The stabbing death of a 27-year-old woman in her family's McCully apartment early yesterday apparently was a random act committed by an intruder who tried a number of doors in the building until he found theirs unlocked.

The Honolulu Medical Examiner's office identified the victim as Lyola Mesebeluu, 27. Her husband, Keith Mesebeluu, 26, was hospitalized at The Queen's Medical Center in serious condition with stab wounds, police said. The Mesebeluus' 2-year-old daughter, Kiarra, also received a cut to the arm in what police said appears to have been an attempted burglary.

A suspect was arrested shortly after the attack, which occurred about 4 a.m. in a three-story walkup at 2222 Kapi'olani Blvd.

Police identified the suspect as Sato Franklin Sigrah, 19, of a North Judd Street address. He was being held on suspicion of attempted murder in the first degree, murder in the second degree, two counts of attempted murder in the second degree and burglary in the first degree. He had not been charged as of late last night.

Police spokesman Maj. Alan Bluemke said officers were sent to the apartment building at 4:10 a.m. on an argument call.

The husband told arriving police officers that he had been awakened by his wife's screams and found the intruder stabbing her.

Bluemke said Keith Mesebeluu was able to disarm the suspect before police arrived.

A large kitchen knife, believed to be the murder weapon, was recovered at the scene, Blumke said.

Lyola Mesebeluu was pronounced dead at Queen's at 6:10 a.m., police said. An autopsy will be conducted tomorrow, the medical examiner's office said.

The suspect was hospitalized with injuries incurred during the scuffle before being taken to the main police station on Beretania Street.

"Apparently he received injuries to his hand," Bluemke said. He said police don't believe the suspect and the Mesebeluus were acquainted.

"As far as we can determine, the suspect did not know know the victims," Bluemke said.

Police, neighbors, and relatives of the couple said the disturbance began around 4 a.m. when an intruder apparently opened the unlocked door of the Mesebeluus' apartment.

Other apartment residents and neighbors reported seeing an intruder earlier moving door to door at the building.

Alika Hoe, who lives two doors down from Unit 11, where the Mesebeluus live, said he heard the commotion when it started. At first he said he thought it might be a domestic dispute, although he said he'd never heard any fighting from the couple's apartment before.

When a man yelled out for help and someone else said they had seen a man with a knife, Hoe locked his apartment door and dialed 911.

Hoe said he didn't know the family, aside from saying hello to them in the parking lot. But he described them as a normal young family — a father, mother and toddler.

"I never heard anything out of them," he said.

Police homicide investigators cordoned off the building with yellow "crime scene" tape and spent the morning interviewing residents at the scene.

By yesterday afternoon the apartment building was quiet. The yellow tape and police investigators had gone, and the only evidence of the fatal struggle hours before were bloodstains at the top of the concrete steps leading to Unit 11.