Investigators first searched for a man, then arrested a 32-year-old woman after reviewing surveillance footage.
POCATELLO, Idaho — A violent assault inside a Pocatello apartment is now the subject of an attempted murder case after police said a woman stabbed Rajah Keller 18 times in her bedroom and cut Keller’s mother when she entered the room, with investigators later identifying Marita Gonzales as the suspect after first telling the public they were searching for an unknown man.
The case centers on what police said happened late on the night of Feb. 15 in the 700 block of South Arthur Avenue, a residential area near downtown Pocatello. According to local reporting based on court records, Rajah Keller, 32, had met Gonzales online and invited her to the apartment where Keller lived with her mother, 49-year-old Starla Keller. Sometime after Gonzales arrived, the visit turned violent. By the end of the night, one woman had been stabbed over and over, another had a facial wound, and emergency responders were working both a medical crisis and a fast-moving criminal investigation with incomplete information.
Police said the critical witness was Starla Keller, who told investigators she heard a commotion from her daughter’s bedroom at about 10 p.m. and went to see what was happening. When she opened the door, according to the court-record account later described in the press, she found Gonzales stabbing Rajah Keller. Authorities said Rajah Keller was stabbed 18 times. The mother’s effort to intervene lasted only moments before she too was attacked. Investigators said Gonzales cut Starla Keller in the face, then fled from the home. That detail not only added a second injured person to the case, but also supplied the aggravated battery allegation that now accompanies the attempted murder charge.
The description of the crime scene was severe. Officers responding at 10:06 p.m. found Rajah Keller conscious, nude and covered in blood, according to court records summarized in local news reports. She had stab wounds to her face, head, neck and hands, a combination that points to both direct attack wounds and injuries that may have happened while trying to defend herself. Officers began emergency aid, and she was taken to Portneuf Medical Center before being airlifted to a hospital in Salt Lake City. That transfer, covering roughly 160 miles, underscored the seriousness of her condition. Police later reported that she was in stable condition after treatment, but no public statement has given a fuller picture of her recovery.
Starla Keller was treated more quickly and released, but the public record still presents her as a key victim and witness in equal measure. Police said she suffered a cut to the face during the confrontation in the bedroom. Although authorities have not publicly detailed the exact extent of that wound, the injury places her directly inside the narrow window of violence that detectives are now trying to reconstruct. Her account appears to have provided the earliest narrative of the attack, including the fact that the assailant fled immediately afterward. It also seems to explain why the first description released to the public was so limited and, as it turned out, inaccurate.
In the hours after the stabbing, police asked for help finding an unknown male suspect, describing the person as about 5 feet 10 inches tall, with short hair, a hat and a dark jacket, last seen running south on Arthur Avenue. That alert put the neighborhood on notice and shaped early media reports. But investigators later found surveillance footage showing Rajah Keller and another person entering a store about an hour before the attack. Police said that footage ultimately helped them identify Gonzales as the suspect. The reversal was notable not only because it changed the public-facing search, but because it showed how raw early witness descriptions in traumatic cases can be overtaken by video and other physical evidence.
Gonzales was arrested on Feb. 17 at about 9 p.m. and booked into the Bannock County Jail. Police said she faces one count of attempted murder and one count of aggravated battery. She appeared in court the next day, where a judge set her bond at $1 million. Those formal steps moved the case out of the emergency phase and into the prosecution phase, but many important details remain unresolved in public. Police have not publicly explained what caused the confrontation, whether Gonzales and Rajah Keller had any history beyond meeting online, or whether investigators believe the stabbing was planned before Gonzales arrived at the apartment.
Those unanswered questions are likely to matter as the case develops. A prosecutor may eventually try to show deliberate intent through the number of wounds, the areas of the body struck and the continued attack after the mother entered the room. A defense lawyer, depending on what evidence exists, may focus on motive, state of mind, witness reliability or the lack of a full public record at this stage. For now, though, the known facts remain stark: a woman was attacked repeatedly inside her own bedroom, her mother was injured when she stepped in, and police say the suspect was someone the victim had recently met online and invited into her home.
As of the latest public reporting, Gonzales remained in custody, Rajah Keller was reported stable after being flown to Salt Lake City and the next developments were expected to come in Bannock County court. Those hearings are likely to provide the first fuller public explanation of what prosecutors say happened in the apartment and what evidence they believe will prove the case.
Author note: Last updated March 20, 2026.