#6 - Phillip Simelane
One morning, in 2013, Christina Edkins traveled to school by way of a rush-hour bus in the West
Midlands region of England. After boarding the public transit vehicle in the city of Birmingham,
as she did almost every day, the young woman suddenly became the target of a random knife
attack. It was perpetrated by another one of the bus’ passengers, who was later identified as
23-year-old Walsall resident Phillip Simelane. Over the course of the unprompted assault,
Edkins was fatally stabbed, and her attacker was consequently arrested by local police. Simelane,
who’d previously been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, later pleaded guilty to
manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility, and he was thus detained
indefinitely under the Mental Health Act of 1983. In the wake of the deadly incident, officials at
the Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust launched an investigation.
It was subsequently determined that Edkins’ death could have been prevented if Simelane
had been given proper mental health treatment. The young man had previously been incarcerated for the
assault and battery of his mother. The NHS’ probe found that, when he was released from custody,
it should’ve been evident that his mental state would only continue to deteriorate and that he
was likely to reoffend. Simelane murdered Edkins within three months of his release from jail.
#5 - Alexander Lewis-Ranwell English man Alexander Lewis-Ranwell was arrested
on February the 8th of 2019 for trespassing on a farm in Ilfracombe. He was released the following
morning, but was then taken back into custody later in the day for attacking an elderly farmer.
During his second arrest, Lewis-Ranwell allegedly tried to grab one of the officers’ Tasers
and exhibited what was described as “aggressive” and “bizarre” behavior. Upon posting bail,
on February the 10th, Lewis-Ranwell traveled to Exeter where he broke into the home of 80-year-old
Anthony Payne and bludgeoned him to death. Shortly thereafter, he walked to another nearby house and
murdered a pair of twins, identified as Dick and Roger Carter, aged 84. It would later emerge that
Lewis-Ranwell had committed the triple homicide while he was suffering from paranoid delusions,
under the influence of which he’d become convinced that his victims were actually
criminals guilty of vile offenses. At about 5 am the following morning, Lewis-Ranwell went
to the Rougemont Hotel and demanded breakfast from the night manager. When he was told that
his meal wouldn’t be ready for another hour, the 28-year-old threw a glass bowl at the employee
and threatened to kill him. The manager then fled into the basement, but Lewis-Ranwell gave chase,
armed with a knife he’d stolen from the hotel’s kitchen. The police arrived a short time later and
took him into custody, finally putting an end to his rampage. In the aftermath, it was determined
that Lewis-Ranwell should’ve been detained in a mental health hospital, upon his initial arrest,
given that he’d been exhibiting clear signs of a deteriorating mental state and paranoid behavior.
After standing trial for his crimes, Lewis-Ranwell was found not guilty by reason of insanity,
and was issued an indefinite hospital order. In March of 2022, it was reported
that Lewis-Ranwell was actually suing the National Health Service and local
police departments for their alleged shortcomings in his mental health care
while he was in custody. The lawsuit claimed that the murders of Payne and the Carter twins
were a direct result of the authorities’ failure to conduct a proper mental health
assessment of the man, which would've ensured that he was never released in the first place.
#4 - Anthony Garver and Mark Alexander Adams Two mental patients with documented histories
of violent crimes escaped from a lower security unit of Western State Hospital in Lakewood,
Washington, on April the 6th of 2016. Officials reported that 28-year-old Anthony Garver and
Mark Alexander Adams, aged 58, had gotten out of the facility through a broken window.
Adams, who’d been admitted to the hospital after being accused of domestic assault in 2014, was
found roughly 15 miles from downtown Seattle, the following day, and apprehended by the authorities.
Garver remained on the run for a few days after their initial escape. He first fled to Seattle,
where he bought a bus ticket to Spokane under the alias “John Anderson”. Upon his arrival in
Spokane, Garver reportedly contacted his parents and asked them for his passport, which he’d
reportedly intended to use to fly to Morocco. Instead of complying with their fugitive son’s
requests, the man’s parents notified the police that he’d been in contact with them. Officers
eventually tracked Garver down to a wooded, mountainous area of Spokane Valley, where he’d
hidden himself under a pile of debris. After being taken back into custody, Garver, whose criminal
trial had previously been delayed due to mental health concerns, faced the legal proceedings
stemming from the 2013 killing of Phillipa Evans-Lopez. The 20-year-old woman had been found
tied to her bed with over 24 stab wounds and a slashed throat. In October of 2019, Garver was
convicted of first-degree murder in connection to Evans-Lopez’s death. He was consequently sentenced
to 32 years in prison plus several years of community custody following his release.
