Former Victims Mix Up an Antidote to Terror

After Home Invasions, 3 Md. Widows Find Strength in Friendship

The three women didn't draw much attention from the lunch crowd at Congressional Country Club. That's only because no one could hear what they were saying.

"Why did he have to tie us up so tight? We are just old people," asked the 94-year-old.

"He didn't have to hit me in the head with his gun," added the 79-year-old.

The three widows were attacked, hogtied and gagged in their Montgomery County homes, where they lived alone, starting in September 2007. One of them, 78 at the time, spent 2 1/2 days bound to a pole in her basement, chewing her way through a duct-tape gag and cracking two molars in the process.

"Help, help, help!" Ann Wolfe called out, although she knew no one could hear.

The women's pluck, candor and even humor as witnesses helped convict the intruder three months ago. Their stories will be aired in court again Thursday, when Jose Garcia-Perlera is to be sentenced for attacking them and killing a fourth widow whose home he also broke into. The crimes terrified large portions of the county.

Montgomery detectives worked the case for 13 months.

Last year, one of them linked Garcia-Perlera to stolen iPods, a radar detector and binoculars believed to have been taken from other houses, police said. Detectives searched his apartment in Hyattsville, finding items that belonged to the three women.

Some of the items were obscure, such as an old ring that Wolfe purchased at a bazaar in Afghanistan five decades ago. Detectives took a sample of Garcia-Perlera's DNA, which they linked to three of the home-invasion crime scenes.

Beyond the case is a story of how the three women drawn together by the crimes, who first met during breaks in the trial, have become good friends.

"It's just been really great to find two people who went through the same thing," said Margaret Arnold, 94, whose emergency medical necklace was ripped off during the attack, leaving a raw mark as if she'd been hanged. "It really makes it almost bearable."

"We found out that we all like to talk a lot," added Betty Tubbs, 79, who was lured into her basement by Garcia-Perlera, who broke in through a window there and threw the circuit breaker to shut off her lights.