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Tylar Witt Teen Killer Murders Mother

Tylar Witt was just fourteen years old when she planned the murder of her mother. According to court documents Tylar Witt was dating a much older teen and when her mother learned that her daughter was sexually active she was going to press statutory rape charges against the boyfriend. So the teenage girl planned the murder of her mother. In the end Witt mother would be brutally stabbed to death in her bedroom. This teen killer would end up testifying against her boyfriend and in exchange she received a lesser sentence of fifteen years to life

Tylar Witt 2023 Information

Inmate Name	WITT, TYLAR MARIE
CDCR Number	WE2756
Age	27
Admission Date	09/27/2011
Current Location	Central California Women’s Facility
Location Link	Directions
Parole Eligible Date (Month/Year)	05/2020

Tyler Witt Other News

Tylar Witt was 14 when she helped her boyfriend murder her mom. And on Friday she got a reduced sentence in exchange for testifying against her love-struck accomplice.

Witt, now 16, got her conviction reduced from first-degree to second-degree murder, while Steven Colver, now 21, was sentenced to life without parole for the murder of 47-year-old Joanne Witt in 2009. Witt will now serve 15 years to life in prison.

The teens hatched the murder plot after Joanne Witt made a statutory rape complaint against Colver and gave police her daughter’s diary.

During the sentencing hearing Friday in Placerville, Calif., Michael Witt – who mopped up his sister’s blood from her bed after she was stabbed 20 times – unleashed his anger, calling Colver a “psychotic S.O.B.”

“I hope and desire that Mr. Colver experiences the worst possible experiences our wonderful prison system can bestow upon him,” Witt said, according to the Sacramento Bee.

El Dorado Superior Court Judge Daniel Proud told Tylar she deprived her family of a mother “who dedicated her life to you.”

“Joanne Witt loved her daughter,” the judge said. “She was a protective and caring mother. She tried her best. I’m sorry Ms. Witt because the person who loved you more than anyone in the world, without reservation, is gone.”

Tylar’s grandfather, Norbert Witt, accused Colver in court of both murdering his daughter and of corrupting his granddaughter by exposing her to “heavy narcotics and sex.”

Jan Colver vowed to appeal the decision, saying she still believes her son’s story that Tylar stabbed her mother before Steven even arrived at the house.

Tylar testified at Colver’s trial that they planned to commit the stabbing together, but as Colver entered the bedroom, she stayed outside and “put my hands on my ear, closed my eyes and hummed.”

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Tylar Witt Photos

Tylar Witt Other News

Norb and Judy Witt worked hard and planned well to live it up in retirement, traveling whenever they wanted in their luxury RV. In 2009, they spent two months traveling the country, came home to El Dorado Hills, Calif., and days later, got the phone call.

It was their daughter, Joanne’s, boss wondering if they knew where she was.

“And he says, ‘Well–she didn’t show up for work on Friday and she didn’t show up today. And we’re worried that something might be wrong,” said Judi Witt.

Joanne Witt was 47, a single mother raising her teenage daughter, Tylar. She was an engineer for the county. The thing was Joanne always called when she was not coming to work.

“When you heard that she hadn’t been at work the previous Friday or that Monday, did that strike you as odd?” “48 Hours Mystery” correspondent Richard Schlesinger asked Norb Witt.

“Oh, yeah!” he replied. “And, well, like her boss said, she’s never missed work without calling.”

“Well, Norb says, ‘We’re only two miles away. We’ll go check on her,” added Judi.

Joanne’s boss was one step ahead of them.

“He says, ‘I’ve already called the sheriff’s,” Judi said. “And he says, Joanne had confided that she and Tylar had been having some problems. … he says, ‘we were concerned …'”

“I got in the car and got over there so fast,” Norb recalled. “I think I was in a daze by the time I got there. … there was two sheriff’s cars … and two deputies out there walking around the house. … And I said, “Well, I think I can get you in the house.”

Norb unlocked the house, but the sheriff’s deputies ordered him to stay outside while they searched it. Before long, they told him Joanne was upstairs in her bedroom; she was dead.

“They never said killed or murdered … they just said deceased. So we didn’t know what was going on,” Norb said. “But when the CSI van came in and we had probably 20 detectives wandering around the place … we knew that … she had been killed.”

Joanne had been stabbed about 20 times.

“… it was a very, very, very … gruesome scene,” prosecutor Lisette Suder said. “There was a wound that almost decapitated her. Very violent!”

The news got even worse. Their 14-year-old granddaughter, Tylar Witt, was nowhere to be found.

“… we didn’t know if Tylar had been kidnapped or …” said Judi.

“We knew nothing,” added Norb.

The couple says they were in total shock and concerned about Tylar.

But it didn’t take detectives very long to conclude that Tylar was not a victim. Just weeks before Joanne had complained to authorities about her daughter’s relationship with 19-year-old boyfriend Steven Colver. Now, detectives wanted to talk to both of them.

Steven Colver and Tylar Witt met at a coffee shop soon after she started ninth grade and he had started college. Norb Witt says it wasn’t long before Steven started influencing Tylar — and not in a good way.

“… he had a 14-year-old that looked at him as god. I mean, he had total control over her,” Norb explained. “We knew that drugs were involved. We knew that a lot of drugs were involved. … They were into marijuana, ecstasy, cocaine. What does that do to someone’s mind?”

Just weeks after they met, Steven and Tylar convinced her mother to let Steven rent a room in their home. Joanne thought the two were just friends. They told her he was gay. And Joanne told skeptical friends Steven could help Tylar with her homework and help her pay the mortgage.

“No one — every friend she had, everyone in the family — did not want him in there. But,” said Norb, “Joanne was very strong willed …”

So she let Steven move in. But within a month, Joanne had become suspicious. Then she came home one day and was shocked when she went into Steven’s room.

The prosecutor took “48 Hours Mystery” through the house.

