MUKILTEO — An Everett man is accused of holding down his ex-girlfriend in a Mukilteo hotel, shoving crushed Xanax pills down her throat and forcing a fentanyl spray up her nose, in what police say was an attempted murder.
The woman escaped to alert others, but passed out from an apparent overdose Saturday morning. She survived.
At a court hearing Monday afternoon, bail was set at $500,000 for Zachary Lowell Madding, 28. He is in the Snohomish County Jail for investigation of attempted second-degree domestic violence murder.
Police believe Madding lured his ex-girlfriend to the hotel in the 9600 block of Harbour Place, with a ruse that her sister would meet her there, according to police reports filed in court.
Once she arrived, Madding reportedly wouldn’t let her leave the room, court papers say. She texted a friend in a panic, asking him to pick her up. Madding allegedly restrained the woman, pushed her to the floor and shoved down her throat a “handful of Xanax,” a drug that is used to treat anxiety and panic disorders. He sprayed the extremely potent opioid fentanyl into her nose about 15 times, she told police. She broke free.
Her friend had arrived at the front office. He was asking for the room number, when the woman ran to the front doors. She told him Madding was chasing her, and that he’d just forced crushed pills into her mouth. The friend rushed inside and told staff to call 911. Just then, Madding ran up behind the woman.
“Un-uh, (expletive), she’s not leaving!” he told the man, according to court papers.
Moments later the woman lost consciousness. Police arrived 45 seconds after the 911 call. The friend had wrapped his arms around Madding, to keep him from leaving. An officer detained him and demanded to know how much Xanax the woman had consumed, fearing she would die. At first Madding wouldn’t say, according to reports. He eventually said she’d taken fentanyl. An off-duty nurse felt the woman’s pulse was almost gone, according to the reports.
A Mukilteo police officer gave her two full doses of naloxone, an antidote for opiate overdoses. She awoke less than a minute later. She was able to tell police what happened in a hospital room at Providence Regional Medical Center Everett.
“I believe he was trying to kill me,” she told them.
Madding identified himself by a false first name, police wrote. Officers searched his clothes, and found two forged driver’s licenses from Illinois. They had his likeness on them, but a different name and a birthdate in 1995. Madding was born in 1989. He claimed he’d bought the fake IDs online. He reportedly told officers he used them to get motel rooms, because he had a warrant for his arrest. Officers asked how he’d arrived at the hotel. He said his friend’s Toyota Prius was parked outside. Police asked if the friend was nearby. He said no, court papers say. Officers suspect the “friend” was an alias to register the car.
Madding also was arrested for investigation of unlawful imprisonment, first-degree criminal impersonation and a Department of Corrections warrant.
Court records show he had a history of fraud and minor driving offenses in Alaska over the past decade, and he’d been convicted in a vehicular assault case in King County in 2015.
Madding’s ex-girlfriend told police he had been dealing drugs.
Synthetic opioids such as fentanyl have been linked to an increase in overdoses in the past five years, because it is easy to underestimate their strength. According to the Drug Enforcement Administration, fentanyl is 30 to 50 times as potent as heroin.
Caleb Hutton: 425-339-3454; chutton@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @snocaleb.
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