BANGOR, Maine — The woman charged in connection with two stabbings Tuesday at the Bangor Mall told Farmington police when she turned herself in that the attacks were “unprovoked ’cause I am not well.”
Elizabeth Ellis, 34, described in a police affidavit filed Thursday at the Penobscot Judicial Center as a transient, is charged with two counts of aggravated assault.
Ellis, who is being held at the Penobscot County Jail on $50,000 cash bail, is scheduled to make her first court appearance Friday afternoon.
According to the seven-page affidavit, Ellis walked into the Farmington Police Station a few hours after the stabbings and told Detective Mark Bowering that she needed to turn herself in because she had committed a crime. Bowering took her into an interview room where she took a folding knife out of her purse, handed it to him, and stated she had stabbed someone at the Bangor Mall. She told him the attacks were unprovoked and she was not well. When Bowering asked Ellis who she had stabbed. she replied, “I don’t know,” the affidavit said.
Bowering called the Bangor Police Dispatch center and confirmed there had been a stabbing at the mall.
One victim, who was stabbed about 11:35 a.m. in the American Eagle store near the entrance, described her attacker as “female with dark clothing and medium length brown hair staring at her holding a knife.”
“She told us that [the attacker’s] eyes were ‘bugging’ out of her head and she was not acting right,” the affidavit, written by Bangor police detective Tim Shaw, said.
The other victim, stabbed from behind about 11:58 a.m. while in the restroom at J.C. Penney, told police that her alleged assailant stared at her “with her eyes wide” before leaving the bathroom. Neither victim reported that Ellis spoke to them.
Each victim suffered a single stab wound to her shoulder. Both were taken to Eastern Maine Medical Center, where they were treated and then released, according to a previously published report.
About 20 minutes before the first stabbing, Ellis bought a vanilla lime candle for $14.21 at 11:26 a.m. at Yankee Candle, according to the affidavit.
Ellis drove to Farmington in a white Nissan Versa she parked in the lot of the Farmington Police Department. Ellis told Bowering that she was from Alexandria, Virginia, but her car is registered in Maryland, the affidavit said. She also told the detective she had been staying in a cabin near Sugarloaf Mountain. After giving Bowering that information, Ellis told him she did not want to talk further without an attorney.
Ellis has no criminal history in Maine, Michael Roberts, deputy district attorney for Penobscot County said Wednesday. He said her out-of-state criminal history was not yet known.
Despite her statements to police and the victims’ descriptions of their attacker, Ellis was not segregated from the general population of the jail Thursday. Inmates who are exhibiting signs of mental illness when brought into the facility often are segregated from other inmates.
If convicted, Ellis faces up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $20,000 on each count.