Crime & Courts

Fairbanks woman suspected in fatal stabbing also stabbed victim 4 years ago, police say

A Fairbanks woman who police and state troopers say is the prime suspect in two stabbings this week – one of them fatal – four years ago stabbed the same man police say she just killed.

Lindsay Preshaw, 35, was identified by Fairbanks police as the suspect in the death Tuesday of John Thomas "Jack" Preshaw, 43, at a residence on South Cushman Street in the Interior city. In news reports four years ago regarding the earlier stabbing, Jack Preshaw was described as both her fiance and her stepbrother. It is unclear whether they ever married, Fairbanks police spokeswoman Yumi McCulloch said Thursday. Other public records spell her first name as "Lindsey."

At 6:11 a.m. Tuesday, Fairbanks dispatchers got a report of an unconscious man bleeding at a residence. Medics and police arrived to find the man, later identified as Jack Preshaw, dead. Police said they were investigating the death as a homicide.

Wednesday afternoon, just as Fairbanks police were alerting news organizations that they were looking for Lindsay Preshaw, a bloody scene was unfolding outside town.

Lisa Behr, 66, later told troopers she arrived at her home on the Parks Highway, west of Fairbanks, and encountered a female stranger. The woman attacked her from behind and stabbed her over and over, according to a charging document.

"Lisa did not know how many times she was stabbed, but stated that the female was very strong," the document filed in court Thursday said.

Behr got into her 2006 Honda Ridgeline with the woman, who drove a short distance and then let her out, the document said. Behr knocked on doors and eventually got help from a man who stopped. She had to be rushed into surgery for wounds that were life-threatening, troopers said.

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At 9:11 p.m., an off-duty officer from Clear Air Force Base spotted a woman acting strangely. That woman turned out to be Lindsay Preshaw, according to the charging document.

Alaska State Troopers have charged Preshaw with attempted first-degree murder, first-degree assault and vehicle theft in connection with the attack on Behr.

Fairbanks police are working with the Fairbanks District Attorney's Office to investigate the fatal stabbing of Jack Preshaw. In a written statement, police called Lindsay Preshaw "the primary suspect" and said they are not looking for others. They said they expect charges to be filed soon.

In 2014, Preshaw was sentenced to 20 months for stabbing her fiance in the calf with a butcher knife the year before, according to a Fairbanks Daily News-Miner story from the time.

Jack Preshaw told the judge in that case that she had changed and didn't need to go back to jail. He said she was a good mother to their children. In sentencing her in 2014, Superior Court Judge Michael McConahy said he took into account "a history of tumultuous behavior between these two," including accusations that Jack Preshaw had abused her.

Lisa Demer

Lisa Demer was a longtime reporter for the Anchorage Daily News and Alaska Dispatch News. Among her many assignments, she spent three years based in Bethel as the newspaper's western Alaska correspondent. She left the ADN in 2018.

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