AN 80-YEAR-OLD WOMAN FEIGNED HER OWN DEATH DURING A HOMICIDE ATTEMPT. (PHOTO).

 An 80-year-old woman feigned her own death during a homicide attempt. 

The entire incident was so shocking that police officers didn't believe her story... until they watched surveillance video showing exactly what happened.

(Her name has been withheld for 2 years by law enforcement.)

On a morning in August 2024, an 80-year-old Coventry, Rhode Island woman knelt in her church pew, her hands clutching her rosary beads. She wasn't praying for herself. She was praying for the sick and the ailing, specifically for her husband, who laid hooked up to machines in a hospital bed after a sudden, and devastating heart attack. 

Exhausted and overwhelmed, she stopped at a local Wendy’s for a bite to eat. It was a completely ordinary routine that was about to change into an unimaginable situation. 

When she struggled to use the digital soda fountain machine, a 53-year-old stranger named Steven Henning noticed and stepped in to help. He had a warm smile and an easy manner according to the woman. To a woman whose world had just been turned upside down, this brief interaction felt like a moment of genuine human kindness. She was grateful to have someone to talk to while dining all alone. 

-The beginning of this nightmare was a seemingly innocent but loaded question. 

As the two briefly chatted, joking about newfangled machines, Henning casually asked if she was a widow and if she lived alone. She answered him honestly, afterall, he was kindly getting her a drink. She said, "Yes, it’s just me right now. My husband is in the hospital." Steven faked care and concern. 

She had no way of knowing that her trusting nature had just handed a violent offender exactly what he was looking for. Henning had an extensive, and dark record. Steven had already been to jail (or prison) 24 times in the last 35 years and had a plan to drive to Ohio to m**der an estranged girlfriend. Knowing his current stolen car would be reported, he was actively looking for a secondary vehicle belonging to someone who "would not be missed" immediately. It is a chilling reminder of a harsh safety truth that every elderly person and their families must remember: Never tell a stranger you live alone. 

--"Oh, no! You ARE NOT getting in!"--

Henning watched her leave Wendy's after a friendly farewell wave to each other. Steven Henning followed her home, staking out her house from the safety of the semi-busy parking lot across the road. But he severely underestimated the sheer will of the elderly woman he had targeted. When he suddenly appeared at her back door, forcing his way inside after ringing her doorbell, this 80-year-old didn't cower. She stood her ground with remarkable courage, looking him dead in the eye and declaring, "You are not getting in." 

Unfortunately, physical brute strength won that first battle. As Henning violently assaulted her to rob her, the woman was confused. She told police she didn't understand why he was being so incredibly violent, in her words, "grabbing my throat and squeezing as hard as he could." She was confused because she was being entirely agreeable and cooperative; telling him he could take "whatever money and jewelry he wanted. Have at it."

His anger scared her about what each new moment would bring. She tried to scream and was str*ngled for the attempt to call for help. 

He demanded for her to go upstairs to her bedroom to show him where her jewelry was located. She stated she was terrified to do that because she, "didn't know what he was going to do to her in the bedroom". He quickly realized the jewelry was not worth much, that it was decorative rather than expensive. But Hennning REALLY wanted her car. 

The BRAVE battle at the car trunk. 

Henning demanded the car keys from her and she complied. He asked for the name on the title, etc. She answered him honestly. Even during the incident and the aftermath, she noted that was an odd question. It's incredible she 'caught' the strange question in such a scary moment. She realized he wanted a name so he could say it was "his relatives car" or something similar. He actually did exactly that, telling a woman he met online it was his aunt's car.

She hoped his greed and thievery was satiated but sadly, it was just the damn beginning. 

 When Henning dragged her outside and tried to stuff her into the trunk of her own car, her fierce spirit flared again. Although she is technically from the "Silent Generation".. she was anything but silent. In a desperate, exhausting battle for her life, she literally kicked the trunk hood open as many times as she could, fighting back with everything she had until her legs completely wore out. He eventually managed to force the trunk closed over her but she did not make it easy. He drove off with a terrified woman... in the trunk of her own car. She was inside of the trunk for at least 30 minutes, having no clue where they were headed.

