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A fight between two roommates escalated into an attack with a butcher knife. It happened in the Utah County community of Cedar Hills on Monday at about 11 p.m. The victim is now in the hospital after undergoing emergency surgery; his attacker is in jail facing charges of aggravated assault.
Police believe the victim will recover, but he suffered very serious injuries when his roommate attacked him, apparently without warning, with a butcher knife.
Sgt. Gregg Ludlow, with the American Fork Police Department, said, "He was stabbed in the neck as well as cut across the neck with a large, kitchen butcher knife."
Investigators say the victim lost a lot of blood, but credit neighbors who heard the attack late at night for coming to the man's rescue and providing first aid until EMTs could get there.
Ludlow said, "The victim is in critical but stable condition, but he is going to be OK."
The man's trachea and arteries were sliced in the attack.
The victim managed to give police a description of his roommate and his car, which the suspect fled in. Police later arrested the suspect in Alpine and are still trying to determine what really motivated the attack.
"We don't know for sure. At this point we're still investigating. They are roommates, and it does appear the altercation had something to do with money, and we're still investigating that," Ludlow said.
Police have identified the suspect as 20-year-old Karl Luedecke. He has been in Utah for only a couple of months, so prosecutors consider him a flight risk. A judge agreed and set his bail at $150,000.
Detectives say they did recover the knife used in the attack.
Charges against Luedecke are expected to include aggravated assault, vehicle theft and obstruction of justice for discarding the knife.
E-mail: spenrod@ksl.com
