Meredith Holt-Caldwell grew suspicious when her mother, Denyse Holt, didn't text her her Wordle score. Denyse sends one daily, and when she didn't, Meredith decided to call the police to perform a wellness check.
And it's a good thing she did.
For the last 21 hours, Denyse had been a captor in her own home, held hostage by 32-year-old James H. Davis III, who was holding her against his will armed with a couple of knives he swiped from the kitchen.
Denyse told CBS Chicago Davis woke her up at 1 a.m. last Sunday morning, and forced her into a bathroom in the basement, barricading her inside using a chair.
Obviously during that time, Denyse was unable to communicate with the outside world, so when her daughter didn't receive her daily Wordle score update, she grew concerned.
Meredith Holt-Caldwell, who lives in Seattle, asked Lincolnwood, Illinois police to make a well-being check, which is when they found Davis armed with knives in an upstairs bedroom and arrested him after a SWAT team responded and used a stun gun to subdue him.
Denyse was immediately taken to safety, where thankfully she was determined to be physically unharmed.
Davis was arrested, and is facing felony charges of home invasion with a dangerous weapon, aggravated kidnapping while armed with a dangerous weapon, and aggravated assault against a peace officer.
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