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No Wordle update leads to discovery of 80-year-old hostage

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Posted at 12:07 PM, Feb 11, 2022
and last updated 2022-02-11 14:07:53-05

LINCOLNWOOD, Ill. (AP) — Police rescued an 80-year-old suburban Chicago woman who was held hostage for nearly 21 hours in large part because she couldn't text one of her daughters her daily Wordle score during the ordeal.

Denyse Holt and her oldest daughter, Meredith Holt-Caldwell, told reporters that Holt woke up about 1 a.m. Sunday to find a bloody and naked man armed with scissors in her Lincolnwood home.

Holt says the man eventually barricaded her in a basement bathroom.

During that time, she couldn't communicate with the outside world or update her daughter as she usually does about her score on the popular online word game.

Holt-Caldwell, who lives in Seattle, asked Lincolnwood police to make a well-being check.

Officers rescued her mother, and a SWAT team arrested the man.

According to the Associated Press, 32-year-old James H. Davis III had to be subdued with a stun gun after officers found him armed with knives in an upstairs bedroom.

Cook County Jail records show that the Chicago man remains in custody Friday and is held without a bond.

According to the Lincolnwood Police Department arrest logs, Davis was arrested for aggravated kidnapping and home invasion.