Whatever Mother Says... (17 page)

For John Fitzgerald, this was a major breakthrough on a case he had personally continued to pursue even though it had remained unsolved for more than nine years. He knew that Terry’s sister Suesan had to be that Jane Doe Case #4873/84.

In an extraordinary coincidence, he had only just been in touch with the producers of TV’s
America’s Most Wanted
to ask them to run a segment about that Jane Doe in a last desperate effort to try and identify her.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, a homicide investigation was about to take a dramatic turn.

“This time something will be done,” Fitzgerald assured Terry. “I want to come and talk to you in person. I’ll call you tomorrow.”

*   *   *

At 10:00
A.M.
the next morning, John Fitzgerald drove his gray Ford Explorer along the winding lane that leads past a dozen trailers to the tiny house attached to the apartment block just off Auburn Boulevard, where Terry said she had witnessed death and destruction at the hands of her mother and brothers.

When he got no reply from the house, he tracked down Fern Drake, the manager of the complex, and asked her if she recalled whether a family called the Knorrs had ever lived at the house.

“That name sounds familiar. It must have been them that rented the place. I evicted them eight years back,” explained Fern, who assured Fitzgerald she would try and locate her rental records to confirm the exact dates the family lived at the house.

Next, Fitzgerald headed for the house on Bellingham Way, Orangevale. That also checked out.

By 3:00
P.M.
that afternoon, John Fitzgerald was completely and utterly convinced that Terry’s claims were accurate. He contacted Inspector Johnnie Smith, his boss at the Placer County Sheriff’s headquarters in Auburn, and advised him of all the details.

Smith—a twenty-six-year vet with a droll sense of humor and a sharp eye for detail—felt a chill run up the back of his neck the moment he heard the name Theresa Knorr.

“Hell. I worked a case involving her back in ’eighty-three,” he told an astonished Fitzgerald.

Smith then recounted that interview with Theresa Knorr about her sister’s murder and the subsequent surveillance operation on the house just off Auburn. The moment he had made the connection, he told Fitzgerald that they should both get up to Salt Lake City as quickly as possible.

*   *   *

Terry Groves (her married name) was surprised, but also relieved to hear from Fitzgerald that afternoon that he and Smith were flying up the very next day. She was actually starting to believe that her mother might really be brought to justice.

At 7:00
A.M.
the next morning, October 30, John Fitzgerald met Johnnie Smith at the Placer County Sheriff’s Department in Auburn and set off to Sacramento Airport in Fitzgerald’s Ford Explorer. It was the day before Halloween and Fitzgerald had become embroiled in an alleged double murder that, if true, would turn out to be as gruesome and satanistic as those devil worshipers in Salem, Massachusetts, who sparked the tradition of Halloween three hundred years ago.

By 1:15
P.M.
the two detectives were knocking on the tatty white front door of the house in Sandy, near Salt Lake City, where Terry lived with husband Mike and her in-laws. She greeted them and took them downstairs to the basement annex where she lived, and made them a cup of coffee.

Both detectives were intrigued to finally be meeting Terry. She was more upbeat than they had expected. Somehow, through all that pain and anguish, she still had lively, sparkling blue eyes and a round, healthy face.

For at least fifteen minutes all three made polite small talk, managing to awkwardly avoid mentioning the very subject the two cops had flown from California to discuss. The niceties were harshly broken when one of the cops asked Terry if she had any children.

“Nope. Probably can’t have ’em because of the beatings she gave me.”

Smith and Fitzgerald looked stunned for a moment. That was the signal. Fitzgerald placed his Dictaphone on the table in front of them and they began the interview.

Terry took them through her entire childhood. Most of it was pretty grim stuff. It seemed as though beatings were carried out on a daily basis.

After Terry had described the killings, Fitzgerald started questioning her about certain evidence taken from the area near Suesan’s body. As he showed her photographs of her dead sister’s jewelry, she spotted Suesan’s ring. It sparked a vision in Terry’s mind. She shouted at Fitzgerald and Smith:

“This is my sister’s ring. I want that ring.”

