BATH — A 28-year-old Bath man allegedly stabbed his live-in girlfriend in the neck several times with a steak knife early Monday, leaving the woman “lucky to be alive” at Maine Medical Center in Portland.

Matthew T. Wycoff, 28, of Washington Street, Bath, was apprehended just after 7:30 a.m. by Topsham police at a Gibb’s gas station on Main Street in Topsham, according to Bath Police Lt. Stan Cielinski.

Wycoff was charged with elevated aggravated assault, a Class A felony, and was taken to Two Bridges Regional Jail, where he remained Monday morning on $100,000 bail.

Just before 7 a.m. Monday, Bath police officers responded to a report of a verbal domestic fight at the Washington Street apartment shared by Wycoff, his 38-year-old girlfriend and others, Cielinski said.

Police found the woman in the apartment suffering from serious stab wounds to her neck and shoulder. They learned from the victim and other witnesses that Wycoff had attacked her with a knife following an argument, and then fled in a black Kia sport utility vehicle, according to Cielinski.

Bath police broadcast information about Wycoff to area law enforcement agencies just after 7:30 a. m. Topsham Police Officers Randy Cook and William Collins arrested him without incident at the Gibb’s gas station on Main Street in Topsham.

Cielinski said the victim is “ lucky to be alive,” adding that “the knife broke at some point during the attack, and that’s what saved her.”

He also praised Cook and Collins for finding Wycoff so quickly.

Wycoff is 6 feet, 5 inches tall and approximately 240 pounds, Cielinski noted.

“It was a very violent crime, and you don’t want this guy to be out,” he said. “We’re being told (that the victim is) in serious but stable condition, and she’s talking. It didn’t hit the artery … we think she’s going to be OK.”

bbrogan@timesrecord.com