An 82-year-old woman was forced to skip her own husband’s funeral this weekend, after she was viciously beaten by two robbers.
The incident was detailed on Facebook by a granddaughter of the Central Heights, Arizona victim, a woman named Virginia.
Granddaughter Deanna King-Poeling was one of the last people to see Virginia before the attack.
An Arizona woman named Virginia was beaten by two robbers who broke into her home Friday evening
She says she came over to her grandmother’s house around 9:30pm, to help her look for her car keys.
During the visit, the two, along with one of Virginia’s sons, talked about what she planned to wear to her husband’s funeral the next day, and the food she planned to cook.
Deanna says she and her uncle stayed until about 11pm, at which point Virginia said she was getting tired and planned to go to bed.
‘I gave her the biggest hug, told her how much I loved her, and that she one of the strongest women I know,’ Deanna said.
Deanna says that when she left the house, her grandmother was finishing up some dishes.
The 82-year-old grandmother played dead for three hours while the criminals ransacked her home
Virginia was so badly hurt in the attack that she was forced to skip her own husband’s funeral the next day
Her grandmother said the break in happened just moments later, when she was still working on the dishes.
‘This POS waited till we left, walked into her house 5 minutes after we had gone!
‘She was innocently washing the dishes and he tapped her on her shoulder, when she turned around she saw a man with a white mask stocky build.
‘When he went to hit her, she grabbed his arms (so he may have scratches), when she did this he grabbed a glass off the counter and broke it over the back of her head and he proceeded to keep bashing her with it and his fists,’ Deanna writes.
In Deanna’s account, she says there was just one robber. But the Gila County Sheriff’s Office says there were two intruders. Virginia could only physically describe the one who hit her though.
The family is offering a reward for information leading to the arrest of the person or people responsible
After she was hit over the head with the glass, Deanna says her grandmother proceeded to lay in a pool of her own blood for the next three hours, while the men ransacked the home.
She says they ‘trashed’ the house that her husband had ‘built with his own two hands’ and ‘stole a few of her belongings’.
When she was certain that the two men had left, she locked herself in a bathroom and called 911.
She tried to reach police twice, but no one answered the emergency line. Eventually, she gave up and called a family member.
Deanna says that her grandmother was left so badly injured that she couldn’t attend the funeral the next day.
‘Not only did this MONSTER beat her [unrecognizable], steal her belongings, took the security her husband built, and left her to die. This sorry excuse for a human being stripped her of being able to say her final goodbyes to the love of her life!’ Deanna says.
Authorities say Virginia suffered a broken nose and other injuries. She is now recovering with her family.
‘It’s horrific. It’s impacted the whole community,’ Lt. Keith Thompson, a spokesperson for the Gila County Sheriff’s Department, told 12 News.
Deanna says she decided to post about the incident in hopes that someone knows who hurt her grandmother and turns them in.
‘Our family was heartbroken before with the loss of one of the most amazing men to ever walk this earth, but this, this has just devastated us.
‘If this monster of a person has the stomach to do this to a helpless woman in her 80’s, my fear is that he will have no problem doing this again.
‘Having said that this beautiful woman still forgives the animal that did this to her.’ she writes.
She adds that the family is also offering a reward for information leading to the arrest of the person or people responsible.
Anyone with information is being asked to call Detective Keith Charles at 928-402-4211. Anonymous tipsters can also contact We-tip at 1-800-782-7463.
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