DANVILLE — It was December 2009 and Christmas was fast approaching. John, a 67-year-old Danville resident, had lost his wife almost a year ago, but he had a seemingly nice gentleman who was now renting a room from him in his modest home.

The renter — a man just under 50 years old — was good for John, who faced feelings of loneliness after his wife of 46 years died.

“(The renter’s) money was good and he helped out,” John said. “He was pretty nice to start out with. He would vacuum and cleaned the bathroom real good one day. He was friendly and nice and so forth.”

All of that changed, however, less than a week before the holidays when John encountered his renter early in the morning.

“He’d been drinking beer and about 6 o’clock in the morning, he threw me down in the bed and pinned my arms back and said, ‘Give me your debit card and your correct pin number or I’ll come back and kill you,’” John recalled. “Then he hit me in the jaw and made my face look like a Mack truck hit it. I gave him my debit card — I was afraid for my life.”

John, who has a two-year order of protection against the offender, asked that his real name not be used for the story.

The fear didn’t end with the threat, however, as the man went on a rampage in John’s home, pulling out telephone connections throughout the home and tying the elderly man to an office chair with one of the longer cords. The renter gagged John by stuffing toilet paper in his mouth and then left.

Bound to the chair, John said he was “frightened — frightened and scared for my life.”

When the renter didn’t return, the 67-year-old man worked his way out of his bonds in about 20 minutes and called city police.

But the damage had been done.

Faces of abuse

Before that day, John said he’d heard about elderly abuse a couple of times, but he didn’t know much about it. He never realized he could become a victim.

In 2008, more than 10,600 cases of elderly abuse were reported in Illinois — a jump of more than 3,000 incidents compared to the beginning of the decade. In Vermilion County, this year’s reports of 210 cases as of August have already topped the 206 cases reported in all of 2009.

Abuse of the elderly falls into one of seven categories: financial exploitation, emotional abuse, passive neglect, physical abuse, willful deprivation, confinement or sexual abuse. Financial exploitation is the most common.

John found out later that he’d fallen victim to his renter more than just physically. The suspect had been stealing checks from the middle of John’s checkbook. The checks were forged at local liquor stores and other places. The amount taken — along with the amount attained with the debit card — overcharged John’s account by more than $600.

The man, John said, began wanting to smoke crack cocaine in the home and trying to get John to try it. But John said he was optimistic for his renter.

“He would go to his church every Sunday. I thought he was going to change and get rid of those horrible habits that he had,” John said. “He’d go to church and be clean for a while. Then his father would give him $20 and he’d go back and spend it and get all messed up.”

John said he wishes he had removed the man when the cocaine use started, but admits that would have been a difficult decision given the extra money the rent was providing.

“But it’s all over now and I’m on the road to recovery in many aspects,” he said. “I try not to be too rough on myself.”

The man was arrested and charged in Vermilion County Circuit Court, eventually sentenced to probation earlier this year.

His order of protection, issued within a month of the incident, will last for two years. But the events of that December morning have changed John’s ways for good.

“I’ll never have another individual — man or woman — live here,” he said.

Abuse trends

John’s case is an extreme one. Unfortunately, the differences make the other cases much more difficult to report.

According to the Illinois Department on Aging, it is estimated that more than 76,000 people over age 60 in Illinois are elder abuse victims. Victims of abuse are often isolated, and they may be afraid or unable to seek help for themselves.

The suspicion, according to CRIS Healthy Aging, is that for every one elder abuse case reported, another 12 are not. Oftentimes, who is involved makes the reporting so difficult.

Amy Marchant, director of CRIS, said the scenario most often played out is a child or family member of the senior reporting the abuse, which typically is being committed by another child or family member. Most often it is financial exploitation.

“When we start investigating, we find out the elderly is embarrassed and not ready to say what they need to say to move toward prosecution,” she said. “But what always happens while investigating is it will ward off the son or daughter that is involved. They’ll become panicked knowing that someone is watching.”

The effect is “sometimes temporary or sometimes permanent” when it comes to the financial exploitation.

Marchant added that oftentimes a case of financial exploitation also will fall under the category of emotional abuse of the senior.

The reasons for financial exploitation can vary greatly, ranging from a person needing to fund a drug or alcohol abuse habit to a new financial difficulty that affects the entire family.

Physical abuse, on the other hand, usually happens as a form of passive neglect and accounts for about 20 to 30 percent of the elder abuse cases reported. The cases also can be traced back to children or family members of the senior victims

“The abuse is neglect because the family is just overwhelmed with caring for the person and may not have the ability to care for the person,” Marchant said. The work in caring for a senior is tough and time consuming and can make it difficult for a caregiver to maintain a job away from the home.

Both locally and statewide, the numbers of abuse cases are steadily growing. Marchant has an optimistic viewpoint of why that is happening, hoping that it’s not because of an increase in overall case numbers.

“I hope we’re getting better reporting of cases,” she said, adding that it’s difficult to get a clear picture on it right now.