EVERETT — A Marysville man is now charged with first-degree assault for reportedly stabbing his estranged wife up to 20 times after learning that she planned to divorce him.
Nathan Robert Bradford, 45, found divorce papers Oct. 28 while going through the woman’s car. He tore them up in her presence, Snohomish County deputy prosecutor Teresa Cox said.
The defendant initially told the woman, 30, that he “hoped she would die in a fiery crash,” Cox said in Snohomish County Superior Court papers.
He left her house, but came back with one of his custom-made knives.
He said “her parents would take good care of the kids and that he wanted to see her die,” Cox said.
The woman remembers a struggle, then multiple blows. She awoke in the back seat of Bradford’s car as he drove her to an Everett hospital.
The defendant dropped her off and drove away, Cox said.
Bradford then called the woman’s friends and family, asking them to go to her home to make sure the children were safe.
He reportedly told them that he’d tried to kill the woman.
“I hurt her. I hurt her bad,” Bradford is quoted in court papers as telling one witness. He also talked about ending his life.
Bradford was later found in Whatcom County, about 40 miles north, parked in an SUV along Chuckanut Drive. There was a tube attached to the exhaust pipe and into the car, in what police say was an apparent suicide attempt.
While being evaluated at an area hospital, the defendant asked if “she” was OK, Cox wrote. “Good,” he reportedly responded when a detective said he thought that was the case.
The charges were filed Tuesday. Bradford has been ordered jailed unless he can post $500,000 bail. The divorce action commenced Nov. 2.
A search of the man’s car turned up knives and bloody clothing, including a T-shirt that matched the one the woman’s attacker wore when he dropped her off at the hospital.
It was blue, with a Superman logo.
Scott North: 425-339-3431; north@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @snorthnews.
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