Murrieta woman survives home invasion despite being stabbed in the head
After recovering from her wounds, Murrieta resident Cyndye Polsgrove recounted how she survived a harrowing home invasion despite being stabbed in the head.
"Evil came to Murrieta," she said. "I stared it in the face and I won."
Polsgrove said on the morning of Nov. 5, a man she'd never seen before, Manuel Arturo Alvarez, hopped over her backyard fence, broke into her home through the back door and stabbed her husband Bob Brink before turning his attention to her.
"I just think he say my husband and he was set to kill," Polsgrove said.
She grabbed her cell phone and dialed 911, hoping to get help for her husband. Before she could give her address to the dispatcher, she saw Alvarez turn the corner and walk into her living room.
"He came through this way and stood in front of me, and you could tell he was high on something," Polsgrove said. "Asking me about a gun, I said, 'There's no guns here.'"
She said she asked him what he was doing in her home before sitting down on the sofa.
"I said, 'I have $3,000 right here in an envelope," Polsgrove recalled. "He was here to kill."
In that moment, Polsgrove said her attacker got too close for comfort.
"That's when I turned my head to push him away," she said. "That's when he got me here. If I hadn't turned my head, it would have been gray matter somewhere."
With a screwdriver lodged behind her left eye, Polsgrove gathered up enough strength to get up and call 911 again. When police arrived, they rushed her to the hospital. Her husband died at their home.
"Honestly, don't know how I got up. It's just your will to live, I guess," Polsgrove said.
The Murrieta Police Department said Polsgrove's detailed description of her attackers helped them quickly locate Alvarez. She hopes Alvarez is convicted of the murder and attempted murder charges he faces.
"Sorry that my husband is not here," she said. "I can't even tell you. But, knowing that I am alive and I lived through this, it's just unbelievable to me."
