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THE SEATTLE TIMES
May 20, 1994
Author: NANCY MONTGOMERY
An 83-year-old Green Lake man charged with the January killing of his wife likely will spend his remaining years in a nursing home.
Robert Allyn was found not guilty by reason of insanity Wednesday when a King County Superior Court judge granted a motion for the finding from Allyn’s defense attorney, Stewart Riley.
Prosecutors, who had charged Allyn with second-degree murder, did not object, Riley said.
Although Allyn will go to Western State Hospital, he will be released to a nursing home as soon as a place is found for him, Riley said, because the judge ruled that he is not a danger to society.
Allyn and his wife, Catharine, 78, had been married 58 years and had four children and several grandchildren. “He’d been a totally normal guy until about October, when he started having severe depression and anxiety,” Riley said.
After the killing, Allyn said anti-depressants prescribed for him caused him to kill his wife. Throughout their marriage, Allyn had cared for Catharine, who had been diagnosed as schizophrenic, Riley said.
She was found by a son who entered his parents’ home through a window when they did not answer the phone.
Police determined she had been stabbed numerous times. A bloody fireplace poker and two butcher knives were found near her body.
Allyn was found unconscious from an overdose of prescription drugs on a bed upstairs.
Record Number: 1911520