US murderer of Wigan tourist to be institutionalised

And had doctors concluded the assailant was a danger to the public after another attack years ago, Denise Webster might be alive today.

Denise, who had only months earlier been given the all-clear from a five-year battle with cancer, died from a knife wound to the chest while a guest at her assailant Faye Doomchin’s home in New York State on August 13 2018.

The Garswood 61-year-old had travelled to America to see an Adam Lambert concert when tragedy bizarrely and suddenly struck.

Doomchin, who had a history of mental illness and had once before randomly knifed someone, had been friendly with her victim before suddenly behaving oddly, claiming that Denise was “evil”.

Witness Mitch Kessler said that the 67-year-old appeared “zombie-like” then left the kitchen and, without warning fatally attacked Denise. The casualty was rushed to hospital but died later in hospital.

Doomchin, of Great Neck, Long Island, had denied second degree murder but Acting State Supreme Court Justice Robert Bogle said that it had been proved beyond reasonable doubt at New York State Supreme Court that the accused was guilty of this crime.

However he agreed with the defence’s claim that Doomchin was not criminally responsible by reason of mental disease or defect. He said that she was a “violent and dangerous person who should be institutionalised to receive the treatmnt she needs and provide the public with the safety and security it deserves.”

In an eight-page ruling, Judge Bogle spent much of it considering the defendant’s mental history. She had been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia more than 30 years ago and had over many of those years since experienced delusions and auditory hallucinations that come with “this relentless disease,” he said.

Her Her illness took a violent turn in 1999, when, while briefly visiting a real estate office, and stabbed a women, who she did not know, in the back with a knife as the woman was at the copying machine, She said that her mission was to remove a diabolical force from the world “and rid the world of evil” events that would similarly occur as well in 2018.

After that attack doctors decided that she was mentally but concluded that she was did not have a dangerous mental disorder. Judge Bogle said: “It was an opinion that prevented her from receiving appropriate institutional treatment and could very well be likely why we find ourselves here today.”

The judge observed in the run-up to the murder that Doomchin had suffered the loss of a much-loved pet dog and a rabbi friend of 50 years and was also in a lot of pain from a knee injury for which she was taking prescription drugs.

Other strange triggers and signs of upset included getting upset about seeing people sticking their tongues out earlier that fatal day and obsessing over a Lady Gaga song and cream soda to the point of discomfort for her friends.

After the attack Doomchin, just sat down in her “zombie-like state” and later claimed she had seen evil “hopping around the room.”

When Doomchin finally spoke she said she thought Denise was evil and but that it was a most horrible “mistake”.

The judge said: “There was no issue of jealousy here. Denise Webster and Faye Doomchin got along up to the incident and did not know each other.

“Therefore, Mrs Doomchin, in a moment of schizophrenia psychosis stabbed Denise under the belief that she was evil, that evil (Denise) was in her home, and by stabbing Denise Webster she would eliminate evil. Irrational behaviour she has done this in the past.”

The case was adjourned until September 15 when the judge will rule the terms and length of Doomchin’s incarceration. The judge said he wanted to express his deepest sympathy to Denise's family and "all the unbearable pain they have experienced as a result of this terrible event."

After the murder Denise’s husband Tommy, who had stayed back home in Wigan while she was on her trip, led the tributes saying “I will miss her with all my heart.”

Singer Adam Lambert tweeted at the time: “My thoughts are with the family and friends of Denise Webster. Heavy hearted”.