90-year-old couple brutally attacked in Northern California home

EL CERRITO, Calif. -- An elderly couple was brutally attacked and robbed inside their El Cerrito home last week, and the suspects are still on the loose.

Paz and Jaime Nagal say a man and woman, in their 40s, approached them on Friday asking for a clipping of bougainvillea, a colorful tropical plant, from the couple's garden for their mother.

Paz Nagal said the people were "friendly, very nice people and we treated them good."

After they left, the 90-year-old couple realized their wallets and jewelry were missing. The suspects returned on Saturday afternoon with some flowers as a gift. Then, the woman faked a heart palpitation and that's when they attacked the Nagals.

"I was down on the floor and she step on me and kick me and I kept kicking her too," Paz said.

The Navy veteran and the retired nurse, married for 59 years, weren't ready to give up without a fight.

"I was fighting with her and she was choking me. Then she was trying to mask me and I bit her hand," Paz said. "She had the weapon and she tried to cut me here, in my jugular vein, she wanted to kill me."

"I tried to fight him, but I'm old," Jaime Nagal said.

Finally the male suspect, described as skinny, bound Jaime with duct tape. The female suspect stabbed Paz Nagal with a nail-like weapon then tied her up with rope, but Paz escaped and ran out the side door.

"And I said, 'It's too high.' But I just jumped down," Paz explained as she showed how she had to jump over a fence.

Paz ran to the neighbors, bruised and bleeding, and called 911. She told police the suspects had an accent, possibly Arabic.

"I lost a tooth. Yeah, I was biting him," Jaime said.

The thieves took the couple's safe and left in a dark purple older model car, but they likely left with bite marks on their arms.

Both of suspects are in their 40s. The male suspect is described as 6 feet tall, 175 pounds, with short black hair and brown eyes, and walks with a limp. The woman is about 5 feet, four inches and 150 pounds, with short hair.

Detectives are actively investigating the incident.