- When was the last time you checked up on your family?
You’re sleeping alone in your bed while a naked man, blood dripping from his body and armed with scissors, is watching you from a dark corner. Sounds like nightmare fuel, doesn’t it?
Unfortunately for 80-year-old Denyse Holt from Lincolnwood, Illinois, that disturbing vision wasn’t just a bad dream. A naked intruder that crept into Holt’s home held her hostage for 21 hours until the police managed to save her.
Unable to call for help herself, Holt’s rescuers only arrived after her family called on the cops to do a well-being check on her. And that was all because of Wordle.
Holt is an enthusiastic fan of the popular online word puzzle game. Every morning, she shares her previous day’s score with her daughter, Meredith Holt-Caldwell.
On February 7, Holt-Caldwell didn’t receive an update on her mother’s gaming performance. Alarm bells immediately went off in her head and she called the cops.
And it’s a good thing she did. Wordle may just have inadvertently saved Holt’s life.
‘I Won’t Harm You’
Holt’s ordeal began just after 9:30 p.m. on February 6. The octogenarian was already asleep when she woke up to a disturbing sight.
In the darkness of her room, the figure of a naked man was creeping around. He was dripping blood onto the floor from multiple cuts around his body and in his hand, he brandished a pair of scissors.
Denyse Holt, speaking to CBS 2, said it was like waking up to a horrifying dream.
“I was in shock. [He] just threatened me,” she summarized.
Luckily, the man didn’t attack Holt — instead, he crawled up onto Holt’s bed and laid down next to her. Holt, afraid of provoking him into violence, made no attempt to stop him.
“I was trying to survive, that’s all. He said, ‘I won’t harm you or molest you.’” Holt recalled.
Suppose that’s a silver lining. But that wasn’t everything the man was about to subject Holt to.
He Likes Knives
Without clothes, the man said he’s cold. He ordered Holt out of the bed and had her lead him to ger bathroom.
There, he told Holt to get in the shower with him. Still in her nightgown, she did the only thing she could and obeyed.
“Then he said, ‘No, I’m not warm enough. We have to take a bath,’” Holt told the news outlet.
Holt and her captor got in and out of the bath. Apparently sufficiently warmed, the man then started dragging and shoving her around the house.
The disconnected all the phones, all the while bleeding onto the floor. Holt realized the man had cut himself after breaking one of her window’s and climbing inside.
When they go to her kitchen, the man decided he needed to be better armed.
“He took two knives from my kitchen. He told me he liked those,” said Holt.
Finally, with Holt in tow, the man arrived at Holt’s second bathroom in her basement. He told her to get in and closed the door, before barricading it with a chair.
Holt was trapped.
‘I Didn’t Think I Was Going to Live’
For the next 17 hours, Holt was locked away in the darkness of the bathroom. There were no windows, the lights were out, and she had no phone.
“I didn’t think I was going to live,” she admitted.
To try and keep herself occupied, Holt exercised as much as she could. She said she marched around the bathroom and stretched.
Meanwhile, as the man was making himself comfortable in Holt’s home, Holt-Caldwell got worried. She hadn’t received the regular Wordle update from her mother.
“I’m across the country and I noticed this. I never thought in a million years this is what was happening, but it was,” Holt-Caldwell said.
Concerned for her mother, she called Lincolnwood police who arrived at the house. We’re not clear on the exact events, but the police said they got Holt out of the house before the intruder barricaded himself inside for several hours.
The standoff finally came to an end after a SWAT team shot the man with a taser through a crack in Holt’s front door.
The man, whom the cops suspect suffers from mental health issues, was identified as 32-year-old James H. Davis, III. The man is facing felony charges for home invasion with a dangerous weapon, aggravated kidnapping while armed with a dangerous weapon, and aggravated assault against a peace officer.
Miraculously, nobody was seriously hurt during the events. But Holt says she hopes her ordeal can teach people the importance of staying in touch with loved ones.
“I’m very lucky,” she said.