“This is a black and white picture of a ring,” said Fitzgerald calmly and carefully, so that it would be clearly stated on the tape recorder.

“I want that ring,” repeated Terry emotionally.

A few moments later, through all the gruesome details of her life, Terry even identified the Budweiser beer can found close to her sister’s charred remains.

Terry was fascinated by that flyer Fitzgerald had printed up only a few weeks before her call. She told the investigators that the specially enhanced photograph looked more like her than her sister Suesan.

Three and a half hours after turning on the Dictaphone, the two detectives decided to wind up the interview. They were certain they had both just embarked on the most appalling double homicide investigation either of them had ever encountered.

“I’m going to be working this case and nothing else till we solve it. I promise you,” Fitzgerald told Terry as he and Smith left the house that day. He knew she needed constant reassurance.

The details described by Terry had been so riveting and outrageous that neither detective had kept a close eye on the time, and they had less than an hour to get to Salt Lake City Airport, check in, and board the 6:00
P.M.
flight back to Sacramento.

The journey to the airport in their rented white compact was a hairy ride through thick rush-hour traffic. They got there with only minutes to spare.

At 10:00
A.M.
the next day, safely back in his office at the Tahoe City substation, Fitzgerald called Terry in Sandy to run over a few more points that had arisen after he began analyzing his lengthy interview with her the previous day. Essentially, he needed background details like the places where both sisters had been born. Once again he assured Terry that this time something would be done. “We will find your mother, I promise you,” said Fitzgerald.

He then contacted District Attorney Dan Dong to tell him the details of the case. Fitzgerald followed this by starting extensive background checks on Theresa Knorr and her two sons. Terry had given him dates of births, but they had no locations for either Theresa Knorr or Robert, and only a vague area for William. Within hours they located William’s workplace and put a surveillance unit on him for a few days to see how he led his life.

Fitzgerald also got in touch with Kelly Keon, the current occupant of that little house just off Auburn Boulevard where so much terror was allegedly inflicted by Theresa Knorr. She immediately agreed to Fitzgerald’s request to come and inspect the premises the following day.

At 1:30
P.M.
the next day, November 1, Smith and Fitzgerald met with their boss, Sheriff Don Nunes. Their biggest problem was which force should be responsible for the investigation. Sheila’s body had actually been found in Nevada County. But, argued Smith and Fitzgerald, her murder had allegedly been committed in that house, and the family had traveled through Placer County on their way to the dump site. Eventually, after some more discussion, it was agreed that Placer County should run the entire operation.

They decided to immediately set up a task force consisting of Smith, Fitzgerald, and Lieutenant Chal DeCecco.

Case status: Open. Investigation to continue,
wrote Fitzgerald in his Placer County Sheriff’s Department report at the end of that day.

At 8:00
A.M.
next morning, Fitzgerald, Smith, and DeCecco—the Knorr investigation task force—met at the Placer County Sheriff’s Department in Auburn to discuss how to handle the case inquiries. It was decided that Fitzgerald and DeCecco would:

• Examine the floor of the closet where Sheila had been kept prisoner.

• Try to obtain photographs of both girls from the schools they attended.

• Visit the movie theater where Billy Bob had been employed during the time of the alleged murders.

• Contact the Department of Justice and the Sacramento Post Office to try and get a current location for Theresa Knorr.

Numerous other tasks were discussed at that meeting, but the detectives agreed that these four inquiries were top priority.

The rest of that morning was spent running computer checks on Theresa and Robert Knorr in an attempt to hunt them down. Fitzgerald and DeCecco also visited La Entrada School and the Mira Loma School, where they obtained photographs of Suesan Knorr and Sheila Sanders.

At 4:00
P.M.
Fitzgerald and DeCecco went to the house off Auburn Boulevard and found, to their disappointment, that the interior of the property had been completely redesigned since the fire lit by Terry more than seven years earlier. However, Fitzgerald did find the closet in the hallway where he believed poor Sheila must have been kept prisoner. It had been neatly carpeted over.

