Andrew Urdiales: The Cross-Country Killer
Overview
Andrew Urdiales was a former United States Marine who committed a series of brutal murders of women across three states over a decade. Active between 1986 and 1996, he was responsible for the deaths of eight women in California, Illinois, and Indiana. His crimes were characterized by their violent nature, involving both stabbing and shooting. Urdiales often targeted vulnerable women, including sex workers, but his first known victim was a college student. After his military service, he worked as a security guard in Chicago. His eventual capture in 1996 led to a complex legal battle that spanned two states, resulting in multiple death sentences. He ultimately took his own life in 2018 on California's death row before his execution could be carried out.
Early Life and Background
Andrew Urdiales was born on June 4, 1964, in Chicago, Illinois. Little is publicly known about his childhood, though a disturbing incident from his youth is documented: in June 1977, just before his 13th birthday, he beat his family's dog to death with a baseball bat, telling his parents the animal had died in a fall. He attended Thornridge High School in Dolton, Illinois, graduating in 1982. Described as a loner and social outcast, he had few friends.
Shortly after high school, Urdiales enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps. From 1984 to 1991, he was stationed at various bases in Southern California, including Camp Pendleton and Twentynine Palms, where he received combat training and served as a radio operator. He was honorably discharged in 1991 and returned to the Chicago area, where he found work as a security guard.
The California Murders
Urdiales' killing spree began while he was an active-duty Marine in Southern California. His first known murder occurred on January 18, 1986. Robbin Brandley, a 23-year-old student at Saddleback College in Mission Viejo, was ambushed as she walked to her car after a concert. Urdiales stabbed her 41 times with a hunting knife. The case went cold for years.
On July 17, 1988, Urdiales killed 29-year-old Julie McGhee in a remote area of Cathedral City. He had picked her up, had sex with her, and then shot her in the head. Just two months later, on September 25, 1988, he murdered 31-year-old Maryann Wells in San Diego. Her body was found in a downtown alley in an area known for warehouses and low-rent hotels. She had also been shot.
His next victim in California was 18-year-old Tammie Erwin. On April 16, 1989, her body was discovered near Palm Springs. Urdiales had shot her after they had sex.
After being discharged from the military, Urdiales returned to California for a vacation in March 1995. During this trip, he encountered 32-year-old Denise Maney in Cathedral City. He forced her into his car, drove her into the desert, sexually assaulted her, and shot her in the head.
The Illinois and Indiana Murders
After returning to Illinois, Urdiales' murderous activities resumed in 1996. In April of that year, he murdered 25-year-old Laura Uylaki of Hammond, Indiana. Her body was discovered on April 14 in Wolf Lake, a body of water that straddles the border between Illinois and Indiana.
On July 14, 1996, the body of 21-year-old Cassandra "Cassie" Corum, also from Hammond, was found in the Vermilion River in Livingston County, Illinois, about 90 miles south of Chicago. She had been shot and stabbed. Urdiales later told authorities he had picked her up in a Hammond area known for prostitution.
His final known victim was 22-year-old Lynn Huber of Chicago. Her body was found on August 2, 1996, also in Wolf Lake. Like Uylaki and Corum, she had been murdered within a four-month span.
The Victims
- Robbin Brandley, 23 — January 18, 1986, in Mission Viejo, California. A communications student at Saddleback College, she was viciously stabbed while walking to her car after volunteering as an usher at a piano concert.
- Julie McGhee, 29 — July 17, 1988, in Cathedral City, California. She was found shot to death in a remote desert area.
- Maryann Wells, 31 — September 25, 1988, in San Diego, California. A sex worker, she was found shot in an alley in a downtown industrial area.
- Tammie Erwin, 18 — April 16, 1989, near Palm Springs, California. She was found shot to death in a deserted area.
- Denise Maney, 32 — March 11, 1995, in Cathedral City, California. She was sexually assaulted and shot in the head during a trip Urdiales took to Palm Springs.
- Laura Uylaki, 25 — April 14, 1996, in Hammond, Indiana. Her body was discovered in Wolf Lake on the Illinois-Indiana border.
- Lynn Huber, 22 — August 2, 1996, in Chicago, Illinois. Her body was also found in Wolf Lake.
- Cassandra Corum, 21 — July 14, 1996, in Livingston County, Illinois. Her body was found in the Vermilion River after she had been shot and stabbed.
Investigation and Capture
The murders in California remained unsolved for years, while the 1996 killings in the Chicago area sparked an intense investigation. A breakthrough came in November 1996 when police in Hammond, Indiana, arrested Urdiales. They spotted him loitering in his truck in an area known for prostitution and, upon searching his vehicle, found an unlicensed handgun.
Ballistics testing on the .38 caliber pistol took time, but in 1997, the Chicago Police Department matched the weapon to the bullets recovered from the bodies of Laura Uylaki, Lynn Huber, and Cassandra Corum. Faced with this evidence, Urdiales confessed. During his confession, he not only admitted to the three Midwest murders but also shocked investigators by detailing five additional murders he had committed in Southern California. His detailed statements provided information that only the killer could have known, linking him conclusively to the cold cases.
In September 1992, Urdiales had also kidnapped and assaulted 19-year-old Jennifer Asbenson in the California desert. He tied her up and cut off her clothes, but she managed to escape. Her report to the police at the time went largely unheeded, but her testimony would later be crucial in the California trial.
Trials and Sentencing
Urdiales' legal journey was long and complex, involving two separate prosecutions in two different states.
In Illinois, his trial for the murders of Laura Uylaki and Lynn Huber began in April 2002. On May 23, 2002, he was found guilty, and a week later, he was sentenced to death. In 2003, however, his sentence was commuted to life in prison when then-Governor George Ryan cleared Illinois' death row, citing flaws in the state's capital punishment system. Subsequently, prosecutors tried him for the murder of Cassandra Corum. In May 2004, he was again convicted and sentenced to death. This second death sentence was commuted to life without parole in 2011 when Illinois officially abolished the death penalty.
Following the abolition of the death penalty in Illinois, California authorities immediately sought his extradition to face trial for the five murders he committed there. In 2011, Urdiales was transferred to Orange County. On May 23, 2018, a jury found him guilty of all five California murders. After a penalty phase, the same jury recommended the death penalty on June 13, 2018. The sentence was formally imposed on October 5, 2018. During the sentencing, Urdiales offered an apology to the families of his victims.
Death and Aftermath
Less than a month after being sentenced to death in California, Andrew Urdiales was transferred to San Quentin State Prison. On the night of November 2, 2018, guards found the 54-year-old unresponsive in his single cell in the prison's Adjustment Center. He was pronounced dead shortly after midnight, with the cause of death determined to be suicide by hanging.
His suicide brought a sudden end to a case that had spanned more than three decades. For the families of his victims, it was a final, frustrating chapter. Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas called Urdiales a "human monster" and expressed that his suicide robbed the victims' families of the right to see justice carried out by the state. The cross-country investigation and dual-state prosecutions highlighted the challenges of tracking and bringing to justice a killer who moved across jurisdictions.
