Retired Dunn couple recounts harrowing shovel attack

"I’m glad we’re still breathing," 75-year-old Barbara Evans said at her home Thursday, where she and her husband were recovering from the Sunday-evening attack. "I feel like God has a purpose for this happening to us."

Barbara Evans had to have 12 staples in her head. Husband Herbert Evans had to have 22.

The couple had just finished entertaining church friends around 9:30 p.m. at The Village Apartments and were in the kitchen when a man entered through their front door, attacked Herbert Evans, knocking him out of his wheelchair.

Barbara Evans said she thinks she forgot to lock the door when her friends left.

The next thing she knew, her husband, released from the hospital a week earlier after having pneumonia, was bleeding on the floor.

"He hit him first, then seen me and whacked me," she said. "I didn't have time to make any escape or anything. He just knocked me down on the floor, and of course, blood just started pouring everywhere."

The attacker, she said, rummaged through their bedroom and emptied out a small bag. Now, she's missing a pearl necklace.

"Every time we tried to move, he kept saying, 'Don't look at me, look at the ground," Barbara Evans said. "Before he walked out the door, he said, 'Are you all right? I said, 'Yeah, I'm fine,' but under my breath, I'm praying, 'Lord, let him go.'"

Evans then managed to get to a neighbor's house for help.

"I couldn't get up off the floor to start with, because I was slipping in my blood, and I finally squirmed until I got to the door handle," she said.

She crawled outside, managed to get to her feet, then stumbled over to her neighbor's apartment.

"I had blood pouring off me, and (my neighbor) said that scared her too bad that she didn't want to open the door," Barbara Evans said.

Dunn police have no suspects, only a vague description of the couple's attacker.

Anyone with any information that could help investigators is asked to contact the Dunn Police Department.