A National City man is grieving after his wife of 35 years was brutally stabbed to death in their home, a crime that police say was carried out by a stranger who lingered in the neighborhood before attacking. On Wednesday, Ernest Taylor returned to his Division Street home, where he and his wife Wanda had lived since 1996, to find a scene he describes as horrifying.
“My whole upstairs is all disheveled, and the kitchen. He took pictures off the wall — house portraits of my wife and grandkids — and put them in my recycle bin,” Taylor told NBC 7. Inside, he discovered his wife wrapped in a blanket with blood on the floor. Standing over her was the suspected killer, 30-year-old Noel Trevino.
“He was right there. He was pacing up, he was like mumbling like crazy words. That’s why I just left, and I saw my wife lying down underneath a blanket,” Taylor said. Police say surveillance video from outside the home shows the assault began in the driveway as Wanda tried to enter the side door, local ABC affiliate KGTV reported.
Trevino can be seen approaching from behind and making a stabbing motion before forcing her inside. According to Taylor, the suspect arrived around 10:30 a.m., the same time Wanda left for a veterinarian appointment. “Apparently, he was posing as a man who was trying to solicit. He had a clipboard and everything,” Taylor said.
Neighbor Linda Jeppson noticed Trevino loitering nearby for at least 45 minutes while she was outside with her son. “I got uneasy because he just continued to stay there and stare at me,” she recalled. About 20 minutes after she went back inside, the attack unfolded.
Taylor called 911 at 2:15 p.m. By the time officers arrived, Trevino fled on foot. He was later captured less than a block away, strapped to a gurney, and transported by ambulance.
Wanda Taylor, 71, was a retired contract analyst for the San Diego Unified School District. Her husband described her as kind, thoughtful, and passionate about local theater. “He was just like a man that was out of it,” Taylor said of the suspect, still in shock from the attack.
Family friend Barbara Stone summed up the tragedy: “Just to have somebody, a random person, come into your house and stab you. This lady didn’t have a chance. These are good people, and they are God fearing people. It hurts.” Police say there is no known connection between Trevino and Wanda Taylor.