Torrance Woman Recounts 'Just Panic' During Home Invasion
TORRANCE (CBSLA.com) — A Torrance woman Tuesday recounted the horrifying moments after two intruders broke into her house.
Badly beaten, 73-year-old Judie Turner told CBS2's Andrea Fujii that she could not recall everything that happened but did remember blood all over her bathroom.
"Just panic is what it is. I mean, it happened so quick that you don't have a lot of time to think," she recalled.
It was late Monday night when she said she heard strange noises and woke up to find two men in her bathroom.
"I guess he punched me in the face; he did something terrible," she explained.
Within minutes, police arrived after they were called by a neighbor who had seen two men trying to break in, she said.
Police caught an 18-year-old suspect immediately. The other suspect, a 17-year-old, got away but police found him hiding in Turner's garage rafters an hour and a half later.
Police said as he was being taken away, he told them he came to California because of Proposition 57, a law that allows for early release from prison.
Turner said she has lived in her house for 45 years, most of the time with her husband, a former Los Angeles police officer, who died a couple of years ago.
Despite what happened, she said she does not plan to move. "I'm doing as good as I can do. It takes a while to recover from a home invasion," she added.
