Video Shows Woman Being Beheaded in Broad Daylight by Male Attacker
A video captured a 55-year-old woman being decapitated by an attacker who then threw her body into the street.
The attack occurred on Wednesday around 2:30 p.m. local time in Shakopee, Minnesota. Video circulating online reportedly showed the woman, America Mafalda Thayer, being beheaded by a male attacker before he dumped her body on the road.
"We are aware that a bystander took a video of this incident," Shakopee Police Chief Jeff Tate told Bring Me the News, a Minnesota news website. "We have that video. It is deeply disturbing that the first instinct was to post that on social media."
Police found Thayer's head laying next to her body near a car, KMSP-TV reported. They then found a knife sheath in a nearby yard and a knife in a nearby alley trash can.
Soon after, police apprehended a 42-year-old man named Alexis Saborit on suspicion of second-degree murder. Police believe Saborit was in a long-term relationship with Thayer, and that this wasn't a random act of violence, WCCO-TV reported.
While Saborit is being held at the Scott County Jail, he hasn't been charged as of Thursday afternoon, according to the Scott County Attorney's Office. Court records revealed that Saborit was previously convicted of gross misdemeanor domestic assault. In U.S. law, gross misdemeanors are considered more serious than regular misdemeanor crimes.
Thayer was a Cuban immigrant who worked at the local Dollar Tree and MyPillow in Shakopee. Domestic abuse had been an ongoing problem between her and Saborit, a coworker told SW News Media.
Jamie Worley, a coworker friend of Thayer's said she was kind and soft-spoken.
"Went to the store and got her a rose and a teddy bear to put on her desk," Thayer said, narrating his day at MyPillow following Thayer's murder. "When I got there, I didn't even look at any other of my coworkers. I just stood at her desk with my head down. Everyone was just crying. It was a very emotional day and it still is."
The police department expressed its appreciation to the agencies who assisted with the murder and its investigation. The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension helped investigate the crime scene. The police department also extended its condolences to Thayer's family.
Approximately one in four women and one in nine men experience severe intimate partner physical violence, according to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence.
Nearly half of the women murdered in the U.S. from 2008 to 2018 were killed by a current or former intimate partner, The Washington Post wrote in a 2018 article. In an analysis of five cities, nearly a third of the male murderers were known to be a potential threat ahead of the attack.
Newsweek contacted the Shakopee Police Department for comment.
