Woman stabbed to death at Indiana hospital, body found at her home

  (Reuters) - A patient was stabbed to death at a northwest Indiana hospital and a man believed to be her husband was found later stabbed to death at their home in the nearby city of Gary, Indiana, authorities said on Friday.

A suspect in the killings of the elderly couple, a man believed to be in his 40s, has been taken into custody in Gary, police said. Police said they are still investigating the relationship between the murder victims and the suspect.

"We do have one person in custody who we think is responsible for those acts," Gary Police Chief Wade Ingram told a news conference, adding that the suspect knew the two victims.

Margarine Haywood, 80, and James Haywood, 88, were both stabbed multiple times, the Lake County Coroner's office said.

Police were called to Methodist Hospitals Southlake Campus in Merrillville, Indiana, early Friday morning after reports of an assault on a patient, said Robert Wiley, chief of detectives for Merrillville police.

The officers found hospital staffers attending to a woman in a hospital room who had been stabbed multiple times, Wiley said. The hospital was locked down and searched, he said.

Gary Police then went to the woman's home, forced entry and found the man believed to be the woman's husband, Ingram said.

Ingram and Wiley said the suspect was later located at another Gary residence and taken into custody. They did not say how he was identified.

The hospital reopened after the man was taken into custody.

(Reporting by David Bailey in Minneapolis; Editing by Susan Heavey)

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