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The Murder of Cara Knott at the Hands of a CHP Officer
In 1986, Cara Evelyn Knott was a 20-year-old San Diego State University student, with her life ahead of her, just waiting. She was a vivacious, bubbly young woman and the stereotypical southern California girl — — blonde hair and a wide, beaming smile.
She was also responsible. So, on the night of December 27, 1986, when she didn’t return home from her boyfriend’s residence, her parents were immediately alerted. Cara’s father, Sam, drove between the Knott family home in El Cajon and her boyfriend’s place in Escondido, searching for his daughter’s white VW. In the early morning hours of December 28, he spied her car off Interstate 15, on the old Highway 395 bridge, near the Mercy Road exit.
Police were called and Cara was discovered 65 feet below the bridge, in a dry creek bed. She had been strangled and then tossed from the roadway above.
Cara’s boyfriend was investigated as a potential suspect but quickly cleared. She appeared to have no enemies and seemed to have been a victim of opportunity for someone.
Two days after her murder, local station KCST-TV was covering the homicide and a reporter from the station was interviewing a CHP officer during a ride-along segment on self-protection for female drivers. After the broadcast, two dozen callers, mostly women, contacted authorities about the officer in the segment — 38-year-old Craig Peyer. Peyer, the callers said, had pulled them over in the same general area where Cara had been found and while he was not violent, he detained them for an inordinate length of time (up to an hour), asked them questions about their personal lives, requested dates and/or stroked their hair and shoulders. These women bore an uncanny resemblance to Cara Knott.
It was also discovered that not only had a mother contacted authorities a month before Cara’s murder to complain about Peyer pulling her daughter over at the Mercy Road exit off I-15 for no apparent reason but that Peyer had visible scratches on his face during the KCST-TV segment.
The picture of Craig Peyer began to change drastically. Instead of the loyal, 13 year officer, it was revealed that he had a reputation for following young female drivers and pulling them over on the pretext of a citation or ticket and then becoming overly friendly with them.
One of Peyer’s two…
