{"id":58433,"date":"2025-12-11T22:35:11","date_gmt":"2025-12-11T22:35:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/58433\/"},"modified":"2025-12-11T22:35:11","modified_gmt":"2025-12-11T22:35:11","slug":"authorities-release-names-of-scranton-machete-attack-victims","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/58433\/","title":{"rendered":"Authorities release names of Scranton machete attack victims"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Authorities on Thursday publicly identified the three victims of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wvia.org\/news\/local\/2025-12-10\/police-two-killed-one-critically-wounded-in-stabbing-at-downtown-scranton-apartment-building\" class=\"Link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">a machete attack in a downtown Scranton apartment building<\/a> earlier this week.<\/p>\n<p>In a statement, Lackawanna County District Attorney Brian Gallagher said the women who died in the \u201cbrutal murder\u201d at the Jermyn Apartments are Linda P. Fortuna, 61, and Terry M. Muller, 59, a military veteran.<\/p>\n<p>Marilyn Joan Waller, 66, remains in critical condition at Geisinger Community Medical Center, Gallagher said.<\/p>\n<p>Muller\u2019s service golden retriever, Nayla, 18 months old, also was killed.<\/p>\n<p>Police charged Michael Willie Marquis Woods, 38, with criminal homicide and related counts. Woods remains in the county prison awaiting a Dec. 23 preliminary hearing. He and and the women lived in neighboring apartments on the Jermyn&#8217;s sixth floor. <\/p>\n<p>Woods told police he smoked the hallucinogenic drug PCP before attacking the women, according to an arrest affidavit. Gallagher said Wednesday police are still investigating whether that\u2019s true.<\/p>\n<p>Most of the attack was recorded on the building\u2019s security cameras. Gallagher has called the attack \u201chorrific\u201d and \u201cpure evil.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Survivor&#8217;s daughter launches GoFundMe<\/p>\n<p>Waller&#8217;s daughter, Marissa Dankulich, created a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gofundme.com\/f\/support-my-moms-recovery-and-new-start-79y5e\" class=\"Link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">GoFundMe <\/a>to raise money to help her mother recover. <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;As her only child, I will be needing to miss work to help with appointments, and more,&#8221; Dankulich wrote. &#8220;In addition, I do not know what my mom will need, and I must be financially stable to help her.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Dankulich said her mother had lived at the Jermyn more than 10 years. <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Her ten-year-plus home suddenly turned into a nightmare I do not wish on anyone,&#8221; she wrote.<\/p>\n<p>She described her mother as &#8220;a vibrant, loving person who brings joy to everyone around her.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;She loves playing video games, going to wrestling shows, exploring thrift stores, and spending time with her beloved cat, Bubbles,&#8221; Dankulich wrote. &#8220;Her unique spirit and kindness have touched many lives, and she means the world to me and our family.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Authorities on Thursday publicly identified the three victims of a machete attack in a downtown Scranton apartment building&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":58434,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[178,180,179],"class_list":{"0":"post-58433","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-scranton","8":"tag-scranton","9":"tag-scranton-headlines","10":"tag-scranton-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58433","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58433"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58433\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58434"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}