Lone survivor of serial killer fights back with ‘The 5th Warrior Foundation’

A late night decision to accept a ride from a stranger changed one valley woman’s life forever. Jennifer Asbenson got into a car with a serial killer; a man who had killed four women prior to picking her up and would go on to kill four more after abducting her.

Enduring hours of torture at the hands of Andrew Urdiales along a road outside Desert Hot Springs in 1992, Asbenson fought back and escaped his deadly grip and her imminent fate. After years of dealing with anxiety and stifling fear, she’s still fighting back but she’s no longer a victim, she’s now an advocate.

Dying was better than another minute in her new-found hell. She had lost all sense of hope. Believing there was only one way she would be free, she begged her kidnapper to kill her, but in doing so threw off his plans.

Jennifer recalls, “He put the gun in my mouth and he pushed it. And my hands are still behind my back with twine. I just squinted my eyes and imagined the back of my head…coming off”

Tied up, gagged, beaten and sexually assaulted, the man she thought just hours earlier was a good Samaritan, tossed her into a trunk. Her biggest fear was that her family would never find her or know what happened to her. Then an opportunity to make a break came when Urdiales attempted to drive farther into the desert and got stuck in a sand berm. Seizing her captor’s blunder, Jennifer broke free of the restraints and out of the trunk. She began to run but still wasn’t safe.

Jennifer heard a car come up behind her. She was afraid to look back but as the car came alongside her, she realized it was an elderly couple. Covered in dirt and blood, she attempted to climb into the couple’s car. She grabbed the side mirror and paced with the car until the passenger yelled for the driver to “Go! Go!” Jennifer, bewildered how they could leave her in the desert, looked back and saw what frightened them.

“I turned around and looked and he was chasing me with a a machete,” she said.

Not willing to surrender to the monster chasing her, Jennifer threw herself into the path of an oncoming truck. Two Marines in the truck brought her to the safety of police.

Meanwhile, Urdiales, unsuccessful at killing his fifth victim, escaped the desert and killed four more women before being arrested in Illinois in 1997. He was sentenced to death in 2002 but was commuted to life in prison without parole. He has yet to be tried for his crimes in California.

Dubbed a warrior by her supporters, Asbenson now sports a tattoo on her left arm that reads ‘warrior’. She looks at her forearm anytime she feels overwhelmed or anxious. The word “warrior” serves as a reminder of her bravery and also provides her strength.

“I’d love to be a warrior. I’d love to help people. I feel like a girl who escaped a bad situation but I’d feel more like a warrior if I were to be helping people”, said Asbenson

The word “warrior” figures prominently in her life and in the name of her 5th Warrior Foundation. She added the ‘5th’ to the name because, as she somberly stated,”when you look at all the girls that this happened to… I was number five”.

Still in its startup phase, Jennifer currently writes a monthly newsletter offering preventative tips for difficult and sometimes dangerous situations. These situations are wide in range, offering the reader advice that will empower them with lifesaving knowledge and resources to escape, survive and/or prevent a dangerous situation.

If one person finds their way out of a bad situation because they recalled something she had written about, then she says she’s succeeded. The 5th Warrior Foundation, again just beginning, relies on her dedication and outside donations. Jennifer has a vision of the foundation, one day offering a safe haven for survivors of violent crimes to learn to live again…but she will never forget the women who didn’t get away.

If all goes as planned, Urdiales will finally stand trial in Orange County in September and Jennifer is anxious to testify again. A long and difficult road to recovery has made Jennifer a much stronger woman 23 years after the crime. She no longer feels like Urdiales’ victim but rather an advocate for others.

Jennifer lives in the Coachella Valley with her 19-year-old daughter, the same age she was in 1992 when she was abducted. She loves her job and is fullfilling her lifetime dream of being an actress currently performing in local theatre productions.

You can learn more about her foundation and make a donation at the 5th Warrior Foundation or like her on Facebook at the 5th Warrior Foundation.

Sign up for her free newsletter and arm yourself for the unexpected.