Woman was stabbed to death in her North St. Paul apartment before it caught fire, charges say

A 43-year-old woman was stabbed to death in her North St. Paul apartment before it caught fire, according to murder charges filed Monday against her boyfriend.

Melvin Bilbro, 41, who lives in the same building, was charged Monday with second-degree intentional murder in connection with the death last week of Shanna R. Daniels.

Bilbro remains jailed in lieu of $2 million bail ahead of a court appearance on Tuesday. Court records do not list an attorney for him.

Bilbro's criminal history in Minnesota includes convictions for attempted second-degree murder, third-degree assault, second-degree criminal sexual conduct and auto theft.

According to the complaint:

Police officers arrived about 6:30 p.m. Thursday at the building in the 2200 block of South Avenue. They saw black smoke coming from the third-floor apartment and "heard someone yelling for help, but they were unable to make entry into the apartment because of the smoke and fire," the charging document read.

Firefighters put out the flames and found Daniels' partly burned body in a bedroom. An autopsy by the Ramsey County Medical Examiner's Office found that Daniels had stab wounds to her head, neck and elsewhere.

Given that Daniels "did not have visible soot in her airway," the complaint read, "she died before the fire was started."

One witness told law enforcement that Bilbro had gone into Daniels' apartment about 15 minutes before the fire started, and another reported seeing him in her apartment at the time of the blaze.

A police search of Daniels' apartment turned up bloodied scissors and a folding knife with a broken tip that also had blood on it.

During a search of Bilbro's apartment, officers saw blood on a cellphone, a piece of paper, clothing, the bathroom sink and the bathtub. Also located in his apartment were keys to Daniels' apartment and her small dog, covered in soot and smelling of smoke, in the bathroom.

Police arrested Bilbro about 4:30 a.m. Friday on a trail that led away from the apartment building. He had on him a bloodied piece of paper and a credit card belonging to Daniels.

Bilbro told police he last saw Daniels on the morning of the fire but could not explain why there were bloodied items in his apartment.