“This is the room where it all began …” Suder said of the bedroom where Steven had stayed. “… Joanne walked in and caught them in a compromising position … they had just or were about to engage in a sexual relationship.”

“Tylar was naked?” Schlesinger asked.

“Right. She was actually inside this closet, crouched down, covering herself, but naked!”

Joanne did what any parent would do. She ordered Steven to leave and she called in two of her male co-workers to help throw him out.

“She said she was gonna kick Steven out and she didn’t want to be there alone,” said Vinnie Catapano, a friend of Joanne’s.

Catapano helped move Steven’s things to the sidewalk and then confronted him. “The first thing I said to him is, ‘If it was me – you’d be in jail right now.'”

Joanne believed Steven had committed a crime — statutory rape — by having sex with Tylar, who was a minor. Joanne warned Steven she’d call the sheriff if he didn’t immediately stop seeing Tylar. Catapano took a more direct approach.

“So then I told him, ‘You know, if you make contact with Tylar again — either by phone or in person — I’m gonna hurt you. And I’m gonna hurt you East Coast-style, not West Coast-style,” he told Schlesinger.

Asked what that meant, Catapano told Schlesinger, “Well … I was trying to intimidate him.”

“Did he seem intimidated?” Schlesinger asked.

“Absolutely not. And that, again, annoyed me more,” Catapano replied.

Steven Colver was also apparently not deterred by Catapano or Joanne Witt.

“… he snuck over to the house 20 times,” said Norb.

They continued their affair during the day when Joanne was at work and late at night when she was asleep. When Joanne found out, she made good on her threat and called authorities, who opened an investigation.

“… she wanted him away from her daughter. But they couldn’t stand the thought of not being together. And so that’s when the plotting began,” said Suder.

Within days, Norb Witt unlocked the house and sheriff’s deputies discovered the results of that alleged plot. Norb and his wife, Judy, now faced a terrible choice. Getting justice for the murder of their daughter meant turning their backs on their granddaughter.

With a sigh, Norb told Schlesinger, “If she hadn’t done whatever she did … her mother would still be alive today, probably …”

And prosecutors say Tylar and Steven apparently didn’t intend to stop with Joanne. They had more killing in mind.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/forbidden-young-love-ends-with-a-mothers-violent-murder/

Frequently Asked Questions

Tylar Witt Now

Tylar Witt is currently incarcerated at the Central California Women’s Facility

Tylar Witt Release Date

Tylar Witt is serving a life sentence however has been eligible for parole since 2021

Amber Wright Teen Killer Seath Jackson Murder

Amber Wright was fifteen years old when she helped murder a teenage boy in Florida. According to court documents Amber Wright was dating a new guy named Michael Bargo and a plan arrived to murder her former boyfriend Seath Jackson. Amber Wright lured the young man to a home where he was brutally murdered and his body would be cut up and burned. Amber Wright and the rest of the group would be arrested and convicted. This teen killer would be sentenced to life in prison without parole. Michael Bargo (pictured above) was sentenced to death and remains on Florida death row

Amber Wright 2023 Information

DC Number:	U46099
Name:	WRIGHT, AMBER E
Race:	WHITE
Sex:	FEMALE
Birth Date:	03/29/1996
Initial Receipt Date:	08/23/2012
Current Facility:	HOMESTEAD C.I.
Current Custody:	CLOSE
Current Release Date:	SENTENCED TO LIFE

Amber Wright Other News

Amber Wright will serve life in prison for her role in the 2011 murder of her 15-year-old ex-boyfriend, a judge ruled on Tuesday. Her sentence will be subject to review after 25 years.

“I have not seen or heard anything more despicable than what lead to Seath Jackson’s death,” Circuit Judge Anthony Tatti told Wright before handing down her sentence.

“I cannot imagine a circumstance any worse, and I pray to my God that the reason behind all this is some chemical imbalance or a brain that hasn’t matured. It’s really hard to deal with the notion that such an evil could exist without an explanation,” Tatti continued.

Tatti’s words — and the sentence he selected for the 19-year-old Amber Wright — echoed those of Circuit Judge David Eddy, who first sentenced Wright in 2012 after a joint trial with her teenage brother and co-defendant. Eddy, at the time, called the murder the most heinous he had seen in 15 years as a judge.

The siblings were among five young people who in 2011 lured Seath to a Summerfield home, where they beat him, shot him and burned his body in a backyard fire pit. Law enforcement authorities recovered Seath’s remains days later in paint buckets dumped at a nearby quarry, where two of the five co-defendants had disposed of them the day after the murder.

Assistant State Attorneys Amy Berndt and Robin Arnold cast the murder as an escalation of animosity between Seath and Amber Wright, who had broken up on poor terms, and between Seath and another co-defendant, Michael Bargo, whom Amber dated after the breakup.

An appellate decision brought Wright back to Marion County for a retrial in January, based on an issue with the timing of her Miranda rights. Although her jury in January again found her guilty of first-degree murder, a statute change between her 2012 sentencing and her sentencing Tuesday left open the possibility of a lighter sentence.

While Florida Statute in 2012 mandated life in prison as the minimum sentence for any first-degree murder conviction, even if the defendant was a juvenile at the time of the murder, it today allows for more discretion on the part of judges in cases with juvenile defendants.

Amber was 15 at the time of the murder, the same age as the victim and the youngest of the five co-defendants.

In a letter she read aloud at the hearing, Sonia Jackson, the victim’s mother, said she has thought about the argument that prompted the statute change: that children’s still-developing minds and consciences are fundamentally different than those of adults, suggesting that children should not be subject to the same penalties.

But in Amber’s case, Jackson rejected that argument, emphasizing in her statement what she cast as Wright’s key role in a deliberately planned murder. Jackson asked Tatti to send her to prison with a life sentence.

“It doesn’t take a fully developed mind to understand right from wrong,” Jackson said. “A 2-year-old learns that hurting others is not acceptable in our society.”

