[UPDATED with Husband Kenneth Finefield Released:] Macaria Finefield, OC Homicide No. 44: Convicted Fatal Stabber is Fatally Stabbed

See the update at the end of this post explaining why the deceased's husband has been released from custody.

ORIGINAL POST, NOV. 5, 12:30 P.M.: Macaria Finefield was accused of killing a pregnant woman by stabbing her in the belly in 1974.

On Saturday, the 71-year-old Santa Ana resident became a fatal stabbing victim herself.

Her husband Kenneth Finefield, 74, is being held on suspicion of murder.

See also:
Mendy Brown, OC Homicide No. 43: Wife and Dog Believed Murdered by Husband Who Then Killed Himself on Halloween
Heather K. Tuiolosega, OC Homicide No. 42: Husband Nelson Tuiolosega, After Suicide Try, Held for Murder
Quee Chadwick, OC Homicide No. 39: Millionaire Peter Gregory Chadwick Held

Santa Ana Police say they received a call from Kenneth Finefield around 3:30 p.m. Saturday to come to his home in the 700 block of South Orange Avenue, where the body of his wife was found in her bed, with a stab wound to her chest. The elderly man was taken to the police station for questioning and booked on the murder rap.

Neighbors reportedly told print and television reporters that the couple had been separated for years but that Macaria Finefield had recently returned to live in the home with her husband.

In 2004, authorities discovered there was an arrest warrant out for Macaria for the 1974 murder of Bertha Hernandez of Tijuana, Mexico, the Orange County Register reports. Macaria is reported to have later testified a pregnant Hernandez had come to live in the Finefield home while searching for her husband, who was believed to be living in Los Angeles. Macaria supposedly explained further she accidentally killed Hernandez with a kitchen knife while trying to deliver her baby after the pregnant woman fell.

Macaria is said to have disposed of the woman's body in Mexico, and prosecutors on this side of the border reportedly declined to pursue charges after discovering she had spent three years in a Mexican prison for the crime. Kenneth Finefield had apparently told authorities his wife had recently been released from a mental institution at the time of Hernandez's death, something Macaria denied.

UPDATE, NOV. 6, 6:17 P.M.: The Santa Ana Police Department says it has released Kenneth Finefield from custody after the Orange County District Attorney's office requested more investigation.

Follow OC Weekly on Twitter @ocweekly or on Facebook!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *