Stabbing victim, 94, may lose use of left arm

Anh “Peng” Taylor, the 94yearold woman stabbed repeatedly in an unprovoked attack this week, likely will lose function of her left arm and hand due to a knife wound that extended clear through her wrist, according to Taylor’s niece.

What’s worse, the attack was a likely permanent blow to Taylor’s sense of self, as a woman who achieved 100 strokes a day on her rowing machine and prided herself on being “autonomous, independent and strong,” niece Vivianne Taylor said in a victim impact statement.

The statement, read by Assistant District Attorney Trevor Kempner at suspect Daniel Cauich’s first court appearance Friday afternoon, offered a window into the quiet life of the nonagenarian, as well as her steep road ahead to not only physical but emotional recovery.

“How can she relearn to do all of that, at her advanced age with only one working arm?” Vivianne Taylor’s statement read.

Prosecutors charged 35yearold Cauich with attempted murder, elder abuse and battery causing serious injury after police say they identified him from a photo captured near the scene of the attack. Cauich was known at the police department as a prolific burglar with a long criminal record, and had been released from jail only the previous week after being charged with another burglary.

Cauich, who appeared in court Friday morning in orange jail garb, pleaded not guilty through his attorney. He is being held in custody without bail.

Cauich has a history of contact with police. In 2016 he was charged with a Mission District homicide before a judge dismissed his case in 2019 for lack of sufficient evidence.

He has a long list of burglary arrests, the most recent on May 18. Prosecutors charged Cauich with firstdegree robbery and other crimes in that case, and requested that he be detained in jail while awaiting trial. A judge denied the detention motion, however, and Cauich was released with an ankle monitor June 7, records show.

Cauich is next scheduled to appear in court on Tuesday. He is also facing allegations of violating the terms of his release.

Anh Taylor is expected to return to her Lower Nob Hill apartment Friday evening, where she has lived in a small rentcontrolled unit for the last 45 years, according to family and neighbor Miranda Peto Benvenuti.

According to a family statement provided by Benvenuti, Anh Taylor is the widow of a U.S. war veteran who died almost exactly two years ago.

Anh Taylor, who is Chinese and Vietnamese, was born in Haiphong, Vietnam, in 1926, and grew up to be a chef, owning her own restaurant in Laos, the family statement said. It was at this restaurant that she met her late husband, whom she married in Bangkok before the pair moved to Hawaii and then San Francisco in the late 1970s.

Benvenuti said Anh Taylor is known to keep to herself, and was loath to trouble anyone else in the apartment complex, even if she needed help. Since the sudden death of her husband, though, Benvenuti said she’s been visiting Anh Taylor about twice a week.

The neighbors were able to speak on the phone Thursday evening, and after a silence, Anh Taylor’s niece got on the the phone. Anh Taylor, the niece said, was blowing Benvenuti air kisses.

Benvenuti has since established a GoFundMe page to help support Anh Taylor through her recovery.