Woman accused of attacking husband with power tool reportedly stockpiled supplies

EVERETT — Police believe an Everett woman bought plastic sheets, bleach and garbage bags before attacking her husband with a Sawzall power tool in October.

She also reportedly stocked up on roasting pans, and laid sheets over the back seat and cargo area of the family’s Jeep Cherokee, according to a search warrant filed Wednesday in Everett District Court.

Renee Bishop-McKean, 43, was charged Nov. 4 with first-degree domestic violence assault in connection with the attack. She recently was returned to Snohomish County Jail after a stint at Western State Hospital. She is being held on $500,000 bail.

Prosecutors allege that Bishop-McKean attacked her husband.

Police believe she stockpiled the sheets, bleach, garbage bags and other items as part of a plan to clean up later. However, she consistently has maintained that her husband was attacked by an intruder that night and that she is innocent.

Police were called to the couple’s home along Hoyt Avenue on Oct. 14.

Bishop-McKean and her husband, 36, had separated, according to the warrant.

He said that she recently had asked him to move back in. He did, and when he went to bed, he heard a “crinkle noise,” like the sound of plastic beneath the sheets, he told police. He said his wife told him it was an extra blanket on the bed.

The man woke up to a Sawzall blade vibrating on his neck, he told police. He said he saw Bishop-McKean holding the saw, and she told him there was an intruder in the home.

While the man checked the house for the intruder, he was struck by a hatchet. He then locked himself in the bedroom, but he said his wife began screaming that the attacker was still there.

The man then ran out of the house, he told police. At some point during the commotion, he was struck on the head by what later turned out to be a mallet.

When police arrived, the woman told them that she struggled with the intruder before he escaped out a window. However, police determined that window had a child lock and could open only a few inches, according to court papers.

The rest of the house was secured, and there was no evidence of a break-in, police said.

Her husband was treated at the hospital for cuts and scrapes. One cut to his arm required seven stitches.

Police recovered from the home a Sawzall, a mallet and a hatchet that was wet from apparent washing, documents show. All of the items appeared new and reportedly didn’t belong to the husband.

When the man returned home the next morning, he realized there were plastic sheets underneath the normal bedsheets, he told police. That’s what had crinkled when he went to bed.

He also found eight aluminum roasting pans under the kitchen sink. He told police that he usually used only one pan to make Thanksgiving dinner, so he didn’t know why there were so many in the house.

The man told police he recently had purchased white garbage bags, so he was surprised to find two boxes of large, black garbage bags under the sink.

On a return visit to the home, police found several gallons of bleach on top of the refrigerator, under the kitchen sink and under the bathroom sink, court papers show.

The man told police that the family typically keeps only one bottle of bleach in the home.

Detectives this week took DNA samples from Bishop-McKean. According to the warrant, they hope DNA tests will help determine whether there is evidence of a third person in the home that night.

Rikki King: 425-339-3449; rking@heraldnet.com.

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