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| Wordle. Alexi Rosenfeld/Getty Images |
Police discovered an 80-year-old Illinois woman being held against her will at home by an intruder after her family requested a wellness check partly because she hadn't sent her daughter her Wordle score that day.
Denyse Holt woke up last Saturday trapped at her home in Lincolnwood, Illinois, with an intruder, police said in a statement to Insider. The intruder was a naked and bleeding man who held scissors in his hand, Holt said. She woke up in her bed at 1 a.m., and the man threatened to cut her with the scissors if she made a noise. Then he got into the bed with her, CBS 2 reported.
The man told Holt he needed all of her blankets. When he got the blankets, he instructed her to get in the shower and bathe with him, she told The Washington Post.
Then, he locked her in a basement bathroom, where she spent 17 hours sitting on the floor cold and hungry. The man refused to bring her food or medicine, she told the Post. Holt tried to remain calm and did a series of breathing exercises while locked in there, she said.
"I didn't think I was going to live," she told CBS 2. "I was doing marching and stretching as much as I could."
The man secured the door with a chair to prevent Holt from escaping, police told Insider.
Holt was rescued by police who at the family's request conducted a wellness check. One of Holt's daughters called the police, in part, because her mom had not shared her Wordle score that day, CBS 2 reported. Holt's daughters were also unable to reach her by phone, according to the Washington Post.
"I didn't send my older daughter a Wordle in the morning. And that was disconcerting to her," Holt told CBS 2.
The Lincolnwood Police Department in a statement to Insider said the intruder took all the phones in the house to prevent Holt from calling for help.
When police entered the home, they found Holt in the bathroom and the man upstairs with several knives. The suspect had been exhibiting a "mental health crisis," and police shot him with a stun gun, the police department told Insider.
The suspect, who police identified as 32-year-old James H. Davis III, faces four felony charges that include home invasion with a dangerous weapon, aggravated kidnapping while armed with a dangerous weapon, and aggravated assault against a peace officer. Davis was taken to a local hospital for treatment prior to getting charged, police said.
Insider was
unable to reach Davis, who is booked in the Cook County Jail without
bond, for comment. He is expected to appear in court on February 23, according to jail records.
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