Turning to face Wright, Jackson also echoed words she read at Wright’s original sentencing: “Amber, we hope that guilt eats you inside and out knowing that you caused all this,” she said. “You fed into Bargo’s deranged desires with your lies. All this happened because of you.”

Although Bargo is said to have been the gunman, and is currently serving the most severe sentence, on death row, prosecutors emphasized at trial that Wright’s text messages lured Seath to the home that night. In an interview recorded at the Marion County Sheriff’s Office before her arrest, which the jury heard at trial, Wright said Bargo had pressured her to contact Seath.

Family members and prison ministers who spoke in Amber Wright’s defense acknowledged the Jackson family’s pain, but emphasized that Wright had grown and matured in the five years since Seath’s murder.

“I just hope and pray that you can make the right decision and give her a chance to be the person she could be,” Wright’s mother told Tatti tearfully.

She and two prison ministers said they have already seen changes in Wright since her incarceration, noting that she has since earned her GED and built positive relationships with other inmates.

Amber, who had not spoken at her trial in January, asked Tatti to recognize that she is not the same person she was five years ago. She said she feels guilty and remorseful, and that she finds it difficult to forgive herself, but said she is trying to be a better person.

“I’m not going to say a wonderful person,” she said. “I’m not. I make mistakes. I still do. I just hope one day I’ll be allowed to have that chance to prove myself.

“Not just to you,” she added, “or to anybody else, but to myself as well.”

The current statute on sentencing for defendants who commit serious crimes as children came in response to a U.S. Supreme Court ruling, which came down in the weeks before Amber Wright’s trial and sentencing in 2012 and found that mandatory life sentences for juvenile defendants are unconstitutional.

Because Amber and her brother, Kyle Hooper, who was 16-years-old at the time of the murder, were sentenced to life without parole as a mandatory sentence, Hooper has been granted a re-sentencing on appeal. Wright, too, would have received a new sentencing on the same basis had she not been granted a new trial altogether.

The current statute, though, leaves open the possibility of a life sentence for juveniles in cases where a judge finds an intent to kill and considers several additional factors laid out in the statute. Among those factors are the defendant’s age, maturity and intellectual capacity, and the effect of peer pressure on the defendants.

Prosecutors and Junior Barrett, Wright’s attorney, interpreted the factors differently in Wright’s case, with Barrett emphasizing Wright’s age and Berndt emphasizing the gruesome circumstances of the murder.

After hearing all the arguments, Tatti, who said he had never sentenced anyone to life in prison in five years as a judge and did not take the responsibility lightly, sentenced Amber Wright to life in prison with a review after 25 years.

“I hope that what’s responsible for that is some lack of development in your brain, something that you can grow out of,” he told Amber Wright. “That would give me some hope.”

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Amber Wright Photos

amber wright 2022 now — Amber Wright 2022

Amber Wright Appeal

Amber Wright was one of five young people charged with Seath Jackson‘s murder. Fifteen-year-old Wright and Jackson had been in a relationship, but broke up acrimoniously. Using text messages, Amber Wright and Charlie Ely lured Jackson to a trailer, where Kyle Hooper, Wright’s brother, along with Michael Bargo, her boyfriend, and Justin Soto, beat and shot Jackson before placing his body in a bag and burning it in a backyard fire pit.² The remains were then shoveled into five-gallon paint buckets and thrown in a rock quarry.

Two days after the murder, Mrs. Tracey Wright, Amber Wright and Hooper’s mother, called Sheriff’s Deputy David Rasnick, telling him that Hooper knew something about Jackson’s disappearance.³ When Deputy Rasnick arrived at the Wright residence, Wright, Hooper, Ely, and Mrs. Wright were all present. Because Hooper became emotional, Deputy Rasnick read him the Miranda warnings. Deputy Rasnick’s supervisor arrived and told him that investigators wanted to interview “the kids” at the station. Deputy Rasnick passed that request on to them, and went next door to find Soto. Deputy Rasnick, Soto, Ely, Wright and Hooper went to the station in Deputy Rasnick’s marked Marion County Sheriff’s Office vehicle, while Mrs. Wright followed behind in her own car. Pursuant to the policies of the sheriff’s office, Deputy Rasnick collected the cell phones of those who rode in his car. No one was handcuffed or expressed any reluctance about going to the sheriff’s office. Instead, the group seemed “nonchalant.” Ely rode in the front, while Hooper, Wright and Soto rode in the back. At the time, Deputy Rasnick regarded Hooper as a “person of interest,” but neither he nor Wright were suspects.

At the sheriff’s office, Amber Wright had three videotaped interviews with Detective Rhonda Stroup. The first interview took place in a “soft room.” Wright and her mother sat together on a large couch, while Detective Stroup sat across from them in a chair. The conversation was calm and patient. Detective Stroup’s questions were factual in nature, and did not accuse or confront either Wright or her mother. During this interview, Wright told Detective Stroup that Jackson “just showed up” at the trailer. Wright claimed that Hooper struck the first blow, frightening her and Ely into hiding in Ely’s room until the next morning. When she woke, the house smelled like bleach.

This first interview lasted about twenty minutes, but the video recording continued for an additional hour. During that time, Amber Wright and her mother primarily stayed in the soft room, which was unlocked. While Detective Stroup was out of the room, she was, among other things, interviewing Hooper, who confessed to the murder and implicated the others, including Wright. Detective Stroup then returned for a second interview. This time, Wright was moved to a “hard room,” a more traditional police interrogation room. To this point, Wright had not been given the Miranda warnings.

