A quiet walk through a Stuart neighborhood turned into a nightmare on Thursday when a woman was fatally stabbed in what investigators are calling a completely random attack.
The Martin County Sheriff’s Office has arrested Kersten Francilus and charged him with second-degree murder following the violent encounter in the Southwood community.
The situation unfolded around 4 p.m. near SE Black Oak Lane. According to Sheriff John Budensiek, deputies first started getting calls about a suspicious man wandering from house to house. Witnesses, including several children, mentioned seeing Francilus knocking on doors and asking for directions to a bank before the calls turned into reports of an active stabbing.
One neighbor tried to step in and pull the attacker off the woman but was unable to stop him. The assault only ended when a deputy arrived at the scene.
“The civilian tried to intervene but could not get the male off of her,” the sheriff explained. “So, when our deputy pulled up…he pulled his gun out and immediately, the suspect disengaged the female who he was still actively stabbing when the deputy pulled up in his patrol car and proned himself on the ground, throwing the knife down and giving up.”
The victim was rushed to Cleveland Clinic Martin South but did not survive her injuries after an off-duty officer who lives in the neighborhood tried performing life-saving measures on the woman in her 70s, but she passed away shortly after being taken to the hospital.
“She had a significant amount of stab wounds to the upper torso,” the sheriff stated. “Some deflective stab wounds. This was a violent, violent homicide.”
Investigators found that the steak knife used in the killing actually came from the suspect’s own home, which he shares with his wife, mother, and child in a nearby neighborhood.
What makes the case even more confusing for law enforcement is that Francilus has no prior criminal history.
While the motive is still unknown, the Sheriff’s Office is currently searching his home and questioning him to figure out why he targeted a stranger. Budensiek summed up the tragedy as a “random act of violence.”