#3 - Christy Lenhardt Illinois resident Benahdam
Hurt was involuntarily committed to the Elgin Mental Health Center, in 2014, after being found
not guilty by reason of insanity on a felony charge of aggravated battery. Three years later,
one of the social workers assigned to his care, 53-year-old Christy Lenhardt, was removed from
the facility before ultimately resigning from her position. Shortly thereafter, Hurt and his family
filed a civil lawsuit against Lenhardt and the state’s Department of Human Services. The lawsuit,
which reportedly sought $10 million in damages, alleged that the former social worker had coerced
24-year-old Hurt into engaging in intimate relations with her on several occasions
over the course of his three-year stint at the mental health center. Hurt also claimed
that Lenhardt had confided in him about having previously had similarly inappropriate contact
with two other patients at the facility. According to the accusations laid out in the lawsuit,
Lenhardt had manipulated Hurt into having private encounters in her office and in his bedroom on a
regular basis. Hurt’s mother also alleged that her son was scheduled to be released from Elgin
Mental Health Center within 6 to 12 months, but that he’d been held there longer than necessary
because of Lenhardt. When the sordid details of the latter’s misdeeds were brought to light,
Hurt was transferred to the Chicago-Read Mental Health Center to continue his treatment. Lenhardt
faced 14 felony counts before agreeing to a plea deal with prosecutors that reduced her charges
to just one count. She was sentenced to 180 days in jail and an additional 30 months of probation.
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#2 - Jeffrey Barry In the early morning
hours of July the 7th of 2016, security cameras at a supported-living apartment building in the
English city of Bristol captured resident Jeffrey Barry emerging from his neighbor’s flat covered in
blood. The 57-year-old subsequently called the emergency services to report that he’d murdered
Kamil Ahmad, a man whom he’d threatened to harm on several occasions in recent years. Barry
reportedly told the phone operator, “I warned the staff…I warned the crisis team…He's dead now”.
Investigators gathered that the “staff” to which he was referring was the group of mental health
professionals assigned to his care at the Cygnet Hospital Kewstoke. He’d been released from the
facility only hours before his chilling phone call confession. Barry had previously been admitted
to Callington Road Hospital upon being taken into custody in connection to his escalating pattern of
hostile behavior, some of which was described as racially-motivated towards Ahmad. Efforts to
create space for new admissions at Callington Road led to Barry being later transferred to Cygnet
Hospital Kewstoke. In a 2018 report, published by the Bristol Safeguarding Adults Board,
it was suggested that officials at Cygnet Hospital hadn’t been made properly aware of Barry’s
behavioral concerns when he was initially admitted to the facility. The area manager,
who should’ve been in charge of the patient’s care, was reportedly on holiday at the time of
the transfer, which allegedly caused a crucial failure of information sharing between the
psychiatric hospitals. As a consequence of the miscommunication between the facilities,
a mental health tribunal that subsequently reviewed Barry’s detention made the misguided
decision to order his discharge. Hours after his release, on the evening of July the 6th
of 2016, Barry broke into Ahmad’s apartment and murdered him, carrying out the attack he’d been
threatening for years. Following a trial at Bristol Crown Court, in November of 2017,
Barry was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 23 years.
#1 - Leslie Gadsby After being diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia,
in 2003, Leslie Gadsby was on the verge of being placed in a mental health center. The hospital,
however, was reportedly unable to find an open bed for him for two days after his initial admission.
When there was finally a space available for him, a care professional called his family’s home
in Liverpool, England, to notify them that the facility was ready for his arrival. Unfortunately,
it wasn’t Gadsby’s relatives who answered the phone, but a police officer who told the mental
health official that the 31-year-old had brutally beaten his father to death with a hammer while
awaiting his hospital admittance. Gadsby was consequently sent to a psychiatric unit until he
was eventually granted a conditional discharge two years later. As per the conditions of his release,
Gadsby was supposed to be monitored 24 hours a day. The contact he had with his mother was
meant to be heavily restricted and supervised by mental health professionals. In March of 2010,
Gadsby was moved to the Scott Clinic mental health center, in Stoneycroft, where he would be afforded
more freedom and independence than his previous facility. Just a few days after his transfer, the
then 42-year-old Gadsby was visited by his mother. The two were left alone in an upstairs apartment,
where Gadsby fatally stabbed the 70-year-old woman before walking down to the first floor
to converse with a group of social workers about a game of Scrabble, as if nothing had happened.
Gadsby ultimately pled guilty to manslaughter and was ordered to spend the remainder of his life
at a secure psychiatric hospital. An official investigation into the matter determined that,
had Gadsby been “subject to robust supervision” as his conditional release had stipulated,
the risk of him violently acting out would’ve been “substantially reduced”.
Thanks for watching! Would you rather live next to a high-security mental health facility or have to
carpool with a van full of small children every day? Let us know in the comments section below!