The Region - News from Dec. 24, 1985

William Carns Jr., the Mission Viejo man who was seriously injured in an Aug. 25 attack attributed to the Night Stalker, is spending Christmas with his parents and fiancee in North Dakota. A spokesman for Saddleback Community Hospital in Laguna Hills said Carns, 30, was released from the hospital on Dec. 19. Roger Bradshaw, a neighbor, said that Carns and his fiancee, who was also assaulted on Aug. 25, are spending the holidays with his parents, Anne and William Carns Sr. in Williston, N.D. Following the attack, in which Carns was shot three times in the head, a Los Angeles police spokesman released an erroneous bulletin that said Carns was “brain dead.” Within 10 days of the shooting, however, Carns was breathing on his own, eating and sitting up at Mission Community Hospital. In late September, Carns, a computer programmer, was transferred to Saddleback for further rehabilitation for residual paralysis on the left side of his body.