Husband stabs estranged wife to death in Santa Clarita home, authorities say

A woman was stabbed to death inside her Santa Clarita home early Thursday, and authorities have taken her estranged husband into custody, officials with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said.

Deputies arrived at a home in the 22800 block of Fir Court in Santa Clarita around 5:10 a.m. Thursday to find a woman with stab wounds clinging to life.

“Prior to dying, she identified her estranged husband ... as the person who stabbed her,” Lt. Barry Hall told ABC-TV Channel 7. Department spokesman Miguel Meza initially identified the suspect, James Mathew Dorsey, 41, of Washington, as the woman’s ex-husband.

“We don’t know if he forced his way into the house or she allowed him inside,” Meza said.

Dorsey was believed to have driven from Washington on Wednesday in order to kill the woman, who was not identified, authorities said. She was taken to a hospital, where she was pronounced dead, according to a department news release.

Three children inside the house at the time of the attack were not harmed, officials said. Dorsey fled afterward, homicide detectives said, prompting a manhunt.

Nearly 12 hours after the killing, authorities tracked Dorsey to Neenach, in northern Los Angeles County, where he barricaded himself in a white Chevy Malibu on the side of a road. News video showed him shaking a knife at deputies from inside the car.

A crisis negotiation team was called, and after a nearly five-hour standoff, Dorsey was arrested peacefully, according to a Sheriff’s Department statement. He was booked on suspicion of murder, Deputy Grace Medrano said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.