Authorities have reached a critical stage in the investigation of a string of infamous rapes and murders a few days apart in 1984, including the home-invasion murders of three members of an Aurora family and the bludgeoning of a Lakewood grandmother, Lakewood police say. A joint news conference about the case involving Aurora and Lakewood police and the Colorado Bureau of Investigation is planned for Friday. A killer used a hammer to kill Patricia Louise Smith, 50, in Lakewood on Jan.