By LIBOR JANY

Staff Writer

A woman who was stabbed to death in her northeast Minneapolis apartment during an apparent domestic dispute last week has been identified as 53-year-old Flowera Ransom, the county medical examiner's office revealed on Tuesday.

Ransom's husband, Wayne Ray Watson, was charged Monday with second-degree murder in her death, even as city homicide investigators continued to piece together the details of the attack.

Ransom was found dead about 11:15 p.m. last Thursday by officers responding to a call of a stabbing in the 2500 block of Central Avenue NE., police said. The recently-wed couple lived in an upstairs unit, police and neighbors said.

Watson, 51, was arrested at the scene after dialing police to say he had stabbed his wife after she attacked him with a knife, according to a criminal complaint filed Monday in Hennepin County District Court. Later, he revised his account of the incident, telling detectives he and Ransom had "struggled over a knife but that (his wife) may have ended up stabbing herself on purpose," the complaint said.

On Tuesday, an autopsy revealed that Ransom died of a stab wound to the neck, although medical examiners weren't able to establish the manner of death. While the autopsy did not rule her death a homicide, authorities say they are treating it as such and that an investigation into the incident is continuing.

Watson, court records show, has a long history of mostly minor crimes involving trespassing, disorderly conduct and drinking alcohol in public. He also has convictions for assault and drug possession.