Oct. 29, 2004, 11:49PM
A north Harris County woman was on the run Friday, accused of cutting off her boyfriend's penis with a kitchen knife while he was sleeping, sheriff's detectives said.
The severed organ has not been found since the attack about 11 a.m. Thursday at the woman's home in the area of West Mount Houston and Airline.
The victim, 33, is in Ben Taub General Hospital and is expected to survive. Eighty percent of his penis was severed, detectives said.
The Harris County Sheriff's Department declined to release the couple's names because the woman has not been charged. Detectives expect to charge her with aggravated assault this weekend, after they are able to interview the victim. The man was heavily medicated Friday, recovering from surgery.
The woman, 45, told detectives she cut the man because he had been unfaithful in the past and had physically abused her.
But he was not abusing her when the attack occurred, sheriff's Lt. Ruben Diaz said.
Despite the court order, the woman invited the boyfriend to her home Thursday, claiming she wanted to borrow his truck, Diaz said. The man works a night shift, and after he arrived, went to bed.
"There was no argument," Diaz said. Later in the morning, the victim was awakened by a sharp pain.
"He sees the bed full of blood, he immediately looks down and knows what's going on," Diaz said. "She's standing in the room. She's still there, staring at him."
The woman's sister and 22-year-old daughter heard the man's screams, ran into the room and saw the blood, detectives said. They drove him to Doctors Hospital Parkway in the 200 block of West Parker Road near the North Freeway. The woman with the knife refused to help them, Diaz said.
Because that hospital did not have the facilities to treat such a severe injury, the victim was moved to Ben Taub, where his condition was then stabilized, Diaz said.
The woman later spoke with detectives after her daughter reached her on a cellular phone. She refused to come back to the house, Diaz said.
"She claims once they loaded him up, she goes out on the back porch and throws the part away, but doesn't really say what happened to it. We can't find it anywhere," Diaz said.
Deputies searched for the penis for hours after the woman's daughter and sister gave them permission to look around the house. Also missing is the knife, which the woman told investigators she dumped while walking toward Little York.
"Whether those two scenarios are factual, we're still trying to determine," Diaz said.
The couple had lived together in the United States for about four years, but are not believed to be legally married, Diaz said. Detectives say she still is married to another man in her homeland of El Salvador, where she makes frequent visits. They said she may be headed there. Authorities have found no evidence the woman has a criminal record.
Lorena Bobbitt, an immigrant from Venezuela, cut off her husband's penis as he slept, then threw it out a car window as she fled their Manassas, Va., home. Police later found the severed part, which was surgically reattached. Lorena Bobbitt, who claimed her husband had abused her, later was found not guilty by reason of insanity.
"There's a difference between this and the Bobbitt case — the part cannot be found," Diaz said Friday.