'I thought he was going to kill me': Elderly woman explains how she survived knife attack

An elderly woman says she’s lucky to be alive after surviving a stabbing attack while walking her dog near her east London Ont. home on Monday morning.

“This guy come running down that way behind me and got me down on the ground, pushed me down on the ground, and he started hitting me with a knife, put the knife inside me,” said Betty O’Loughlin, 78.

Betty stands all of four feet eleven inches in height, and is “90 pounds soaking wet,” she said.

At about 6:30 a.m. Monday, she was walking her senior dog, 14-year-old Kilo, outside of her apartment building at Brydges Street and Ashland Avenue. That’s when she said that a man attacked her with a knife, knocking her to the ground, stabbing her several times.

“The guy looked like he was on something, he was on dope. Didn’t even say nothin’. I said, ‘Would you mind getting off of me?’ He was right on top of me,” she recounted.

The man eventually fled on foot. Betty went back inside on her own, where family friend Travis Kicks called 911.

“I’m surprised she was even walking around, and talking, like all that… wounds… six wounds in her. I don’t know… It’s just… It was scary, to be honest,” said Kicks.

Stabbing victim Betty O’Loughlin is seen outside of her apartment building with her granddaughter Jordan Dockstater (Bryan Bicknell/CTV News London)

Betty was then taken to hospital by ambulance where she was treated for stab wounds. She had been wearing a heavy coat at the time of the attack. Her granddaughter-in-law, Chantel Meadows, believes that may have been what saved her.

“She was just like so worried about her dog, and her purse. I was just mind-blown that she was still standing there after she was just attacked and stabbed multiple times,” said Meadows.

Around 11:00 a.m. Monday, police arrested a male suspect who had been spotted just blocks away from the crime scene.

The 32-year-old London male has been charged with:

• Aggravated assault
• Fail to comply with release order
• Breach of probation

Betty said prior to the attack, she had never seen him in her life.

“You know she’s 78,” exclaimed Betty’s exasperated granddaughter, Jordan Dockstater. “Had anything else went a little bit differently she really wouldn’t be here with us right now."

In the meantime, Betty said that she is recovering fine, but she won’t soon forget the day her morning routine turned into one of the most traumatic experiences of her life.

“Oh, I thought he was going to kill me… Like I was scared,” she said.