Police say the victim was found Saturday and a suspect was taken into custody Sunday evening.
SAN RAFAEL, Calif. — A fatal stabbing at an Andersen Drive encampment in San Rafael led to a homicide arrest within a day, with police saying Monday that a 31-year-old woman was jailed after the death of a 28-year-old woman.
The case has drawn notice not only because of the quick arrest, but because police have gone out of their way to separate the crime scene from the city’s sanctioned camping area on Mahone Path. Authorities said the victim was found Saturday evening in an encampment between Lindaro Street and Irwin Street, where several unhoused people had been staying. By Sunday, detectives said, they had identified and arrested Leslieli Violani Ilolahia nearby, though investigators still had not publicly explained why the attack happened.
According to police, officers were dispatched to Andersen Drive at about 6:15 p.m. Saturday after a report that a woman had been stabbed. When they arrived, they found the 28-year-old woman suffering from apparent stab wounds. Emergency personnel responded, but she was pronounced dead at the scene. The department later classified the death as a homicide and asked for help from anyone who had been in the area around 5:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. and may have seen suspicious activity.
Police said the break in the case came the next day. Officers arrested Ilolahia shortly after 6 p.m. Sunday, a few blocks from where the victim was found. In a statement, Eberle said Ilolahia admitted during an interview with investigators that she stabbed the victim. Even with that statement, detectives said the motive remains under investigation. Authorities have not said whether the confrontation was spontaneous or part of a prior dispute, and they have not described the relationship, if any, between the suspect and the woman who died.
Investigators also served a search warrant at Ilolahia’s living area within the same Andersen Drive encampment. Detectives said they believe they found evidence that further ties her to the killing. Police have not listed the evidence, described whether it included clothing, blood evidence or a weapon, or said whether lab testing is underway. They also have not released the victim’s identity, a sign that either family notification, coroner procedures or both may still be in progress.
The department has repeatedly emphasized that the killing was not connected to San Rafael’s sanctioned camping site on Mahone Path. That point appeared in both the city’s initial public messaging and the arrest announcement Monday. Officials did not explain in detail why they underscored that distinction, but it places the homicide in an unsanctioned encampment area rather than in the city-backed camping program. For investigators, the location may shape the witness pool and the kind of evidence available, especially if people present were transient or moved through the area before police arrived.
Ilolahia was booked into the Marin County Jail for homicide under California Penal Code 187, police said. A jail booking does not answer the larger questions that still surround the case, including how the encounter began, whether drugs or alcohol were factors, whether anyone tried to intervene and how detectives were able to move from a Saturday evening crime scene to a Sunday arrest. Police have not announced additional arrests, and there was no public indication Monday that investigators believe there are outstanding suspects.
For now, the case stands at an early but critical stage: one woman is dead, another is in custody, and detectives are still building out the record of what happened on Andersen Drive. Police said Monday that the investigation remains active, with witness accounts, search-warrant evidence and prosecutors’ next decisions likely to shape the case in the days ahead.
Author note: Last updated March 16, 2026.