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A suspect has been arrested for beheading a young mother Thursday morning outside her home in San Carlos. San Mateo County Sheriff’s office says the man was in a relationship with the woman. Deputies were flagged down by witnesses around 11:50 a.m. near Magnolia Avenue and Laurel Street. Once the deputies arrived, they found the woman dead at the scene.
"The deputies that first arrived on the scene were a little beset by the scene," Lt. Eamonn Allen of the sheriff's office said. "We are providing them peer support, we are also providing support for the witnesses that were on scene as well, because there were several civilian witnesses."
Shortly after the murder, deputies say the suspect returned to the scene and was then detained. The suspect has been identified as Jose Rafael Solano Landaeta, age 33. The woman is 25-year-old Karina Castro.
Adrienne Murray says she knew the mother.
"What a sweet girl. She didn't deserve this mess. She had two little children, struggling every day like the rest of us," said Murray. "And her boyfriend wasn't bad looking, nice, it seemed like they got along, but they didn't."
She said Castro was near her car when her boyfriend approached her.
"She was putting (her children) in her car and raised her head -- and he cut her head off and her children saw everything," Murray said.