Neighbors tell ABC-7 Johnson was acting erratic days before stabbing

Mandy Renee Johnson has been charged with stabbing and killing her husband, Eric Word in their Northeast El Paso home Sunday.

Police say Johnson’s 5-year-old daughter is the one who told police her father was dead and that the blood in their apartment was his.

Johnson, 31, has been charged with murder and is being held on a $1 million bond.

Word was found lying outside their apartment complex covered in blood.

Police say he was stabbed once in the stomach and once in the chest.

Neighbors tell ABC-7 Johnson had been acting erratically and that she and her husband had been arguing since Wednesday.

“Sometimes she seemed to be level-headed(but) other times it seemed like she was really having a bad day. She’d be yelling and screaming, slamming doors, yelling at the kids, yelling at neighbors” said Johnson’s friend, Kim Watson.

Watson says Johnson and Word had been arguing because she wasn’t taking her medicine.

“She didn’t like to take her medication. She didn’t like the way it made her feel,” said Watson.

Police say Word knocked on several neighbor’s doors looking for help after he was stabbed. When officers arrived they found Word bleeding from the stomach and chest. He died at the hospital. At the time police didn’t know the victim’s name but they followed a blood trail to Johnson’s home.

The police report states Johnson told police a man had come looking for her husband and they left together.

“I knew something was up because she was acting really weird,” said neighbor Hazel Klippstein

Klippstein says Johnson had told them she was concerned that a man had stabbed her husband.

“She was worried that something happened to Eric when in all actuality she had stabbed him,” said Watson.

Watson said at first Johnson was crying but then she appeared calm and asked for a favor.

“She came to my house looking for cleaning supplies. I offered her some bleach and she said no she needed something different so she left and took off to Walmart. She bought cleaning supplies and came back and the whole time police and detectives were here,” said Watson.

Police noticed Johnson was cleaning her apartment. When they took her into custody.

One neighbor remembered Johnson had found a large kitchen knife last week:

“A pretty wide-blade knife. She picked it up and said ‘Ahh this is perfect. Now I can kill somebody with it,” said Klippstein.

Police say during the ride to the detention facility Johnson told officers she had been trying to get rid of her husband because he was constantly mistreating her.

Neighbors tell ABC-7 the saddest part about all of this is that Eric Word was a good man. They say he was always cleaning, was very respectful and above all was a good father.