Woman crawls to neighbor’s house after alleged attack by man in Brooktrails

MENDOCINO CO., 3/17/26 — A 72-year-old woman jumped from a window and crawled to her neighbor’s house to escape a man who allegedly tried to strangle her at a home near Willits, authorities said Monday.

The Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office said Tuesday that the suspect and victim are not related, correcting an earlier statement that described him as a relative. Investigators said the two lived together, and the woman told deputies she considered him her “grandson.”

The assault was reported about 12:20 a.m. Friday at a home in the 27000 block of Hawk Drive in Brooktrails, an unincorporated neighborhood in Mendocino County. The woman told authorities that an argument led to the alleged attack.

Don Wiltse Jr. allegedly chased into her bedroom “and strangled her while making threats to kill her,” the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release.

The victim tried to call 911 but Wiltse allegedly took her phone. The woman then jumped from a window about nine feet off the ground and crawled to her neighbor’s house, the sheriff’s office said.

Willits police were the first to arrive at the scene and the woman was given medical aid for injuries to her face that were “consistent with strangulation and broken bones in her lower extremities,” the sheriff’s office said.

The woman was transported to a local hospital before being transferred to an out-of-county hospital for further treatment. On Monday, she was in stable condition, the sheriff’s office said.

Wiltse was detained after officers spotted him walking around the driveway of the home. The suspect allegedly made threatening statements to a Willits officer and a deputy sheriff. The sheriff’s office obtained a search warrant and evidence at the home was collected.

Wiltse was arrested and booked into the Mendocino County Jail on suspicion of crimes that include attempted murder, elder abuse causing great bodily injury, criminal threats, threatening or resisting a peace officer by force and removing a wireless communication device to prevent summoning law enforcement.

He is being held in lieu of $1.2 million bail.

Anyone with information about the case is asked to call the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office Dispatch Center at (707) 463-4086 (option 1), or the Sheriff’s Office non-emergency tip-line at (707) 234-2100.

Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story described the suspect as the victim’s relative, based on information from the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office. Authorities have since clarified that the two are not biologically related.