DIXFIELD – A Dixfield woman and her ex-husband of Peru were rushed to hospitals after being stabbed early Friday night during an alleged domestic incident at the woman’s first-floor apartment at 22 Third St., said Police Chief Richard A. Pickett.

Med-Care Ambulance rushed the woman, who suffered multiple stab wounds, to Rumford hospital where she was airlifted by LifeFlight to Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston, Pickett said. Her ex-husband, 43, of Peru, was stabbed in the chest and taken to Rumford Hospital by another Med-Care ambulance.

Although Pickett declined to identify both adults, he said the ex-husband, who was still undergoing emergency room surgery three hours after the incident, was arrested and charged with felony aggravated assault with a dangerous weapon.

“That charge will be elevated to attempted murder if she makes it, homicide if she doesn’t,” Pickett said at 9:45 p.m. “As a precaution, I called in State Police.”

While details were still sketchy, the woman, who is in her mid-40’s, was in her apartment when her ex-husband came over, Pickett said after talking with investigating Dixfield officer Jeffrey Howe.

“Apparently, she let him in and there was some kind of disturbance. The upstairs neighbors go down to help, but are unable to get in, so they go back upstairs and call 911,” Pickett said.

At 6:40 p.m. an Oxford County dispatcher sent Howe to the residence and dispatched Med-Care Ambulance to “an attempted homicide.”

Several other officers from Rumford, Mexico and Oxford County rushed to the scene as well as a Rumford Fire Department rescue truck. It began to rain. “It was scary, very scary,” said next door neighbor Trish Hotham, the wife of Rep. Randy Hotham. “At first the police went in with mace and guns drawn because they didn’t know what they faced. They were knocking on the door and saying, ‘Police! Open up!'”

The two-story house, divided into four apartment, sits in a quiet neighborhood opposite the Irving Forest Products mill yard.

One ambulance took the ex-husband away first while the second ambulance later rushed the woman to the hospital.

Hotham said an officer later carried out a knife that had been bagged as evidence.

By 7:50, Rumford officer Douglas Maifeld was searching the ex-husband’s blue Chevrolet pick up truck, parked in the driveway next to the apartment’s back door. A blue metal placard under the Maine registration plate read, “#1 Dad.”

“This is the second attempted murder I’ve handled here (in Dixfield),” Pickett said.

The first occurred at 9 Main Street on Dec. 6, 1999. In that incident, two victims were assaulted by Lloyd Pulk, then 31, of Mexico, Pickett said.

Pulk, a former resident at 9 Main Street, was arrested, charged with aggravated assault after both victims survived, and convicted, he added.

tkarkos@sunjournal.com

tkarkos@sunjournal

Copy the Story Link