Teen saves mother being stabbed with knife in shower

TAYLORSVILLE, N.C. — Police have charged a man with attempted first-degree murder in Alexander County, after they said he tried to stab his wife.

Investigators in Taylorsville told Channel 9 that Timothy Karis stabbed his wife with a butcher knife while she was taking a shower. He appeared before a judge Monday, where his bond was set at a $500,000.

Police said the butcher knife Timothy Karis used during the attack was more than a foot long.

"I had to have plastic surgery on my hand," said his wife, Stefanie Karis.

Stefanie showed Channel 9 the injuries she said she received last weekend inside her home in Taylorsville. She said she can no longer feel her fingers and she has several stab wounds to her neck.

It was in her bathroom where police said her husband attacked her while she was taking a shower.

"He started stabbing me and cussing me and told me I wasn't going to get out of this alive," Stefanie Karis said.

Karis said if not for her 13-year-old son she most likely wouldn't be alive. Police said the teenager intervened and knocked the knife out of Timothy Karis's hand during the assault in the bathroom.

"I'm afraid. I can't get over the fear. I can't get the thought out of my head. The whole night just plays over and over," Stefanie Karis said.

Stefanie Karis showed Channel 9 photographs of the couple in better times. She admitted their relationship was strained and she took out multiple domestic violence orders against her husband.

Police said the most recent order expired just three weeks ago. Stefanie said she didn't try to get another one because she wanted to give her husband another chance.

It is a decision she now regrets. She said she wanted to share her story in hopes of helping other women.

"If you're with someone who is violent, leave, get away. Do what you can because I almost didn't make it," she said.