2 hospitalized after alleged hatchet attack near Hoquiam

An elderly man who was police believe was attacked in his rural Hoquiam home by a hatchet-wielding woman early Thursday underwent surgery for his injuries. The suspect, a 29-year-old Hoquiam woman, was hospitalized too.

At about 5:40 a.m. Thursday, a woman called 911 claiming she had found Lindsey Baum, a 10-year-old girl who disappeared from McCleary in 2009. The woman claimed she was going to kill the person that had her, then claimed the person was dead, according to The Chronicle.

Authorities were able to determine the area where the call originated, and Gray Harbor County Sheriff’s deputies and Hoquiam Police were dispatched to the Dekay Road area.

Gerald Guile, 82, suffered a fractured skull and a broken arm, KIRO-7 News reported. His daughter told the television station that the suspect had broken into the home through the back glass door.

After allegedly attacking Guile in his bedroom, deputies say the suspect went across the street.

That’s when dispatchers received a call from a nearby home reporting that a woman with a hatchet forced her way into the home and was damaging furniture.

“She screamed, ‘Help! Help!,” Hoquiam resident Jim Gold told KIRO-7. “We opened the door. A 5-foot redhead swinging a hatchet still looks big.”

Deputies say the suspect told them she was high on hallucinogenic mushrooms.

After she was taken into custody, deputies say the woman banged her head on the patrol vehicle’s door and cage and later fell unconscious, KXRO reported.

She was listed in critical condition Thursday night at Grays Harbor Community Hospital in Aberdeen, the radio station reported.

This story was originally published January 5, 2018 at 9:54 AM with the headline "2 hospitalized after alleged hatchet attack near Hoquiam."