On the afternoon of May 24th, authorities say 38-year-old Daniel Rios rang the front door of the Elizabeth, NJ home of 92-year-old Annette Hemple. Then, according to Union County Prosecutor Theodore Romankow, he pushed his way "into the house with the intent of stealing money or whatever he could find in her home. She attempted to scream. He put his hand on her face and pushed her a distance, into the living room, onto the floor, and he strangled her." After, they say he searched Hemple's home for money—and walked away with roughly $360 dollars in loose change she had been collecting in jars. Now he's facing a life in prison if convicted.
According to authorities, Rios is a serial burglar with at least 14 arrests to his name. His MO is to ring home's doorbells and, if nobody answers, rob them. If somebody did answer, he'd move on. But police believe that on the 24th he decided to see what he could get out of the nonagenarian victim. "This particular arrest was the culmination of an effort by many police departments, by many officers," Romankow said at a conference yesterday. "We all felt one thing about the murder: No one, 92, should die the way this lady died."
After Rios left Hemple for dead, he dragged her coins down to a local Stop & Shop to exchange them for bills. Making the whole case even worse: the day of the attack Hemple's 86-year-old younger sister, who lived below her in the building, was home—but didn't hear a thing. Hemple was found by a relative a few hours later.
Hemple, a lifelong resident of Elizabeth, was reportedly an active woman who "could be seen regularly trimming her own hedges, tending to her flower garden," and the like. "She was the co-owner the old WHW Lighthouse Tavern and worked as a dye polisher at Phelps Dodge for 42 years."
Rios is being held on $1.5 million bail and has been charged with felony murder and burglary. "No one deserves to die this way, and an innocent woman who led a good life deserved better than this,” Romankow went on. "This woman was killed for loose change."
