Former Md. crime victims find friendship

BETHESDA, Md. (AP) - Three women, their voices softened by time, chose to be more than victims of a man who also killed a fourth woman.

Ann Wolfe, Margaret Arnold and Betty Tubbs formed a friendship with only one thing in common: Jose Garcia-Perlera, the man convicted of attacking the three in their Montgomery County homes and killing a fourth elderly woman at her home.

The three met at Garcia-Perlera's trial where they sought not only justice, but found friendship. Wolfe, who was tied to a pole in her basement for more than 2 days, and broke two molars chewing through a duct-tape gag, got justice when her attacker was convicted May.

But she's quick to acknowledge how much community appeared in her life through lasting friendships and the human touch from authorities that rescued her, doctors who treated her and prosecutors and detectives who investigated the case as her family gathered round.

"You know, I'm embarrassed to say it," she told Arnold. "But it's been good for me."

However, the aftermath of the attack still lingers.

"Why did he have to tie us up so tight? We are just old people," asked Arnold, who's 94. "He didn't have to hit me in the head with his gun," Tubbs, 79, added from her experiences in September 2007.

Montgomery County detectives investigated the frightening crimes for months before Garcia-Perlera was connected to stolen iPods, binoculars and a radar detector. When police went to his Hyattsville apartment, possessions such as a ring Wolfe bought in Afghanistan more than 50 years ago were also found. Garcia-Perlera's DNA was also connected to three home invasions.

The three met during breaks in Garcia-Perlera's trial.

"It's just been really great to find two people who went through the same thing," Arnold said. "It really makes it almost bearable." She's legally blind because of macular degeneration.

"We found out that we all like to talk a lot," Tubbs added. Police said Garcia-Perlera lured her into the basement by turning off the circuit break to shut her lights off after breaking in through a window.

Now that Wolfe's starting to have trouble reading, Arnold plans to help her learn to use visual enhancement equipment such as a video camera that can enlarge images of what's in her lap onto a TV.

With independent natures, all three women were enjoying life in 2007 but they weren't unfamiliar with tragedy.

Arnold's husband died at 52 of a heart attack after the two moved to Washington because he was a Navy judge advocate general's office attorney. She never took off her wedding and engagement rings until the day Garcia-Perlera stole them right off her hand.

Tubb's husband died 54 years ago in an Air Force crash. The pilot died in the North Atlantic. Wolfe's second husband died of brain cancer.

Tubbs' victim impact statement reads, "I feel that I was not a victim of chance, but was stalked over a period of time to learn my habits as to bedtime, TV watching, where I kept tools in the garage and where the most isolated window was to break into the house. . . . Others and I feel that the primary motive of the crime was not theft, but the psychological satisfaction of studying our habits and outwitting our defenses."

Garcia-Perlera used the same circuit breaker disabling technique to lure Arnold into the basement before he dragged her to the floor, gagged her and bound her with clothesline. "I keep seeing it," she said.

She and Arnold let Wolfe know she had the best chance of getting a conviction after the brutal two-and-a-half days she spent in the basement. Wolfe can't type or write any more because the attack seriously injured her wrists.

"This attack has completely altered my life," Wolfe wrote in her victim impact statement. "I left the house at three o'clock in the morning, just hours after the break-in, never to return. I lost my independence and my security, which is a devastating experience. . . . He should be sentenced to the fullest extent of the law."

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Information from: The Washington Post, http://www.washingtonpost.com

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