Victims, Attacker Identified in Stabbing

Two people were attacked in their Douglas Flat home this morning by a knife – wielding woman.

Calaveras County Sheriff deputies say 53 year old Steve Neth and 49 year old Maria Estella Costa were attacked in their home on the 18-hundred block Ironwood court around 6 this morning.

When deputies arrived, they found 41 year-old Rebecca Sue Steele brandishing a knife and threatening officers with a broken table leg. They had to subdue the armed woman.

The wounded couple fled to a neighbor´s home. Neth suffered slash wounds to the face and head, while Costa had been stabbed several times in the back. She was medi-flighted by to Doctors Hospital in Modesto for treatment.

Steele was arrested in connection with the stabbing, and is being charged with attempted murder, as well as resisting arrest and stabbing a pet cat. She is being held on 540-thousand dollars in Calaveras County jail.