Phoenix police arrest man accused of fatally stabbing girlfriend
Phoenix police detectives arrested a man on Wednesday after he stabbed his girlfriend to death in their home, according to court documents.
Detectives arrested 53-year-old Erik Islas for the murder of 59-year-old Patricia Hawking, who was found dead Tuesday by police officers who responded to a welfare check, according to a Phoenix police statement.
Court documents say Hawking was stabbed 26 times and was found with defensive wounds to her hands and forearms and a 4-inch piece of a knife blade lodged in her back.
The court documents also say Islas and Hawking lived together in a Phoenix casita near 16th Street and Bethany Home Road. The couple had a “tumultuous” eight-year relationship in which violence and subsequent hospitalizations were not uncommon, the court documents say.
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Hawking had previously confided to her family that Islas had threatened to kill both her and her family by stabbing them with a knife, according to court documents.
On Tuesday, the owner of the casita became concerned after she had not seen Hawking for several days. The owner also tried contacting Hawking in person and by phone, according to court documents.
When one of the homeowner’s calls finally connected, it wasn’t Hawking who answered, but a man who said he found the phone on the side of the road near 32nd Street and University Drive, according to court documents.
The homeowner then retrieved the phone from the man and decided to physically check on Hawking, where she found a slightly open front door that revealed blood on the ground.
The homeowner called for a welfare check that led officers to discover Hawking’s body.
The court documents say officers found a trail of blood that led to Hawking's body inside the casita. Police reported there were obvious signs of a struggle, and they also located a bloody knife in the bathroom trash can, according to court documents.
The casita had interior security cameras, which court documents say witnessed Islas and Hawking engaged in a verbal and then physical altercation.
The court documents do not detail if the actual stabbing was recorded.
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Once police identified Islas as a suspect, they tracked his Isuzu Rodeo using a law enforcement database software and located him first traveling south of Phoenix to Tucson, and later crossing the border into Mexico early Monday morning.
Islas was armed with a knife when he was detained upon returning to the United States on Wednesday, and transferred from Nogales to Phoenix, where detectives said he later confessed to punching and then stabbing Hawking with the intent to kill her, according to court documents.
Islas has been charged with first-degree murder and is next scheduled to appear in court on Sept. 13.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Phoenix police arrest suspect after woman found stabbed to death
