Woman's 16-mile walk ends in Aarest for attempted stabbing with orange knife

A Wisconsin woman faces decades in isolation after attempting to murder her father in a hallucinatory frenzy, believing him to be the devil incarnate.

In February, Jamie Anderson, 34, entered a plea of not guilty due to a mental disorder.

The court accepted this plea but noted it "lacked enough information at this time to determine sentence/length of commitment," per Dane County court documents reviewed by Law&Crime.

In March, a "Predisposition Investigation Report" was submitted concerning the defendant and was reviewed by all involved in the case.

On Wednesday, Dane County Circuit Judge Mario White ordered Anderson to a 20-year term at a mental health inpatient facility.

The initial incident took place on July 1, 2025, at her father’s two-story suburban house on South Page Street in Stoughton – a small town about 20 miles southeast of Madison.

In the early morning, Anderson trekked roughly 16 miles from her apartment to her father’s home. Around 5am, she rang the doorbell, authorities said.

When her father eventually answered the door, Anderson expressed a desire to stop hallucinating, according to a criminal complaint obtained by Madison-based CBS and MyNetworkTV affiliate WISC and ABC affiliate WKOW.

Anderson then reportedly asked for a hug. In response, however, her father questioned whether she was on drugs.

This question led Anderson to attempt to stab her father in the head, according to the complaint. Multiple attempted stabbings reportedly followed, some causing injury, police say.

Her father told responding officers he had to push her over a coffee table to flee to safety.

Around 6am, officers located the man on his doorstep with a bleeding left arm, as noted in the complaint.

"She came here to murder me," the man informed the police.

Anderson's father indicated his daughter was still in the house, police report. The defendant was found descending a side stairway into an alley, holding a knife. Upon request to drop the orange blade, she complied immediately, resulting in an arrest without incident, police say.

Anderson allegedly admitted to police she hallucinated and perceived her father as "the devil."

She purportedly confessed to slashing him approximately four times and acknowledged her intent to kill and desire for his death.

Her father sustained serious injuries, including staples in his head and surgery on one arm.

In dialogue with police, the victim displayed some leniency, attributing the episode to "not her true nature" and that her "mind is ravaged" by drug use.

Officers at the scene described the then-convicted woman as "wide-eyed and fixated on nonexistent things."

Anderson initially faced a charge of one count of attempted intentional homicide in the first degree using a dangerous weapon.