Son Arrested After Woman, 67, Found Beaten

A Huntington Beach woman was in critical condition Friday night, and her 23-year-old son was booked on suspicion of beating her, pouring a caustic chemical on her and trying to drown her in her bathtub, a police spokesman said.

Avies Sanders, 67, was taken to Huntington Humana Hospital on Friday morning after police interrupted William Gillespie, who allegedly was beating her with a wooden staircase support, Sgt. Ron Jenkins said Friday night.

When Sanders, a Long Beach school employee, failed to show up for work Friday morning, the principal at the school called the Huntington Beach Police Department. Jenkins did not know the name of the school at which she worked.

“According to her principal, she’s a very, very dependable woman,” Jenkins said, “so we went out to check if she was all right. After knocking several times and hearing what they thought were sounds of a struggle inside, officers tried to gain entry.”

But before they could break down the door of Sanders’ Calhoun Drive home, Jenkins said, Gillespie opened the front door. Inside, the offices found Sanders “beaten, battered and nude,” Jenkins said.

“Evidence indicated that she was beaten with a wooden staircase support, cut by a broken piece of ceramic planter and victim of an attempted drowning in her bathtub,” Jenkins said. “And apparently some sort of caustic chemical was used on her, too.”

After paramedics took the woman to the hospital, police booked Gillespie, also from Huntington Beach, into the City Jail on suspicion of attempted murder and assault with a caustic chemical. Jenkins said police don’t know what prompted the attack.

Sanders is in critical but stable condition, he said. A hospital spokeswoman refused to comment.