Detective Stroup began the second interview by accusing Amber Wright of lying and stating that the interview was “where the rubber hits the road.” Detective Stroup informed Wright that Hooper had told her “everything,” and if Wright continued to lie, she would be treated “like a piece of garbage.” Detective Stroup indicated that she wanted “mutual respect” and the truth, and when pressed, Wright replied, “I’m gonna tell you the truth.” Notwithstanding Wright’s professed willingness to be truthful, she continued to dissemble, prompting Detective Stroup to tell Wright that she was “done with being lied to” and that further lies would lead to her walking out, which was “not what you want.” Finally, Wright admitted her involvement in Jackson’s murder, largely as described by Hooper, prompted by Detective Stroup’s questions. At the conclusion of the second interview, Detective Stroup asked Wright to confirm that no one had offered her anything in exchange for her statement, no one had threatened to beat her, she understood her rights, and her statements were free and voluntary. To all of this, Wright responded, “yes ma‘am.” Detective Stroup then arrested Amber Wright for murder and handcuffed her.

Shortly after the second interview ended, Detective Stroup realized that no one had Mirandized Wright. As a result, she escorted Amber Wright, in handcuffs, back to the soft room for a third interview. At the start of the third interview, Detective Stroup told Wright that she was giving her “the chance to be the honest one.” Detective Stroup informed Wright that she had not been read her rights, and then presented a Miranda waiver form to Wright, noting, “[T]his is something I have to do, OK?” Detective Stroup read the warnings on the form to Wright, ultimately asking, “Do you understand these rights?” Wright nodded affirmatively. Detective Stroup then asked, “Having these rights in mind, do you want to talk about this? And if [so] put your initials right there.” Wright complied, saying, “Might as well get it all out.” After Wright signed the waiver form, Detective Stroup questioned her calmly, frequently referring to inculpatory information gleaned from their just-completed, un-Mirandized second interview. Wright’s answers were consistent with her statements in the second interview. By the time Detective Stroup read Wright her Miranda rights, Wright had been at the sheriff’s office for more than six hours.⁴

Amber Wright later moved to suppress all of her statements, arguing that they were the product of custodial interrogations, that she had not been Mirandized before the first or second interview, and that the failure to do so tainted the admissions made in the third interview. While the State agreed to the suppression of the second interview, it argued against suppressing the first or third interviews. The State contended that Miranda warnings were not needed for the first interview as it was not the result of a custodial interrogation. It also argued that the Miranda warnings given prior to the third interview cured any taint from the second, un-Mirandized interrogation. Based on the State’s concession, the trial court agreed to suppress Wright’s second interview. Without elaboration, the court denied suppression of the first and third interviews. Wright was ultimately found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole. Amber Wright appeals, contending that the admission of her first and third interviews with Detective Stroup violated her constitutional rights against self-incrimination.

Seath Jackson Photos

Frequently Asked Questions

Amber Wright Now

Amber Wright is currently incarcerated at the Homestead Prison in Florida

Amber Wright Release Date

Amber Wright is serving life without parole however since she was a juvenile when the murder occurred she is eligible for review after 25 years

Sabrina Zunich Teen Killer Murders Foster Mother

Sabrina Zunich was sixteen years old when she murdered her foster mother. According to court documents Sabrina Zunich was manipulated by Kevin Knoefel to kill his wife and her foster mother. On the day of the murder Sabrina Zunich would stab the victim over a dozen times and cut her over a hundred times. This teen killer would be sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for thirty years.

Sabrina Zunich 2023 Information

NumberW090602

DOB10/27/1994

GenderFemale

RaceWhite

Admission Date10/06/2014

InstitutionDayton Correctional Institution

StatusINCARCERATED

Sabrina Zunich Other News

Sabrina Zunich carefully folded three tissues on the table before her as she awaited a hearing that would determine how long she would be in prison for brutally killing her foster mother.

They were used and wadded and she continued to cry when Lake County Common Pleas Judge Richard Collins Jr. said she would serve a mandatory sentence of life in prison but be eligible for parole after 30 years.

Collins made it clear that his recommendation for parole was due to Zunich’s cooperation with prosecutors that led to the conviction of her foster father, Kevin Knoefel.

“I don’t think there was any question she was manipulated and used by the co-defendant,” Collins said. But he said the seriousness of the crime outweighed all factors.

Zunich, 19, had stabbed Lisa Knoefel 12 times and cut her 166 times with a 10-inch serrated kitchen knife. She pleaded guilty to aggravated murder last month.

“Aggravated murder is aggravated murder,” Collins said. “But this was not a single violent act.”

He said Lisa Knoefel suffered before she died.

“She was screaming for help and begging the defendant to stop. She did not die immediately. I cannot imagine the nature of terror and fear.”

Zunich apologized before she was sentenced.

“I want to say how sorry I am for all those I hurt,” she said. “Lisa did not deserve what happened to her. I ask forgiveness be given to me – not for my benefit but for those who need the healing process to begin. I can’t explain how much remorse I have and how much sadness I deal with.”

She made a comment that she had “talked” to Lisa Knoefel and she forgave her.

Collins said he had received letters of support for Zunich from two women in the jail ministry, one who visited weekly. He also received a poem from Zunich, he said. He and Zunich’s attorney, Charles Grieshammer, said they could not release the poem because it was included in the pre-sentence report.

At the hearing Grieshammer asked Collins to allow parole eligibility after 20 years, saying Zunich was emotionally blackmailed by Kevin Knoefel, who convinced her to kill his wife.

“Had she been placed in a loving foster home she might have made it,” he said. “Kevin hijacked her.”

No one spoke on behalf of Zunich, although the courtroom was filled. Among those in the front row was her mother, Susan Edwards, and Edwards’ mother, Alice Matt.

“I’m sorry this happened and I love her with all my heart,” said Edwards prior to the hearing. She was unable to care for Zunich because of drug and alcohol abuse, according to court testimony.

Matt said she writes weekly to Zunich but hadn’t seen her since before her arrest on Nov. 16, 2012.

Zunich did not look at either of them as she entered and left the courtroom.

Prosecutors, who said they did not know of Kevin Knoefel’s involvement in his wife’s death until Zunich told them, told Collins they recommended she have an opportunity for parole.

Zunich, who has been in the Lake County Jail for almost two years, will be transferred to prison in about a week, deputies said.

