Exclusive: Ex-girlfriend was afraid SLO County stabbing suspect might kill her one day
The ex-girlfriend of the Shandon man accused of stabbing his stepmother to death said he had hit and choked her over a volatile 6-year relationship, to the point she feared that he might kill her one day.
In an interview with The Tribune this week, Natalia Zuniga described a history of violence and domestic abuse that escalated in recent years.
“We’d often talk about how he was going to kill me someday if he didn’t get his rage under control,” Zuniga said of Justin Buchanan.
After a while, she said, it turned from Justin saying “if he killed her” to “when he would kill her.”
“We both knew it was going to happen.”
Buchanan, 31, faces charges of murder, attempted murder and assault for the fatal stabbing that took place in a quiet Shandon neighborhood Sunday night.
Kelly Buchanan, Justin’s stepmother was fatally injured, and her husband Billy Buchanan is currently in the hospital recovering from severe injuries and in stable condition.
Ex-girlfriend describes volatile relationship
Zuniga and Buchanan share three children together and had been a couple for six and a half years, Zuniga said.
That is, until the relationship became dangerously unbearable for her, she said.
“Right off the bat, we were very intense about each other,” Zuniga said of Buchanan, whom she met while pursuing a unique hobby — exploring cemeteries.
Over the last three years, however, the relationship began to deteriorate, Zuniga said, as Buchanan struggled with his mental health.
“Things started turning bad when he let his depression take over,” she said.
Zuniga said Buchanan had a violent past and that he would choke her, hit her and often threaten her.
During one incident in 2017, Zuniga said Buchanan shattered her teeth and cracked her cheekbone in a fit of rage.
Later in March 2019, after another altercation in Arroyo Grande, Buchanan was charged with misdemeanor battery on a spouse or cohabitant, which Zuniga confirmed was her.
It was the second time Buchanan had pleaded no contest in a domestic violence case, following an incident in 2013 with a different woman.
After the 2019 incident, Buchanan was sentenced to three years of probation in September 2019, which he finished in September 2022.
“Justin has suffered from paranoia and delusions for years,” Zuniga said. “He needs extensive psychiatric help.”
She said his mental health problems have also affected his ability to work consistently.
“Justin had been on disability for the last six years due to his mental health,” Zuniga said.
Woman asked family for help
While they were together, Zuniga said that Buchanan had been taking steps to work on his aggression but that he was inconsistent in following through with it.
“I was advocating for him more than he was advocating for himself,” Zuniga said.
She said she reached out to Buchanan’s family, hoping they might encourage him to listen and take help more seriously because he was close with his parents.
“He had conflict with them occasionally, but they were always there for him when he reached out to help,” she said.
Zuniga was unsure if Buchanan had ever been previously violent toward Kelly Buchanan, who he’d known since he and his brother Brent Buchanan were children and was like a mother to them.
But she said his parents worried about her safety and the safety of their three grandchildren.
According to Zuniga, Justin’s mental issues prevented him from playing a large role in his children’s lives. When he did visit his children, Zuniga always supervised, she said.
In March of 2022 Zuniga said she decided she needed to get out of the relationship after Buchanan charged toward her and punched a door closed, a few inches from her face while she was five months pregnant.
A neighbor intervened and distracted Buchanan while Zuniga got their kids into her car, she said.
“I told him he needed to leave because I wasn’t coming back until he was gone.”
After the birth of their youngest child, Buchanan became involved in her life again, but they were still living apart, Zuniga said.
Although the distance was helping, Zuniga said the turning point took place about a year later in May 2023 when Buchanan slapped her oldest child. After that, she officially ended the relationship, she said.
“I love Justin so much that it’s an addiction ... but I love my children more,” Zuniga said.
After the couple split, Kelly and Billy Buchanan took Justin in to live with them, a decision that would ultimately end in tragedy a year a half later.
“I won’t feel peace until Justin gets the proper help he needs,” Zuniga said.
If the prison system was more focused on rehabilitation he might have had a better chance at being a better person, she said.
This story was originally published July 21, 2023 at 5:00 AM.
