Background: Bollenbacher Drive in Salinas, California, where the alleged attack took place (Google Maps). Inset: Devin Wolfgang Vandorhoef (Monterey County Sheriff’s Office).
Two Canadian men were arrested and charged with attempted murder after one of them flew to California from Canada and allegedly stabbed a woman and her boyfriend in her home.
According to the Monterey County Sheriff’s Office, Devin Wolfgang Vandorhoef, 25, had developed “a year’s long obsession” with an unnamed woman he met on an online gaming platform. This culminated in Vandorhoef traveling from his home Canada with his friend, Darius Avery Whyte, also 25, to the woman’s home in Salinas, California.
On Nov. 25, just before 10 p.m., police said that they responded to an address, later confirmed to be the address of the unnamed woman, after several 911 calls came in reporting that someone had been stabbed.
In a release posted to the Monterey County police website, law enforcement alleged that Vandorhoef, posing as an Amazon delivery driver, arrived at the home of the woman he had met online. The woman’s boyfriend answered the door, then Vandorhoef allegedly “forced his way in and began stabbing the boyfriend with a knife resulting in multiple critical injuries.”
The woman grabbed a “sharp metal object” to defend her boyfriend and was allegedly “stabbed and strangled” by Vandorhoef. Both the woman and Vandorhoef sustained injuries that needed to be treated at a nearby hospital.
Vandorhoef had also reportedly shown up with a package as part of his ruse. Inside the package, according to police, were “handcuffs, duct tape, and knives.” The suspect’s plan for these objects was “unknown.”
Whyte was apparently at the scene on the night of the alleged attack and arrested, but claimed that he had no knowledge of what Vandorhoef had planned to do. Police released him, but he was arrested the following morning, Nov. 26, while aboard a plane at the San Jose Mineta International Airport that was set to fly him back to Canada.
Vandorhoef was charged with attempted murder, conspiracy to commit attempted murder, mayhem, stalking, and burglary. Whyte was charged as a coconspirator to Vandorhoef, and faces charges of attempted murder and conspiracy to commit attempted murder. Both are being held at the Monterey County Jail — Vandorhoef’s bond was set at $4.15 million, while Whyte’s was set at $1 million.
In an interview with KSBW, a local NBC affiliate, Chief Assistant District Attorney Berkley Brannon called the case “extraordinary,” saying, “Guy’s coming from Vancouver to Salinas to pose as an Amazon delivery person and stab somebody.” He added that it was “one of the strangest cases I’ve ever seen.”
Both men were arraigned on Dec. 2 — after a delay to allow Vandorhoef to recover from his injuries — and pleaded not guilty. Their next court date has been set for Dec. 10.
