Hearing Opens for CHP Officer Accused in Strangling of Coed

The preliminary hearing for a California Highway Patrol officer accused of murdering a college student got under way here with testimony from a fellow officer who said he saw blood on the defendant’s face and hands the night of the killing.

Craig Alan Peyer, 37, is charged with the murder of Cara Knott, 20, a San Diego State University student who was found strangled Dec. 27 near Interstate 15 in northern San Diego County.

Joseph Riordan, a CHP officer who worked out of the same station as Peyer, testified that on the night of the incident, he saw Peyer at the end of the shift and noticed blood on the back of his hands and face. Riordan said Peyer said he was injured when he fell near the CHP station’s gas pumps.

Sanford Strong, who taught Miss Knott self-defense, testified that the woman was trained to “go for the face” when attacked, to use “fingers, nails, extended fingers, gouging of the eyes. . . .”

Karen Anderson, a former employee of a service station near the murder site, said that on the night of Dec. 27, Peyer walked to the cashier’s booth and she noticed “claw marks” on his nose and face.