In 1992, Jennifer Asbenson escaped from the trunk of Andrew Urdiales’ car after he abducted and attacked her
Credit: Netflix; Mark Rightmire/Digital First Media/Orange County Register via Getty
NEED TO KNOW
- Jennifer Asbenson survived an attack by serial killer Andrew Urdiales in 1992
- She later testified against him in court, where he was sentenced to death
- After he died by suicide in 2018, she published a memoir detailing her survival and difficult childhood
It’s been over 30 years since Jennifer Asbenson almost died at the hands of convicted serial killer Andrew Urdiales. And even after all the violence and trauma she endured, she still has no regrets.
“If I had to do it all over again, I wouldn’t do anything different,” she said in the A&E docuseries I Survived a Serial Killer, now streaming on Netflix. “I’d get in the car to know that in the end, I’m gonna be the voice for all the women that didn’t get away.”
Between 1986 and 1996, Urdiales murdered eight women in California and Illinois. The ex-Marine was eventually caught after police linked a gun confiscated during a traffic stop to three slayings in Illinois, the Los Angeles Times reported. After his arrest, he confessed to all eight killings — and revealed that there was a ninth victim who had escaped.
So where is Jennifer Asbenson now? Here’s everything to know about her life now, 34 years after she survived serial killer Andrew Urdiales.
Asbenson was kidnapped by Urdiales in 1992
On Sept. 27, 1992, a then-19-year-old Asbenson accepted a ride from Urdiales to her overnight shift at work. She told I Survived a Serial Killer filmmakers that when he asked for her phone number after dropping her off, she gave him a fake one to avoid hurting his feelings.
According to the Orange County District Attorney’s Office, Urdiales returned to her workplace in Palm Springs, Calif., the following morning and offered to drive her home. She accepted, but shortly into the ride, his demeanor changed as he confronted her about the fake number.
“Suddenly, he turned into another person,” she said in the docuseries, adding that he then bashed her head into the dashboard and tied her wrists behind her back.
She escaped from the trunk of his car
Credit: Mark Rightmire/Orange County Register via Getty
Urdiales drove Asbenson to a remote area in the desert, where he attempted to sexually assault her but was unable to perform. He then strangled and brutally beat her, biting her neck so hard that he drew blood. The teen attempted to escape during the attack, but Urdiales caught her and locked her in the trunk of his car.
Recalling that day to The New Zealand Herald in January 2017, Asbenson said that while he was driving, the twine binding her wrists broke, allowing her to rip through the trunk’s interior and reach its latch. When the car slowed, she jumped out and ran for her life.
“It was like I was in a horror movie,” she told PEOPLE in 2019.
The first car that came toward her was a truck driven by two Marines, who stopped and helped her call the police. But Asbenson said on I Survived a Serial Killer that when authorities arrived, no one believed her story.
Urdiales confessed to abducting and attacking her five years later
In the years following her attack, Asbenson was “so scared” by the fact that her attacker was still out there that she spent most of her time in and out of mental hospitals.
“My life just spiraled downhill because he was on the loose,” she told CBS’ 48 Hours in October 2010.
Urdiales went on to relocate to Illinois, where he killed three more women who investigators later discovered had been shot with the same .38 caliber revolver. In April 1997, a sex worker tipped off Indiana police after a disturbing encounter with Urdiales, which led investigators to test a gun they had previously confiscated from him. It was linked to all three murders.
When police picked up Urdiales, who had been working as a security guard, for questioning, he confessed to the three Illinois murders and told police they “might wanna call California,” as he had killed some women there. He also admitted to abducting and assaulting Asbenson, saying in a recording played during I Survived a Serial Killer that he was upset that she gave him “a bad number.”
Asbenson testified during his trial
Credit: Mark Rightmire/Orange County Register via Getty
Urdiales’ trial for the Illinois murders began in 2002, during which Asbenson testified to her own attack. She told 48 Hours that the jury cried after hearing her story. “I wasn’t just speaking for me,” she explained. “I was speaking for eight other women that needed justice … What he did to me was minimal. What he did to them and their families is gonna be forever and he needs to pay.”
Though he was found guilty and sentenced to death for all three Illinois murders, he was re-sentenced to life without parole when the state abolished the death penalty, per NBC Los Angeles. He was later extradited to Southern California, where he was convicted of the five murders he committed there and sentenced to death again in 2018.
Later that year, he died by suicide while in prison, ABC 7 reported.
She wrote a memoir in 2019
A year after Urdiales’ death, Asbenson published a memoir, The Girl in the Treehouse, about her difficult childhood growing up without water or electricity in rural Southern California. She told Publishers Weekly in April 2019 that the resilience she developed at a young age ultimately helped save her life.
Asbenson wrote the memoir while living in a treehouse for a year, though revisiting her attack proved difficult. She recalled having to “pour wine or smoke a little marijuana” to relive the horrific day on the page.
“I learned a lot from the experience,” she explained. “I gained empathy and sympathy for other survivors. If I had not gotten in that car and survived, I would not try to empower other survivors; I would not be a voice for them; I would not inspire them and tell them there is hope.”
Where is Asbenson now?
Credit: Netflix
Asbenson has continued to tell her story and advocate for victims in programs like 48 Hours, People Magazine Investigates: Monster in the Desert and I Survived a Serial Killer.
Though she maintains a mostly private life, she shares photos of her dogs, Wesley Bear and Charlie, on her Instagram and gave birth to a daughter named Geo in 1996.
In I Survived a Serial Killer, Asbenson described herself as “the most positive person” she knows. “Still, no matter what I’ve gone through,” she added. “I don’t think God gave me anything I couldn’t handle. I just can’t be broken.”
Read the full article here
