$1 million bail for Mill Creek man suspected of killing wife

MILL CREEK — She tried to pull her father off her mother.

He was holding her mother down, punching her as the woman screamed for help, the couple’s daughter told detectives. Then he allegedly retrieved a knife and plunged it into his wife’s chest.

“After my mom was stabbed, she looked lifeless and it was like her soul was leaving her body,” the daughter told police.

Matt Alton, 52, appeared briefly Wednesday in Everett District Court. He was being held for investigation of first-degree domestic violence murder. A judge set bail at $1 million.

Police received a call Tuesday around 4:20 a.m. Someone reportedly was screaming in the hallway and banging on doors at the Heatherwood Apartments in Mill Creek, according to a probable cause affidavit.

The person screaming was the couple’s daughter. She told a neighbor her father had stabbed her mother.

Officers spotted Alton outside the apartment complex and took him into custody. When they went upstairs, the apartment door was unlocked. A woman, 66, was lying on a bed with a knife in her chest.

The daughter told police her parents began arguing in the middle of the night. She shared a bedroom with her parents. The fighting woke her up.

When she looked over, she saw her father punching her mother. He was holding her down, so that she couldn’t escape, according to court documents.

Alton eventually left the room and returned with a knife, according to court papers. He reportedly stabbed his wife in the chest and said, “There you go.”

Their daughter screamed for help. Other family members lived in the apartment, but no one came. She ran out into the hall to seek help from neighbors.

Alton’s sister told police he said something about feeling guilty and that he was going outside to meet police. That was when officers arrested him.

Police said Alton had blood on his forehead, inside his ears, on his feet and on his shirt. He also had a cut on his right pinkie finger.

His daughter told investigators that Alton had been abusive to his wife in the past “but nothing had been reported to the police because of cultural reasons,” the detective wrote.

Caitlin Tompkins: 425-339-3192; ctompkins@heraldnet.com