CT Man Wanted After Tennessee Couple Attacked, Husband Killed: PD

NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE — A 34-year-old Connecticut man is being sought for questioning in connection with a stabbing attack on a West Nashville couple, Donald and Leigh Ann Zirkle, of Cherokee Road. Arrest warrants charging murder and attempted murder have been issued against the Connecticut man, police said.

Authorities in Nashville are searching for Peter Alexander Bohning, 34, of Kent, Connecticut, in connection to Friday's double-stabbing.

Officers were called to the area at 3:30 p.m. after Leigh Ann Zirkle, 58, fled the couple’s residence and collapsed in the street with significant wounds, including one to her neck, police said. Neighbors rendered aid as officers and Nashville Fire Department paramedics responded.

When officers arrived, they cleared the residence and found Donald Zirkle, 59, critically wounded at the rear. He was transported to Vanderbilt University Medical Center where he died.

Although seriously wounded, Leigh Ann Zirkle was able to communicate with detectives at the hospital. It appears that the Zirkles were sitting on their back porch when a stranger, described as a white man in his 20s to 30s with long blonde hair and a dirty yellow shirt, approached and asked for directions before attacking the couple with a sharp instrument, police said.

Leigh Ann Zirkle was able to make it into the house and ran out the front door into the street, police said. The killer is thought to have fled in the Zirkle’s 2010 gray Toyota Camry bearing Tennessee license number NP5-937, police said.

A silver Subaru sedan with Connecticut license plates was inexplicably parked in the street at the side of the house with its rear doors open. The car is registered to Bohning, police said. His family in Connecticut told authorities there that they have not heard from him in several days, police said. Bohning’s whereabouts are unknown. He may be in the victims’ Camry.

Anyone seeing the Bohning and/or the Camry is urged to immediately contact the MNPD at 615-862-8600 or their local law enforcement agency.