SNOHOMISH — When she heard someone knocking Thursday morning, she thought the visitors might be Jehovah’s Witnesses.
That’s why she opened the front door of her rural Snohomish home.
Instead of clutching Bibles, the two men confronted the 54-year-old widow with handguns.
They forced her to her knees and used zip-ties to bind her hands and feet.
For three hours, the men ransacked her home, taking almost everything of value, said Carmen Bigelow, 26, the victim’s daughter.
Then the men backed the woman’s Toyota Tundra pickup to the front door and loaded it up.
Dare to move, the men told their victim, and they’d kill her.
Stuck in a windowless bathroom, the woman went for help only after she heard the front door close and the house go silent. She wiggled loose from her bindings and ran to a neighbor’s house to call 911.
“She’s just shook up,” Bigelow said of her mother Friday. “She’s just devastated.”
Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office major crimes detectives were still looking for the two men. No arrests have been made.
Officials don’t know why the woman’s home was targeted or if the robbery was random, sheriff’s spokeswoman Rebecca Hover said.
“We’ve relayed the information to other law enforcement agencies so they can be on the lookout,” Hover said. “We hope that anyone with information on these suspects will do the right thing and come forward. Maybe they heard something before the home invasion or maybe they’ve heard something since.”
One suspect is described a white, about 35, 5 feet, 5 inches tall. He was wearing glasses, a green knit cap, gray shirt and blue jeans, police said.
The other suspect is black, also about 35, 6 feet tall and was wearing a bright orange shirt and what appeared to be spiky black wig, reminiscent of the character Sideshow Bob from “The Simpsons.”
“She said (the hairdo) was just crazy,” Bigelow said. “It had to be a wig.”
The men tried to hide their faces from the woman, but she got a good enough look for detectives to draw sketches they released Thursday night.
Before leaving the home, the men pulled rings off the woman’s hands, took her earrings, stole a gun collection and grabbed electronics.
“Anything to do with money,” the daughter said.
They also took belongings that can’t be replaced.
In June, the woman’s husband died from cancer. He would have celebrated his 55th birthday on Dec. 21. The men took his wallet and disturbed other belongings his family hadn’t touched since the death.
“We just feel helpless,” Bigelow said. “It’s awful.”
Up the street from the home on Friday, neighbor Jay Lorenz, 48, said he’ll now be extra vigilant for suspicious activity.
“It’s just unfortunate,” he said. “It’s very brazen.”
Snohomish is a small community, Bigelow said.
“You think you’re safe in this town,” she said. “(The home invasion) really was a reality check.”
The victim is too frightened to go home. She and her daughter plan to spend a few nights sleeping at a hotel.
They won’t feel safe until the men are behind bars, the daughter said.
“I want these people caught.”
Reporter Jackson Holtz: 425-339-3437 or jholtz@heraldnet.com.
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