Senior couple recovering after rural home invasion
A pair of Wetaskiwin-area seniors remain in an Edmonton hospital after a home intruder assaulted and robbed them at their rural home earlier this week.
Dawne and Marion Gilchrist are recovering at the University Hospital from the Tuesday attack at their rural farm.
John Gilchrist said his parents were expecting his brother over for dinner when they heard a knock at the door around 8 p.m.
“And when my mother went to answer it, it was not my brother, it was someone else,” he said Friday.
The intruder proceeded to assault the octogenarian couple — Dawne is 86 and his wife Marion is 83 — before fleeing in the couple’s vehicle.
Gilchrist said his brother arrived a few minutes after that and discovered his parents unconscious. “My brother managed to get medical services and RCMP there within about 10 to 15 minutes, which is a godsend because if not, my dad would definitely not be alive today,” he said.
Gilchrist’s father was airlifted by Stars ambulance to the University Hospital, where he remains sedated and intubated in the intensive care unit. He has suffered brain trauma, bruises, cuts and scrapes. “He hasn’t regained consciousness but that is under sedation, so it’s deliberate,” Gilchrist said.
His mother has woken up and is able to walk around a little bit. She suffered bruises, scrapes and a broken cheek bone and is recovering in the trauma unit. She doesn’t remember the attack but is doing “remarkably well” and is in good spirits, her son said.
Gilchrist thanked both the RCMP and medical personnel for their quick response and “for just doing such a great job, both getting them (his parents) up here and for capturing this low-life.”
Gilchrist said his parents never feared living in a rural area. His father grew up on the farm, which has been in the family for 120 years. His mother grew up a few kilometres away.
The couple is set to celebrate their 62nd wedding anniversary next month and the family hopes Dawne is awake for the occasion.
Joshua Piche, 27, from Hobbema, has been charged with two counts of aggravated assault, and one count each of break and enter, stealing a vehicle and failing to comply with a probation order.