Henning drove the victim straight to Smithfield, Rhode Island, the exact town where her daughter lived. Of course, he didn't know that fact. This strange fact would be one reason police didn't believe her initially, they thought it was too coincidental she came wandering out of the woods in the same town her daughter lived in. 

WHEN THE COPS DISBELIEVED THEIR OWN EYES

When the woman was eventually found in a remote, wooded area of Smithfield, her clothing was in complete disarray, showing the obvious signs of a rather savage encounter. Her pants and panties were completely off, and her shirt was ripped up to her bra when she woke back up in the brush where Henning left her because he believed she was deceased.

Yet, the initial hurdle this sweet woman faced wasn't just surviving, it was convincing the authorities that it REALLY happened to her. Because of her advanced age, police initially met her story with deep skepticism, openly questioning if she had staged the event or if she was suffering from dementia-related confusion. One detective equipped, "Yeah, I'm gonna bet none of that happened." 

Everything changed when detectives pulled nearby security footage. When the cops saw the surveillance video, they could not believe their eyes. They watched the entire, sickening abduction play out on screen. At first, they had no idea where this dangerous man had even come from, but tracing the digital trail backward through more surveillance video finally led them straight to that encounter at the Wendy's soda machine. 

While the dozen or so officers watched the video in real time, they went from joking to total shock in less than 5 minutes. 

-The faith that helped her survive Henning... and the woods.- 

In those isolated woods, Henning str*ngled her with his belt until she feigned de*th as a last resort. Unfortunately, she went unconscious while she was dragged and discarded in the woods. Regardless, this woman showed incredible presence of mind amidst terror, she faked her d*ath, going completely limp and holding her breath as long as she could. Fully believing she was dead, Henning covered her with heavy branches and debris before driving away in her car. 

Her faith and fortitude never wavered. When she came to, alone in the dark, under the brush, she immediately began praying to God for the strength to stand. She saw a large tree nearby, she told herself she had to use it to pull her body up. 

Moving with immense pain from her severe injuries, which left her with hematomas and facial swelling so severe her "eyes were invisible", she fought hard to stand back up, dress herself, and walk out of the thicket to a nearby home, where a resident got her a glass of water and called 911. 

-The chilling purchase and a shocking secret.-

The final proof of Henning's cold-blooded nature came the next day. Unaware his victim was alive and talking to police, Henning went to a hardware store to buy a shovel to bury her body. He even brazenly joked with the store clerk, saying that the next time he saw her, he was going to ask her if she was single. When he returned to the woods, he found only an empty space where his victim had miraculously clawed her way back to life. 

As police hunted Henning down, they intentionally didn't tell him that she had survived, keeping that critical piece of information a secret during the initial phase of the investigation. They did this hoping to get a confession and it worked.

Henning went from crying during the interrogation, to joking around and smoking cigarettes. He would express that he was a "monster" because she was a sweet woman who didn't deserve what he'd done to her. Detectives met him with silence. 

When Henning finally found out that she was alive, he was visibly shocked. He had believed there was a strong possibility that police had found her deceased body when he was returning with the shovel. In a rare moment of alignment, both the police and Henning fully agreed on one thing: she was an incredibly strong woman. The investigators themselves mentioned how much she prayed throughout the entire ordeal, admitting they could not believe she survived the attack. 

Henning was ultimately sentenced to 45 years in state prison, specifically ordered to serve his time at the maximum-security unit of the Adult Correctional Institutions in Cranston, Rhode Island. At the time of the abduction and attempted homicide, he had just gotten out of prison fir stealing a car. 

Like any headline, there was so much more to this story than a standard courtroom headline. The true narrative lies in her raw tenacity, the instinct to relentlessly try to kick open that trunk door, the split-second brilliance to fake her own d*ath while being str*ngled with a belt, and the sheer grit to fight hard to stand back up, dress herself, and find help. 

She proved that while evil can strike under the guise of a helping hand, the human spirit, and an unwavering will to survive, is much stronger. 

As for her being partially unclothed, Henning denied doing anything s***** to her before police even asked him if he did anything s***** to her. This clearly threw the detectives off and they repeatedly asked him why he would even bring that up. He reassured them he could get all kinds of women and they "could look at his phone to see all of women he talked to". There is no official report on if she was S/A or not. 

We do hope she is living peacefully and we are in awe of her pure bravery and ability to keep calm and logical. She is an inspiration.