Perceptions differ: Normal mom or ‘crazy Shelley’ … peaceful, rural hamlet or twisted world of torturePeople who knew Michelle Knotek say she had two sides: the polite, normal mother of three daughters, and the angry, dangerous woman neighbors called “crazy Shelley.”

Now Knotek and her husband, David Knotek, are in jail, suspected by authorities in the death of one boarder at their home and the disappearance of two others.

And people in Raymond, Wash., population 2,900, are wondering whether their town has two sides as well: the peaceful, rural hamlet where everyone knows the neighbors, and the twisted world of torture and death that the affidavits describe at the Knotek’s quaint red farmhouse.

“It makes you wonder whether you can trust your neighbors,” said Helen Apukka, who grew up in the town. She traveled from her home in Aberdeen to check out the crime scene, where behind the Knoteks’ white picket fence investigators poured buckets of dirt through giant screens, sifting for human remains.

Karie Hamilton – Associated Press

Investigators sift through dirt looking for human remains and other evidence of homicide Tuesday at the home of David and Michelle Knotek in Raymond, Wash.”This is something every sheriff hopes they never see,” Pacific County Sheriff John Didion said.

A body exhumed from the backyard on Saturday is likely Ronald Woodworth, 57, who was staying at the couple’s home before he vanished in July, according to affidavits filed in Superior Court by Pacific County Prosecutor David Burke.

Authorities also believe Michelle Knotek’s nephew, Shane Watson, 19, and hairdresser Kathy Loreno, 36, died at the house. Both had been staying there when they disappeared in 1994, Burke wrote.

The affidavits said sheriff’s deputies interviewed three people who said the Knoteks had abused them and tortured Woodworth and Loreno.

Michelle Knotek, 49, forced Woodworth to do chores outside in just his underwear, and made him “jump off things onto the gravel” in bare feet, the witnesses said. David Knotek, 51, hit Woodworth in the mouth, the affidavit stated, and Michelle Knotek burned Woodworth’s injured feet with boiling hot water.

David Knotek, a worker with Island Construction, told a Pacific County sheriff’s deputy last Friday where Woodworth’s body was buried, the affidavit said.

Knotek told deputies that Kathy Loreno choked to death on her own vomit when she was living with him and his wife in 1994. He said, according to the affidavit, that he burned the body and dumped her ashes at the beach. But two witnesses told deputies that Michelle Knotek abused Loreno until she died.

Court papers said David Knotek confessed that he shot Watson to death with a .22 caliber rifle sometime after Loreno’s death, and also burned his body and dumped the ashes at the beach. David Knotek told one deputy that he was “always worried that Shane would tell” about Loreno’s death, the affidavits said.

Woodworth died last month, David Knotek told deputies. According to the affidavits, Knotek said his wife told him Woodworth had committed suicide. David Knotek returned home three days later and buried the body.

Details are revealedAccording to a 12-page affidavit of probable cause issued Monday by the superior court, the case began in 1994 when Kay Thomas reported the disappearance of her daughter, Kathy Loreno, and filed a missing person report. At that time, Loreno was living with the Knoteks at the Monohon Landing Road home.

The affidavit states that Michelle Knotek had been contacted numerous times by Pacific County Sheriff’s Deputies about Loreno’s disappearance. Knotek told the deputies Loreno had moved to California with a boyfriend.

Associated Press

Gary and Helen Apukka, of Aberdeen, Wash., stand on the side of a road Tuesday near the crime scene of the home of David and Michelle Knotek in Raymond. Investigators have found one set of human remains and are looking to find evidence of two other missing people at the site.About two years ago, a man named Ronald Woodworth, who was in his 50s, began living with the couple. During the past two weeks, unidentified witnesses began coming to deputies, giving oral and written statements of physical and emotional abuse at the hands of the Knoteks.

The witnesses said “Michelle Knotek had abused Kathy Loreno until she died,” according to the affidavit, which also stated that “David Knotek was present when Loreno died and that Michelle and David Knotek burned the body of Loreno to dispose of it.” The witnesses also provided deputies with information about other possibly missing persons, including Woodworth and Shane Watson, who was born June 6, 1975. They said Watson also had been living with the Knoteks and had been “missing” since around the time of Loreno’s death.

According to the affidavit, one of the witnesses told Pacific County Sheriff’s Deputy Jim Bergstrom that Michelle Knotek had killed Woodworth and that she had been abusing Woodworth for several years while he had been living with the couple. The witness also told Bergstrom that “Michelle Knotek had killed Loreno in 1991 and that David Knotek had burned her body to cover up the crime.”

Associated Press

Pacific County Sheriff John Didion talks to reporters about the case Tuesday.Another witness had told Bergstrom in July of 2001 that Loreno had suffered long-term abuse by the Knoteks before her death, according to the affidavit.

