Audrey Eve Cahow’s temper always seemed to have a low flashpoint.
She once stabbed her husband five times when he wagged his finger at her. Years later, she chased a nurse in a hospital with a 16-inch blade. And recently over a minor feud, she threatened a neighbor with a knife.
On Thursday afternoon, Cahow, 51, was involved in another violent conflict. Authorities say she killed Anthony Martinez, 62, by stabbing him in the heart with a knife at a Denver apartment. It was not clear what provoked the fight.
Cahow, who also suffered stab wounds, is being held for investigation of first-degree murder in the intensive-care unit of Denver Health Medical Center, said Capt. Frank Gale, Denver County Jail spokesman.
“I don’t know how she was stabbed,” Gale said.
Cahow has been in and out of several halfway houses and has served probation, jail and prison terms the past 21 years for numerous assaults, records show. But no amount of therapy or punishment was able to stop her pattern of violence, according to those who know her.
“She didn’t want help,” said Richard Cahow, 49, the son of one of Cahow’s four previous husbands.
Richard Cahow said that instead of taking medications for bipolar disorder, Audrey Cahow drank alcohol and used drugs. Despite a pattern of assaults, her court punishments never seemed to match her crimes, he said.
Cahow was charged with first-degree assault after stabbing her third husband, Paul Vaughn, then 62, on July 10, 1987. The charge was dismissed in a deal in which she pleaded guilty to second-degree assault. She was sentenced to two years probation and sent to a halfway house for treatment.
“(Cahow) denied that she had done nothing wrong and needed no help,” said her case manager, Rustie Rojahn, in a 1988 letter to a judge.
On June 2, 1990, Cahow told police she stabbed Vaughn five times in the back and the side.
“I did it. . . . He was pointing his finger in my face,” according to a police report.
Cahow was charged with attempted murder but pleaded down to second-degree assault. She was sentenced to six years of intensive probation on Oct. 15, 1990.
Cahow married Richard Cahow Sr., who recently died, in 1991 while she was on probation. Of their 12 years of marriage, she was in halfway houses, jail or prison for drunken driving, drug-related crimes, domestic violence and assault for all but about two of those years, Richard Cahow said.
Once he found his father sitting on Cahow in the front lawn in front as she flailed her arms and kicked wildly.
“She very much had a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde personality,” he said.
On May 17, 1995, she was charged with assault, making threats and brandishing a weapon. She was sentenced to six months in jail.
On Feb. 15, 1999, Cahow “snuck” into St. Joseph’s Hospital, police said, and chased a nurse with a 16-inch knife, threatening to kill anyone who got in the way. Cahow was charged with felony menacing with a deadly weapon.
She was sentenced to five years’ intensive probation and later served 18 months in prison when she violated her probation.
“The defendant is very much out of control,” a probation report said.
On July 22, 2004, Cahow threatened to kill a neighbor and chased her with a knife. She was sentenced to 10 days in jail.
“You can’t change someone who doesn’t want to be changed,” Richard Cahow said.
Kirk Mitchell: 303-954-1206 or kmitchell@denverpost.com
