A Woman and Her Roommate Were Brutally Slain — and Police Say Ex-Boyfriend Is the Killer By Christine Pelisek

A 29-year-old man has been accused of what authorities described as the “horrific” murders of his girlfriend and their roommate.

Marvin Ortiz-Montecinos was charged Friday, Sept. 12, with two counts of first-degree murder with deadly weapon enhancements in connection with the deaths of Victoria Aparicio Cruz and Yaneth Gomez-Hernandez.

According to charging documents obtained by PEOPLE, Ortiz-Montecinos is accused of using a filet knife to stab his girlfriend Cruz, “slicing through her neck, slicing her hands in multiple places as she tried to defend herself, and stabbing her multiple times in the back even after she was clearly unresponsive and deceased.”

Prosecutors allege that an hour before the attack, Ortiz-Montecinos “complained about Victoria breaking up with him,” per the documents.

Gomez-Hernandez, who was roommates with the couple, was found naked with a towel covering part of her leg, per the documents. “It appears victim Yaneth Gomez-Hernandez, the defendant’s roommate, was violently and cruelly murdered simply for trying to intervene,” according to the documents.

Gomez-Hernandez suffered 43 stab wounds.

Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Sign up for PEOPLE’s free True Crime newsletter for breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases.

The documents states that “both women received neck wounds so large and deep it appears clear that the defendant was attempting to slice and saw at his victims, and not simply stab them.”

The King County Sheriff’s Office was called by a neighbor to the Montrose apartments in Burien, Wash., around 9:30 p.m. on Sept. 8.

The neighbor told deputies that he found Ortiz-Montecinos covered in blood and lying in the grass. He was taken to the hospital after deputies “located multiple injuries that appeared to be consistent with penetrating stab wounds on the back of his head, his chest, and on his back,” according to the documents.

While at the scene, deputies observed a trail of blood leading to a third-floor apartment. Inside the apartment, deputies located Cruz and Gomez-Hernandez lying on the bedroom floor “completely soaked in blood,” per the documents.

According to the documents, Ortiz-Montecinos spoke to detectives at Harborview Medical Center and claimed that an “unknown Black male” attacked the two women while he was asleep and then stabbed him in the back, stomach and back of the head.

“Marvin claimed he did not see the weapon used to stab him, nor did he have any further details about the Black male who stabbed him,” states the documents. “He then claimed the Black male then fled the apartment through the front door, leaving the front door open. Marvin then left the apartment, through the open door, to find help.”

Per the documents, King County sheriff’s detectives found “several inconsistencies throughout his interview.”

Detectives noted there was no evidence of forced entry into the home and only “one set of footprints that led from the bedroom where the victims were located to the front door.”

“Lab technicians also located blood on the inside of the deadbolt of the front door of the apartment,” state the documents. “The single set of footprints and the blood on the deadbolt together indicate that the door was manually locked from the inside at the time Marvin — and only Marvin — left the apartment during the incident.”

According to prosecutors, Ortiz-Montecinos claimed he fell asleep on the couch around 7 p.m. However, prosecutors allege he texted Cruz at around 10:25 p.m. which “suggested that not only was Marvin awake at the time, but also that he was not with Victoria and wanted to see her and tell her something.”

Per the documents, Ortiz-Montecinos last texted Cruz approximately 61 minutes before the neighbor called 911.

Deputies searched the apartment grounds and discovered a curved, 7-inch single-sided fillet knife.

He is being held on $10 million bail.

He is scheduled to be arraigned on Thursday, Sept. 18.  

If you are experiencing domestic violence, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233, or go to thehotline.org. All calls are toll-free and confidential. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.