Last week, during separate interview with the witnesses, one of them told Bergstrom

that Michelle Knotek “had been making Woodworth do chores outside in just his underwear and had made Woodworth jump off things onto the gravel causing serious injuries to his feet,” according to the affidavit.

The statement from the witness provided “first-hand knowledge of Woodworth’s behavior and activities around the Knotek home” and that Woodworth “was not allowed to wear shoes around the property while doing his chores,” and that Michelle Knotek had “treated” injuries to Woodworth’s feet “by sticking his feet in boiling hot water, causing the skin on his feet to slough off.”

The witness added that David Knotek “did not like Woodworth and that he (David) would hit Woodworth in the mouth … more than once.” Later two of the witnesses said that “such behavior was similar to the way they had seen Michelle Knotek mistreat Kathy Loreno.” They provided more details about “torturous acts” by the Knoteks.

Last Thursday, “critical information” was provided to Bergstrom by another witness about the location of various items relating to Woodworth. The witness, according to the affidavit, told Bergstrom “You need to get a search warrant because Ron’s clothes are in the pole building – they’ll get rid of them soon.” The witness also indicated being “fearful of Michelle and David Knotek.”

The witness on Thursday described the abuse of Woodworth over the past two years at the Knoteks’ home and said Woodworth had “suddenly disappeared.”

Talk about eventsDavid Knotek spoke with Bergstrom last Friday, saying he “wanted to talk about events that had recently transpired at his home in regards to the removal of one of his children from the home,” according to the affidavit. After Bergstrom advised David Knotek of his Miranda rights, he was interviewed by Bergstrom, saying he “did dig a grave and bury Ron Woodworth … on the property on Monohon Landing Road,” according to the affidavit, and that his wife “had told him that Ron Roodworth had committed suicide and that she became scared due to the fact that a deputy had previously inquired about the disappearance of Kathy Loreno.”

Knotek then went with deputies to his property and showed them where he had buried Woodworth. He also told deputies that “he had burned the body of Kathy Loreno” and that she “had become ill and died.” The day Loreno died, David Knotek said he checked on her and found her dead. He said he “tried CPR but she was dead.” Later that day, he showed deputies where he had burned her body.

Knotek said he didn’t call for an ambulance or seek medical aid for Loreno, even though he “recognized that Loreno was very ill,” according to the affidavit, which added that David Knotek said he was “scared to call the police and report the death because of injuries on Loreno’s body.”

The affidavit states that “David Knotek was helpful in providing details, many of which matched the statements previously given by the other witnesses … .” Knotek indicated to Bergstrom that “he did not believe that Michelle Knotek would have abused either Kathy Loreno or Ron Woodworth” but that “Woodworth had several bruises and cuts on his body the last time he saw him alive” on July 20 but that “he was in good health.”

David Knotek told Bergstrom that his wife had called him on July 22, “indicating that Woodworth was dead” and that he had returned home and “buried Woodworth on July 25 in the backyard of their home.”

According to David Knotek’s statement, he and his wife “had worked together to destroy evidence of the deaths,” according to the affidavit.

In custodyAt that point, David Knotek was taken into custody and booked into Pacific County Jail.

On Friday, deputies arrested Michelle Knotek for investigation of manslaughter and advised her of her Miranda rights. At the time of her arrest, she told Bergstrom and PCSO Deputy Pat Lynn that “Woodworth was still alive” and that her husband had “driven him to Olympia so he could catch a bus to San Diego,” a “rehearsed story” that the couple had agreed to tell law enforcement officers, according to the affidavit.

Michelle Knotek was subsequently booked into Pacific County Jail Friday.

After receiving a search warrant Saturday to search the Knotek residence, Pacific County law enforcement officers, assisted by officers from King and Lewis counties, began to search the property.

A human body was located and exhumed based on information provided by David Knotek. The remains “are believed to be those of Ron Woodworth,” according to the affidavit, but have not been positively identified. An autopsy is expected to be performed sometime this week.

While questioning the witnesses last Wednesday, Bergstrom learned that Shane Watson “had been living at the Knotek home at the time Kathy Loreno died.” He would have been a teen-ager at the time of Loreno’s death. The witnesses said they were “concerned that something had happened to … Watson as they had not seen or heard from him since … Loreno’s death” and that he had “been a witness to the abuse of Kathy Loreno by Michelle Knotek,” according to the affidavit.

The witnesses told Bergstrom that “they knew that Shane Watson had taken a photograph of the injuries to Kathy Loreno and that Michelle Knotek found the photograph and had beaten” Watson for having it. They said that about two weeks later, Watson disappeared and they never saw him again.

On Sunday, deputies again spoke with David Knotek at the jail and he agreed to return to his home where he confirmed several sites he had previously told deputies about.

