Man Wanted For Murder Eludes Cops Long Enough To Say Goodbye To His Wife One Last Time, Police Say

A man wanted for allegedly stabbing another man with a fire poker evaded law enforcement and trekked from California to Oregon in order to say goodbye to his wife, police say.

Terrance Boyd Dixon, 55, eventually turned himself into authorities.

"His wife told us that ... she didn't know what had happened but he had come back to Oregon and said 'I need to turn myself in, the police are looking for me, but I wanted to see you one last time,'" Lt. Mike Kindorf, a spokesperson for the Concord Police Department, told Oxygen.com on Monday.

Dixon apparently traveled from his home in Oregon to Concord, California, where he stayed with Michael Downie, 64.

Police said that during the stay, Dixon stole Downie's credit card and made fraudulent charges.

"It appears to us that Mr. Dixon used his credit card in the 12 to 24 hour range before the homicide," Kindorf said.

The evening before he died, police said Downie reported his card as stolen to his credit card company.

"Our investigative theory was that he confronted Mr. Dixon," Kindorf said. "Then it escalated into some kind of confrontation where Mr. Downie was killed."

Dixon is accused of stabbing Downie before stealing his car, driving it to the Sacramento area, and then selling it for "cash and a bicycle."

In the ensuing weeks, Dixon somehow made his way to Bandon, Oregon, to see his wife before turning himself in to the Bandon Police Department in August, police said.

He is now charged with murder and an enhancement to the charge for using a deadly weapon during the crime, the San Francisco Gate reports.

Dixon had already spent 10 years in a Nevada prison for an eerily similar case—though it was an attempted murder.

"In that case, it looks like he befriended someone and then hit that person over the head with some kind of club or something and then stole his car, so that kind of fact pattern is pretty similar to this case," Kindorf told Oxygen.com.

According to the Associated Press, Downie had once testified against Dixon in a case that resulted in Dixon going to prison; however, Kindorf told Oxygen.com that incident occurred "decades ago," and said the victim invited him to stay at his residence this time around.

"There was no indication that he forced or pressured his way in," Kindorf added.

Downie's family members revealed to police that he had admitted in recent years that he was afraid of Dixon. Still, Kindorf said that "something must have changed" between the two for Dixon to have been staying as a house guest.

Dixon is scheduled for an extradition hearing next month.

[Photo: Associated Press]