Transient charged with stabbing woman to death as she walked her dogs in Riverside

A transient accused of fatally stabbing a 64-year-old woman as she walked her dogs on a Riverside street was charged today with murder.

Darlene Stephanie Montoya, 23, was arrested Saturday after the alleged attack on Ke Chieh Meng of Riverside.

Along with murder, Montoya is charged with a sentence-enhancing allegation of using a deadly weapon -- a knife -- in the commission of a felony.

The defendant is being held without bail at the Robert Presley Jail in Riverside and is slated to make her initial court appearance Thursday at the Riverside Hall of Justice.

According to Officer Ryan Railsback of the Riverside Police Department, Meng was walking her two small pets on Golden Avenue, near Stonewall Drive, at about 7 a.m. Saturday when Montoya approached her.

"Ms. Meng... was randomly confronted and attacked by the suspect," Railsback said. "During the attack, Ms. Meng was stabbed, and the suspect fled the scene.''

Witnesses called 911, and paramedics reached the location within a couple of minutes.

"They (found) the victim bleeding from her abdomen and suffering stab wounds," Railsback said.

He said Meng was taken to Riverside Community Hospital, where she died roughly an hour later.

Based on eyewitness accounts and other evidence, Montoya was quickly identified as the alleged assailant. She was located less than an hour later on Midland Road and taken into custody without a struggle, according to the police spokesman.

Railsback said Montoya, whose last known address was in Monterey Park, hit a woman with a skateboard on Tyler Avenue, under the Riverside (91) Freeway, on March 29 and was arrested on suspicion of assault.

"Due to the current emergency bail schedule for COVID-19 … she was released,'' he said, adding that Montoya had been given a citation with a
notice to appear in court in the next two months.

The defendant has no documented prior felony convictions in Riverside County.