Photo: CBS Chicago
Denyse Holt was fast asleep in her Lincolnwood, Illinois, home on Sunday night when she found herself in a nightmare that was all too real.
According to Holt, the man then dragged her around the house, disconnecting the phones. He forced her to take a bath with him, although she was fully clothed in her nightgown. Then, she alleges, he barricaded her in an unheated bathroom in her basement.
Without her medications, food or any heat, things looked dire for Holt. “I didn’t think I was going to live,” Holt toldCBS-2in Chicago. She spent the next 17 hours keeping herself active and warm, doing marching exercises and stretches in the dark bathroom.
Holt said she resolved to survive her ordeal. She told theWashington Postthat she said to herself, “I don’t want to die like this, and I don’t want my kids to hear that their mother was murdered.”
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There’s no telling how long Holt might have remained captive if not for the concern of her daughter who was 2,100 miles away in Seattle. Meredith Holt-Caldwell noticed that her mother hadn’t read her texts the previous night — and even more concerning, hadn’t sent her daily score from Wordle, the popular word game.
“I didn’t send my older daughter a Wordle in the morning,” Holt tells the station. “And that was disconcerting to her.”
Holt-Caldwell called Lincolnwood Police, who rushed to the scene to perform a wellness check. That led to an hours-long standoff with the man, who was later identified as 32-year-old James H. Davis III. Police told CBS News that they believe he suffers from mental issues.
PEOPLE confirms that Davis has been arrested and charged with home invasion with a dangerous weapon, aggravated kidnapping while armed with a dangerous weapon, and aggravated assault against a police officer. He has not yet entered a plea, and court records do not reflect an attorney authorized to speak on his behalf.
For Holt, she’s just counting her blessings.
“I still feel lucky to be alive,” she told theWashington Post. “I never thought I would come out of that alive.”
source: people.com
