Background: The window and home where police say the break-in occurred (WBZ/YouTube). Inset: Neil O’Flaherty (Falmouth Police Department).
An 87-year-old woman investigating noises she heard in her Massachusetts bedroom was attacked by a man who had climbed through her window, authorities say.
Neil O’Flaherty, 27, has been charged with aggravated burglary, kidnapping, assault with intent to murder, assault and battery on a person age 60 or older, and breaking and entering in the nighttime for a felony, the Falmouth Police Department announced. He was arraigned in Falmouth District Court this week.
On May 25, at about 9 p.m., a woman said she heard noises at her home on Austin Stokes Drive in Falmouth, Massachusetts, a coastal town on Cape Cod. When she followed the sounds into one of her bedrooms, she realized someone had entered her home through a window.
The intruder — alleged to have been O’Flaherty — “grabbed her by the neck and shoulders and proceeded to drag her down the hallway to the living room,” police said, according to regional CBS affiliate WBZ. The suspect allegedly then tried to kiss the woman, pushed her to the floor, and covered her face with a blanket, “restricting her breathing.”
The woman screamed, and her husband woke up. He is reportedly also 87 years old, blind, and dependent on a walker.
Still, police say, the husband’s approach was enough to scare O’Flaherty off, and the suspect allegedly fled the home through the same window he used to enter.
“The suspect was not known to the residents,” the police department added.
Officers responded to the home at about 9:40 p.m., and they began investigating. However, they could not find their suspect in the area.
A week later, in Mashpee, Massachusetts, about 10 miles north, officers with the Mashpee Police Department responded to a reported breaking and entering incident. Investigators tracked their suspect to Falmouth and identified him as O’Flaherty.
“During the course of their investigation, Falmouth Police detectives were able to link O’Flaherty to the Austin Stokes Drive incident that occurred on May 25,” the Falmouth Police Department said. He was arrested and booked into jail.
The woman at the Austin Stokes Drive address is a great-grandmother, according to the local outlet. Police did not mention any serious injuries.
