A woman, who said she accidentally stabbed her husband after slipping on dog feces, was arrested Wednesday on charges of murder.
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| A woman, who said she accidentally stabbed her husband after slipping on dog feces, was arrested Wednesday on charges of murder. In this image: A handcuffed woman, part of a group of 72 alleged members the 'Barrio 18' gang, waits to be registered by the National Civil Police after being arrested on charges of extortion and murder in Guatemala City, May 2, 2016. Photo: Getty Images/Johan Ordonez |
By Susmitha Suresh, International Business Times
A Florida woman who gave multiple conflicting accounts regarding the fatal stabbing of her husband, including one where she said she slipped on dog feces and accidentally stabbed the man, was arrested on murder charges Wednesday after a three and a half month investigation, Polk County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement.
Rachel Fidanian, 38, of 3701 Wheeler Road, Lakeland, was arrested on second-degree murder charges. She earlier claimed it was an accident, but on investigation, the officials concluded it was an intentional act of domestic violence.
In the official statement, the sheriff’s office said Fidanian has given “several inconsistent statements." Her ever-changing account failed to add up, finally leading to her arrest.
On June 25 morning, a 911 call was made by Fidanian saying she accidentally stabbed her 40-year-old husband Bryant Fidanian at their home, the statement said adding he died a short time later at the hospital.
Fidanian gave multiple statements regarding the incident which centered on her either tripping or slipping while holding a filet knife in one hand and her dog in the other. In one explanation, she said she was washing dishes and ran toward her husband, and in another, she said she was slicing pizza at the time. She also told them she was wearing a black and red flannel robe when the incident happened, according to a report in WFLA an NBC-affiliated television station.
When Polk County Fire Rescue officials arrived at the scene, she said she was slicing pizza and noticed her dog had defecated and urinated in the living room. She told them she went on to clean the mess while holding the knife, slipped and fell on to her husband, a report in Fox News said.
The woman even attempted to demonstrate her claim, but was unable to pick up the knife as she was holding the dog, the statement said. The investigators did not find any traces of feces or urine in the living room or on the clothes she said she was wearing. Finally, they determined all her explanations to be false.
"The suspect made a lot of excuses, but none of them made sense. Our detectives did a thorough investigation. In the end, they determined this was an intentional act of domestic violence. Incidentally, her arrest occurred during Domestic Violence Awareness Month," Grady Judd, Polk County sheriff, said.
The Medical Examiner who performed the autopsy on her husband’s body found that four inches of the blade cut through the man’s second rib bone (left side) and cut the pulmonary artery, which ultimately resulted in his death. The death was ruled as a homicide.
According to a report in Miami Herald, Fidanian described her marriage as “wonderful” to investigators and claimed she and her husband rarely argued. However, investigators found seven calls were made to the sheriff’s office from the address since 2016, including one that led to the arrest of her husband, and a handful of witnesses in the area reported loud fights from the home.
Fidanian was arrested at her residence Wednesday and was transported to the Polk County Jail.
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