Zunich was not indicted on the aggravated murder charge until July 15, after a Lake County jury convicted Kevin Knoefel of conspiring with Zunich to kill his wife.

Prosecutors have said they were unaware of Zunich’s sexual relationship with Kevin Knoefel or that he had persuaded her to kill Lisa Knoefel until Zunich spoke with them in May, 2013.

Zunich’s attack occurred while Lisa Knoefel, 41, was in bed and Kevin Knoefel was driving a truck from Michigan to Ohio.

The case against Kevin Knoefel for the most part rested on the testimony of Zunich, whose graphically detailed her relationship with Knoefel and what led her to kill Lisa Knoefel.

Zunich had lived at the Knoefel’s Willoughby Hills home since July, 2011. She had been in custody of Lake County officials since 2010 when it was determined she could not longer live with her paternal grandmother because she was unruly.

She testified in Knoefel’s trial that she was doing well in high school and had plans to model or enter cosmetology school.

She said she expected the Knoefel’s to divorce and she would live with Kevin Knoefel. They had had sexual relations since March, 2012.

She testified Knoefel told her he didn’t love his wife anymore and didn’t want a divorce because he didn’t want to share custody of Hailey, their 3-year-old daughter. He told her they could raise Hailey together.

On Nov. 15, 2012, he cried and told her he had gotten in a big fight with his wife and was going to kill himself if she was not dead. So, with his encouragement, she decided to kill Lisa Knoefel.

Sabrina Zunich More News

Sabrina Zunich, who brutally killed her foster mother and implicated her foster father in the murder, will be sentenced to prison today.

Zunich, 19, who pleaded guilty to aggravated murder, faces a mandatory life sentence but hopes her cooperation in the case leads Lake County Common Pleas Judge Richard Collins Jr. to allow her to apply for parole after 30 years.

Prosecutors, who said they did not know of Kevin Knoefel’s involvement in his wife’s death until Zunich told them, have recommended she be a candidate for parole.

Zunich has been in the Lake County Jail since Nov. 16, 2012, following her arrest outside Lisa Knoefel’s bedroom.

She had stabbed Knoefel 12 times and cut her 166 times with a 10-inch serrated kitchen knife.

She was not deterred even though Knoefel fought and pleaded for her to stop and the woman’s teenage daughter tried to pull Zunich off her mother and called 911.

Zunich was not indicted on the aggravated murder charge until July 15 , after a Lake County jury convicted Kevin Knoefel of conspiring with Zunich to kill his wife.

Prosecutors have said they were unaware of Zunich’s sexual relationship with Kevin Knoefel or that he had persuaded her to kill Lisa Knoefel until Zunich spoke with them in May, 2013.

Zunich’s attack occurred while Lisa Knoefel, 41, was in bed and Kevin Knoefel was driving a truck from Michigan to Ohio.

The case against Kevin Knoefel for the most part rested on the testimony of Zunich, whose graphically detailed her relationship with Knoefel and what led her to kill Lisa Knoefel.

She testified in Knoefel’s trial that she was doing well in high school and had plans to model or enter cosmetology school.

She said she expected the Knoefel’s to divorce and she would live with Kevin Knoefel. They had had sexual relations since March, 2012.

https://www.cleveland.com/metro/2014/09/sabrina_zunich_who_brutally_ki.html

Sabrina Zunich Videos

Frequently Asked Questions

Sabrina Zunich Now

Sabrina Zunich is currently incarcerated at the Dayton Correctional Institute

Sabrina Zunich Release Date

Sabrina Zunich is not eligible for parole until 2041

Sabrina Zunich Photos

Kevin Knoefel 2021 Information

Number A660400

DOB 06/16/1970

Gender Male

Race White

Admission Date 08/07/2014

Institution NorthEast Ohio Correctional Center

Status INCARCERATED

Christine Paolilla Teen Killer Murders 4 Friends

Christine Paolilla was seventeen when she murdered four of her friends. According to court documents Christine Paolilla and Christopher Snider would enter a home and shoot and kill four young people in 2003. This teen killer would not be arrested until 2006 when an anonymous tip would lead to her arrest. Christopher Snider would commit suicide before he could be arrested.

Christine Paolilla 2023 Information

SID Number: 07188577

TDCJ Number: 01529580

Name: PAOLILLA,CHRISTINE MARIE

Race: W

Gender: F

DOB: 1986-03-31

Maximum Sentence Date: LIFE SENTENCE

Current Facility: MOUNTAIN VIEW

Projected Release Date: LIFE SENTENCE

Parole Eligibility Date: 2046-07-22

Offender Visitation Eligible: YES

Christine Paolilla Other News

In the spring of 2003, things were looking up for 17-year-old Christine Paolilla, a shy teenager who had always struggled to fit in. She was friends with two popular girls at school — Rachael Koloroutis and Tiffany Rowell — and she had been voted “Miss Irresistible” by the student body at Clear Lake High School in suburban Houston.

But on the afternoon of July 18, 2003, Christine’s life changed forever. Four youths were found shot multiple times at point blank range in a home in the placid Clear Lake neighborhood. Two of the victims were her friends, Koloroutis and Rowell, who had recently graduated. Koloroutis was planning to attend college in the fall.

The police were stunned, and stumped as to who would want the youths dead.

“There was a lot of rage and anger behind these killings and so, therefore, we thought … perhaps there was a personal relationship between the victims in the home and the killer,” Houston Police Sgt. Brian Harris told ABC News.

It would take three years to unravel the mystery. After numerous dead ends, police caught a big break in July 2006, when an anonymous tipster called. The tipster described facts only the killers could have known and gave them two names — a boy, Chris, and a girl: Christine Paolilla.

Christine Paolilla was arrested, tried and convicted of the crime. She is now appealing the conviction. “Chris” was Chris Snider, Christine’s boyfriend in high school, who committed suicide after he learned police were on his trail.

