After abusive Washington mom Shelly Knotek was convicted of killing two of her boarders in 2004, she was sentenced to just 22 years in prison — then served just 18.
Michelle “ Shelly ” Knotek appear to lead a entrance life . She had a caring hubby by her side and was raising her three daughter in a house in rural Raymond , Washington . The couple were known for their selflessness and invite struggling friends and congenator to live with them . But then , those guest begin to evaporate .
Thomas & Mercer PublishingSerial cause of death Shelly Knotek was catch after her girl — Knotek sisters Nikki , Tori , and Sami — turned her in .
The first mortal to vanish while in Shelly Knotek ’s attention was her onetime friend , Kathy Loreno . They had lived together in Knotek ’s home for five yr before she disappeared in 1994 . Knotek assured anyone who require that Loreno had plainly started a new life elsewhere . She said this when two other hoi polloi vanish from her house as well .
Thomas & Mercer PublishingSerial killer Shelly Knotek was caught after her daughters — Knotek sisters Nikki, Tori, and Sami — turned her in.
lastly , Shelly Knotek ’s three daughters courageously came forward with a torturing story . All three of them had been physically abused by their parents — and their houseguests had been killed . They say Knotek had starved , drugged , and excruciate her victims , forced guests to jump off the roof , drenched their unresolved wounds in bleaching agent , and made them drink urine .
And while Shelly Knotek was shortly caught and send to prison house in 2004 , she served just 18 year before being released in November 2022 — leaving her daughters terrorize about what could find next .
Shelly Knotek’s Tortured Early Life
pay on April 15 , 1954 , Michelle “ Shelly ” Knotek never range too far from her hometown of Raymond , Washington . Not even her 18 - class prison house stint old age after took her further than two hours northerly of where she was born .
According toThe New York Timesjournalist Gregg Olsen , who put out a tell apart - all on Shelly Knotek in 2019 titledIf You Tell : A True Story of Murder , Family Secrets , and the Unbreakable Bond of Sisterhood , the orca ’s early life sentence was imbue with trauma .
The Old of three siblings , Knotek and her brothers lived with their mentally ill , alcoholic female parent , Sharon , during their early years . Along with her propensity for alcohol , Sharon had gotten involved in a grievous lifestyle , with some family members believing she may have been a tart .
Gregg Olsen/Thomas & Mercer PublishingDavid and Michelle Knotek.
In any case , the home plate was far from stable . Then , when Shelly was six , their mother seemingly abandon them . Rather than care for her younger brothers , however , she tormented them .
The children then went to live with their father , Les Watson , and his new wife , Laura Stallings . Olsen describe Watson as a charismatic , successful business owner ; stalling as a stunning beauty representative of 1950s America .
Shelly did not care for Stallings , and often told her stepmother how much she hat her .
Gregg Olsen/Thomas & Mercer PublishingKnotek sisters Tori, Nikki, and Sami, with their cousin, Shane Watson.
When Shelly was 13 , Sharon Todd Watson die out . As Les Watson distinguish , Sharon was living with a man at the time . They were “ dispossessed . Drunks . Living on slip dustup . She was beaten to last . ”
“ [ Shelly ] never once postulate about her mother , ” stalling recalled .
rather , she continued to torment her brothers , blaming them for missing preparation or pick frequent fights . It did n’t help that her crony Paul could n’t control his urge and lacked social attainment . Her other brother , Chuck , never talk for himself — Shelly did all the talk .
Thomas and Mercer PublishingLoreno lost 100 pounds and most of her teeth over the course of her stay.
But it went beyond bare childhood bickering , Stallings later on said . “ She used to chop up bits of glass and put them in the bottom of [ the kids ’ ] flush and shoes . What kind of person does something like that ? ”
Shelly Knotek Wasn’t A Victim — But She Played The Part
In March 1969 , 14 - year - quondam Shelly showed what she was truly capable of . She did n’t come home from school . Panicked , Stallings and Watson call the school and were told that Shelly was at a juvenile hold center . Their bad fears , however , did n’t come close to the realism .
Gregg Olsen / Thomas & Mercer PublishingDavid and Michelle Knotek .
Shelly Knotek was not in problem — she had accused her father of rape . Stallings later discovered a dog - eared transcript ofTrue Confessionsin Shelly ’s elbow room with a bluff headline on the front recitation , “ I WAS RAPED AT 15 BY MY DAD ! ”
Gregg Olsen/Thomas & Mercer PublishingSami Knotek and Shane Watson.
A medico ’s examination by and by confirmed stall ’ suspicion — Shelly lied about the rape .
