Victim: Stabber Pretended He Was The Paperboy
ARVADA, Colo. (CBS4) - Arrest records indicate the group of people involved in an attack on a 78-year-old woman in Arvada may have been after cash they thought was hidden inside her home.
On June 19, the woman, whose identity investigators are not releasing to media, was stabbed in the chest after answering the door to her home on Kline Street. According to the arrest affidavit for one of four suspects in the case, the woman told police she believed the man who rang her doorbell was the "paper boy," saying he held up a newspaper and told her he had "her paper and a note" for her. When she opened the door, the document states the man charged at her, pinned her against a wall and stabbed her in the chest.
The woman survived the attack. Doctors told police the wound was just one centimeter from her chest.
Afterwards, the woman told police her niece, who had been staying with her and who was present inside her home when she was stabbed, may have talked "too candidly" about her financial status with "some of her friends who have criminal backgrounds."
She had been victimized by criminals before. In January, the woman moved to her home on Kline Street after a break in at a former home. Two men were charged with burglary in the case and are in custody awaiting trial, according to the arrest affidavit. She told police she feared people "we're coming after her" for her money.
On July 20, Arvada police announced they had arrested three people in the June 19 attack. According to the arrest affidavit, Delilah Albin, 41, told police that her son, Zacharie Creart-Duling, 26, and two other men, Ryan Kennedy, 24, and Daniel Dean Hollingsworth, 54, were responsible for the attack. Albin, Creart-Duling, and Kennedy have been arrested and charged in the stabbing. Hollingsworth, who Albin told police goes by "Cricket," is still at large.
According to what Albin (who was already under investigation in an auto theft case) told police, Hollingsworth knew of an older woman who lived alone and "allegedly had money hidden in her house." Albin told police Hollingsworth knew of the money from the woman's niece. He wanted to steal the money and was "casing" her house prior to the assault. He asked Albin if he could use her vehicle, a gold GMC Yukon, to carry out his plan.
At approximately 5 a.m., on June 19, Albin says Creart-Duling, Kennedy, and Hollingsworth drove in the SUV to the woman's home. Create-Duling told investigators his mother, Albin, drove to the neighborhood in a separate vehicle to be a "look out for police." According to the arrest affidavit, Creart-Duling said Kennedy went to the woman's front door and picked up a newspaper on her lawn. When she answered the door, Kennedy pushed her into the home. Creart-Duling told police he heard screaming, that Kennedy left the home with a cash box, and after running to a different street, got back into the SUV, yelling expletives and saying, "I had to hit her!" His gloves were covered in blood.
Creart-Duling told police the cash box was empty. Afterward, Albin told police she washed the vehicle, threw away the cash box, and found a blood-covered knife in the back seat, which Hollingsworth removed from the vehicle. Albin told investigators Hollingsworth thought Kennedy looked for the cash in the wrong bedroom and planned to return to the home to try to steal it again "when things die down," the document states.
Investigators say the SUV Albin lent Hollingsworth, Kennedy and Creart-Duling, to carry out the crime was not hers, rather, a reported stolen vehicle.
A relative of the woman tells CBS4 she is doing well in her recovery but has a long road ahead. Arvada police say since the attack the woman has not stayed at her home. Police continue to investigate the assault on her.
Lauren DiSpirito reports for CBS4 News at 10 p.m. She covers breaking news and feature stories along Colorado's Front Range. Follow her on Twitter @CBS4Lauren. Share your story ideas with her here.
