SEATTLE -- Doctors of a woman with a history of arson, assault and attempted murder, say she has made great progress since being hospitalized and should be released.
Maritza Dowe says she remembers being attacked by Marilyn Walker like it was yesterday. She still has nightmares, is terrified to be alone and is constantly checking to make sure the doors of her home are locked.
"My life is very sad," she said.
In July, 2006, Walker entered a health clinic in Seattle's Belltown neighborhood and stabbed Dowe in the face. Blinded in the attack, Dowe still has nightmares and now worries those nightmares might come true.
"I'm afraid that she finds out where I live and comes to my house or looks for me and attacks me again in the streets," she said.
Walker was found not guilty by reason of insanity and sent to Western State Hospital indefinitely. This week doctors there determined she should be released, saying she has been coping and adapting well with her mental illness.
But that isn't the first time Walker was locked up for attacking innocent people. She has been hospitalized four times for psychiatric issues including an assault that had her committed at Western State. She was released from the hospital three years before Dowe's attack, reportedly going off her medication and failing to see state-mandated counselors.
Dowe's daughter, Frances Hernandez, now fears what may happen, not just to her mother, but to other innocent people if Walker is released.
"If she goes out on the streets, she will attack someone else. She is not well at all. They knew that before. They let her out and look what happened to my mother," said Hernandez.
A hearing on Walker's release is expected in March before King County Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Ramsdell. Prosecutors oppose the release and plan to have an expert testify that Walker should remain at Western State indefinitely.
To add a comment, please register or login.