RTP-area local music and culture

["Clark, Chris" <CClark AT slk-law.com>]

http://www.nbc17.com/news/3407536/detail.html

Chapel Hill Killer Back At Dorothea Dix
Wendell Williamson Back In Custody

POSTED: 9:46 am EDT June 11, 2004
UPDATED: 10:10 am EDT June 11, 2004

RALEIGH, N.C. -- A man who killed two people in Chapel Hill during a 1995
shooting spree was in custody Friday after going missing from a state mental
hospital, authorities said.


The director of Dorothea Dix Hospital said Wendell Williamson was picked up
by hospital police and returned to the facility without incident at 9:25
a.m. 

Further details about how Williamson was found or where he spent the
approximately 12 hours he was missing were not immediately available.

He was missing for about 12 hours after being last seen Thursday night in a
hospital lounge, attending an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, authorities
said. An alert was issued at 12:42 a.m. Friday.

Dix hospital spokesman Mark Van Sciver said an unidentified patient
participating in a group meeting left to get something to drink about 8:45
p.m. Thursday and did not return.

Williamson, a diagnosed paranoid schizophrenic, has been confined to state
mental hospitals since November 1995, when he was found not guilty of
first-degree murder by reason of insanity.

On a warm January day in 1995, Williamson walked up Henderson Street in
Chapel Hill, headed toward Franklin Street, carrying an M-1 rifle. He fired
multiple shots and killed University of North Carolina student Kevin
Reichardt, who was riding his bike home that day, and Ralph Walker, who
lived in a boarding house on Henderson Street.

Williamson also wounded a Chapel Hill police officer who drove into the
area.

A bartender who was a former Marine tackled Williamson as he was reloading
the rifle.

Each year, representatives of the state Attorney General's Office and
Williamson's treatment team attend a hearing to decide whether he should
remain committed at Dix, in Raleigh.

At a March hearing in Orange County Superior Court, which Williamson did not
attend, a judge ordered him to spend another year at Dix. Williamson, who
gets one hour of unsupervised free time each day, was given no new
privileges.

His attorney and the head of forensic services at Dix told Judge John Jolly
that Williamson was ready for more unsupervised time at the hospital.

Jolly, however, said that given Williamson's history, the risk was too great
to increase the number of hours Williamson could spend unsupervised at the
hospital.

The hospital does not have a fence, and there is nothing to keep
unsupervised patients from leaving the grounds. 

-----Original Message-----
From: sorren AT mindspring.com [mailto:sorren AT mindspring.com] 
Sent: Friday, June 11, 2004 10:08 AM
To: RTP-area local music and culture
Subject: Re: What's it with murder suspects and those beyond suspicion?


who's wendel williamson?  Is that the guy who went postal on henderson
street? 


-----Original Message-----
From: James Hepler <jameshepler AT yahoo.com>
Sent: Jun 11, 2004 7:19 AM
To: ch-scene AT lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: What's it with murder suspects and those beyond suspicion?

Apparently there was a homicide suspect on the loose
in CHapel Hill yesterday forcing the schools in the
area to be shut down.  Than I find out Wendel
Williamson escaped from Dorothea Dix.

I'll be at home.  Someone notify me whan I can go
outside again.

Hep


        
                
__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Friends.  Fun.  Try the all-new Yahoo! Messenger.
http://messenger.yahoo.com/ 
-- ch-scene: the list that mirrors alt.music.chapel-hill --
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/ch-scene

-- ch-scene: the list that mirrors alt.music.chapel-hill --
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/ch-scene