A woman who was stalked by a man for over two decades has now fallen victim to the deranged man.
Sylvia Matthews of Washington D.C. feared 66-year-old Michael Garrett for years and has documented this with authorities on multiple occasions. Sadly on Friday, officers discovered the woman suffering from severe physical injuries inside her home after two 911 calls.
The first call came in shortly after 7:30 a.m. from Matthews stating that someone broke her car windows and was trying to break into her basement. Then, at 11:30 a.m., they were called to the home again. This time, a neighbor told them that Matthews was being held hostage inside. Upon entering, Garrett told police he was just a friend checking on Matthews and found her unconscious on the floor. The 71-year-old woman died from her injuries shortly after arriving at a local hospital.
Authorities didn’t buy Garrett’s story. They soon discovered that he was released from prison in March of this year after being imprisoned since 1999 for a vicious assault on Matthews a year earlier in her home. The two met while Matthews was working in the pharmacy at the Lorton Correctional Complex in Virginia, where Garrett was an inmate at the time. After his release in 1998, he began relentlessly stalking the woman.
After being released this year, Garrett had been arrested twice in October for hunting down Matthews and assaulting her. Still, the man was out of jail despite the recent violence.
A relative of Matthews slammed the justice system for allowing Garrett to walk free.
“He should not have been on the street. The system failed us,” they stated. The unidentified loved one revealed to local news station WRC-TV that Garrett waited for Matthews to leave briefly and successfully broke into her home and waited for her to return.
