The home invasion happened around 1:00 a.m. at the Meadowview Apartments, located on the 8100 block of Algon Avenue in Philadelphia's Burholme section.
Yevdokiya Rulevskaya, just three weeks shy of her 87th birthday, awoke to find a man on top of her demanding money.
"He asked about money, maybe, because she heard the word 'money,'" Yevdokiya's daughter Tatyana Bunk said.
Yevdokiya started screaming and the man then started punching her in the face.
She was wearing a Medscope alert necklace, and it was triggered during the struggle.
The alarm went off and the man fled.
The operator contacted a Russian translator and they got no response from Yevdokiya.
They called the police and they found her unconscious on her bed.
The victim was rushed to Aria Torresdale Hospital with cuts to her head and a broken eye socket. She required several stitches and is listed in serious but stable condition.
Police say the building was locked, but Yevdokiya was in the habit of leaving her apartment door unlocked.
There was no sign of forced entry.
Investigators have recovered fingerprints they hope will lead them to a suspect.
Yevdokiya's family can't understand the brutality.
"It's awful, it's beyond words, it's beyond understanding," victim's granddaughter Ilona Burik said.
"I don't know how this world, it makes someone like that and that's what gets to me," victim's grandson Steve Bruik said.
The woman described her attacker as a dark complexion man and heavy set.
The police want anyone who sees anything suspicious to give them a call.
They're worried that a man capable of beating an 86-year-old woman is capable of anything.
