Update: Yeadon police said Friday that Mark Epps is no longer a person of interest in this crime.
Police in Delaware County are searching for the boyfriend of a woman whose body was found on the porch steps of a Yeadon home, her throat slashed.
Natasha Gibson was found by a friend Thursday morning in front of a house where she once lived along Baily Road near Orchard Avenue.[[394490231, C]]
Gibson was trying to break free from her boyfriend, according to police, who identified him as Mark Epps.
Epps, 35, has a history of violence, had recently threatened to kill Gibson and she was afraid of him, said Yeadon Police Chief Donald Molineux.
Investigators said Epps knew Gibson had friends in Yeadon, where the 32-year old was supposed to arrive Wednesday night around 11:30.
Her body was discovered around 3 a.m. by a family friend.
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"He looked out the front door and discovered her there," said Chief Molineux.[[394524001, C]]
Investigators followed a blood trail more than a mile long from the home into Upper Darby and ultimately to 61st and Baltimore in Southwest Philadelphia where they found a bloody knife hidden in a storm drain. Gibson's purse was found a block away in the same area where police said Epps was seen on surveillance video with an injured, bleeding arm.
"No, he had nothing to do with this," Epps mother said. Lisa Epps said her son did date Gibson but was living in Kensington and would not have been in the Yeadon area.
"Okay, what happened [is] he got beat up down here, not once but twice and I was so afraid he was going to get killed down here that I set him up in Kensington," said Lisa Epps. "He has not been bothered with that girl since."
Police are asking anyone with information on the whereabouts of Mark Epps to call 911 or Detective J. Houghton with Yeadon police at 610-625-1500 or 610-622-7835.
