A Chicago woman was rescued from a 17-hour hostage situation after authorities were informed for the unlikeliest of reasons: a missing solution to the day’s Wordle challenge.
On the 5th of February, Denyse Holt, 80, was alone at home in Illinois when a naked and mentally ill suspect entered her home.
When Holt neglected to send her daily Wordle, her daughter in faraway Seattle suspected something was wrong.
The suspect has several felony charges against him.
Holt claims she was sleeping in her bed in the Lincolnwood neighborhood of Chicago when 32-year-old James H. Davis III entered her home and pointed a pair of scissors at her. After being cut by window fragments while entering the house, he was naked and bleeding.
“I didn’t think I was going to live,” she told CBS. “I was in shock and was trying to survive. (naturalkitchenschool.com) ”
Wordle was a routine
Davis assured her that he would not harm her, but he forced her to have a warm bath with him while still in her nightgown before removing two knives from the kitchen, disconnecting phones, and locking her in a cold basement bathroom.
Holt’s daughter, Meredith Holt-Caldwell, discovered her mother wasn’t responding to text messages and hadn’t turned in her Wordle, a popular daily word puzzle, from across the nation in Seattle.
“That was disconcerting to her,” Holt said because her daughter knew this was a routine she follows religiously.
Holt-Caldwell was in shock and alerted the police. The cops conducted a well-being check at her residence on February 6th. Davis was involved in a standoff that only ended when a police SWAT team used a stun gun to subdue him and take him into custody.
Davis is now facing felony charges including home invasion with a deadly weapon, aggravated kidnapping, and assault against a peace officer, which includes police officers, probation officers, prison guards, and other law enforcement officials, according to police.
During the encounter, Holt was safe.
“I never thought in a million years this is what was happening, but it was,” she said. “I’m very lucky”.
The New York Times bought Wordle in January for an undisclosed seven-figure sum. It likewise provides players six chances each day to guess a secret five-letter word.
