Man Accused Of Trying To Kill Woman Convicted Sex Offender Admits Beating 81-Year-Old Woman With Fists, Lamp

A convicted sex offender with a history of harassing elderly women was charged Thursday with the attempted murder of an 81-year-old woman.

Henry W. Luke, 38, confessed to bludgeoning the woman with a lamp at her home Tuesday, said Coeur d’Alene Police Lt. Don Jiran. Luke is on probation for battering a 73-year-old Coeur d’Alene woman in 1994.

Police found Luke Wednesday night at the home of an elderly couple his mother is caring for. He had been living in their basement.

Investigators were able to, in part, connect Luke to the crime because of a pair of work gloves found at the bloody scene. The name “Luke” was printed on each glove, Jiran told a judge Thursday.

On Tuesday, Richard Nielsen found his elderly mother-in-law at her home on Coeur d’Alene Avenue covered in blood and stripped of her clothes from the waist down.

“The carpet was completely soaked with blood in several areas,” Mike Wolf, a police detective, told 1st District Magistrate Paul McCabe on Thursday.

The woman suffered a broken nose, jaw, cheek and possibly internal injuries. It still is unclear whether she was sexually assaulted, police said.

Police have not yet been able to interview the woman in depth. She is listed in fair condition at Kootenai Medical Center’s intensive care unit. However, she did tell an officer that she thought her attacker was going to shovel snow off her porch for her.

While investigating the crime, police received several reports of a man attempting to get into the homes of elderly women living in the southeast part of town where the beating victim lived, Jiran said. The man was offering to do work around their homes and insistently trying to talk his way inside.

One woman remembered that a man had done household work for her more than a year ago, Jiran said. She had written down his address, phone number and name: Henry Luke.

On Wednesday night, Coeur d’Alene police tracked down Luke at the home where his mother was working. Alice Todahl, Luke’s mother, was caring for a 91-year-old man and his wife with Alzheimer’s, Jiran said. Her son was living in their basement.

“I can’t believe it because I know my son and he’s always been around elderly and he’s always respected them,” Todahl said Thursday. “I have never seen my son, or heard of him, being cruel to anybody. I don’t know what happened. Something snapped or something.”

But Jiran said that when he told Todahl they were investigating her son in connection with an assault, “Her immediate response was, ‘Was it an older woman? I knew something was wrong.”’

When police showed Luke the leather gloves found at the woman’s home, “He said ‘yes, those are my gloves. My name should be on them,”’ Jiran said Thursday.

Luke admitted to police that he beat the 81-year-old woman, Jiran said. “He remembers striking the woman with his fists and a lamp.”

Luke said he doesn’t remember other parts of the attack and denied sexually assaulting the woman, Jiran said. However, Jiran said Luke admitted going through the woman’s purses looking for money. Luke said he found none, Jiran said.

Luke was charged with attempted second-degree murder, burglary and failing to register as a sex offender.

At his first court appearance Thursday, Luke told Judge McCabe that he wanted to plead guilty to the charges against him. But the judge told Luke that it was not the appropriate time to enter his plea.

He is being held at the Kootenai County Jail on $1 million bail.

Luke was convicted of first-degree sexual assault in 1987 and spent three years in prison, according to Alaska Department of Corrections records. It is unclear how old the victim was.

Although Luke has previously registered as a sex offender in Kootenai County, he did not notify the county of his change of address as required by law, Jiran said. He had been living for about five months at a different address.

Luke has had other troubles with the law. In August 1994, Luke walked into a 73-year-old woman’s apartment, sat on her lap, held her arms down and asked for a kiss. A neighbor heard her yelling and called police.

Luke pleaded guilty to battery in February 1995 for the crime. First District Magistrate Don Swanstrom sentenced him to 90 days in jail. However, the judge suspended 89 days of the jail term and instead placed Luke on two years probation.

On Sept. 11 this year, police again arrested Luke for trespassing after he was found sleeping on the sidewalk by Spencer’s grocery store and refused to leave. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 10 days in jail with eight of those days suspended. He was given credit for the other two days he already had spent in jail.

Although a trespassing conviction would be considered a violation of probation, Luke never was charged with breaking his probation. He also never was ordered to serve the suspended jail sentence, according to court records.

“It appears it just wasn’t detected,” said Roy Gowey, deputy Coeur d’Alene city attorney. “Unfortunately there isn’t any real foolproof system in place for catching those things.”

In Idaho there are no probation officers to monitor criminals put on probation for misdemeanor charges such as battery.

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