An Anxious Peyer Showed Undue Interest in Knott Case, Officer Says

Craig Peyer showed more than idle curiosity when he grilled a San Diego police officer about the investigation into Cara Knott’s death during a meeting near Mercy Road just four days after the killing, the officer testified Thursday.

Peyer suggested that Knott’s death could have been an “accident” or “a situation that got out of control,” Officer Jo Ogilvie said.

Ogilvie testified that Peyer, a former California Highway Patrol officer on trial for murder in Knott’s death, requested backup support from San Diego police on Dec. 31, 1986, after he stopped two vehicles near Mercy Road. Ogilvie and her partner were dispatched to the scene.

According to Ogilvie’s rapid-fire testimony, Peyer said that the people he stopped might be suspects in Knott’s death. While Ogilvie’s partner questioned the people Peyer had pulled over, Ogilvie said Peyer began questioning her relentlessly about the murder investigation.

“He wanted to know about the homicide case involving Cara Knott. He wanted to know what the scoop was, what homicide was telling patrol,” Ogilvie said. “ . . . He insisted that I must know something . . . He wanted to know what was going on.”

Peyer was very excited and asked repeatedly for the “real scoop,” Ogilvie said. At one point Peyer said that he heard that investigators had recovered a piece of ear from Knott’s mouth and Ogilvie said that she had heard the same story.

Peyer then tugged at both of his ears and said, “Well, I’ve got both of mine,” Ogilvie said. She added that she assured Peyer on several occasions that he had nothing to worry about, but Peyer persisted in asking questions.

Peyer asked whether homicide investigators had found anything under Knott’s fingernails and also asked why it was necessary to do an autopsy, Ogilvie testified. Ogilvie called Peyer’s questions “sophomoric,” because he claimed not to know why an autopsy was necessary and the significance of skin under the fingernails.

During Ogilvie’s Superior Court testimony, Peyer watched with a fixed smile.

No Evidence Recovered

Homicide Detective Gene Back testified earlier in the day that police criminologists did not recover any evidence when they scraped Knott’s fingernails.

Ogilvie said Peyer asked her what she knew of the murder. She said she replied that she thought Knott was thrown over the west railing of the old U.S. 395 bridge.

According to Ogilvie, Peyer said:

“You don’t know what you’re talking about. He threw her off the east side.”

During their 10-minute meeting, Ogilvie said she told Peyer: “I hope that he (the killer) dies a slow and painful death.”

This brought a sharp and angry response from Peyer, Ogilvie testified.

“He said, ‘You don’t know what you’re talking about . . . Maybe it was an accident. Maybe it was a situation that got out of control.’ ”

Peyer abruptly ended the conversation and stomped off, saying, “Well, I’m outta here,” Ogilvie testified.

Peyer then got in his CHP cruiser and sped off onto Interstate 15 without checking approaching traffic, she said, and almost collided with two passing cars.

San Diego police arrested Peyer on Jan. 15, 1987, and he was charged with murder. Police said that Knott, 20, was killed after a struggle on the old U.S. 395 bridge near Interstate 15 and the Mercy Road off-ramp between 9 and 10 p.m. Her body was thrown 65 feet into a dry creek bed, where it was discovered by police on Dec. 28, 1986.

Peyer, 37, a 13-year CHP veteran, was fired last May.

While questioned by defense attorney Robert Grimes, Ogilvie acknowledged that she did not report her encounter with Peyer until Jan. 17, 1987, two days after his arrest, and was not interviewed by homicide detectives until almost two weeks later.

Grimes produced a copy of another report written by Ogilvie on Jan. 8, 1987, when she stopped a man on Mercy Road and questioned him about Knott’s death. However, Judge Richard D. Huffman stopped Grimes from questioning Ogilvie about that incident. Grimes complained to no avail that the Jan. 8, 1987, report would show that Ogilvie was overzealous in writing reports and giving descriptions of incidents and suspects.

“This particular witness might read certain things into behavior and affix it a certain import,” Grimes said.

Knew the Victim

Earlier in the day Curtis Voiles, a deputy sheriff from New Mexico, testified that he talked with Peyer the day Knott’s body was discovered. Voiles was working as an armored car guard in San Diego at the time and was in an armored truck that broke down on northbound Interstate 15, near the Mercy Road off-ramp.

After escorting the truck to a gas station on Carmel Mountain Road, where they were joined by a San Diego police officer, the three talked about Knott’s murder the night before. Voiles said that Peyer recoiled with surprise when he told him that he was related to Samuel Knott, Cara Knott’s father, and considered Cara a cousin.

Peyer appeared shocked “that I knew the young lady,” Voiles said, and when Voiles said that “I hope they find the blankety blank” who killed her.

After Voiles’ revelation, Peyer walked to his CHP cruiser, where he sat “for a quite a while,” Voiles said.

Also testifying Thursday were three CHP officers who said they saw what looked like scratch marks on Peyer’s face on Dec. 27 and Dec. 28, 1986. Two of the officers said that Peyer told them that he had slipped on a gasoline spill while filling his patrol car at the CHP station on Pacific Highway and fell against a chain-link fence.

CHP Officer Craig Muelheisen, whose sister, Karen, was married to Peyer for six months, said that a depressed and nervous Peyer told him on Dec. 31, 1986, and Jan. 1, 1987, that he wanted to move out of the area. Muelheisen said he was once Peyer’s best friend and has known him for almost eight years.

‘Faint Red Smudge’

San Diego Police Officer James Spears testified that he drove to Mercy Road on the morning that Knott’s Volkswagen was found by family members near the Mercy Road off-ramp. When he checked the car, he found a “faint red smudge” on the left door jamb that looked like blood, Spears said.

Back said that Knott’s car was in good running order when she was killed. The only apparent defect was a faulty license plate light, Back said. Prosecutors have theorized that Peyer stopped Knott because of the faulty light and forced her to drive to the darkened Mercy Road off-ramp.

Back said that investigators recovered strands of hair from the bridge railing where police said the killer threw Knott’s body into a dry creek bed below. Back testified that he and other investigators searched the trunk of Peyer’s patrol car at 12:20 a.m., Jan. 8, 1987, and found the rope that prosecutors said was used to strangle Knott.

Two faint skid marks, about 53 inches apart, were also found on the U.S. 395 bridge, about 11 feet removed from the spot on the bridge railing where police recovered the strands of hair and fibers, Back said. The wheels on CHP patrol cars are 53 inches apart, he added.

Back said that the skid marks appeared fresh on the morning when Knott’s body was found, but he admitted that police criminologists failed to obtain samples of the black residue found in the skid marks for analysis.