Murder of Kathryn Faughey

Kathryn Faughey was a 56-year-old New York City psychologist who was murdered by 39-year-old David Tarloff at her upper East Side Manhattan office on the night of February 12, 2008.

Tarloff walked past the doorman, rolling a suitcase behind him (as seen on the building's surveillance video), saying that he was there to see Dr. Schinbach. Tarloff waited in the office reception area, chatting with a patient, while one of Dr. Faughey's evening sessions was in progress. After that session concluded, when he knew that Faughey was alone in her office, he entered the room and attacked her with a meat cleaver. Another psychiatrist from the same practice, Dr. Kent Schinbach, attempted to help her, but was seriously wounded by slashes in the face and neck.^[1]

Tarloff was arrested and arraigned for the murder and ordered to undergo a psychiatric evaluation^[2] which found him to be mentally competent to stand trial.^[3] There was evidence that the attack had been premeditated, but that the intended victim was Schinbach.^[2] Tarloff told police that he had planned to rob Schinbach, who he remembered being involved in diagnosing him with schizophrenia in 1991 and arranging for his institutionalization at that time.^[2][3] Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) regulations to protect patient confidentiality were reported to have delayed the initial investigation.^[4] Tarloff, who was expected to plead insanity in the case, was confined to a psychiatric unit of Bellevue Hospital while awaiting trial. His attorney said that "the evidence is clear that he (Tarloff) did it, but the reasons he did it ... are so crazy that we believe we have a very strong insanity defense."^[5] His trial was scheduled for October 2010, but during jury selection a mistrial was declared after two psychiatrists that the court had appointed to evaluate Tarloff found him mentally unfit to stand trial.^[6]

The incident led to public discussion regarding the safety of mental health professionals who see patients in isolated settings.^[7] In 2006 psychiatrist Wayne Fenton, a schizophrenia researcher who was an administrator at the National Institute of Mental Health, was found dead in the home office in Bethesda, Maryland where he met with private patients, apparently murdered by a 19-year-old patient.^[8][9]

References

1. ^ Patient hacks therapist to death, New York Daily News, February 13, 2008
2. ^ ^{a b c} Associated Press, Man Arraigned in Therapist's Knife Slaying; Judge Orders Psychiatric Evaluation, February 17, 2008
3. ^ ^{a b} Psychologist Murder Suspect Found Fit For Trial, WCBS-TV, February 22, 2008
4. ^ Associated Press, NYPD Investigation Into Therapist Slaying Slowed by Privacy Laws, February 16, 2008
5. ^ Samuel Maull, Insanity defense for NYC cleaver murder suspect, Associated Press, April 15, 2008
6. ^ Jon Eligon, Defendant Unfit For Trial In Killing of Psychologist, New York Times, October 19, 2010
7. ^ Therapists Are Advised To Take Precautions, New York Sun, February 14, 2008
8. ^ Yvonne Shinhoster Lamb, NIMH Administrator Wayne S. Fenton, 53, The Washington Post, September 5, 2006, Page B06
9. ^ Patient vs. Doctor, Newsweek website, February 15, 2008