A 30-year-old man stabbed and killed his wife in an Eden Prairie home Saturday morning, setting off a 2½-hour metrowide manhunt that ended when he turned himself in to St. Paul police, authorities said.

With him were the couple's two small children, who police say were taken from the home as he fled. Neither child was physically injured.

The episode started about 10:37 a.m. Saturday, when police were called to a domestic-disturbance call at the house in the 17000 block of Park Circle, said Eden Prairie police spokesman Lt. Greg Weber. It escalated at some point and the man repeatedly stabbed his wife who was believed to have been pregnant, according to police scanner reports.

The 23-year-old woman, who hasn't been publicly identified, was found critically wounded on the second floor of the house, the reports said.

A frantic 911 caller's revelation that the suspect had taken the couple's two children and fled the scene in a white SUV spawned an intensive search by law enforcement across the metro, according to police and scanner audio posted on the MN Police Clips website.

A dispatcher told officers who were rushing to the scene that she could hear screaming in the background of the 911 call.

Colleen Kelly — Star Tribune, Star Tribune
Eden Prairie police department PIO Greg Weber informs neighbors about a 23-year-old female who was stabbed on the 17000 block of Park Circle and transported to HCMC where she was pronounced dead Saturday.

The suspect later turned himself in to St. Paul police, with the children — a 4-year-old boy and a 2-year-old girl. He was being held Saturday afternoon pending charges in the woman's death. The Star Tribune generally doesn't name suspects who haven't been charged.

Weber said police had been called to the house for a domestic disturbance at least one other time in the past year and that the suspect was facing criminal charges in connection with that incident.

Late Saturday morning, neighbors watched from their front lawns as investigators marched in and out of the yellow two-story house at the end of a leafy cul-de-sac.

Some said police have shown up at the house on several occasions since the couple moved in about a year ago, adding that the husband and wife were friendly, but mostly kept to themselves.

Weber declined to say whether police recovered a weapon at the scene.

He said the woman's name and cause of death would be released by the Hennepin County medical examiner's office. The couple had been married nearly six years.

Libor Jany • 612-673-4064 Twitter:@StribJany