Man accused in Lake Stevens killing escapes mental hospital

LAKEWOOD, Pierce County — A man accused of killing a young woman in Lake Stevens was still at large Thursday after he and another Snohomish County man escaped late Wednesday from a state mental hospital.

Anthony Garver, 28, who lives with schizophrenia, had been at Western State Hospital for more than a year. He was deemed unfit last year to stand trial on a Snohomish County murder charge.

Garver and Mark Alexander Adams, 58, left on foot. Adams was caught without incident Thursday morning in Des Moines, Lakewood police said. Adams, too, was being treated for mental illness under court commitment.

Garver, a 5-foot-8 and 250-pound white male with brown hair, is accused of repeatedly stabbing Phillipa Evans-Lopez, 20. The slain mother was found June 17, 2013, bound to a bed in her Lake Stevens rental home. Her throat had been cut.

Police say Garver is a danger to others and should be avoided. Anyone seeing him should call 911.

Garver had spent time in Everett but previously lived in Spokane. He was released from federal prison months before the 2013 killing after serving time for threatening to blow up a government building in Spokane. He’s also claimed ties to anarchist and domestic-terrorism causes in Eastern Washington.

Adams was arrested for domestic assault in 2014 but also was found not competent for trial. He has ties to north Whidbey Island as a transient, according to the Island County Sheriff’s Office, specifically in the Oak Harbor area. The last time he had contact with law enforcement was in June 2015.

Lakewood police Lt. Chris Lawler says a bus driver picked up a man he believes was Garver around 6 p.m. Wednesday. A couple of hours later, he picked up a man he believes was Adams. The driver told authorities Adams was interested in going to SeaTac.

The escapes are the latest in a litany of problems at the 800-bed facility, Washington state’s largest psychiatric hospital.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has threatened to cut millions of dollars in federal money to the facility after inspectors cited safety violations for both staff and patients. The agency recently extended the hospital’s deadline for fixing the problems from April 1 to May 3. A federal judge has also said the hospital has failed to provide timely competency services to mentally ill defendants.