Full Notification

An arrest is pending in an incident where three people were hospitalized after a domestic violence stabbing and subsequent car crash that started in Rio Nido. The call came into Sheriff’s Dispatch on January 8^th shortly after 9:30 PM. When a dispatch answered the 911 line the caller promptly hung up. The 911 screen indicated the call originated from a residence in the 15000 block of Rio Nido Road in Rio Nido, just east of Guerneville.
 
Deputies responded to the home to check the welfare of the occupants. Upon arrival they found the front door closed, lights on and a dog barking inside. There was a key in the dead bolt lock on the front of the door. Fearing something was wrong, deputies announced their presence and entered the home where they found a blood drops throughout the home. Deputies searched the home but couldn’t find anyone present.
 
Neighbors were able to provide names of the residents and one person stated they heard a woman yelling in the home about five minutes prior to the deputies’ arrival. As the home was being secured a third deputy found a car crash on River Road near Woolsey Rd. The deputy found two people ejected from the roll-over crash. One man who had been ejected was confirmed to be the resident of the Rio Nido home, a 31-year-old man, and had suffered what appeared to be multiple stab wounds to his chest, hands and face. As a victim of domestic violence, his name cannot be released to the media. The driver and two passengers were transported by ambulance to local hospitals with significant injuries.
 
Detectives from the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office investigated the incident and determined that Heidi Allen, a 43-year-old Guerneville woman was heavily intoxicated and asleep at the Rio Nido home when she was woken up by a domestic violence incident between Jennifer Skelton, 43 and her 31-year-old boyfriend who both live in the Rio Nido home. During the incident it is believed that Skelton stabbed her boyfriend with a kitchen knife at least one time. Several knives were located in the home and collected as evidence.
 
Needing medical attention, Allen started to drive Skelton’s boyfriend and Skelton to the hospital in her white Acura SUV but crashed her car on River Rd near Woolsey Rd. The car flipped over and Skelton and her boyfriend were not seat belted in the rear seat. They were both ejected from the rear windows of the vehicle. All three were hospitalized as a result of their injuries.
 
CHP is charging Allen as a suspect in a felony DUI crash. Skelton and her boyfriend were also heavily intoxicated at the time.
 
Sheriff’s Detectives have secured a warrant for Skelton’s arrest charging her with felony domestic violence and assault with a deadly weapon. She will be subject to arrest when she has recovered from her injuries and released from the hospital.