It was evident to Detective Muscio that Katherine Knight had murdered John Price, skinned and decapitated him and cooked his head and served it and portions of his buttocks (the pieces of meat in the backyard also proved to be from the victim's buttocks) on plates for herself and his two children for dinner when, or if, they returned to the house at some time.

John Price

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Given that Price's son and daughter (the Beck and Little John mentioned in the note) were away from the house when the murder occurred, it seemed hardly likely that they would be returning for a meal at a pre-arranged time.

Detective Muscio also said; "I remember walking down the hallway and at about shoulder height there were all these blood splatter marks on the walls. To me, it's indicative of  each attack... He's absolutely fighting for his life. The bloke's just had a bonk (sexual intercourse) in the bed when he wakes up, then stab, stab, stab. He's getting up, there is arterial spurting on the robe and the bed, and on the doorway there's a bloodied handprint or swipe on the western side of the door near the dressing table, and blood around the light switch. It looks like he's tried to turn the light switch on. And then all down the hallway they're (bloody handprints) everywhere. And he's almost made it, he's opened the front door, the screen door is shut, there is blood staining, trajectory again, flicking out across the front door, he's almost made it... but he wouldn't have survived. He would have been absolutely horrified, terrified — probably terrified more than horrified — trying to get out and all the time being stabbed."

An autopsy revealed that the victim was dead when he was skinned. A razor sharp knife had been inserted just under his collarbone and sliced horizontally across the top of the body, from shoulder to shoulder, right under the clavicles. It was a straight, clean cut, anatomically precise. Then the knife was turned and cut down the chest and over the stomach to the pubic hair line and made into a T with another straight line.

Tracing the knife tip around his pubic area and careful not to cut his penis or genitals, the killer cut down the front of John Price's thighs, over the knees and to his feet. The killer then moved up the body, held his arms up and cut down the back of each one and across the top of the victim's head. The killer then peeled the victim's skin off, including his head, his hair, his face and all the way down the length of the body to the feet exposing the victim's intestines.

The entire skin was in one piece including hair, face, ears, nose, mouth, genitals and complete stab holes and dripping in blood. Hanging from the S-hook in the doorway, the feet were dragging on the ground.

The killer then removed the victim's head clean at the C3-C4 junction, right at the top of the shoulders using a very sharp knife The cut was precise and clean. The killer would have been covered in warm, sticky blood. According to forensic pathologist Dr. Timothy Lyons, who performed the autopsy, the whole procedure would have taken about 40 minutes.

Copyright 2003, Paul B. Kidd Publications.  All Rights Reserved

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