Jordyn Huitema details armed burglary while home alone

On May 1, 2025, the eve of a critical matchup against the top-ranked Kansas City Current, Seattle Reign forward Jordyn Huitema should have been thinking about game tactics, hydration, and rest. Instead, she was crouched on the cold tile of a bathroom floor, barefoot, back braced against a locked toilet door, whispering to a 911 operator as burglars moved just feet away from her.

“It was the scariest night of my life,” Huitema shared in a conversation with Sounder at Heart. “I just wanted to survive.”

The home invasion, which took place at the residence of Mariners star Julio Rodríguez, was part of a string of targeted burglaries of high-profile athletes in the Seattle area. But unlike some of the headlines, Huitema wasn’t just a passive witness in these crimes. She was the one who lived it.

Huitema had just begun her typical pre-game-day routine that night. Then, she heard a noise downstairs. The security alarm didn’t go off. Her instinct was that it might be one of the workers checking on the house. But the noises got louder. “I just went into a straight panic. I had to run for my life.”

Huitema, 24, had already locked the deadbolt in the bedroom. She then ran into the innermost part of a multi-room bathroom suite, putting her back against the door and her feet against the toilet. She had the presence of mind to turn off an automatic motion light—an act that Reign security director Carma Clark says likely saved her from being discovered. While the men broke into the bedroom and accessed the main part of the bathroom, they never attempted to open the door to the room where she was hiding.

“They were right on the other side of the wall,” Huitema said. “I could hear them opening drawers.”

Her first call to 911 dropped, as police have since confirmed that the thieves used Wi-Fi signal-jamming devices. “It was the longest 15 seconds of my life,” she said about waiting for the phone to reconnect. When she got through, Huitema whispered with the dispatcher, trying to stay as quiet as possible.

As the men drew closer to her, Huitema began to question how much she'd be willing to sacrifice to keep them out of the room. She had broken her back the year before, and as she sat behind the door, she made peace with the idea that if she had to break it again to keep the door shut, she would.

But the fear of physical violence was only part of it. She was just getting ready for bed when they smashed a glass door to get into the house, so she wasn't fully clothed. “I didn’t want to be found like that… I’m a woman alone. This could turn into something worse than a robbery.”

Her voice didn't waver when she named the fear so many women carry silently. “If there had been a man in the house, it probably would have looked very different.”

“She Did Everything Right”

Clark, who recently joined the Reign as security director after nearly three decades as a police officer, was among those who supported Jordyn after the attack. Huitema was aware of the break-ins that had occurred at the homes of other professional athletes, and she'd looked into steps she could take if something happened at Rodriguez's home. But you never know how you'll react in the moment, and Clark calls Huitema's efforts heroic.

“Jordyn did everything right,” Clark says. “She kept herself safe. She was smart, calm, and decisive under unimaginable stress.”

Because of Huitema's fast thinking, police officers were able to respond quickly and saw a black Jeep Cherokee speeding away from the scene. They attempted to stop the vehicle, but ultimately did not pursue it as nearby utility workers reported hearing gunshots from the fleeing vehicle. Shell casings were found on the roadway.

Even when officers reached the house, Huitema’s ordeal wasn’t over. Police hadn't yet cleared the property. “I thought it was going to be like, ‘Oh yay, we’re all safe. We did it,’” she said. “But it was screaming, swearing—rifles in your face, people yelling at you to move.” Officers rushed her out of the house and into the back of a police car, where she waited for hours, shaken and still processing what had just happened.

Huitema then stayed with the police to go over evidence at the house until nearly 3 a.m. There was nearly $200,000 worth of missing items, and shattered glass was everywhere. When she was finally allowed to leave, she checked into a hotel in the city. She hadn’t eaten, hadn’t slept. She didn’t know if she could—or should—play in the game later that evening. She reached out to Reign head coach Laura Harvey.

“I called Laura and cried. I said I didn’t think I could be the player the team needed me to be.”

Harvey didn’t hesitate. “She told me, ‘Don’t worry about that.’ And she's been amazing.”

Clark reinforced that as well. “The night before was so out of her control. Our belief was: let's let her make the decisions and take back some of that.”

That choice became a powerful act of Huitema reclaiming control.

The next morning, she and Clark returned to the house. Huitema retrieved some of the valuables she still had there, as she heard these men had returned to some athletes' homes a second time. Clark helped follow up with the Mercer Island Police Department, and when Huitema was done at the house offered to get her lunch. She picked IHOP—comfort food. French toast.

Later that day, with full support from Harvey, she made the decision to suit up for the Reign’s match. She didn’t tell her teammates what had happened. “I didn’t want to distract from the game,” she said. “I just tried to hold it together.”

She played all 90 minutes and delivered the game-winning assist. “That game was a blur,” she said. “I was blacked out. But I was there for my team.”

After the whistle blew, Huitema collapsed in tears on the field. Her teammates, who had noticed earlier that she wasn't quite herself, finally understood that something was very wrong. That's when she shared the news. They could now be there for Jordyn.

“You're Alive. That’s What Matters.”

Huitema recently made the decision to take a mental health leave and step away from the Canadian national team and from training with the Reign. She needed more time to process the weight of everything that had happened and that followed. It's why she missed last weekend's match against the San Diego Wave.

“I couldn’t sleep. I couldn’t eat. I wasn’t fueling my body like an athlete needs to,” Huitema said. “I was just trying to survive.”

Therapy has been a vital tool for her this last month. So has naming the truth about what she lived through. “People can try to relate, but unless you’ve been through it, you don’t understand that fear.”

She’s back at training now and feeling more like herself. “Being back with my team, this support system—it’s where I feel happiest. I have such an amazing support team around me. My family is incredible. This team is amazing. So I think that's made it a lot easier to cope with everything.”

“I’m proud of the decisions I made,” Huitema said about stepping away. “I chose myself.”

Clark agreed and praised Huitema for not only how she's reacted after this traumatic event, but for the work she did to stay calm and provide vital information in the moment that helped lead to an arrest.

“The police were there very fast. They were able to take a couple more actions because of what you did,” Clark said, speaking directly to Huitema. “So I think getting those guys behind bars and not having any more victims sooner happened because of you.”

As media outlets have reported, Earl Riley IV, 21, has been apprehended and named as a suspect. He is also tied to suspects in a triple murder outside a Seattle nightclub. Riley faces several counts of residential burglary and robbery in the first degree and is expected back in court next Monday. Other suspects were not named, but prosecutors said additional charges could be filed in the future.

Huitema obviously still has a lot to process, and her healing journey won't be a linear path. But now that she's received tools in therapy and support from her teammates, coaches, and staff at the Reign, she knows it will get better.

“You made it. You’re safe. And while it takes time, and effort, and a good support system—it does get better,” Huitema shared when asked what she might say to someone else who has gone through something similar. “At the end of the day, material things don’t matter. You’re alive. That’s what matters.”