A 25-year-old man has been charged with murder after authorities say he randomly stabbed a woman to death in a quiet\u00a0South Florida neighborhood, according to the Martin County Sheriff\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n
Kersten Francilus, who lives in a nearby community, is accused of\u00a0attacking a woman\u00a0in her 70s as she walked her dog Friday in the Southwood neighborhood in Stuart, Sheriff John Budensiek said.<\/p>\n
Neighbors had called deputies shortly before the attack to report a suspicious man going door to door and asking unusual questions.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe receive multiple calls in this community. The Southwood community, which is a quiet, higher end community here in Martin County. Multiple calls of a suspicious male walking door to door and interacting with different people,\u201d Budensiek said during a news conference.<\/p>\n
Kersten Francilus, 25, has been charged with murder after allegedly stabbing a woman to death in Southwood, Florida. Martin County Sheriff’s Office\/Facebook<\/p>\n
\u201cHe asked several times, several different people where the new bank was. There\u2019s no bank around here,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Witnesses described the man as calm and nonconfrontational during those encounters, the sheriff said.<\/p>\n
A short time later,\u00a0authorities received\u00a0additional calls reporting that the same man was attacking a woman in a cul-de-sac.<\/p>\n
The Martin County Sheriff\u2019s Office investigates the murder in Southwood. Martin County Sheriff’s Office\/Facebook<\/p>\n
A deputy who was already en route to investigate the suspicious activity arrived to find the suspect \u201cactively stabbing\u201d the victim while she lay on the ground, Budensiek said.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur suspect was on top of her, actually actively stabbing her,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
A brave Good Samaritan attempted to intervene but was unable to stop the attack before\u00a0deputies arrived, officials said.<\/p>\n
Witnesses described Francilus as calm and nonconfrontational, the sheriff said. Martin County Sheriff’s Office\/Facebook<\/p>\n
When confronted by the deputy, Francilus immediately dropped the knife and surrendered.<\/p>\n
The victim suffered stab wounds to the upper torso and was transported to Cleveland Clinic Martin South, where she died, authorities said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis was a\u00a0violent, vile homicide,\u201d Budensiek said.<\/p>\n
Police said there is no known connection between Francilus and the victim, and no clear motive has been identified.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt this point, this appears like an extremely violent, random act of violence,\u201d Budensiek said.<\/p>\n
The victim, in her 70s, was out walking her dog when Francilus brutally attacked her. Martin County Sheriff’s Office\/Facebook<\/p>\n
Francilus was taken into custody at the scene and later booked into the Martin County Jail. Authorities said the knife used in the attack was a steak knife believed to have come from his home.<\/p>\n
The sheriff\u2019s office said Francilus has no known criminal history, though deputies had previously responded to a call involving him acting strangely at his residence.<\/p>\n
Budensiek said residents were wise to report the man\u2019s peculiar behavior.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe community did what they needed to do. They saw something that wasn\u2019t right. They called the Martin County Sheriff\u2019s Office,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Authorities have not released the victim\u2019s name.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A 25-year-old man has been charged with murder after authorities say he randomly stabbed a woman to death…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":218451,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[15289,28,30,29,4538,99194,4278],"class_list":{"0":"post-218450","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-florida","8":"tag-attacks","9":"tag-florida","10":"tag-florida-headlines","11":"tag-florida-news","12":"tag-murders","13":"tag-stabbings","14":"tag-us-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218450","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=218450"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218450\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/218451"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=218450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=218450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=218450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}