Perryville man accused of stabbing woman

A Perryville, Missouri, man has been charged with stabbing and cutting a woman’s throat Wednesday, Perry County Sheriff Gary Schaaf said.

Jesse Deere, 27, was apprehended by the Perryville Police Department after the attack first was reported to the sheriff’s office, according to a news release.

The sheriff’s office received a 911 call at 5:44 a.m. reporting a woman had been stabbed at an address in the 4200 block of Perry County Road 806.

Deputies and emergency-medical personnel went to the address and found the victim, a 52-year-old Perryville woman, according to the release.

The victim was flown by helicopter to a St. Louis-area hospital with life-threatening injuries, law-enforcement officials said.

Deere has been charged with first-degree assault with intent to do serious physical injury and armed criminal action.

He is being held at the Perry County Jail on $75,000 cash bond only.

Schaaf said a deputy went to an earlier call about a suspicious person in the area. The deputy found Deere a couple of miles from the residence. Deere told the deputy that friends had “abandoned him along the road, and he was just walking back to town,” the sheriff said.

The deputy, having no reason to doubt the story, gave Deere a ride to town, Schaaf said.

The 911 call came in shortly after Deere was dropped off at the sheriff’s office.

“The deputy later asked the Perryville Police Department to locate and apprehend Deere as a person of interest for questioning, which they did,” Schaaf said in the release.

The sheriff said he doesn’t know who called in the suspicious-person report, “but we are glad they did it. Putting him in the area at the beginning of the investigation really helped.”

mbliss@semissourian.com

(573) 388-3641

Pertinent address:

4200 block of Perry County Road 806, Perryville, Mo.