Andlee Cribb was on the road, heading back from Connecticut, when he started talking on the phone with Michele Clarke, his former girlfriend and the mother of his 6-year-old son, who was in her home in Weymouth early Saturday.
But the conversation between the two was suddenly interrupted by a third person, a man who somehow got into Clarke’s Lake Street home — and began attacking the 33-year-old woman, according to Cribb.
“I heard her say, ‘Stop! Get off me!’ ” Cribb said in a telephone interview Monday. “I heard her say AAAAAH like a scream. Then I heard the voice [of a man] say, ‘Hey you! Hey you!’ ”
Cribb said he broke the connection and dialed 911, convinced the best way he could help Clarke was not by listening to what was happening, but by using his only means of communication to reach out to police and ask them to rush to Clarke’s home.
“But they got there too late,’’ Cribb said.
According to Norfolk District Attorney Michael Morrissey’s office, Weymouth police responded to Clarke’s home around 4 a.m. Saturday after being alerted by a friend that she was in danger. Arriving officers found the body of Clarke, who was alone at the time of the attack.
Prosecutors allege Clarke was killed by Kerrol Florizel Bailey, a Dorchester man who is the subject of a manhunt by police in Massachusetts. A warrant has been issued for his arrest. Bailey, 44, once dated Clarke, has ties to Tremlett Street in Dorchester, and has used the aliases of Cornell James and Tony Smith, authorities said.
Bailey may be traveling in a black 2005 Ford pickup truck with a toolbox in the bed, bearing the license plate FF47BK, authorities said. When last seen, Bailey had short salt-and-pepper hair and a closely cropped beard of the same color, according to authorities.
Cribb said he does not know Bailey, nor his connection to Clarke.
“I hope he kills himself,’’ Cribb said. “He’s a coward.”
Cribb said he and Clarke met about 10 years ago when she was standing outside her workplace at a Quincy Center call center and he was on his way home after playing basketball. “I said, ‘Man, that is a beautiful girl,’ ” he recalled. “I need to know her name.’ ”
They dated for four years and had one child, a son who lived with his mother but was with Cribb’s parents over the weekend. The former couple were exploring reuniting in recent weeks, Cribb said.
Clarke was born in Stamford, Conn., on Feb. 29, and that was just one reason she was a special person, Cribb said.
“Her passion in life was to make people smile,’’ he said. “She was always bright, bubbly.”
Cribb said Clarke was deeply devoted to their son and took care of the boy’s every need. She took him to medical appointments, got him ready for school, picked out his clothes, and spent as much time with him as she could, he said.
“She did everything for my son,’’ Cribb said. “She was the best, best mother.”
Cribb said he is searching for a way to help his son deal with the huge loss.
“My heart is heavy, but mentally I think I am OK,’’ he said. “But my 6-year-old son doesn’t have a mother. I just don’t know how he is going to deal with this. This is going to be too much for him. Oh my God. Oh my God.”
John R. Ellement can be reached at ellement@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @JREbosglobe.