80-year-old’s unsent Wordle score saves her from naked kidnapper, Illinois woman says
One Illinois woman says her Wordle habit may have saved her life during a home invasion in which she says she was held captive for 20 hours.
The Chicago-area 80-year-old told news outlets that her daily word puzzle habit alerted her loved ones that something was horribly wrong.
Denyse Holt, a Lincolnwood resident, woke up on Feb. 5 to see a naked stranger standing beside her bed. He held her hostage, armed with knives from her kitchen, Lincolnwood police said in a news release.
“If you talk, if you yell or you scream, I’m going to cut you,” he said to her, she recalled to The Washington Post.
Holt told CBS 2 that the man was bloody from breaking into her home through a window and that he forced her to take a shower with him. Then, for nearly 20 hours, he kept her barricaded in her basement without food or her medication, while he roamed about her home, police and Holt told the Post.
In the meantime, Holt’s daughter all the way in California noticed that her mother had not sent her her Wordle score for the day, which was unusual. Her two daughters contacted Lincolnwood police, who performed a wellness check, according to the Post.
“I didn’t send my older daughter a Wordle in the morning. And that was disconcerting to her,” Holt told CBS 2.
Police arrived and rescued Holt, who was unharmed, the release said. Officers arrested a man at the home who was barricaded in a bedroom and armed with knives, police said.
“Believing that a burglary might have occurred, they went into the residence and they were able to locate the resident, and she indicated she was being held against her will by an unknown subject who was still in the residence,” Police Chief Jay Parrott told the Pioneer Press.
Officers called a SWAT team for backup to help with the arrest after unsuccessfully tasing the 32-year-old. He was charged with home invasion with a dangerous weapon, aggravated kidnapping while armed with a dangerous weapon and two counts of aggravated assault against a peace officer, police said in the release.
Police believe the man was experiencing a mental health crisis, the release said.
This story was originally published February 10, 2022 at 3:37 PM with the headline "80-year-old’s unsent Wordle score saves her from naked kidnapper, Illinois woman says."
