Arrest made in home invasion

AUBURN — An 85-year-old woman robbed in her home late Tuesday night was recovering from her injuries on Wednesday. Police arrested a 20-year-old drifter from Missouri and charged him in the crime.

Mark E. Eliot was in the Androscoggin County Jail on Wednesday charged with robbery and aggravated assault. Police said Eliot beat the elderly woman with a metal pipe inside her Cook Street apartment before he fled with a small amount of cash.

The victim spent the night in the hospital with injuries suffered in the attack.

As police with tracking dogs searched for the suspect early Wednesday morning, Androscoggin County Sheriff's Deputy Moe Drouin spotted Eliot walking along Canal Street in Lewiston.

Police said the physical description and other evidence linked Eliot to the attack. He was being held Wednesday on $10,000 cash bail.

It was unknown on Wednesday whether that home invasion was related to another reported in Lewiston over the weekend.

In that attack, a woman in her 70s was confronted by two young men who broke through a door to enter her home on Lincoln Circle. Police said the attackers shoved the woman to the floor before fleeing with her purse.

The assault and robbery was still being investigated by Lewiston police.