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Last updated on Wednesday, July 6, 2016
(BLOOMINGTON) - A man is facing attempted murder charges after he allegedly attacked an 86-year-old woman on the 4th of July.
At 11:54 p.m. Life Alert received an alert notification from a neck pendant belonging to a woman who lived in the 800 block of S. Winridge Court.
Ambulance personnel responded to the scene to check on the female's welfare. When the ambulance personnel knocked on the front door they heard yelling from inside and contacted police.
When police arrived they found 19-year-old Zachary Emswiller on the front porch covered in blood and talking on a cell phone. Officers attempted to speak with Emswiller, but he immediately began fighting with the officers.
Emswiller was taken arrested.
When police entered the home, they found the elderly woman lying on her bedroom floor covered in blood. She had been severely beaten. There was blood-splatter on the walls.
Police say her face and upper body were covered with lacerations and contusions and both eyes were swollen shut. A report by BPD Detective Sarah Carnes detailed the elderly woman's injuries, which doctors say would require reconstruction surgery.
"They could not tell whether her eyes had been poked out or whether they were just swollen shut," Carnes' report reads, describing "a deep laceration above her left eyebrow ... her left ear was mangled. Her left anterior forearm had a chunk of tissue taken out of it ... down to the muscle ... it resembled a bite mark."
The woman told police her grandson had attacked her without provocation, beaten her with his fists, and attempted to strangle her.
She was taken to IU Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis due to the severity of her injuries. She is in critical but stable condition.
Emswiller denied knowing his grandmother was injured and could give no account why he was covered in blood.
According to reports, police found a jewelry box on the bedroom floor, its contents scattered. A blank check from the woman's bank account was on the bed, and a bloody envelope was found in the hallway. A wooden bedpost had been broken, and a safe inside a bedroom closet had been opened and ransacked.
Emswiller, who had scratch marks on his face from where his grandmother fought back, was examined and detained at IU Health Bloomington Hospital, then booked into the Monroe County Jail at 6:44 a.m. Tuesday. He is facing a Level 1 felony charge of attempted murder and criminal confinement, a Level 3 felony. He lived at the West Pointe addition residence with his grandmother.
Emswiller has a criminal record. Last October he was arrested on a misdemeanor charge of possession of marijuana and was arrested again in February on charges of driving while intoxicated, resisting law enforcement, reckless driving and driving with a suspended license. He has a July 18 court hearing set in both cases.
He is expected to appear before a judge Wednesday or Thursday to be advised of the most recent charges against him. No bond has been set.
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