Husband Finds Wife Slain in New Apartment

A Costa Mesa man returning from work Monday found his wife stabbed to death in the bedroom of the apartment they had just moved into over the weekend, police said.

Police Tuesday were searching for a suspect in the slaying of Malinda Godfrey Gibbons, 22, who was found bound and gagged in the bedroom of an apartment in the 2400 block of Harbor Boulevard that she shared with her husband, Kent W. Gibbons, 25. She bled to death from a stab wound to the chest.

Apartment Has 2 Entrances

“It is unknown how the assailant made entry,” Costa Mesa Police Lt. Rick Johnson said. “There was no sign of forced entry and no indication of a struggle or ransacking. There is no burglary or robbery suspected.”

The one-bedroom apartment, one of several hundred in the complex, is on the ground level and has two entrances: front door and a sliding glass door.

Coroner’s investigators determined the time of death was before noon Monday, police said.

Gibbons told police he last saw his wife alive when he left for work at 8 a.m. Monday. His wife was not employed, police said.

The couple had moved to Southern California from Utah about a month ago, Johnson said. He added that the couple had not even begun to unpack, so unopened moving boxes were piled about the apartment.

Investigators did not find a weapon at the scene and could not determine what type of weapon caused the wound, Johnson said.

The victim’s aorta was severed from the stab wound to the left side of her chest, and she bled to death, he said.

Investigators continued Tuesday evening to look through the apartment for evidence, Johnson said.