The question that haunted everyone, including the police, was, “Why?” The details didn’t seem to add up. Rachael and Tiffany had befriended Christine Paolilla and offered her advice, including beauty tips. The friends even carried pictures of each other in their wallets.

Why would Christine Paolilla want to kill her friends?

Christine’s parents, Lori Paolilla and stepfather Tom Dick, spoke to “20/20” exclusively about their daughter’s life before July 18, 2003.

Christine Paolilla spent her childhood in suburban Long Island, N.Y. Her mother, Lori Paolilla, told ABC News that the girl was “very outgoing, outspoken, though shy at times… she was the apple of Daddy’s eye.” Christine’s father, Charles Paolilla, was a construction worker and her mother stayed home to raise Christine and her older brother, John.

Christine Paolilla was just 2 years old when tragedy hit. Lori Paolilla described the painful day.

“Her father got up and went to work and never came home,” she said.

Charles Paolilla was killed by falling bricks during construction on a high-rise in New York City.

“I had to go home,” Lori Paolilla told ABC News, “and tell my children that Daddy won’t be coming home anymore.”

A few months later, Christine’s grandfather and great-grandmother also passed away. According to her mother, Christine Paolilla started asking questions: “‘Mommy, I don’t understand … why is it that people I love go away?’”

Her mother says she tried to raise the children on her own, but the pain of losing her husband led her to drug addiction. She eventually lost control of her world and, temporarily, custody of her children. At age 7, Christine Paolilla went to live with her grandparents.

“She didn’t really understand,” Paolilla said. “She would call me on the phone and cry, ‘Mommy, can’t I come home?’”

Psychiatrist Gail Saltz, author of “Anatomy of a Secret Life: The Psychology of Living a Lie,” described the impact such a loss could have on a young girl.

“Losing her father at an early age puts someone a risk,” Saltz told ABC News. “It’s abandonment, a very frightening one … and then, of course, be[ing] essentially abandoned by your mother in the setting of her using drugs, that’s sort of a double whammy because that is losing the most important person in your life. … Hard to not internalize that as a tremendous rejection, … [a] blow to self-esteem and questions of how loveable am I if my mother … is no longer taking care of me.”

Christine Paolilla’s suffering didn’t end there. By the time she was in kindergarten, she was diagnosed with an irreversible hair-loss condition called alopecia.

“She would wake up in the morning and there would be clumps of hair all over her pillow, patches here, patches there,” Paolilla said. “And eventually led to where it affected her eyes so she lost her eyebrows, she lost her eyelashes.”

As a young child, Christine Paolilla wore wigs to hide her affliction from the world.

“That was devastating,” said Paolilla. “She had poor vision so she had what I guess most folks would know as Coke-bottle glasses, and [she] started being ridiculed by young children. … Classmates would come up behind her, pull her wig off her head.

“It was so painful to watch. I can’t even imagine really, truly how she was feeling. As a parent, as a mother the pain of a child, waking up in the morning thinking, ‘What am I going to have to go through today? Who is going to hurt me today?’ It was very difficult for her.”

Saltz said the hair loss would have been a major psychological obstacle.

“Psychologically, to a young person, this is going to take a huge toll,” Saltz said. “Hair is hugely important to girls, to women, it’s a symbol of femininity, it’s a symbol of feminine power … alopecia is a pretty devastating condition.”

Christine’s early teen years were a struggle. But eventually she was able to forge new friendships that helped her feel like she belonged.

Lori Paolilla recalled her daughter’s joy at having made new high school friends.

“‘Mom,’ she said, ‘I made two new friends who are the sweetest girls I ever met,’” Paolilla said. “I said ‘who are they?’ She said, ‘Rachael and Tiffany.’ … She couldn’t speak highly enough about them. How much fun they were. How loving they were, how they had so much fun … Every minute they spent together was lively and fun, and they laughed all the time and I saw such a change in her personality.”

Tiffany and Rachael were a year ahead of Christine Paolilla in school. “She genuinely seemed very happy when she started to hang around with those girls,” said Paolilla.

Rachael was beautiful and popular and may have helped Christine feel like a normal teenager. The intensity of the relationship was understandable, said Saltz. “That relationship would be extra important, full of longings,” she said.

Rachael’s father wasn’t surprised she took Christine Paolilla under her wing.

“Rachael was the kind of person that always looked out for the underdog, always tried to help others,” George Koloroutis told ABC News. “And because of this affliction that Paolilla had … Rachael really felt sorry for her.”

Paolilla said one sign that Christine Paolilla trusted her new friends was that she “felt OK without the wig on with them, which is not something that she did with many of her friends.”

Christine also had a friend her parents did not approve of: Chris Snider. Christine briefly met Snider in school, when she was in the eighth grade. He was about two years older and didn’t look like her other friends.

He had “body piercings, spiked hair, chains hanging from his jeans … there was something in his eyes and every time I saw him it made me very uncomfortable,” said Lori Paolilla, adding said Snider did jail time for armed robbery, and when he got out he went straight to Christine Paolilla, now 16. Christine felt bad for him because nobody wanted to be his friend and she thought she could help him, said Paolilla.

Christine and Chris began dating. According to Christine’s mother and stepfather, Snider started isolating Christine from her family and friends. Paolilla said Snider emotionally abused Christine Paolilla, even showing up at school one day and pulling her wig off to embarrass her in front of her classmates. Despite it all, Christine appeared to cling to the relationship.

“Typically in an abusive relationship,” said Saltz, “the abuser wants to isolate, dominate. … And he would be jealous of, and potentially want to get rid of anybody else in her life.” It is not uncommon, according to the psychiatrist, for a woman who has been bullied to fall in love with her abuser.

Dick said Snider had some sort of hold on Christine Paolilla. “We did everything in our power to get him away from her, but you know she’s 16, 17 years old. There’s only so much you can do.” He said they tried grounding Christine and taking away car privileges, but “[Snider] had some sort of mental control over her that we couldn’t break.”