ShotWhile at the scene Sunday, David Knotek told Pacific County Sheriff John Didion and PCSO Chief Criminal Deputy Ron Clark that Watson had been shot to death with a .22 rifle in a pole building on the property after Kathy Loreno had died. “David Knotek said he burned the body of Shane Watson and disposed of the ashes the same way that he had disposed of Kathy Loreno’s ashes – by dumping them at the beach,” according to the affidavit. Knotek said he had tried to burn the rifle but only the stock had burned and “the last time he saw the barrel of the gun was in the laundry room of his home.”

David Knotek at first maintained that the shooting of Watson “was an accident that occurred in a struggle over the gun,” according to the affidavit, after he caught Watson in the pole building holding the rifle and “became angry because the ‘rules’ of the house were that Watson was not to play with guns.” He at first maintained, according to the affidavit, that the gun discharged during a struggle, “hitting Watson in the neck.” Knotek also told Clark that he was “always worried that Shane would tell” about the death of Kathy Loreno.

On Monday, David Knotek told King County Sheriff’s Department Deputy Jason Brunson that he had fought with Watson before he had shot him and that “he found Shane Watson in the pole building … holding a rifle,” according to the affidavit. “David Knotek said he got the gun away from … Watson … stood back several feet … then shot Shane Watson, hitting hm in the neck or throat area” and that “he bled a lot.” The affidavit states that David Knotek cleaned up the blood and “then burned Shane Watson’s body like he had Kathy Loreno’s … then took the ashes to the beach.

Knotek told deputies “he has regretted these incidents to this day.”

Neighbors commentThe closest neighbors on the two-lane country road, both a few hundred yards away in either direction, said they saw nothing strange behind the tall pines that shield the Knoteks’ home. They said the front gate, marked with a patriotic yellow ribbon, was always closed.

Carl Carlzen, who’s lived on Monohon Landing Road for 24 years, said Michelle Knotek may have been “a little restless and high-strung,” but the family seemed friendly and normal.

Until now, his biggest complaint about the neighborhood was the elk that keep knocking down his fences.

“Something as weird as this, you never expect to happen,” Carlzen said.

But others said while they never expected something this bizarre in Raymond, they’re not surprised Michelle Knotek is involved.

Tracy Flynn, a clerk at a Raymond car repair shop, said Knotek “stalked” her after the two got into a fender-bender in town. Knotek wanted Flynn to pay for her car repairs, even though police didn’t determine fault for the accident. Flynn said Tuesday that Knotek called her constantly, showed up at her work and her mother’s house and followed her around town.

“I’d look in my rearview window and she was there,” Flynn said, adding that Knotek never threatened her but was “extremely persistent.”

David and Michelle Knotek were being held at the Pacific County Jail in nearby South Bend for investigation of first-degree murder. Bail was set at $2 million each. The couple’s 14-year-old daughter was removed from the home last week before a search warrant was served. Two other daughters are adults.

Didion said tips have been pouring into his office since the first reports of the investigation. Neither he nor Burke would say whether they expect to find additional remains.

“Information is coming in every minute,” Didion said Tuesday, standing in front of the Knoteks’ cheery mailbox, which had been painted with smiley-face suns and pink hearts.

Another deathSouth Bend Police Chief Dave Eastham said that he is investigating the apparent falling death of an 81-year-old man who was in the care of Michelle Knotek. James McClintock died in February of last year; he had willed his South Bend house to Michelle Knotek.

State records show that Michelle Knotek worked for the Olympic Area Agency on Aging as a case aide, helping elderly people live in their own homes, but she was terminated several years ago, said Department of Social and Health Services spokesman Dave Workman.

The Pacific County sheriff’s office has fewer than 15 deputies and Burke doubles as the county coroner. He was trying to arrange an autopsy for the first set of remains by the King County medical examiner in Seattle. Burke faced a 5 p.m. Wednesday deadline for filing charges.

A task force including the King, Lewis, Grays Harbor and Clark county sheriffs’ offices, South Bend and Raymond police and the King County medical examiner’s office is helping with the investigation.

Information about the three people who disappeared at the Knoteks’ home is sketchy. Neither Woodworth nor Watson had been reported missing, probably because both had severed ties with their families, Deputy Prosecutor Lori Miller has said.

Loreno moved to the area with her mother after her father was electrocuted on the set of a movie he was helping to film when she was 19, friends and acquaintances said.

She apparently moved in with the Knoteks after a falling-out with her mother, who didn’t like Michelle Knotek or a man the daughter was dating.

Her family reported her missing. A deputy interviewed the Knoteks about Loreno in 1994 but was told she had moved to California, Didion said.

Photo credits: Shane Watson, Aberdeen Daily World; Kathy Loreno, Willapa Harbor Herald via Daily World; Ronald Woodworth, KIRO TV; Knotek photos, Pacific County Sheriff’s Office via Associated Press.