To some, Alice Metzinger was a devoted, caring friend. To others, she was a remote, enigmatic neighbor. But no one in Corvallis knew the truth: Alice Metzinger was a woman on the run.
"It really floored me. Not the crimes so much for me but that she was able to hide it for so long," said Lynette Adkins, a co-worker of the woman whose real name was Katherine Ann Power.Power, who had lived for the last 14 years in the Willamette Valley, surrendered Wednesday to authorities in Boston, who charged her with being part of a group of anti-war activists who robbed a bank and killed a police officer in 1970.
She spent 14 years on the FBI's most wanted list, using several aliases, eventually assuming the name of a baby who had died about the time she was born.
As Metzinger, she obtained a driver's license, Social Security number and birth certificate and settled down to life as a mother, cook and restaurant consultant in Oregon.
Only a few people learned her secret. One was her husband, Ron Duncan.
Power told the truth to Marilyn Schwader, a friend and co-owner of the restaurant where Power worked, about a year ago.
"I just listened to what she was saying," Schwader said. "It was obvious she needed to tell someone about it."
Power might have stayed hidden forever, but something inside her yearned to end the charade. She decided to come clean after she sought psychiatric help for depression 18 months ago, Schwader said.
"She reached a point in her life that she felt she needed to be truthful with the people that she knew," Schwader said. "She wanted to reconnect with her family."
Initially accused of first-degree murder, Power pleaded guilty Wednesday in state court to manslaughter and armed robbery.