A woman who has developed a reputation for sneaking onto flights was arrested again at O’Hare International Airport in Chicago, per NBC News.
Nicknamed the “serial stowaway,” Marilyn Hartman, 69, left the residential facility that she was required to stay around noon Tuesday, but her GPS ankle bracelet alerted authorities to her departure. Following failed attempts to contact Hartman through the phone built into the device, the electronic monitoring staff looked into her whereabouts, and discovered that she was headed towards O’Hare.
Hartman was later detained by Chicago police officers after an alarm was activated on the aforementioned ankle bracelet. The Cook County Sheriff’s Office notes her arrest occurred before she could “enter any secure areas.” Hartman will return to jail where she now faces a felony escape charge. She’s being held without bail, and will be appearing in court on Thursday.
Hartman’s attorney Parle Roe-Taylor tells CNN that this incident was a relapse from someone who has dealt with unaddressed mental health issues. “She continues to struggle as a homeless person within a system that is not designed to adequately address the mental health issues Ms. Hartman presents,” Roe-Taylor said. “Until this arrest, Ms. Hartman had been stable for the past year and a half, cooperative and without incident.”
Roe-Taylor continued, “Unfortunately, relapse is part of what happens sometimes during treatment. Relapses must be addressed through treatment, and not punitively.”
Hartman was arrested in 2018 and charged with felony theft and criminal trespassing after she successfully managed to board a British Airways flight to London without a ticket or passport. Hartman was cuffed two years prior in Chicago and sentenced to six months of house arrest, and two years of mental health probation. That same year, she was ordered to remain in jail without bond due to her frequent fleeing from a mental health facility in Chicago.
The “serial stowaway” has been sneaking onto flights since 2014 when she took a flight from the Bay Area to Los Angeles without a ticket. Hartman was ordered to stay away from LAX unless she had a boarding ticket. Earlier that year, she received a restraining order from San Francisco International Airport after attempting to board a flight at least six times in a span of three months.
