Mystery Chinese woman defaces Washington monuments
Cathedral, Lincoln Memorial among targets of accused who refuses to tell court her details
A Chinese woman charged with defacing the Washington National Cathedral has been linked to at least four other incidents of vandalism at US landmarks, including at the Lincoln Memorial, according to prosecutors and court documents.
Tian Jiamei, 58, appeared alongside a Putonghua translator in Superior Court, where a judge ordered her held pending a hearing later this week. Tian was arrested on Monday at the cathedral, where she allegedly used green paint to deface an organ and decorative woodwork in two separate chapels.
The cathedral has said the damage to its chapels, including to a gilded wood altarpiece, will cost thousands of dollars to fix.
Authorities believe the green paint vandalism was part of a pattern. Green paint was discovered splattered on the Lincoln Memorial on Friday morning, and symbols were later found painted in green on a statue outside the Smithsonian headquarters on the National Mall.
The woman, who has a Chinese passport, arrived in Washington a few days ago and was travelling on an expired visa. Police said she had no fixed address but had told officers that she lived in Los Angeles. She refused to give her phone number, e-mail address or home address, police said, and the language barrier complicated initial efforts to interview her.
