A 28-year-old woman was listed in stable but critical condition at a Pittsburgh hospital Wednesday — a day after her ex-fiance allegedly struck her in the forehead with a hatchet at her Summit Township home, authorities said.

Meanwhile, state police served a search warrant Wednesday at the Apollo, Armstrong County, home of the suspect, Dean J. Law, 29, who is being held in the Butler County Prison without bail.

He is charged with attempted homicide, aggravated assault, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and trespass and a misdemeanor charge of false identification to law enforcement.

Police arrested Law after they said he walked in uninvited to the victim's home on Bonniebrook Road, and attacked her with the hatchet Tuesday morning as she was sleeping.

He fled the home, but was taken into custody a short time later in his pickup truck in a field on the property, which is on a farm.

On the front seat was a loaded pistol, police Cpl. Tom Morando said Wednesday. In the bed of the truck were three rifles, at least one of which was also loaded.

Police were still trying to nail down ownership of the firearms, Morando said. Investigators were also trying to determine what led to the heinous crime. “We don't have a motive at this time,” Morando said.

Law and the victim had recently ended their relationship, investigators said. But a family member told police there had been no contact between the couple in three weeks.

The woman lives with her father, stepmother and multiple siblings, police said. No one saw the alleged attack. Her father called 911 around 6:40 a.m. to report what happened.

Police arrived and found the victim with a major head injury. They described the hatchet being “lodged in the front of her skull.”

The woman, despite her life-threatening injury, identified her assailant. She also remained conscious the entire time, even after she was taken to Butler Memorial Hospital and subsequently flown to Allegheny General Hospital.

Police said she told them that she was lying on the bed when Law appeared in her bedroom and hit her in the head with the hatchet.

Morando praised the work of Troopers Travis Buckshire and Amelia Russin in handling the call.

“They did a great job rendering first-aid,” he said. “They stabilized the hatchet in place and bandaged her wound until paramedics arrived, and handed care over to them.”

An East Butler Ambulance crew tended to her before they took her to BMH. The hatchet remained in the woman's head even upon her arriving at the Pittsburgh hospital.

“You never remove an impaled object, especially one in the skull,” Morando said. “That can do more damage.”

At AGH, Morando briefly spoke to the victim as part of the investigation.

Police tried to interview Law at their barracks but he eventually invoked his Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination.

Before he did, however, he claimed he did not know how he ended up in Butler County.

Investigators said they spoke for about two hours to a woman who was in the truck with the defendant when he was taken into custody. She told police that she had previously seen the hatchet used in the alleged attack at Law's home. Police do not believe she had any role in the incident, and she was not charged.

Morando said police obtained a search warrant for the truck Tuesday. He said they also planned to get a search warrant for Law's cell phone that would allow them to examine its contents.

Online court records did not indicate if Law has an attorney. His preliminary hearing is scheduled June 23.