Police in Nashville, Tenn., said they are searching for a Connecticut man in connection with a Friday afternoon stabbing that left a man dead and his wife seriously injured.
On Saturday, the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department posted on social media that arrest warrants have been issued for the man, with charges of murder and attempted murder.
Police are searching for 34-year-old Kent resident Peter Alexander Bohning, according to a press release posted on the department’s website. Bohning was wanted for questioning after his car was found parked outside the victims’ home, police said.
Police said that a man walked up to the West Nashville home of Donald and Leigh Ann Zirkle at about 3:30 p.m. Friday. The couple was sitting on the back porch, 58-year-old Leigh Ann Zirkle told police, when the man, who they did not know, approached and asked for directions.
The man then attacked the couple with a “sharp instrument,” and Leigh Ann Zirkle managed to escape out the home’s front door and into the street. Leigh Ann Zirkle collapsed in the street with multiple wounds, including one to her neck, and her neighbors helped her, police said.
Police said they believe that the suspect then took the couple’s car and fled the scene.
When the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department and the Nashville Fire Department arrived at the couple’s home, they found 59-year-old Donald Zirkle “critically wounded” at the rear of the house. Emergency personnel transported Donald Zirkle to Vanderbilt University Medical Center, where he later died, police said.
Leigh Ann Zirkle was also transported to the hospital with serious injuries, but she survived and was able to communicate with detectives, police said.
At the scene, police found a silver Subaru sedan, registered in Connecticut to Bohning, parked on the side of the house. The rear doors of the sedan had been left open, police said.
Bohning’s whereabouts were not known as of Sunday, police said, and his family in Connecticut told local police that they have not heard from him in several days. Nashville police said Bohning may be in the couple’s vehicle, a gray 2010 Toyota Camry with Tennessee license plate number NP5-937.
Nashville police are asking anyone who sees Bohning or the couple’s Camry to contact local police or call Nashville police at 615-862-8600.
Emily Brindley can be reached at ebrindley@courant.com.
