10 months after Tri-Cities mother is killed, WA mental evaluators rule on son’s competency

A 30-year-old former firefighter’s mental illness symptoms have subsided enough for him to face murder charges for killing his mother.

David Joseph Lowe’s beliefs of being targeted by a group of racists and being radioactive have faded after more than three months of treatment at Eastern State Hospital, according to a report from a Washington state psychologist.

Evaluator Jessica R. Hart said after about four months of treatment for schizophrenia, Lowe can understand the court proceedings and help his attorney.

Lowe is charged in Benton County Superior Court with the premeditated first-degree murder, attempted premeditated first-degree murder and first-degree burglary.

He is accused of breaking into his mother’s Cosmic Lane home in July 2022 to confront her and her husband. At the time, he allegedly thought his mother, Bethany Lowe, and her longtime boyfriend, had harmed his young daughter, who was actually unharmed and living with her mother.

After breaking in, he’s accused of killing his mom and stabbing his stepfather.

The case has been on hold since Aug. 1, when a judge ordered a competency evaluation.

Initially, he told mental health evaluators that he was being used to test pharmaceutical drugs, that he heard voices and that an imaginary group called “Dancing Bear” was harassing him. Lowe, who is black, later explained that the group was tied to the Ku Klux Klan and Benton County police.

Prescriptions were issued but Lowe stopped taking them, leading to a January hearing when a judge required him to take the anti-psychotic medications.

Drug abuse history

Before the murder, Lowe had a history of getting treatment for a methamphetamine addiction, but received little help for his problems with schizophrenia, according to Eastern State Hospital reports.

He started using meth on a daily basis when he was in his 20s, according to report.

His said his first attempts to get treatment for his drug addiction came in 2018 when he signed into the James Oldham Treatment Center outside Yakima.

After he told them about being molested, it was determined that he needed mental health treatment along with drug treatment.

Crisis responders there evaluated whether he should be involuntarily committed, but he wasn’t detained at the time.

After leaving the Oldham center, he went to the New Horizon Care Center in Spokane. He was discharged nine days later because he left the facility without permission to buy meth before trying to return to the center.

According to the report, he also participated in drug treatment in 2019 at American Behavioral Health Systems.

He started having problems again in July 2022. On July 5, he locked himself in a gas station bathroom for eight hours and exhibited “bizarre behavior, including paying with toilet water and making comments about ghosts taking over his body,” said the report.

Three days later on July 8, he went to Wenatchee Parkside Stabilization, an evaluation and treatment center. After he was admitted, he reported hearing his daughter and parents communicating with him.

At one point, he said he heard his daughter screaming and believed she was suffering.

He was diagnosed with schizophrenia and prescribed medication. At one point, he refused to take the medication because he felt “clearer” without it.

Richland attack

It’s not clear when he left the Wenatchee facility but he was back in the Tri-Cities on July 26.

Police reports obtained by the Tri-City Herald show West Richland police officers and medics attempted to take him to a local hospital for help after some erratic behavior outside another gas station.

He ran away from the hospital, showing up less than six hours later at his mom’s house three miles away in Richland.

Just before 5 a.m. on July 27, Bethany Lowe and her longtime partner Andy Davis, 45, awoke to the sounds of commotion. She believed it was likely her son, and told Davis she would go talk to him, according to court documents.

Both ended up stabbed. The couple’s two youngest children, ages 12 and 9, also were home but were not hurt.

During his first court appearance, he appeared disoriented and confused, saying that was “not quite sure what happened.”

Mental health treatment

Hart’s report said Lowe’s mental health has improved over the course of his stay at Eastern State Hospital.

During his initial admission, he jumped from topic to topic including talking about being robbed, a home that was broken into and nuclear waste.

In other early interviews he said he believed someone was conspiring against him, and he couldn’t understand how they could diagnose a mental illness without a “brain scan.”

While he tried to get taken off of the anti-psychotic medication, he did continue taking it.

By late March and early April 2023, his thought processes appeared to be clearer, according to the report.

While Lowe said he would have the occasional hallucination of hearing family and friends. The voices had decreased after starting his medications.

“In sum, at the time of the current evaluation, Mr. Lowe presented as generally psychiatrically stabilized,” Hart said.

“It is my opinion that in his current mental state, he currently possesses sufficient capacities to understand the nature of the proceedings against him and to assist counsel in his defense.”