Woman was on her way home when fatally stabbed on Metro train; suspect charged

Woman stabbed to death at Metro Station

A woman was stabbed to death at the Universal/Studio City Metro station. The suspect was arrested shortly after.

LOS ANGELES - The suspect who fatally stabbed a woman on a Metro train has been charged, the LA County DA's office announced.

Elliot Tramel Nowden, 45, has been charged with one count of murder, and one count of first-degree robbery of a transit passenger. It is also alleged the crime was committed as a robbery-murder special circumstance, that the defendant personally used a deadly weapon, and that the victim was vulnerable during the commission of the crime.

If convicted as charged, Nowden faces life in prison without the possibility of parole. He currently remains behind bars with no bail.

Elliot Nowden. PHOTO: LAPD

The victim, 67-year-old Mirna Soza Arauz, was on her way home from work when she was fatally stabbed in the neck by the suspect.

The incident happened April 22 around 5:00 a.m on the Metro B (Red) line. Police say the woman was sitting on the train when the suspect randomly approached her, stabbed her, and took her bag.

When the train stopped at the Universal City Station, she exited onto the platform. The suspect also fled on foot with her bag. He was later located and arrested in North Hollywood.

Arauz was taken to the hospital where she later died. DA George Gascón said Arauz worked overnights as a security guard at a restaurant in North Hills. She was on her way home to South LA when she was stabbed.

Mirna Soza Arauz via GoFundMe

A GoFundMe has been created to help fund Arauz' burial. According to the GoFundMe, she was a mother of three and grandmother of seven.

According to Los Angeles Superior Court records, Nowden pleaded no contest in June 2019 to battering a passenger on a Metro train. He was ordered to spend five days in jail and three years on probation -- during which he was barred from boarding or riding any Metro trains.

In November 2019, he pleaded no contest to an assault with a deadly weapon charge and was sentenced to four years in prison, court records show.

Nowden also has a previous petty theft conviction from 2003 which landed him on two years probation.

Crime and Public Safety North Hollywood Studio City