Anthony Garver—the escapee from Western State Hospital still on the loose as of Thursday afternoon—is considered extremely dangerous and nobody knows that better than Kris Evans.
Her 20-year-old daughter, Phillipa Evans-Lopez's body was found inside a home she was renting in Lake Stevens nearly three years ago. Thursday her mother told us she's appalled the man accused of the crime is in hiding again, and no one from the state told her about it.
"I think he's dangerous, obviously the way my daughter died -- nobody deserves to die like that,” Evans told us. Police say Phillipa was bound to a bed with electrical cord and stabbed, her throat then slit.
Evans says at the very least her family deserves to know they may be in danger too.
"My whole family is just really worried about everybody's safety right now,” Evans explained.
She says she found out from the news and friends -- not officials at Western State Hospital -- that Anthony Garver had escaped. Police say he was already a wanted man who had been in federal prison for threatening to blow up a government building when he killed Phillipa in June 2013.
"She was very wild and free-spirited but she always had a soft spot for elderly and homeless people, and I think that is what brought that connection, he appeared to be homeless,” Evans said.
Garver is diagnosed schizophrenic and deemed unfit to stand trial, which is why he ended up in Western State Hospital instead of prison.
"I was somewhat content with that as long as he remained locked up, now that that reassurance is gone,” said Evans, who is uneasy.
Phillipa has a little boy, a brother and two sisters -- one who is more worried about strangers than herself.
“She said she hopes another family doesn't have to go through what we went through and it's not fair,” Evans told us, reiterating a conversation with one of her girls.
Cox Media Group
