Tips lead to Florence woman’s arrest in La Pine stabbing

Thanks to a pair of citizen tips, a Florence woman was found and arrested in the La Pine area Thursday afternoon, hours after allegedly cutting the arm of a friend she was visiting during an argument over a cellphone, Deschutes County sheriff’s deputies said.

Deputies were dispatched around 9:35 a.m. to the 5200 block of Dorrance Meadow Road for a reported stabbing, said sheriff’s Sgt. William Bailey. The initial information indicated the suspect, Lisa Ruth Dixon, 40, had left in a car before deputies arrived.

Bailey said investigators determined Dixon had arrived at a home earlier Thursday morning to visit the 36-year-old victim.

After several hours, an argument enused over a cellphone, during which Dixon allegedly cut the man’s arm with a box-cutting knife, then left a short time later by car, Bailey said.

La Pine Fire medics treated the man at the scene for an approximately three-inch cut to his right forearm.

Deputies assisted by Oregon State Police searched the area for Dixon but were unable to find her, the sergeant said.

Around 4:20 p.m., a citizen familiar with the incident spotted Dixon driving on Sixth Street, southwest of La Pine, and called dispatchers. Deputies, OSP troopers and a K-9 team with the BLM headed to the scene, but before they arrived. Dixon stopped her car in the area of Sixth Street and Riverland Road and walked away, Bailey said.

A short time later, another citizen called dispatchers and reported seeing Dixon on Mitchell Road. Deputies found her at the intersection of Sixth Street and Mitchell Road and took her into custody without incident, Bailey said.

Dixon was taken to the county jail in Bend, where she was held on $70,000 bail, facing charges of second-degree assault, unlawful use of a weapon, menacing and a misdemeanor charge of driving with a suspended license.

Drugs are believed to be a factor in the crime, Bailey said.

The sergeant said the sheriff’s office wanted to thank OSP, the BLM and the citizens of La Pine who helped deputies find and arrest Dixon.