Craig Peyer’s Neighbors Rally ‘Round : Start Relief Fund to Help Accused CHP Officer’s Family Survive

Friends of suspected murderer Craig Peyer rallied around him and his family Tuesday, characterizing the California Highway Patrol officer as the quintessential family man and neighbor and soliciting monetary donations to help his wife pay the family’s bills while he awaits trial.

“Please know we all are saddened by the death of Miss Cara Knott and wish to express our deepest sympathy to her family. But also know that the arrest of Craig has caused a loss in the Peyer family,” said Gordon Kerr, serving as spokesman for about 30 friends and neighbors in Poway.

“The Craig Peyer that is husband, father, son, friend and neighbor is incapable of committing such a heinous crime. His arrest has caused another family to suffer pain and anguish as they too have been left alone,” Kerr said in a prepared statement.

But while friends and neighbors were rallying around Peyer and his family, a prosecutor said that investigators were steadily building a case of circumstantial evidence that he said ties the 13-year CHP veteran to Knott’s killing. Peyer became a suspect in the slaying less than a week after Knott’s body was discovered on Dec. 28.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Joe Van Orshoven confirmed Tuesday that Peyer gave his consent to San Diego police homicide investigators to take his uniform to the police laboratory and to search his locker and home.

Van Orshoven also stressed the significance of an alteration made in a citation that Peyer gave a teen-age driver on the night of the slaying. Jean-Pierre Gulli, 17, said that Peyer pulled him over about 10 p.m. Dec. 27. According to Gulli, Peyer wrote 10:30 p.m. on the ticket and then changed it to 9:20 p.m. Homicide investigators believe that Knott was killed between 9 p.m and 10 p.m.

The prosecutor said that Peyer may have been attempting to establish an alibi by altering the citation to show that he was miles away from the scene when Knott was being strangled.

CHP Lt. Gene Towle said the police agency has terminated a hot line set up over the weekend to handle calls from worried motorists asking for instructions on what to do when stopped by CHP officers or to offer support.

“About 25% of the calls were from people who expressed their support. Another 25% were from young females, husbands and fathers asking how young women could protect themselves when they’re stopped. We’re telling them that we want people to stop in safe places. We encourage them to stop in well-lighted places, even if it means traveling a reasonable distance,” said Towle.

Peyer’s neighbors made their appeal, through Kerr, at a press conference that was held in the parking lot for model homes in the upscale Rancho Arbolitos neighborhood of Poway, where Peyer and his family have lived for 1 1/2 years.

Peyer, 36, was arrested Thursday on suspicion of murder in the slaying of Knott, a 20-year-old San Diego State University student, during a traffic stop along Interstate 15 in North County. Her clothed body was found off a frontage road near the Mercy Road off-ramp of Interstate 15, and an autopsy by the county coroner’s office revealed that she had been strangled but not sexually assaulted.

Peyer is being held without bail in the downtown County Jail. He is scheduled to be arraigned today. A sheriff’s official said Peyer had an emotional meeting over the weekend with his wife, Karen, and his parents.

Kerr said the friends and neighbors--some of whom had not previously known each other--banded together to “help sustain the Peyer family. They need help and now is the time to offer that help.”

Kerr said contributions would be used to help Karen Peyer cover such expenses as food and house payments since Peyer’s CHP salary has been suspended. Karen Peyer works as a substitute teacher in the Poway Unified School District but has been too distraught to work.

The Peyer family did not solicit the help, Kerr said, and a woman who answered the door at the Peyer family home, just two blocks away from the press conference, said Karen Peyer had no comment on the support rally.

Kerr and others at the press conference said Karen Peyer was devastated by the arrest of her husband. “They’re doing as well as can be expected,” Kerr said. “It was a great shock to them but, with the help of friends, they’re making it through.

“Knowing Craig the way I do, I cannot believe he would do something like this,” offered Kerr, who said he has known Peyer for seven years.

But, Kerr said, the purpose of Tuesday’s rally was not to proclaim Peyer’s innocence or criticize the police investigation or the media’s coverage of the crime and arrest, but to help raise funds for the family.

“The point is not whether Officer Peyer is guilty or not guilty, but how to sustain the Peyer family over the next few months. He deserves our support. All the facts (as to his innocence or guilt) will come out in the next few weeks or months,” Kerr said. “Whether he is guilty or not doesn’t change how we feel about Karen, the kids or Craig.”

Peyer and his wife are caring for three children: an 11-year-old daughter from Peyer’s first marriage, a 4-year-old son from Karen Peyer’s first marriage, and a 6-month-old daughter from their own marriage.

Kerr asked that financial donations be sent to the Peyer Family Relief Fund, 12322 Poway Road, Suite 336, Poway CA 92064. He said the group was anxious to come to the family’s aid. “It was very easy to do this,” he said.

Janet Bernard said: “There’s a lot of love for this family.”