A tragic scene unfolded in Joliet on Saturday when a man fatally stabbed his wife during what police are calling a "targeted domestic incident" and then turned the knife on himself. The Joliet Police Department confirmed the deaths as a murder-suicide after responding to reports of a stabbing on the 3400 block of Pandola Avenue.
Officers discovered a 35-year-old woman with multiple stab wounds in the street and her 32-year-old estranged husband in a nearby driveway, also with stab wounds, as reported by NBC Chicago. The couple was quickly transported to Ascension St. Joseph Medical Center where they were pronounced dead. Both had been in the throes of a divorce.
The incident reportedly began with a disturbance after the man arrived at the woman's residence, leading to her fleeing the home. In a statement obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times, witnesses described how the suspect chased and caught up with the victim, stabbing her repeatedly in the chest. Shortly afterwards, he inflicted fatal wounds upon himself.
In the home at the time, and left unharmed by the violence spilling into the street, was the couple’s 3-year-old child. The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services has been notified, as required by state law, to tend to the needs of the child, witnessing the aftermath of what the man and the woman left behind.
While the names of the deceased have yet to be released by the Will County Coroner's Office, Joliet police have emphasized that this was an isolated incident, assuring the public that there is no further threat to the community.