Christine’s parents were additionally concerned about Snider’s drug use. The parents consulted with attorneys and police officers, they said, and even tried to get a restraining order and have Snider arrested, to no avail. “We talked to her about it until we were blue in the face,” said Dick. “She just felt she was going be able to fix him, no matter what he did.”

Saltz tied the relationship to Christine’s early loss of her father. “[I]f you lost a father very early in life, you may be susceptible to making a man that comes along in your life overly important,” she said. “So important that you would potentially do anything for him.”

Paolilla and Dick said Christine Paolilla was deeply disturbed about the murder of Rachael and Tiffany.

“She came home to tell us … she was very upset … she cried most of the night,” said Paolilla, adding that Christine Paolilla was too upset to attend the girls’ funerals.

The details of the July 2003 murder remain sketchy. On the afternoon of the murders, a neighbor saw a “male” and “female” dressed in black, walking up to the house. Using the neighbor’s descriptions, Houston Police Department forensic sketch artist Lois Gibson created composite sketches of the suspects. The sketches were eventually released, and may have led to tipsters calling in.

But the most revealing piece of evidence as to what happened in the house that day came from Christine’s videotaped interrogation after she was arrested in 2006. She told police that Snider had a gun and forced her to take a second gun but that she never willfully fired it. Instead, she said, Snider put his hand on hers and caused her to fire the gun.

She said Snider later beat a severely wounded Rachael to death. According to Christine Paolilla, Snider threatened to do the same thing to her and her family if she told anyone. She went to work at Walgreen’s less than 30 minutes after the murders, instead of calling police.

A man Christine later married, Justin Rott, told police a different story. He said Christine Paolilla admitted to going to the house to participate in a drug heist, and when Snider started shooting she didn’t hesitate to join in. Rott said Christine told him that it was her, not Snider, who beat Rachael to death with a gun.

When the police finally caught up with Christine Paolilla in July 2006, she was high on heroin, living in a hotel room strewn with used needles. She and Rott had been holed up in the room for over eight months.

In September 2008, she was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison. Christine Paolilla is serving her time at women’s penitentiary in Gatesville, Texas. Though she is not eligible for parole until 2046, she filed an appeal right after she was convicted.

“The statements she (Paolilla) made shouldn’t have been submitted to the jury because she was under severe heroin withdrawal during the time of her interrogation by police,” said Allen Isbell, Paolilla’s lawyer.

Isbell also questions Christine’s sentencing.

Though Christine Paolilla was 17 years-old at the time of the murders, she was automatically sentenced to life in prison. Isbell argued before a Houston appeals court last December that “a mandatory life sentences in a murder case is unconstitutional for a defendant under 18 years of age.”

The court has yet to rule on the appeal.

Meanwhile, the question still lingers: Why would Christine Paolilla kill her friends?

“I think there’s a chance she thought they were pitying her … but still envied them, because they didn’t have to work so hard to be nice, to be accepted,” Saltz said. “That’s going to create some intense envy and jealousy, bring out the aggression, and the … wish to punish them for what they have.”

Houston Police Sgt. Brian Harris said in an interview with Deborah Roberts that he believes Christine Paolilla still does not “own” the crime.

“For her to truly come to grips with what she had done,” he said, “she has to acknowledge that there’s a darkness in her soul.”

Lori Paolilla now lives with the anguish of a mother whose daughter struggled with, and ultimately succumbed to, the harshness of the world around her.

“We represent parents who have teenage children… young adult children who are living in a world that was much different from when I grew up,” Paolilla said. “Keep them away from the ones that you know in your heart are going to be the ones that can break them and weaken them and take them down.”

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Christine Paolilla always felt like an outsider.

By the time she entered high school, Christine had suffered the sudden death of her father and was diagnosed with alopecia—an irreversible disease that caused her to lose her hair, eyebrows, and eyelashes.

Kids were cruel, calling her a clown due to her heavy makeup and unflattering wigs. But when popular classmates Tiffany Rowell and Rachael Koloroutis befriended Christine, things started looking up.

Christine’s happiness with her newfound friendship makes what happened next all the more shocking:

On July 18, 2003, Christine and her boyfriend Christopher Snider went to Tiffany’s home in Clear Lake City, Texas, and murdered Tiffany, Rachael, and two other friends in cold blood. Why would a young girl-who had already experienced such a deep loss-commit such a brutal act? Especially upon the two people she seemingly cared about most

The discovery of the crime scene was just as shocking. From multiple gun shot wounds to Rachael’s head being smashed in by the butt of a pistol, police were left wondering: Who would ruthlessly kill four innocent teenagers in broad daylight?

Investigative journalist and true-crime expert M. William Phelps dives into the shocking mass murder in his book Never Seen Them Again by interviewing the victims’—and killers’—friends and family members, combing through trial transcripts and other reports. The result is an extremely detailed—yet compulsively readable—account of the lead up to the crime and its aftermath.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/why-did-this-teenage-girl_b_11202162

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Christine Paolilla is currently incarcerated at the Mountainview Unit in Texas

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Stephanie Olsen Teen Killer Murders Mother

Stephanie Olsen was a seventeen year old from Kentucky who along with her boyfriend David Dressman would stab her mother to death. According to court documents Stephanie Olsen and her mother had different opinions regarding David Dressman and when her mother refused to let her teenage daughter move out the teenage couple decided to murder her. The teenage couple who would flee the State a month before the murder made it to Georgia before being picked up and sent back to Kentucky. The two teenagers would enlist yet another teen, Timothy Crabtree, who they promised a portion of the life insurance.

Stephanie Olsen would lure her mother to her bedroom with David following behind. The mother would be stabbed repeatedly leading to her death. Stephanie Olsen and David Dressman would leave the home for the night. The next day Stephanie would go back to the home and call police.

