Woman, 69, found fatally stabbed near Gig Harbor

PURDY, Wash. (AP) — A Pierce County sheriff's spokesman says a 69-year-old woman was found fatally stabbed in her home after officers traced an abandoned Ford Explorer.

Sheriff's spokesman Ed Troyer says deputies found the vehicle Monday north of Gig Harbor.

A deputy who went to the registered owner's address found the yard overgrown with vegetation but lights were on in the home. The dead woman was inside. Troyer says the house was ransacked and it appeared the woman had been there "an extended period of time."

An autopsy Tuesday determined she had been stabbed. Her name was not immediately released.