RUMFORD - Thursday's stabbing at a Penobscot Street residence was the fourth in two months in Rumford and Mexico, Detective Lt. Mark Cayer said Friday afternoon.

On Memorial Day, Rumford police arrested Terri L. Glover, 39, of Rumford, and charged her with aggravated assault after they say she stabbed her husband in the arm with a 13-inch butcher's knife during a dispute.

On May 13, Mother's Day, Rumford police arrested Dwight Knox, 38, of Franklin Street, saying he broke into his estranged girlfriend's home and tried to slit the throat of her sleeping male companion. Knox was charged with elevated aggravated assault, burglary, violation of a protection order, and violation of a condition for release order, which also involved a protection from abuse order.

A few days earlier, Mexico police arrested Anna Maria Dimambro, 23, of Mexico, on charges of aggravated assault and reckless conduct stemming from her fight on May 4 with Melissa McIntire, 31, of Mexico, at Dimambro's apartment. Police say Dimambro stabbed McIntire twice with a knife.

Cayer and Chief Stacy Carter have been warning municipal officials the past few years that serious crime is increasing in the River Valley.

"I think that the calls we're handling now are becoming more dangerous, but we've been saying that all along," Cayer said.

"It's been a pattern for the past five years."

He also said they needed more officers than they had available to handle Thursday's incident, when Scott White allegedly tried to kill his wife, Tracey White, by stabbing her three times with a 6-inch steak knife.

"We had two patrolmen, a patrol sergeant, and all three detectives were called in," Cayer said. "(Carter) would have come in, but he's away on vacation. Oxford County and Mexico police assisted in mutual aid, but we needed more than that. We were faced with a crime scene at the hospital, the actual crime scene at the house, the crime scene of his vehicle, and he needed to be secured at the station. That's what makes it challenging."

Ironically, the increase in serious crime is coming at a time when taxpayers and selectmen have been trying to downsize police departments in the area to cut costs.