Fitzgerald explained to the new tenant, Kelly Keon, that he would like to remove the floor from the closet because it might be possible evidence. She readily agreed, and an arrangement was made for officers to return the next day. Kelly Keon was very cooperative with the detectives and even told them she would leave the key to the front door by her faucet out front so they could let themselves in the next day because she would be out.

That same afternoon, the two investigators contacted Donna Treibel, the manager of the movie theater on Ethan Way where Billy Bob had worked. She could not get access to records to confirm his previous employment, but Fitzgerald was more interested in the shapes and colors of the popcorn-cup boxes delivered to the theater. He accompanied Donna to the storeroom of the theater, only to find that the boxes were nothing like the one used to transport Sheila’s body in.

However, Donna then suggested that she might have the kind of box Fitzgerald was looking for at her own house. She promised to get back to him the following day. The investigation was on track again.

The next day, November 3, Fitzgerald made his first breakthrough in trying to track down Theresa Knorr. A computer check came up with her name under a Utah driver’s license with an address of 2090 Michigan Avenue, Salt Lake City.

Fitzgerald was astounded. Mother and daughter appeared to be living just a few miles from each other.

He immediately contacted the Salt Lake City Police Department, spoke with Detective Jill Candland, and asked her if a check could be made on that address at Michigan Avenue. She called back a short time later, having been unable to come up with anything that would link Theresa Knorr to that property. Detective Candland promised to make further checks and assured Fitzgerald she would get back to him within a couple of days.

It was frustrating for the Knorr task force. For every three steps forward, they seemed to take two steps back. But that is the nature of these sorts of inquiries. It’s painstaking and it’s slow, but you hope to get there in the end.

On the same afternoon, Donna Treibel, manager of the movie theater, called Fitzgerald to confirm Billy Bob’s employment at the cinema. But the box she found at home seemed to be too small to be the kind that the detective was looking for. Once again Fitzgerald felt a twinge of disappointment.

Then, purely as an afterthought, Donna mentioned that a girlfriend of William Knorr’s still worked at the theater. Fitzgerald’s enthusiasm jumped right back into gear.

The pieces in the jigsaw were beginning to fit together. The investigation was gradually gaining momentum. Fitzgerald just had to keep it going in the right direction.

On the morning of November 4, 1993, the investigators filed felony complaint number A27527 in the Placer County Municipal Court, alleging two violations of the section 187(a) of the California Penal Code,
MURDER
and two violations of sections 182(a) (1)/187(a) of the California Penal Code,
CONSPIRACY TO COMMIT MURDER
for victims Suesan Marline Knorr and Sheila Gay Sanders. The complaint further alleged the special circumstances of
MULTIPLE MURDERS
and
MURDER WAS ESPECIALLY HEINOUS
pursuant to California Penal Code sections 190.2 (a) (3) and 190.2(a) (14).

(On November 16 that original complaint was refiled with the special circumstance of
MURDER WAS ESPECIALLY HEINOUS
deleted and replaced by
TORTURE—MURDER
.)

That afternoon, as planned, Fitzgerald, DeCecco, and a maintenance crew including special evidence technicians, let themselves into the house just off Auburn Boulevard.

As evidence technicians Kelly Yarborough and Tammy Harris snapped furiously away with their cameras, the crew began to remove the floor of the closet very slowly and gently so as not to risk ruining any vital evidence.

Meanwhile, in the basement, DeCecco and Fitzgerald used hand spotlights to methodically check for any further clues. Inside both their minds was the fear that maybe there would be other bodies. Thankfully, that was not the case.

A few minutes later, John Fitzgerald found himself watching the entire closet-floor removal operation in an almost trancelike state. He could not stop thinking about Terry’s vivid description of her sister’s withered and crushed body crumpled up in that fetal position. Those haunting visions also reminded him that Terry had mentioned how the closet had a door handle that could only be locked from the outside. He looked at the closet the technicians were so painstakingly removing—it had no such handle.

Fitzgerald then noticed another much smaller closet at the other side of the hallway. It could not have been more than two feet by two and a half feet. He looked inside and saw that it had several shelves. Then he examined the door and realized it had a lock that could easily be the same one as Terry had described.