WAUSAU, Wis. (AP) --In the tiny northern Wisconsin town where 93-year-old Irena Roszak was fatally stabbed by intruders linked to a Satanic cult, friends and neighbors recall her as an avid gardener. She never drove a car, spoke little English, mostly kept to herself and was in fine health.

"She could walk without a cane, at least I didn't see her with one," neighbor Harry Mapes said. "She didn't need a walker. She was able to get around."

And do it without ever learning to drive a car and mostly speaking Polish, said Stanley Roszak, her 69-year-old son of Lady Lake, Fla.

"Stubborn old people," he said. "She had a woman come in and clean the house. After the lady left, I know she cleaned up after her if she didn't like something. That is the way she is."

Roszak, a mother of five with 21 great-granchildren and eight great-great-grandchildren, was killed in early May when burglars broke into her home in Radisson in the early morning darkness and she confronted them, according to Sawyer County court records. She was repeatedly stabbed with two knives and hit with a chair while she begged for her life, one of the burglars told investigators.

"Dastardly" is the word Mapes, 76, uses to describe the crime that has rocked Radisson, a village of about 200 people, many of them elderly, about 140 miles northwest of Wausau.

"Hang em," he said, referring to the two young men accused in the killing, one of whom, according to the local sheriff, described himself to investigators as the "son of Satan."

Christopher Roalson, 27, of Radisson, is charged with first-degree intentional homicide and burglary. Prosecutors say Roalson stabbed Roszak 15 times. Austin Davis, 15, of Exeland, is charged as an adult with being party to the burglary and intentional homicide.

Their preliminary hearings are planned later in June, the first step before any pleas are made. Online court records do not yet list attorneys for either suspect.

Davis told investigators the killing occurred early May 3 after Roalson broke a window to get into the home, the criminal complaint said. The boy said he was in another room when he heard the woman screaming and Roalson yelling "worship the devil. God's not here today."

Roalson and the boy initially had targeted a Radisson couple but were scared away when a motion light at that residence turned on, Sawyer County Chief Deputy Tim Zeigle said. The two then went to Roszak's home.

Roszak's daughter-in-law, Peggy Roszak of Lady Lake, Fla., said the "horrid" killing took a great mother and a wonderful grandmother. "It is just very upsetting. It is the thing that nightmares are made of, my God."

Her mother-in-law was in good health and still enjoyed gardening, growing the flowers that she used to decorate her front porch, Peggy Roszak said.

The "happy-go-lucky" and hardworking woman got along just fine alone because her daughter, who declined an interview request from The Associated Press, lived nearby in Winter, Peggy Roszak said.

"I remember whenever we would go over there, and she knew we were coming, this was years ago when my children were small, she would always make some kind of a cake or crumb cake or coffee cake for my youngest because he loved her cake," the daughter-in-law said. "She always had some kind of chunks of chocolate or something for the children. She was just a wonderful person."

Roszak was born in Germany in 1915. After living in Venezuela for several years and working on a sugar cane plantation, she moved with her husband to Chicago in 1956, where she worked as a cleaning lady at First National Bank for 14 years, her family said.

The couple moved to the Radisson area in 1987 and then to Spooner. When Roszak's husband, Chester, died, she returned to Radisson in 1996 to live closer to her daughter.

Shelley Wortman, who owns the only cafe in Radisson, the Village Kitchen Restaurant, bought her home from the Roszaks nearly three decades ago and she remembers neither the husband or wife could speak English very well. A real estate agent had to speak in Polish to translate the transaction, Wortman said.

Wortman said that language barrier continued and kept Roszak more reclusive.

"I really don't think Irena wanted to really go places because of the language barrier," the cafe owner said. "Her gardening and her flowers were her life. She just minded her business and lived by herself. At 93, hey that is great, but what a sad way to go."

Mapes said nobody in the neighborhood knew Roszak well and nobody heard anything unusual the night she was killed. A next-door neighbor recalled his dog wildly barking early May 3 but looked outside and didn't see anything, Mapes said.

"If she was screaming and yelling and they were yelling like the reports were saying, he should have heard something," Mapes said. "Because up here when it's quiet, it's quiet. You can hear a block and a half away if somebody is yellin' and hollerin'."

Mapes described Roszak as "friendly quiet."

"If you went over to visit her, she was friendly but she was just a soft-spoken lady. And she was a lady," Mapes said. "And that's what my granddaughters used to call her, Lady. They didn't know what her name was and they just called her Lady."

(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)