EVERETT — Police believe a Moses Lake woman planned to end years of her husband’s abuse by drugging him and then stabbing him while he slept.
She intended to buy the knife and pills while visiting Everett, then return to Grant County to carry out the murder plot this week, officials said.
After her arrest in south Everett on Friday, the woman told detectives, “living in prison for the rest of her life was better than the prison she lived in with her abusive husband,” according to court papers filed Monday in Everett District Court.
An alert Snohomish County sheriff’s deputy uncovered the alleged plot Friday. The deputy, assigned to work with students at Mariner High School, noticed a boy was acting strangely. The deputy investigated and the boy told the deputy his mother was planning to kill his father, the court document said.
“Officers are trained to pick up on that kind of stuff, and that’s why we have them in the schools,” Snohomish County sheriff’s spokeswoman Rebecca Hover said.
The boy’s mother, 49, had asked for the teen’s help in buying a knife and pills to use in the plot, the court document said.
The mother arrived at Mariner on Friday afternoon for a planned weekend visit with the boy. Detectives arrested her, and she detailed a long history of mental and emotional abuse doled out by her husband, the court document said.
The woman told police her husband also needed to pay for allegedly molesting the couple’s daughter. Snohomish County sheriff’s detectives investigated the child abuse allegations in 2008 and have forwarded the case to prosecutors, Hover said.
The woman told police she intended on following through with her plan because she believed she had no other option to escape the abuse, court documents said. She had initially considered killing herself, but then changed her mind and decided to kill the husband instead, the court papers said.
The woman had shopped at a Wal-Mart store for a knife, but wasn’t satisfied with the blades she saw, the court document said.
“It’s important to remember that as disturbing as it is, it’s already turned out so much better than it could have,” Hover said. “If the plot had been carried out, things would have been permanent, but hopefully everyone can get the help they need now.”
The woman was booked into the Snohomish County Jail. On Monday, a judge increased bail to $250,000 and ordered the woman held for investigation of criminal solicitation of first-degree murder.
Snohomish County deputy prosecutor Coleen St. Claire argued the woman posed a risk if released. She was intending on carrying out her plot between Sept. 15 and Oct. 1., St. Claire said.
“There’s a huge risk,” she said.
Jackson Holtz: 425-339-3437, jholtz@heraldnet.com.
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