Katherine Knight used a butcher knife to murder, skin and cook her lover John Charles Thomas Price in a small Australian town in 2000. She then tried to feed him to his own children
Katherine Mary Knight is a chilling example of the saying "looks can be deceiving." This seemingly ordinary mum used a butcher's knife to brutally murder and skin her boyfriend, before attempting to serve his cooked remains to her step-children - a crime so horrifying it could belong in a horror film.
John Charles Thomas Price was killed, mutilated and eaten by his on-off lover after he refused to marry her, in a horrific act that would have her dubbed 'Cannibal Kathy'. The gruesome act took place in the small Australian town of Aberdeen on February 29, 2000.
John had come home, checked in with neighbours - he often told friends and colleagues that if he ever disappeared, Knight would likely be involved - and then went to bed.
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His lover arrived home shortly afterwards and followed her usual routine. At one point she woke John up and they made love before he fell asleep again, reports the Mirror US.
Then, she reached for the butcher's knife she kept above her bed and stabbed him 37 times, leaving him dead in blood-soaked sheets.
Police photos revealed blood splattered on the walls, indicating a brutal fight that John lost. The butcher dragged John's body downstairs to the living room where she skinned him like an animal and hung his skin from a meat hook.
The manner in which Knight skinned him was particularly disturbing.
"After he had been dead for some time his body was dragged by the prisoner from the hallway into the lounge room, and thereafter the prisoner skinned Mr Price's body," said Supreme Court Justice Barry O'Keefe, who later sentenced Knight.
"This was carried out with considerable expertise and an obviously steady hand, so that his skin - including that of the head, face, nose, ears, neck, torso, genital organs and legs - was removed so as to form one pelt."
Knight then removed his head and began hacking off body parts to be used in the dish she was preparing. The now-retired detective Sergeant Robert Wells, among the first few law enforcement officials to witness Knight's nightmare-inducing meal, said it was one of the worst cases he'd ever faced.
The mum cooked pieces of her boyfriend's rump with pumpkin, potatoes, beets, zucchini, cabbage, squash and gravy. Knight chowed down on her dead lover, clearing only half her plate as it was too much for her to finish.
Police, who had been called by John's coworkers when he didn't show up for his shift the next day, uncovered the manic scene - Knight snuggled up with her boyfriend's headless corpse.
"I was actually stationed in another police station, about 40 minutes away. By the time I got to the scene, Katherine was leaving in an ambulance. She had taken some pills. Not enough to kill her, but they made her sleepy," Wells said.
He added: "There were a number of slices of rump, taken off his human rump, baked in the oven with some vegetables and put on plates, with the name of two of his children on them."
John's cooked head was discovered in the kitchen, boiling alongside a pot of vegetables in a gruesome bloody stew. Two full plates were found on the table, each bearing a piece of John's cooked rump, leading police to the horrifying conclusion that the deranged murderer intended to feed her step-children their own father.
The unhinged killer made Australian history when she became the first criminal to receive a life sentence. The judge presiding over the case ordered that her papers be marked "never to be released."
The notorious case was labelled as the "most diabolical, sick and twisted" murder in Australian history, earning Knight the nicknames "Cannibal Kathy" and "Australia's Hannibal Lector".
Despite the evidence, Knight maintains her innocence, claiming she has no recollection of the horrific murder. Detective Sergeant Wells spoke with her once it was confirmed that she was lucid and not suffering from any mental health issues.
He recalled how she was shouting and screaming about being abused by men and enduring domestic violence throughout her life, but never expressed remorse for killing John. Sergeant Wells remembered a moment when he looked at her face and knew without a doubt that her claims were false.
"The fact was that Katherine Knight had been violent towards the men she had been in relationships with over the years," he said. "They were all quite smaller than her. It is very unusual for a woman to do this."