued his original motive for seeking out the women he murdered and attacked was he wanted to help them get out of prostitution. His defense argued from his abuse and rape trauma, Urdiales wasn't legally competent from voices telling him to kill and delusions of breaking military codes.

The trials in Illinois were delayed for years, as there was much politics over capital punishment in the state, and Urdiales' case was under capital charges. Once they were underway in the 2000s, the capital charges stays. Urdiales was convicted of the three Illinois and Indiana murders he committed, and the jury sentenced him to death. While Urdiales was incarcerated at Menard Correctional, his and other death row inmates' sentences were commuted to life imprisonment. Urdiales was sentenced again to death in a retrial, but when the death penalty was outlawed, his sentence was again commuted. Orange County, California, ordered Urdiales' extradition for charges of murdering the remaining five women, after his convictions, the jury took one day to sentence him to death.

Death[]

On November 2, 2018, Urdialies, aged 54, hanged himself in his cell and was later found by responding guards. Urdiales coincidentally died a day before mass murderer Virendra Govin killed himself as well in the same prison.

Modus Operandi[]

Urdiales targeted both high-risk and low-risk women aged from their young adult years to their 30s. Each woman was abducted, often, going off of Jennifer Asbenson's account, after using ruses to get them into his vehicle. Asbenson was also released the first time and stalked so Urdialies could find an opportunity to attack her while making her slowly lower her guard. The majority of the women were killed by shooting, usually with a .45 ACP pistol, except for Robbin Brandley, the first woman confirmed to be murdered by Urdialies, who was stabbed dozens of times. Urdiales would often both shoot and stab the women, which has once or twice left their cause of death difficult to specifically discern. Urdialies also appears to have bound and attempted and failed to rape the women, like Asbenson recounted. When she shouted back at him, Urdialies beat and bit her, preparing to kill her later when transporting her to another location, but she escaped and lived.

Profile[]

Urdialies made have had a sexual motive in his crimes, as the victims were forcibly undressed whether they were alive or not, but Urdialies appeared to be too impotent to rape. He would confess himself he couldn't understand a motive for his murders, except he hated when the women pleaded to live before he killed them. The murders also suggested impulsivity, Urdialies admitting some of the women said trivial things that upset him he didn't even recall after he killed them.

Known Victims[]

June 1977, Chicago, Illinois: Unidentified dog (bludgeoned with a baseball bat)
Unspecified date and location: Unidentified girl, 15 (committed statutory rape and impregnated; late made get an abortion)
California:
- January 8, 1986, Saddleback Community College, Mission Viejo: Robbin Brandley, 23 (stabbed 41 times)
- 1988
  - July 7, Cathedral City: Julie McGhee, 29
  - September 25, San Diego (found): Mary Ann Wells, 31
- April 17, 1989, Palm Springs: Tammie Erwin, 18
- September 22, 1992: Jennifer Asbenson, 19 (stalked, abducted, bound, and attempted to rape, then beaten and bit her neck; she escaped)
- March 1995, Cathedral City: Denise Maney, 32
1996:
- April, Bloomington, Indiana: Laura Ulyaki, 25 (found on April 14 in Wolf Lake, Illinois)
- July 14, Vermillion River, Livingston County, Illinois (found): Cassandra Corum, 21
- August 2, 1996, Wolf Lake, Illinois (found): Lynn Huber, 22

On Criminal Minds[]

Season Seven
- "Profiling 101" - While never directly mentioned or referenced in the show, Urdiales appears to be a major inspiration for Thomas Yates - Both are serial killers with signs of sociopathy on the MacDonald Triad from when they were children (Yates set fires, Urdiales killed his family's dog), operated in the Western United States, one of the first women each of them killed was murdered by being repeatedly stabbed before their respective M.O.s were refined, they both confessed to multiple murders in interrogation, they each had at least one surviving victim, and they both died by some form of suicide (Yates committed suicide by cop, Urdialies hanged himself).