Suspect in Lake Stevens stabbing death studied Al-Qaeda, threatened bombing
Jul 3, 2013, 1:59 PM | Updated: 5:23 pm
Anthony E. Garver, 25, is suspected of stabbing a Lake Stevens woman to death while wanted by the U.S. Marshal's Office on a felony warrant. (Photo/Crime Stoppers)
(Photo/Crime Stoppers)
A Spokane man known to federal authorities as an anti-government extremist, who studies Al-Qaeda and idolizes Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, has been arrested for the murder of a young woman in Lake Stevens.
Phillipa S. Evans-Lopez, 20, was found stabbed to death in a home at 9225 15th St. SE on June 17. According to court documents, her hands and feet were bound to a bed with electrical cords.
On July 2, detectives with the Major Crimes Unit of the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office arrested Anthony E.
Garver, 25, at a fast food restaurant in Everett. He was booked into jail for first-degree murder.
According to court documents, video surveillance placed Garver with Evans-Lopez at a McDonald’s restaurant in Lake Stevens three days before her body was discovered. A forensic scientist with the Washington State Patrol Crime Lab matched DNA taken from a cord tied to the victim’s left wrist to Garver. A detective found a bloody knife in his pocket upon arrest.
Garver is described as a violent felon who was wanted by the U.S. Marshal’s Office on a felony warrant for escape. According to the court documents, Garver was known to possess military-style weapons and explosives and had threatened, in the past, to blow up a Department of Social and Health Services building in Spokane.
On June 28, detectives discovered that Garver had written his mother an email that said “he was sorry and didn’t want this to happen.”
According to information provided to detectives by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Spokane, Garver had expressed desire in the past to create explosives using fertilizer and downloaded bomb-making information from online Anarchist publications.
After his arrest, Garver told detectives he had never met Evans-Lopez, but changed his story once confronted with video evidence that showed the two together, according to the documents.
When asked about the knife that was found in his pocket, detectives said Garver smiled.
“I’ve told you everything I want to say,” he said, according to the documents.
Garver has been a wanted fugitive before.
In 2009, after serving time at a federal corrections facility in California, he failed to report to his work release program in Spokane.
His mother, Taldja Garver, told Spokane station KHQ at the time that her son was not a danger to the community.
“He says things, but he never acted on them,” she said.
