June 30, 2021- 12:13 p.m.
The man prosecutors say fled the state on a Greyhound bus after he allegedly fatally stabbed his wife in Woodbury and left her dead body in a house full of children has been charged in Washington County District Court.
McKinley Phillips, 39, was charged Saturday with one count of second-degree murder with a dangerous weapon.
According to the criminal complaint, officers from the Woodbury Public Safety Department were called to a house in the 7500 block of Steepleview Road for a welfare check around 3:40 p.m. Friday.
A woman who said she was Phillips’ mother called 911 to report that her son had called her to confess he had killed his wife and that her body was in the basement of their home. She also said there were “six or seven children” in the house, ranging in ages from 5 to 15, according to the criminal complaint.
The woman later told an officer that Phillips “told her he had beaten and stabbed his wife,” the complaint states.
According to police records, Woodbury police had been called to the house three times in the past two months on domestic-related incidents. “During these previous contacts, the responding officers noted that Phillips appeared to be intoxicated and was hostile to the officers,” the complaint states.
After police responded on Friday and set up a perimeter and assembled a tactical team, they ordered all of the occupants to come outside. A short time later, six children exited the home, according to the complaint.
“Officers interviewed the children who stated that their mother and stepfather, who they identified as Phillips, were not home,” the complaint states. “Tactical officers made entry to the home and located an obviously deceased female in the basement.”
The 42-year-old woman was later identified as the children’s mother and Phillips’ wife; she had what appeared to the officers to be multiple stab wounds, according to the complaint.
