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A full-hearted grandmother was nearly beaten to death by a young man who she had invited into her home after he brutally assaulted her with a baseball bat as she slept.
71-year-old Therese Garcia generously opened her Crestline home to 26-year-old Erik Eduardo Navarro of Orange County, a stranger to her, after he showed up at her home claiming all his belongings had been stolen. Navarro stated he needed a place to stay ahead of an upcoming job interview, according to her family.
The kindhearted woman took him in, cooked for him every night and came to believe he was a “sweet kid” down on his luck.
After for two weeks, Navarro began “making demands and taking over her home,” the family said.
Garcia then allegedly told Navarro on Aug. 25 that it was time to leave, which set him off.
Navarro allegedly took up a metal baseball bat and began clubbing her while she was sleeping.
Family described the brutal ordeal, which only ended after he believed the grandmother was dead, in a GoFundMe.
“She was in and out of consciousness, and every time she woke up, he would beat her again,” the family said. “This lasted for hours. He stopped only after she completely lost consciousness and apparently believed she was dead. He then took her phone, credit cards, keys, E-bike, and other belongings and fled.”
The caring grandmother’s injuries were horrific.
The San Bernardino Sheriff’s Department said she suffered “a laceration to her forehead, cut eyebrow, swollen hands, and swollen orbital area to the point she was unable to clearly see.”
In addition, the family said she spent “days” vomiting blood and could need facial surgery.
Pictures from her hospital bed show the grandma in an unrecognizable state — clad in a neck brace, with still-swollen eyes, and a cast on her left arm.
As of the GoFundMe’s posting this week, the grandma remains in the hospital. The family says she is “medically stable” and is taking small steps. But she does not have health insurance and is “still in immense pain, extremely dizzy, exhausted, and struggling with the effects of her brain injury.”
Navarro, whom police consider a suspect, has not been located. He fled the scene after the alleged assault. The incident is being considered a Battery with Serious Bodily Injury.
His picture has been released, showing Navarro smugly smirking with brown hair and brown eyes.
Police urge anyone with information to contact the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department’s Twin Peak Station at 909-336-0660.
Anyone wishing to help the grandmother can donate to her GoFundMe.
“Please keep my mom in your prayers. Pray for her healing, her strength, her vision, her recovery, and for the person responsible to be found,” the family wrote. “We are incredibly grateful that she is still here. She survived the night she was left to die. Now we just want to give her every possible chance to heal.”
English (US)