{"id":221155,"date":"2026-04-06T22:12:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T22:12:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/221155\/"},"modified":"2026-04-06T22:12:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T22:12:08","slug":"suspect-off-medication-in-random-deadly-stabbing-used-knife-from-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/221155\/","title":{"rendered":"Suspect off medication in random deadly stabbing; used knife from home"},"content":{"rendered":"

STUART, Fla. (CBS12) \u2014 Court records reveal new details on Monday about the deadly stabbing in a Martin County neighborhood that prosecutors say<\/a> left a woman stabbed numerous times. <\/p>\n

“We did an autopsy on Friday. The Medical Examiner said that there were so many stab wounds, they couldn’t count them all. So upwards of 50 stab wounds,” said John Budensiek, Martin County Sheriff. <\/p>\n

According to a probable cause affidavit from the Martin County Sheriff\u2019s Office<\/a>, deputies responded on April 2<\/a> to reports of a suspicious man walking through the Southwood community in Stuart, knocking on doors and asking residents about a bank. One caller told dispatch the man appeared \u201cout of it,\u201d and another reported he was actively stabbing a woman.<\/p>\n

A responding deputy arrived and said he saw the suspect, later identified as 25-year-old Kersten Francilus, on top of the victim, stabbing her in the neck and back. Body-worn<\/a> and dash camera footage reviewed by investigators shows the woman lying on the ground, not moving, as she was stabbed repeatedly. The deputy ordered the suspect to stop, and Francilus complied before being taken into custody.<\/p>\n

The victim was identified as Joyce Ellen Thompson Adams, 73, who lived across the street from where the attack occurred. She was transported to the Cleveland Clinic Martin Health South<\/a>, where she was pronounced dead. <\/p>\n

“It’s a little terrifying because it just kind of goes to show, I mean, someone’s going to walk and knock on your door. You don’t know who you’re opening the door to, and especially if you’re out walking your dog in a quiet neighborhood that doesn’t have a lot of traffic coming through it. It kind of definitely deters how you normally would go or makes you think a little bit more about, you know, how you’re walking or what you’re walking with,” said a resident in the neighborhood who did not want to be identified.<\/p>\n

She said it was hard to believe this could happen in the Southwood neighborhood.<\/p>\n

“There’s a lot of police cars in the neighborhood. There’s at least four different Sheriffs (deputies) that live here, and their cars are always very visible,” she said. “Which is a good deterrent?” we asked. “Which is a very good deterrent, you would think, usually,” she said. <\/p>\n

See also: Stuck for years, now facing a $5M deadline: Inside West Palm\u2019s unfinished skyline project<\/a><\/p>\n

Investigators said the knife used in the attack was a serrated kitchen knife taken from Francilus\u2019 home. His mother told detectives she normally hid the knives because her son had not been taking his prescribed medications since February.<\/p>\n

“He was on different types of psychotropic medications for psychological problems, and he was off the meds just because he didn’t want to take it,” Sheriff Budensiek.<\/p>\n

During an interview with detectives, Francilus made limited statements about the incident. When asked to describe the woman he killed, investigators said he referred to her as \u201cJewish,\u201d a claim authorities later determined to be untrue. The victim\u2019s daughter told detectives there was nothing connecting her mother to Judaism, though she said her appearance may have led someone to assume that.<\/p>\n

“He really didn’t want to talk about anything, so the detective kind of overtly asked him what happened that day. And he said something to the effect of he saw that woman, and he stabbed her. The detective asked a question as to why, and he said she was Jewish. Nothing at this point indicates that he’s anti-Semitic at all, other than the statement that he made,” Sheriff Budensiek said.<\/p>\n

Court records state Francilus also approached another nearby home before the stabbing and attempted to step inside after asking about a bank, raising concerns, investigators say, that he was provoking confrontations before the killing.<\/p>\n

Francilus is charged with first-degree premeditated murder. He remains jailed without bond.<\/p>\n

We stopped at the victim’s home seeking comment. A woman who came to the door said no comment and closed the door. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"STUART, Fla. (CBS12) \u2014 Court records reveal new details on Monday about the deadly stabbing in a Martin…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":221156,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[171,173,172],"class_list":["post-221155","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-port-st-lucie","tag-port-st-lucie","tag-port-st-lucie-headlines","tag-port-st-lucie-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221155","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=221155"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221155\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/221156"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=221155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=221155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=221155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}