A King of Prussia man was arrested after he stabbed his estranged wife with a metal pick as part of a murderous plot, police say

A King of Prussia man who police say stabbed his estranged wife in a Walmart parking lot Sunday was arrested with authorities alleging he’d long planned to kidnap, rape, and murder her. He was found with weapons, binding tools, and writing detailing the entire plot, they said.

Geoffrey Kay-Conway Sr., 52, of the 600 block of Summit Street, was charged with attempted murder, attempted kidnapping, attempted rape, and related crimes after he attacked his soon-to-be ex-wife Sunday morning and police found the notes he had written pledging to commit the crimes, the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office said in a statement.

At 10:45 a.m. Sunday, the victim was getting into the driver’s side of her Nissan SUV, in the parking lot of the Walmart Supercenter, in King of Prussia, when Kay-Conway approached her holding a black handgun in his left hand and a metal pick in his right hand. He then forced her into the front passenger side and began stabbing her legs with the pick, the complaint said.

When police found the victim, she had blood marks on her legs. She had escaped through the passenger side door of the car, screaming for help from nearby bystanders, the complaint said.

Police found Kay-Conway a short time later, crouched behind a pickup truck at a nearby parking lot. A metal pick was sticking out of his sweatshirt pocket, along with black zip ties, according to the complaint. When police searched the pickup truck, they found a black duffel bag stuffed with a black PepperBall gun with two magazines and three piercing tools — including one with the victim’s name on it.

The bag also contained a court order issued after Kay-Conway had violated a protection from abuse order filed by his estranged wife, notifying him of a hearing scheduled for Dec. 13, 2023, the complaint said. Scrawled on the bottom of the court order was a note that said “I have 1.5 months to kill that [expletive]” and that Kay-Conway could have “killed her 17 times if I wanted,” the complaint said.

A note in the bag Kay-Conway had penned to his brother detailed Kay-Conway’s methodical planning and stalking of his estranged wife, including descriptions of how he went to her residence almost every day to watch her and learn her habits, according to the complaint.

The note ended with Kay-Conway pointing out the specific days he planned to rape and kill her, saying if he could not find another day to commit the crimes, he would do it the weekend before Thanksgiving, according to the complaint.

Police also found that Kay-Conway had installed a tracking device on the victim’s car and had followed her to the Walmart parking lot, the complaint said.

The protection from abuse order was issued Oct. 5, and it took Kay-Conway less than a month to violate it, after he stalked his estranged wife through the streets of Upper Merion Township, yelling and threatening her on Oct. 20, the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office said.