Woman found after 13-hour search

The search for a Carson City woman who stabbed herself after a dispute Monday night ended Tuesday morning when a detective noticed something odd lying by a fence on Fairview Drive.

Carson Sheriff's Detective Daniel Gonzales had been called out to the scene of the dispute near Fremont Elementary School about midnight, three hours after it began at 9 p.m.

While he and other investigators interviewed witnesses, 16 Search and Rescue members, three Douglas County search dogs, eight deputies, and a Washoe County helicopter scoured a field near Nevada State Prison for hours.

Then, as Gonzales was driving the missing woman's boyfriend to her apartment on California Street for further interviews about 10 a.m., he noticed what he thought was a bag near a fence in the 1100 block of Fairview Drive.

Upon closer inspection, Gonzales found the 49-year-old woman. She was bleeding from two superficial wounds to her chest and a more serious stab wound to her groin.

When asked who stabbed her, said Gonzales, the woman replied, "I did."

Thirteen hours earlier police were called out to a Depot Street home after a tenant reported the girlfriend of the father of her children showed up, knocked on the door, and then stabbed herself in the chest with a large pocket knife.

The tenant pushed her ex-boyfriend and the woman outside the house and called police. The man went to a neighbor's home, said Gonzales.

"Then the victim popped his tires and fled," he said.

A blood trail and a witness led officers to suspect the 49-year-old woman climbed a fence and disappeared into a field adjacent to the prison.

Residents in the generally quiet neighborhood were awakened about 3 a.m. by the beating rotor and blinding spotlight of the Washoe County Sheriff's helicopter, which circled the area for at least an hour.

The proximity to the prison and the use of the prison's spotlights prompted rumors that an inmate had escaped, said Sheriff Ken Furlong.

"We knew people would think that," said Undersheriff Steve Albertsen.

After being located by Gonzales, the woman was taken to Renown Regional Medical Center by a Care Flight helicopter that landed in the parking lot where she was found.

Gonzales said she has a history of emotional instability and was recently in jail on a drunken driving charge.

She was treated and released for her injuries and is expected to undergo a psychological evaluation, said Gonzales.