PORTLAND, Ore. — Portland police have identified the victim in Tuesday's fatal stabbing in Northwest Portland's Old Town neighborhood. The victim was 38-year-old Stephanie Hack, according to a Thursday news release from the Portland Police Bureau.
Hack's identity was released after the medical examiner confirmed her identify and cause of death and her family had been notified. Her family released a photo of her with her two children (the children were not present at the time of the attack, police said).
On Wednesday morning police identified 31-year-old Judyann L. Edmond as the suspect in the attack. Edmond was arrested and booked in the Multnomah County jail. She faces charges of second-degree murder and unlawful use of a weapon.
An affidavit filed in court by the arresting officer indicated that the killing was sudden and unprovoked, the apparent result of psychotic beliefs that Edmond later described to police.
Editor's note: Some of the details described in the following paragraphs may be considered graphic by some readers.
A PPB bike team was conducting patrols in Old Town when they learned of a stabbing nearby, on Northwest 5th Avenue and Davis Street. According to the affidavit, a few of the officers had seen the suspect and victim together just moments before the stabbing happened.
"Trimet video shows two women standing with a man holding a bicycle on NW 5th Avenue between Couch and Davis," the affidavit reads. "One of the women, later identified as Judyann Edmond, suddenly stabs the other woman ... in the neck from behind."
The video showed the victim falling to the ground, the affidavit continues, as Edmond stabs her two more times. The man holding a bicycle who had been standing next to the two women "barely reacts" as the murder unfolds.
Another man reportedly came to intervene, trying to kick the knife from Edmond's hand, but was unsuccessful. Edmond then walked away from the scene, the affidavit said.
The victim briefly got up and tried to get around the block before collapsing near a security guard who tried to help by giving her first aid. Though an ambulance took the victim to the hospital, the affidavit said, she was pronounced dead 10 minutes after arriving in the operating room.
Police tracked Edmond to a tent not far from where the stabbing happened. Another man in the tent told officers that he didn't know Edmond, but he'd woken up to find her there.
"After she assured him that she was not going to steal from him they smoked meth together for about 20 minutes before the police arrived," the affidavit reads. "Edmond at one point offered to sell him a knife but he never saw a knife."
Portland police said that they found the knife after searching the man's tent. Meanwhile, Edmond allegedly admitted to police that she was responsible for the stabbing.
"She said that she did it because the man with the bike is her grandfather and his eyes told her that she had to," the affidavit says. "She indicated that she understood it was wrong/bad, but insisted that she had to do it to stop the pain and to save people."
Police later tracked down the man with the bike. He reportedly told investigators that he'd met Edmond the day before, they'd shared a hotel room together than night, and he described her as the "love of his life" though he didn't know her name.
The affidavit said that the man was both in shock and intoxicated when he was interviewed, but told police that Edmond had stabbed the victim three times. There was blood staining his pants and the bicycle, the affidavit concluded.
Northwest Davis was closed between Northwest Fifth and Sixth avenues for several hours as detectives investigated.
This is the second homicide in Old Town within the past week. On Friday night, 19-year-old Lauren Teyshawn Abbott, Jr. was shot and killed near Northwest Fifth Avenue and Couch Street, about a block away from where the stabbing took place, according to PPB. Two other people were injured in that shooting.
RELATED: Fatal victim from weekend shooting in Portland's Old Town neighborhood identified by police
Anyone with information on either killing is urged to contact PPB. To provide a tip on the most recent case, email Detective Erik Kammerer at Erik.Kammerer@portlandoregon.gov or Detective Michael Schmerber at Michael.Schmerber@portlandoregon.gov and reference case number 22-206921.
