A Florida man has been arrested after police claimed he killed his girlfriend and tried to cover it up as a suicide.
Deputies recently responded to an apartment in St. Petersburg after an individual called 911 and said a woman stabbed herself and died, according to the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office Patrol Operations Bureau.
Once at the scene, deputies found 50-year-old Nafa Secic dead in her bedroom with stab wounds to her chest, abdomen and back.
The victim’s boyfriend, 53-year-old Rifet Redzic, told authorities that he woke up to the victim grabbing a knife from the kitchen, and she then started stabbing herself in the bedroom, according to the sheriff's office.
Redzic told officials that he tried but failed to stop Secic from harming herself.
Further investigation determined Secic’s wounds were not self-inflicted, and investigators believe Redzic stabbed the victim multiple times.
According to the sheriff’s office, Redzic “initially maintained the claim that Secic stabbed herself," but he then went on "to provide detectives with inconsistent statements."
Redzic eventually admitted to stabbing Secic in the back, but he claims the stab wounds to her chest and abdomen were self-inflicted, the sheriff's office alleged.
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Redzic was arrested and charged with first-degree murder, authorities said.
He was booked into the Pinellas County jail.
