Authorities: Women beat 73-year-old with piece of cinder block, metal pipe inside Rowan County home

ROWAN COUNTY, N.C. (WBTV) – Two women beat a 73-year-old woman inside her Rowan County home and then told authorities the attack was carried out by two men who had broken in, authorities said.

According to the Rowan County Sheriff’s Office, deputies went to a home on Beagle Club Road just before 2:30 p.m. on Wednesday after getting a call from a woman who said she’d come home to find her boyfriend’s mother badly beaten.

Authorities said the woman, Carrie Elizabeth Dixon, 57, told deputies that two men had come to the back door of the residence while the victim was home alone.

According to Dixon’s account, the men forced their way inside and beat the woman, resulting in serious injuries.

Paramedics cared for the victim at the scene and then took her to Novant Health Rowan before she was transferred to Atrium Health Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, investigators said.

Detectives were called to the home and found another woman in the house. She identified herself as Katie Marie Poole, but according to law enforcement, deputies later learned Poole had used her sister’s identity and that her real name is Shirley Marie Burns.

While at the house, crime scene investigators compared physical evidence with what the two women said happened, and “became suspicious that the story was being fabricated.”

Investigators said that, between medical testing, the victim told them the story was false and Dixon and Burns were the two attackers.

Dixon had since left to go visit the victim at the hospital, so investigators followed and found Burns had gone to nearby apartments, but could not be located, a news release stated.

When questioned by sheriff’s deputies, Dixon confessed to making up the story about the two men breaking into the home, according to the RCSO. She said she planned the attack because of how her boyfriend and the mother made her feel, citing emotional and physical abuse in the past, according to investigators.

“Dixon planned the attack with [Burns] and they used a broken piece of cinder block and a metal pipe to beat (the victim) for nearly five minutes before finally stopping,” sheriff’s office officials said.

Investigators said the metal pipe was the handle to a hydraulic floor jack that was found on the property.

According to law enforcement, Dixon convinced the victim to lie to first responders about what happened. She then reportedly felt safe enough to tell the truth once alone with investigators.

Dixon was arrested and charged with assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill or inflict serious injury, and felony obstruction of justice. Her bond was set at $250,000.

Burns was arrested hours later and given the same charges and bond amount.