A tropical family vacation turned into a nightmare when a stranger kidnapped and raped their elderly mother, who suffers from Alzheimer’s.
The Canadian man allegedly seized the opportunity to drag the 80-year-old woman into his hotel room at a Bahamas resort after she became separated from the rest of her family, her son David Ahrens told CTV News.
“It’s just an unspeakable, horrendous, vile, violent angry crime against somebody who is so vulnerable,” Ahrens, also Canadian, told the outlet.
The horror began last month when Ahrens’ mother disappeared inside an elevator at the Warwick Hotel with the alleged pervert, who had invited himself to the family’s dinner earlier that evening.
Ahrens’ sister tried to reach into the lift to grab a hold of her mother, but the doors shut before she could get a grip.
The family spent the next 30 minutes frantically patrolling every floor of the hotel searching for the woman and pleading with hotel staff to search through security footage.
Ultimately, they found their mother and the man right where they left them, but under unthinkable circumstances.
“Of course my mother was frightened and while we don’t need to go into a ton of detail, but what I will say, and it is horrendous, that she was holding her own underwear in her hand at that point in the elevator,” Ahrens said.
The senior was rushed to a local hospital, where she tested positive for a rape kit.
Surveillance footage allegedly showed the man pushing the woman, who was shown clearly resisting, into a hotel room.
A 61-year-old Nova Scotia man has since been charged with the rape of an 80-year-old woman at the location, according to local reports. He was denied bail and could face life in prison if convicted.
The distraught son said he wasn’t there when the incident occurred, but took a flight to the Caribbean country as soon as his younger sister told him what happened.
The family had taken the trip as an opportunity for their mother to make happy memories as she battles the heartbreaking disease.
“Our concern is the combination of Alzheimer’s plus this incident of being sexually assaulted and rape, you know, that’s playing with her mind. So we’re just worried it’s playing in her subconscious and it’s just making things worse at the moment,” Ahrens said.
“She still deserves to create memories even if they don’t last for a long time. It’s also a memory for us.”
The horrifying incident occurred shortly after several countries — including Canada and the US — issued travel advisories for the Bahamas.
Officials put the island nation on an “exercise increased caution” warning, noting that it was unsafe for tourists amidst 18 murders — “primarily” motivated by gang violence — in January alone.
Safety concerns have reached a point of severity where US officials say people shouldn’t even try to “physically resist” being robbed.
