Wordle helps save woman held hostage by naked intruder – CNET

Like so many these days, 80-year-old Denyse Holt has made a habit of playing viral word game Wordle every day. Then she texts her daughter about the word of the day. It’s a good thing she does too. That daily share appears to have helped Holt emerge unharmed from a terrifying hostage ordeal. 

Holt was reportedly asleep in her Chicago-area home on Saturday when a naked man, bloody from breaking in through a front window, crawled into bed with her holding a pair of scissors. “I was in shock,” a remarkably composed Holt told local CBS affiliate WBBM-TV. “I was trying to survive, that’s all. He said, ‘I won’t harm you or molest you.'”   

The man ordered Holt to shower with him before changing his mind and telling her they had to take a bath. After they got out of the tub, he barricaded her in a small basement bathroom. 

Holt’s daughter Meredith Holt-Caldwell, who lives in Seattle, told CBS reporter Steven Graves she noticed the next morning that her mom wasn’t reading her text messages and hadn’t shared her score like usual. Holt-Caldwell alerted police, who arrived on the scene with a SWAT team that ultimately subdued the suspect using a stun gun shot through a hole in the door.  

The man, who police identify as James Davis and say they believe is mentally ill, was arrested just before 3 a.m. He’s been charged with home invasion with a dangerous weapon, aggravated kidnapping while armed with a dangerous weapon and aggravated assault against a peace officer, according to CBS. 

Lincolnwood police didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. 

“I’m very lucky,” Holt said. 

Wordle, for anyone who avoids social media, challenges players to guess a five-letter word in six tries. The New York Times acquired the game last month for a figure in the low millions.