Santa Barbara Police Investigating Woman’s Murder After Reported Domestic Dispute

Santa Barbara police are investigating a murder Wednesday morning.

Officers blocked off an apartment building on the 500 block of West Los Olivos Street near Oak Park Lane. Police say a 39-year-old woman is the victim and a 39-year-old man has been detained.

Their identities have not been released.

Police say the incident was reported just before 2 a.m. as a disturbance. They’re calling it a case of domestic violence.

Neighbors heard “a commotion” and called police. The woman was deceased when a patrol officer arrived. The man was taken into custody and has since been jailed with bail set at $1-million.

Officials say the two are not married but it’s unclear whether they were living together. Police do say they have a 2-year-old girl who is now in the hands of Child Welfare Services.

Detectives spent the day investigating, talking to neighbors and contacting family members.

Police Sgt. Riley Harwood says, “we do believe that this victim had a history of being a victim of domestic violence, and we have that knowledge based on at least one call for service this department had in the past. (Investigators say) there were perhaps other incidents of domestic violence with this victim that were unreported.”

A longtime neighbor Billy Woffard said, ” we all try to watch out for each other in this neighborhood, not too many bad things happen. It’s a shame, definitely a tragedy.”

Woffard said he did not hear any noises in the middle of the night but did see many police units in the morning when he woke up before dawn. It was a shocking scene.

“We have a tight knit group of neighbors. Everyone kind of watches out for each other, everyone says ‘Hi.’ If someone needs help we are there to help,” he said.