Crime

Teen who allegedly murdered Danvers woman found mentally incompetent to stand trial

The 18-year-old Lynn man has been committed to Bridgewater State Hospital and will be reevaluated in six months.

A Lynn teen accused of murdering a Danvers woman has been deemed mentally incompetent to stand trial. David L Ryan/The Boston Globe

By Darin Zullo

April 22, 2026

2 minutes to read

A Lynn teen who allegedly murdered a woman in March has been found mentally incompetent to stand trial, court records show.

Anthony DeMayo, 18, was arrested last month for allegedly stabbing Janet Swallow, 68, to death after breaking into her Danvers home. Lynn police said they found DeMayo, a Bishop Fenwick High School student, walking down Standish Road with a blood-stained knife in his hand.

DeMayo has since been indicted by an Essex County grand jury on murder and home invasion charges, court records show. He allegedly confessed to the killing while speaking with police, telling them that he had planned the act and “wanted to kill someone for a long time.”

After DeMayo was arraigned, he was held without bail and committed to Bridgewater State Hospital to evaluate if he is competent to stand trial. Dr. Joyce Perrotta, a state forensic psychologist, said in court that she observed DeMayo to have long-term depressive symptoms, “including restricted affect, anhedonia, and suicidal ideation.”

At a hearing Wednesday in Salem District Court, a judge ruled that DeMayo is incompetent to stand trial based on the hospital’s evaluation, records show. He will return to Bridgewater and is next scheduled to appear in court May 13.

Kevin Reddington, DeMayo’s attorney, did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday night. However, he told The Boston Globe that his client will continue to be treated at Bridgewater for the next six months, when he will be reevaluated.

“It’s a very tragic case, no matter how you look at it,” Reddington told the Globe. “The human mind has many corridors, some of them well lit, some of them dark. We just don’t know.”

Prosecutors said that DeMayo and Swallow didn’t know each other and that the alleged murder was a random act. During a police interview at Salem Hospital, DeMayo allegedly told investigators that he drove around surrounding communities before picking Swallow’s house to break into.

DeMayo allegedly found Swallow sleeping in a bedroom and fatally stabbed her. He then left her house and drove back to Lynn, where he changed his clothes and stayed for the rest of the night.

Swallow, a longtime Danvers resident, was a nurse at Lahey Hospital & Medical Center in Burlington. She was survived by two sons and a stepson, a granddaughter, and two siblings.