Police: Arrest made in fatal Marshfield stabbing

MARSHFIELD, Mass. -- A man was arrested on Monday after he allegedly fatally stabbed his former girlfriend in a Marshfield apartment building.

Police said a dispute between Marcello Almeida and his former girlfriend, Patricia Frios, turned deadly on Monday. Almeida is accused of stabbing Frios, 24, to death in the building where the couple once lived. Almeida is mortally wounded.

“He caught her on the stairs and stabbed her and he stabbed himself also,” said Cheri Howell, a neighbor. “He had told her that he was going to take her life and his too.”

Almeida is allegedly an illegal alien. The Plymouth County District Attorney, Timothy Cruz, said he has no record of Almeida being in the country illegally and the visa number on his passport traces back to a woman in Kuwait.

Family members said the suspect had been estranged from Frios.

“Recently the victim was staying at another apartment in the complex,” said Cruz.

On Monday morning, Frios went upstairs to the apartment that she shared with Almeida to get some things. She thought he had left for the day, but he hadn’t.

“She’s a wonderful person,” said Claudia Da Silveria, the victim’s cousin. “She’s very hard worker, she’s wonderful.”

Police responded quickly and K9 units followed a blood trail coming from the apartment building to where Almeida was hiding in a shed. State police helicopters searched the air as officers stopped cars looking for the suspect.

A man on School Street watched the scene unfold from his window.

“Ten or 12 cops were running through the backyard here,” said Greg Natale, a witness. “A couple of them raising their arms like, ‘Hooray! We got him.’”

A reverse 911 call shook quiet neighborhoods and three schools went into lock down during the search for Almeida.

“We weren’t allowed to go outside, so we didn’t have picture day,” said Nora Byrne, a kindergartener at one of the schools that went into lock down on Monday.

Almeida could be arraigned on Tuesday in his hospital bed at South Shore Hospital. The victim’s cousin said Almeida is in a coma. The cousin said not only was Almeida an illegal alien, but the victim was as well.

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