Family stunned by slaying

The family of a Mead woman allegedly killed by her husband this week is trying to terms with her death.

Police say Michelle Canino, 43, was stabbed to death Wednesday by her husband, Jeffrey Canino, at their home in a quiet subdivision off Day-Mt. Spokane Road.

Authorities believe Jeffrey Canino, 46, turned the knife on himself after stabbing his wife. He is recovering from stab wounds at a local hospital, and he has been placed under arrest on felony murder charges, police said.

The couple’s son, who will turn 12 on Tuesday, is staying with his maternal grandmother after witnessing the stabbing.

“He’s handling it as well as any 11-year-old can,” said Mike Mettler, Michelle Canino’s brother.

Police received a call from a cell phone shortly before daybreak Wednesday in which a woman could be heard screaming for help. Authorities traced a second call to a home at 4518 E. Woodglen Road, where they found Michelle Canino dead and Jeffrey Canino wounded on the kitchen floor.

Deputies were met at the door by the couple’s son, who had knife wounds to his hands.

The boy had been waiting in the car for his mother to take him to an appointment Wednesday morning. He went back inside the house to see what was taking so long, Mettler said.

That’s when the boy found his mother suffering from stab wounds in the kitchen. The boy began a “struggle with Dad to get him to stop doing that to Mom,” Mettler said.

A local television station Friday aired a portion of the 911 dispatch tapes from that morning. Michelle Canino can be heard screaming for her life while her son pleads for help.

Mettler said he had to leave the room as the tape was aired on the 5 p.m. news.

Mettler said there was no indication of any problems between his sister and Jeffrey Canino before her death. He last saw the family on Thanksgiving.

The couple had been married for about 13 years, and Mettler described Jeffrey Canino as a “hard-working guy, pretty straight-laced, almost a perfectionist.”

Mettler said his brother-in-law had been worried about losing his job as a service writer for Camp Automotive, a job he’d held for at least 25 years. He was also dealing with the worsening condition of his mother, who has Alzheimer’s disease, and the death of his father last year.

“I guess he just cracked,” Mettler said.

Michelle Canino, who graduated in the mid-1980s from Shadle Park High School, worked as an office manager for a Northpointe medical office for many years, her brother said.

“She was a really good mother, and she loved to cook,” Mettler said. “I know I stole a lot of good recipes from her over the years.”

He said his sister loved Christmas and loved collecting decorative snowmen.

“They just had the Christmas lights put on their house,” Mettler said.

Memorial services for Michelle Canino are planned for 11 a.m. next Saturday at Unity of Church of Truth, 2900 S. Bernard St.