Overview
- Deputies responding to reports of a suspicious man on Thursday arrived in the Southwood neighborhood and found 25-year-old Kersten Francilus actively stabbing 73-year-old Joyce Ellen Thompson Adams before arresting him.
- The sheriff said Monday that the medical examiner reported upwards of 50 stab wounds, updating earlier hospital estimates of about 16 to 17.
- A probable cause affidavit released Monday quotes Francilus saying he left home, went around the neighborhood, found a woman, and killed her.
- Investigators are reviewing motive after Francilus described the victim as Jewish, though her daughter told detectives she was not.
- The suspect’s mother told detectives the steak knife came from their home and that he had stopped taking prescribed medications in February, and he is being held without bond.