Posted on 02/06/2007 3:57:57 AM PST by familyop
A US astronaut has been charged with trying to kidnap a woman she thought was a rival for the affection of a space shuttle pilot.
Navy Capt Lisa Nowak, 43, who flew to the international space station last July, was charged with attempted kidnapping, battery and other crimes.
She drove from Texas to Florida to confront Colleen Shipman, disguised in a wig and trench coat.
Police said Capt Nowak, who was denied bail, used pepper spray on Ms Shipman.
The man in the love triangle was said to be Navy Cmdr William Oefelein, who was a pilot on the Discovery's mission to the space station in December.
E-mails
Police said Capt Nowak drove 1,000 miles (1,600km) from her home in Houston to Orlando International Airport, wearing a nappy to avoid a toilet break.
The arrest affidavit says Capt Nowak then followed Ms Shipman in an airport bus.
Capt Nowak pursued Ms Shipman to her vehicle in the car park.
Ms Shipman locked herself in but rolled down the window when Capt Nowak began to cry, the affidavit says.
Ms Shipman was then attacked with the pepper spray, it says. She drove to a car park booth and police were called.
An officer followed Capt Nowak and she was stopped allegedly carrying the wig, an air rifle, a steel mallet and a knife.
A search of her vehicle revealed pepper spray and e-mails between Ms Shipman and Cmdr Oefelein, police said.
In the affidavit, Ms Nowak describes her attachment to Cmdr Oefelein as "more than a working relationship but less than a romantic relationship".
Capt Nowak told police she just wanted to scare her rival into talking about her relationship with Cmdr Oefelein.
Attempted kidnapping carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.
Nasa biographies list Capt Nowak as married with three children and Cmdr Oefelein as single with two children. The pair never flew together.
A Nasa spokesman said at present Capt Nowak's status was "unchanged". Florida's Orlando Sentinel newspaper said Ms Shipman was an engineer with the 45th Launch Support Squadron at a base close to the Kennedy Space Centre.
now that's really sick.
This incident could be the subject of an interesting study: the effect of space travel on latent psychoses.
She's not mentally ill. She's in ruv with an astronaut who has an old school crew cut like I haven't seen in years
Could be something in that Van Allen Belt that hit her
Possibilities too.
Mornin' NY! As somebody else remarked, no man or woman is worth this.
She so crazy!
Hysteria \Hys*te"ri*a\, n. [NL.: cf. F. hyst['e]rie. See
Hysteric.] (Med.)
A nervous affection, occurring almost exclusively in women,
in which the emotional and reflex excitability is
exaggerated, and the will power correspondingly diminished,
so that the patient loses control over the emotions, becomes
the victim of imaginary sensations, and often falls into
paroxism or fits.
[1913 Webster]
Note: The chief symptoms are convulsive, tossing movements of
the limbs and head, uncontrollable crying and laughing,
and a choking sensation as if a ball were lodged in the
throat. The affection presents the most varied
symptoms, often simulating those of the gravest
diseases, but generally curable by mental treatment
alone. Hysteric
Evidently it isn't. We've been on this one quite a while and it's not listed in your links:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1779787/posts
She's smart enough to say she didn't intend to harm the other woman. It's pretty clear she intended to kill her.
I want to know how she avoided a refueling break.
She's obviously no rocket scientist. (But she was close.)
News of the weird does have legs, doesn't it.
"3:57:57 AM PST · 34 replies · 942+ views"
[Stats so far for the piece posted over this thread.]
Wow. (Stats so far on the piece posted above).
"On 02/06/2007 3:57:57 AM PST · 36 replies · 1,016+ views"
She was obviously obsessed with getting what she wanted. What I found interesting is that she categorized it as "more than a working relationship but less than a romantic relationship".
That is the description of a friendship, not a love affair. Sounds like a fatal attraction to me. Scary woman.
Not all idiots are mentally ill. Just mentally deficient.
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