No Wordle update leads to discovery of 80-year-old hostage

LINCOLNWOOD, Ill. (AP) — Police rescued an 80-year-old suburban Chicago woman who was held hostage for nearly 21 hours in large part because she couldn’t text one of her daughters her daily Wordle score during the ordeal. Denyse Holt and her oldest daughter, Meredith Holt-Caldwell, told reporters that Holt woke up about 1 a.m. Sunday (Feb. 6, 2022) to find a bloody and naked man armed with scissors in her Lincolnwood home. Holt says the man eventually barricaded her in a basement bathroom. During that time, she couldn’t communicate with the outside world or update her daughter as she usually does about her score on the popular online word game. Holt-Caldwell, who lives in Seattle, asked Lincolnwood police to make a well-being check. Officers rescued her mother and a SWAT team arrested the man.