The St.Cloud Police Department is investigating its first murder case since 2019, which occurred Wednesday afternoon at an apartment complex off Sergeant Graham Boulevard between U.S. 192 and Neptune Road.
SCPD Chief Douglas Goerke said the case is a domestic violence-related murder and attempted suicide.
Police received a 911 call around 3:20 p.m. from Neptune Bay Circle at the Soleil Blu Apartments. The caller said a child told him that her father had been injured in their upstairs apartment. The man took the child to the apartment and found a male, on the floor covered in blood. The neighbor quickly left the unit with the child and called police.
Minutes later, a second 911 call came from a woman who said she received a text message from a woman in the apartment, believed to be the slain man's domestic partner.
"The message advised she had killed her husband, and was going to kill herself," Goerke said.
Police responded minutes later to the apartment, and after receiving no response from the woman, had to breach both the front door and a bedroom door in the apartment to gain entry and reach the woman. On the way in they found the victim and moved him from the living room to the patio, and discovered he had succumbed to his stabbing injuries. They found the woman with lacerations to her wrists. She was taken to Osceola Regional Medical Center, where Goerke relayed she was in critical but stable condition earlier in the evening.
Goerke said there had been minimal police contact with the couple prior to Wednesday's incident.
The child who initially alerted the neighbor, and another child from the home, both elementary-school aged, were not injured, and were taken to the police department to be taken care of until further arrangements could be made.
Goerke said the case and the crime scene remain part of an active investigation, and a search warrant is being sought for the residence.
