Kelowna woman stabbed, attacked by woman in her own home

A Kelowna, B.C., woman is sharing her story about being attacked by a stranger in her home.

Tanya Gonzales is still in the hospital after being attacked on Saturday afternoon.

She was stabbed multiple times during what police have described as a home invasion.

“Still in pain and in shock but better than yesterday,” Gonzales told Global News on Monday.

“As far as I remember we were just moving desks outside, going to the basement where our room was.”

Gonzales left a door open at their Kelgen Crescent home and that is when police say the suspect attacked Gonzales before being confronted by another family member.

A few hours later, 24-year-old Morgan Marie Smith was arrested and later charged with aggravated assault.

She remains in custody and is scheduled to appear in court on Tuesday.

2:12 Suspicious fire destroys Kelowna house

Marie Escabarte lives with Gonzales and said the experience has left the whole family shaken.

Get daily National news

Get the day's top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day.

Sign up for daily National newsletter Sign Up

By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy.

“The first night we slept around 5 a.m.,” she said. “We were all just waiting in the dining room for morning to come.”

Escabarte said she had no idea why the attack happened.

She said her children saw Gonzales after the attack when she was bleeding from her wounds.

“She was stabbed five times,” Escabarte said.

She added that they are considering moving after what happened as they feel so unsafe.

2:08 Kelowna neighbours concerned with temporary housing development

Bonnie Mackenzie lives in the area.

“It’s a little bit frightening,” she said. “Yeah. I think this is a safe neighbourhood.”

Kaytlyn Greeno was home on Saturday afternoon and saw some of the police activity on her street.

“There was probably about, I want to say, eight to 10 cop cars,” she said. “Half of them were undercover, the other half were regular cop cars. And then the ambulance showed up probably five minutes after that. But they had a police officer and a K-9 out there out looking around for whatever they were looking for.

“It was kind of crazy.”

RCMP told Global News they will not be commenting until after the suspect appears in court.