Wordle Saves Woman From Naked Kidnapper

Denyse Holt was held at knife-point in her own home for 17 hours, and her family only became worried when the 80-year-old grandmother didn't send her daughter the daily word puzzle, as she always did.

Holt, who lives alone, told CBS2 that she was lying in bed when a stranger broke in through a window and climbed into bed with her, armed with scissors and covered in blood from crawling through the broken glass.

"I was in shock," she told the broadcaster. "I was trying to survive that's all. He said 'I won't harm you or molest you.'"

"I figured I could stay alive by not confronting him in any way, by making him in charge, by not disturbing him."

Holt said the man then ordered her to take a shower with him, before telling her, "No, I'm not warm enough. We have to take a bath."

With her nightgown soaked, she said he began dragging her around the home, disconnecting phones and leaving a trail of blood as he went.

"He took two knives from my kitchen," she said. "He told me he liked those."

He then forced her into a windowless bathroom basement and barricaded her in with a chair, where she remained for the next 17 hours.

"I didn't think I was going to live," the brave octogenarian said, adding that she did marching and stretching exercises to stay active.

Holt's family meanwhile, all the way across the country in Seattle, became worried when they realized their mom wasn't reading her texts... and hadn't sent a Wordle.

"I didn't send my older daughter a Wordle in the morning," Holt recalled. "And that was disconcerting to her."

The family called Lincolnwood Police to perform a welfare check on Sunday night, which unfolded into an hours-long standoff.

The SWAT team eventually managed to subdue the intruder by shooting him with a stun gun through a hole that had been cut in an interior door.

They arrested 32-year-old James H. Davis III at the scene. He faces felony charges including home invasion with a dangerous weapon, aggravated kidnapping while armed with a dangerous weapon, and aggravated assault against a peace officer. Police believe he was suffering a mental health crisis.

Holt meanwhile escaped physically unharmed.

"I never thought in a million years this is what was happening," her Wordle-playing daughter Meredith Holt-Caldwell said, "but it was."