A grandmother’s killing: How covid’s epidemic of despair ripped one family apart
Brandan Thomas, executive director of the Winchester Rescue Mission, poses for a portrait on Sept. 2 in Winchester, Va. Thomas tried to help David Austin Rowe, 18, who later killed his grandmother. WINCHESTER, Va. — Pastor Brandan Thomas had just stepped away from the homeless shelter he runs when his buzzing phone signaled another mental health crisis.
The pandemic has sparked a second epidemic of despair and the mission is on the front lines. Death and isolation associated with thecreated an uptick in people needing counseling, while degrading the ability of the mental health system to provide it. Sick and suffering a mental breakdown, Rowe could not return to the shelter so he turned to the one person he had left: Dianna Swaner — who had been one of the few constants in her grandson’s tumultuous life.
Rowe, wearing a navy colored jail jumpsuit, seemed childlike, Thomas said, and it quickly became clear he didn’t fully grasp why he was there. The young man wanted to talk about his phone and girls. In the years that followed, Rowe shuttled between stays at mental hospitals and group homes, punctuated by violent outbursts, fights and a suicide attempt, according to family and assessments. His list ofWhen Rowe turned 18February, Frederick County petitioned to have him remain in the care of a guardian after a psychologist found his disabilities prevented him from making “any responsible decisions” about his life.
Jamie Clem, a kitchen manager at the shelter, said Rowe was starved for attention. The top of Rowe’s Facebook page, where people often leave inspirational quotes or biographical tidbits, featured a banner: “I’m lonely...and depressed cuz nobody cares about my life.
After more than a year of the pandemic, social support was collapsing for many people, said Alicia Vann, the lead case manager at the shelter. That was particularly true for the mentally ill who often had precarious living arrangements to start.Thomas recalled the difficulty of quarantining some residents suffering paranoia after they tested positive for asymptomatic cases of the coronavirus.
Thomas said he began work at the mission to be the “hands and feet of Jesus,” helping people down on their luck with drug counseling and job training. He said the crisis that was unfolding at the shelter was something else entirely.In late August, a coronavirus outbreak swept through the mission putting everyone on edge.
But at a hospital, a screener with the Northwester Community Services Board in Front Royal found Rowe did not meet the criteria for what’s known as a Temporary Detention Order . The county had mapped every move for Rowe since he was 11, but now he was suddenly adrift. Over the next several days, Rowe alternately crashed in a worn green trailer behind Swaner’s home and in a tent his cousin had pitched in his yard.
By Aug. 27, Rowe’s coronavirus symptoms were worsening, so he went to the hospital, according to records. The next morning he was released and family drove him back to Swaner’s trailer. Less than an hour later, Rowe called 911 to report his grandmother was dead. Rowe denied he killed Swaner, but kept telling his relatives he had caused “so much sorrow since I got home.”
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