Poplar Bluff woman stabbed after argument over money

POPLAR BLUFF, Mo. -- An apparent argument over stolen money sent a Poplar Bluff woman to the hospital with multiple stabs wounds and her alleged attacker to jail.

Kristi Lee Berkman, 20, was listed as a patient at Poplar Bluff Regional Medical Center at about 10:30 a.m. today. She told deputies last night she expected to be released this morning.

As Berkman recovers in the hospital, her alleged attacker, Laressa Jean Parsons, 24, of the 300 block of Bartlett, sits in the Butler County jail. She is being held on suspicion of first-degree assault, armed criminal action and unlawful use of a weapon.

Berkman was injured at about 9:15 p.m. Tuesday at a residence on Old Highway B.

"An oral argument over $223 dollars that (Parsons) had stolen from somebody's vehicle" ensued when Parsons was confronted about the alleged theft, explained Butler County Deputy Kellis Thompson. "That's when she came out of the house with a knife and stabbed (Berkman)."

Parsons allegedly stabbed Berkman multiple times before "other people stepped in and took the knife away," Thompson said. The incident, he said, took place at a residence, just outside the city limits, belonging to a friend of both women.

While taking photographs of Berkman's injury, Thompson said, he saw she had suffered six or seven stab wounds.

"There could have been more," Thompson said. "I didn't ask the doctor. He was working on her, and I didn't want to interfere in what he was doing."

One of the wounds, Thompson said, was in the chest, below the breast plate, on the left side. It appeared to be "pretty close to the heart; I don't know how deep it was," he said.

At this time, Thompson said, the investigation is ongoing. "We feel other people, other family members, were involved" and additional charges may be possible, he said.

Pertinent address:

Poplar Bluff, Mo.