Initially David Dressman and Timothy Crabtree were arrested and charged with the murder. Stephanie Olsen would be arrested ten months later. Timothy Crabtree would plead guilty to conspiracy to commit murder and received six years. David Dressman would receive twenty years for the conspiracy and ten years for burglary. This teen killer received twenty five years in prison.

Stephanie Olsen 2023 Information

Name:	OLSEN, STEPHANIE DENISE Active Inmate	Offender Photo(Click image to enlarge)
PID # / DOC #:	103234 / 179976
Institution Start Date:	7/14/2005
Expected Time To Serve (TTS):	12/16/2025
Classification:	Medium (Level 3)
Minimum Expiration of Sentence Date (Good Time Release Date): ?	12/16/2025
Parole Eligibility Date:	9/09/2024
Maximum Expiration of Sentence Date:	9/08/2029
Location:	KY Corr. Inst. for Women
Age:	35
Race:	White
Gender:	F
Eye Color:	Blue
Hair Color:	Blond or Strawberry
Height:	5′ 01″
Weight:	145

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A woman convicted of complicity in the 2002 stabbing death of her mother at their home in The Colony has lost a bid for a reduced sentence.

Stephanie Denise Olsen’s motion to cut five years from her 25-year term was rejected Wednesday by Scott County Circuit Judge Paul Isaacs, court documents show.

Isaacs said Olsen’s motion, filed in October 2014, unsuccessfully argued that her being a minor who was tried as an adult and a lack of physical evidence against her, as well as her actions during her imprisonment since 2005, provided reason to trim her sentence.

Crabtree pleaded guilty to conspiracy and was sentenced to six years.

In her motion for a reduced sentence, Olsen cites “numerous mitigating factors, all of which were introduced at trial.”

One such factor was her being 17 years old at the time of her mother’s murder, that her co-defendants received lesser sentences and that she has overcome addiction issues she had at the time of the crime.

In his response, Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Keith Eardley says there is no “factual or legal basis” to permit a sentence reduction.

“The positive steps [Olsen] has taken while incarcerated, while commendable, have nothing to do with the fundamental fairness of the trial proceeding and do not constitute a basis for relief,” Eardley wrote in his Aug. 21, 2015, response.

Olsen currently is incarcerated in the Kentucky Correctional Institution for Women at Pewee Valley.

State Corrections Department online records show her maximum sentence would expire Sept. 8, 2029, while her expected time to serve is until April 24, 2027.

Stephanie Olsen becomes eligible for parole on Sept. 9, 2024.

https://www.news-graphic.com/news/olsen-bid-for-reduced-sentence-denied/article_bf2369d0-e736-11e6-81c6-eb2c48001501.html

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After more than eight hours of deliberations lasting into Friday morning, a Scott County jury found Stephanie Olsen guilty of a charge of complicity to murder her mother.

Stephanie Olsen screamed “Oh my God” and started crying after the verdict was read at 12:45 a.m. Her dad and stepmother also cried as they watched bailiffs lead Olson to the Scott County Detention Center.

The penalty phase will begin at 10 a.m. today. The jury could sentence Olson to 20 years to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Prosecutors say Stephanie Olsen conspired with her then-boyfriend, David Dressman, and Timothy Crabtree to kill Diane Snellen for financial gain and due to rifts with her mother over Dressman.

Dressman has been charged with murdering Snellen, while Crabtree accepted a prosecution’s deal and entered an Alford plea to a lesser charge of conspiracy. The plea allows Crabtree to recognize the evidence against him without admitting guilt.

Snellen, a 41-year-old Toyota employee, was found nude on the floor of her daughter’s upstairs bedroom with 27 stab wounds to her chest, neck and head on June 6, 2002.

During his closing argument, Commonwealth’s Attorney Gordie Shaw called Snellen’s murder one of the worst he had ever seen, saying her killing was something “personal” and left Snellen with no time to struggle.

“When this happened, it happened fast, it happened hard,” Shaw said, adding that Snellen’s body looked as though she had been hit by a truck.

Shaw said Stephanie Olson wanted her mother dead so she could lead her own life, a life without Snellen’s rules and restrictions.

“She couldn’t wait six months to turn 18, and maybe she wanted the money with no wait,” Shaw said. “I don’t know what goes through the mind of somebody like that.”

Shaw said Snellen was killed sometime after Stephanie Olson got off the phone with her mother at 10:26 p.m. and before Olson and Dressman went to Lexington after midnight. Defense attorney Rodney Barnes challenged the time of death, saying the prosecution had presented “too tight of a time frame” for the murder to have taken place and for evidence to have been destroyed.

In his closing argument, Barnes told jurors that Georgetown police Detective Tom Bell had made “some serious mistakes” in his investigation of Snellen’s murder. Among the errors, Barnes said police did not search the home of Snellen’s boyfriend, Todd Johnson, did not search the field behind Snellen’s house and did not investigate connections with other murders.

Instead, Barnes told jurors police zeroed in on Stephanie Olson and ignored other leads, focusing on his client because she had lied about leaving her friends’ apartment because she bought marijuana and later had sex.

“They made up their mind the day after this murder,” Barnes said.

Shaw denied Barnes’ allegations, mentioning the work Bell had done by contacting other agencies and eliminating other suspects.

“They had some darn good suspects in the first 24 hours, but they didn’t shut down their investigation,” Shaw said of the police. “They kept going.”

Shaw pointed out that when Stephanie Olson was approached by Georgetown Police Sgt. Matt Sly after a failed attempt to go to Florida with Dressman, the teen admitted smoking pot. Olson also told Officer Tom Payne outside of her home that she had gone parking with her boyfriend when he responded to Olson’s 911 call.

“Folks, I’m telling you, their defense was gone with our first two witnesses,” Shaw told jurors.

Barnes also spoke to the lack of physical evidence in the case and questioned the credibility of several of the prosecution’s witnesses, including Crabtree.

Having once been charged with murder, burglary and complicity to murder, Barnes said the prosecution must have “been really hungry” to offer Crabtree a deal where he will serve a maximum of six years in prison.

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