Elderly woman beaten in home
Home resident unaware of intruder for 18 hours
The city is reeling from a disturbingly violent crime where a masked individual severely beat an elderly woman after stalking her for hours in her own home.
The Lethbridge Police Service investigation determined a male broke into a 75-year-old woman’s home on the 3000 block of Fairway Street South during the early morning hours of May 21.
The male allegedly spent the night in a basement bedroom while the elderly female was asleep upstairs.
Over the course of 18 hours the male remained in the woman’s home while she went about her business unaware of his presence.
During the evening of May 22, while the woman was watching television she heard a noise and when she went to check on it, that’s when police say she was confronted by a masked male. The male repeatedly punched her in the face, knocking her to the ground then dragged her to the garage and struck her multiple times in the head with a bicycle before fleeing in her vehicle.
At approximately 7 p.m. police and EMS responded to the woman’s home after receiving a 911 call from neighbours who heard screaming and saw an elderly woman struggling with a male in her garage.
Upon arrival responders located a badly beaten woman. She was subsequently rushed to hospital with head and facial injuries.
The victim was treated at Chinook Regional Hospital for multiple broken bones in her nose and other head injuries, but has since been released into the care of her family.
According to the LPS, later that same evening at approximately 10:40 p.m. an officer dealing with an unrelated matter in the area of 9 Avenue and 7 Street South observed a vehicle drive by with its headlights turned off. The licenCe plate matched the stolen vehicle and a traffic stop was initiated. The driver and lone occupant was arrested, and the stolen vehicle was recovered. In addition, police seized property belonging to the male driver that was left behind at the Fairway Street home.
Acting Insp. Pete Christos, who is head of the LPS Criminal Investigations Division, said he has never seen anything quite like this in Lethbridge.
“In my 18 years of service here,” Christos told reporters at a briefing on the incident at LPS headquarters on Friday, “I have never seen a crime such as this under circumstances such as this where somebody is in someone’s home waiting to confront them. You should feel safe in your own home. I am very pleased we were able to identify this person and take him into custody in a short time. It is quite shocking, and it is highly unusual.”
Christos confirmed the accused is not known to the victim and has only been in the Lethbridge area for a few weeks. He had previously been employed just outside the city. Christos also confirmed the incident doesn’t appear to be drug-related.
Adam Hall Hobkirk-Onate, 21, formerly of Ottawa, is charged with assault causing bodily harm, housebreaking to commit robbery and being disguised with intent. Hobkirk-Onate has been remanded in custody and is scheduled to appear in court again on May 27.