She was take to multiple sessions with a psychologist , both on her own and with her family , but they raise to be unsuccessful . Shelly refused to swallow that she was anything but innocuous .
finally , she went to live with Stallings ’ parents , but , regrettably , she continued to essay and ruin the lives of those around her . Her tantrums cover ; she proffer to babysit the neighbor ’ kid only to barricade them in their rooms with heavy furniture . She even incorrectly accused her grandfather of abuse .
Greg Olsen/Thomas & Mercer PublishingThe Knotek home in Raymond, Washington.
Her pattern of handling and abuse continued into adulthood , through two wedding , the birth of two daughter , Nikki and Sami , and all the fashion up to the outpouring of 1982 , when she met a construction worker and Navy veteran namedDavid Knotek . Five years later , in 1987 , the couple get married .
The next year , Shelly Knotek welcome her first victim into their home base .
Growing Up In The Knotek Household — And Suffering Frequent, Brutal Abuse
Shelly Knotek ’s first victim go into her house in 1988 . He was her 13 - year - sure-enough nephew , Shane Watson . Shane ’s Father of the Church , a member in a biker gang , was in poky ; his mother was needy , ineffectual concern for him .
Knotek charter to torture Watson almost instantly . She dub her expressive style of dress down him as “ wallowing , ” which she apply for things as trifling as going to the bathroom without asking . Wallowing involved ordering the boy — and her daughters , for that matter — to stand outside au naturel in the cold while she dump urine on him .
Gregg Olsen / Thomas & Mercer PublishingKnotek sis Tori , Nikki , and Sami , with their cousin , Shane Watson .
Thomas & Mercer PublishingSami Knotek revisiting the home in 2018.
Shelly contain extra pleasure in humiliating her eldest daughter , Nikki and Sami , by ordering them to give her handfuls of their pubic pilus . Their “ wallowing ” also frequently included being caged in a dog doghouse .
Once , Shelly stuff Nikki ’s head through a deoxyephedrine doorway .
“ search what you made me do , ” she aver to her daughter .
The only person in the home that Shelly did n’t torture , at the clip , was her infant girl Tori . Unfortunately , that would afterward change .
Meanwhile , she hale her nephew and Nikki to trip the light fantastic toe nakedly together as she express joy . After torment her children and nephew , she would drip “ love bomb ” of utter tenderness on them .
Thomas and Mercer PublishingLoreno lose 100 lb and most of her teeth over the grade of her check .
In December of 1988 , only a few month after Shane moved into the home base , Shelly open her door for another person in need : Kathy Loreno , an sometime booster who had lost her job . Shelly greeted her longtime friend as she greet most people in life , cordially and positively . But Loreno would soon discover , as many others had before her , that Michelle Knotek ’s masquerade party was quick to come off .
Loreno quickly became another of Shelly ’s victims , but with nowhere else to go , she assent to performing draw labor in the nude , being feast every night sedatives , and sleeping next to the basement kettle .
Then , in 1994 , Shelly Knotek graduate to slaying .
How Shelly Knotek Murdered Three People Who Were All Close To Her
By this time , Loreno had lost more than 100 pound . Her body was cover in contusion , cuts , and sores . After one particularly brutal beating , she was left unconscious in the cellar . Shelly had go , but David heard guttural disturbance follow from the washables room .
He establish Kathy choke on her own puke , her middle roll back in her head . David flip out her onto her side , started scooping the vomit out of her mouth with his fingers , but it was no use . After five minutes of CPR , there was no deny that Kathy Loreno was dead .
“ I know I should have called 911 , ” David later on recalled , “ but with everything that had been going on I did n’t want the cops there . I did n’t need Shell in trouble . Or the minor to go through that trauma … I did n’t require this to bankrupt their lives or our class . I just gross out out . I really did . I did n’t eff what to do . ”
When Michelle read of Loreno ’s end , she convinced her better half and kids that each of them would be incarcerated if they tell outsiders . At his wife ’s command , David Knotek burned Loreno ’s clay , and together he and Shelly scatter the ashes .
If anyone postulate , Shelly Knotek simply explained Loreno had head for the hills off with her fan . Shane , however , recognized the true horrors in his environment , which is why , in February 1995 , he made a plan to get out .
Shane had acquire pic of Kathy while she was still alive , malnourished and beaten , live in a stale basement next to the radiator . He showed Nikki the photos and told her his programme : He was get going to show the constabulary .
But Nikki , terrified of what might occur , told her female parent about the photos . In retaliation , Shelly commanded David to shoot Shane in the head . He obliged .
Like Loreno , the dyad fire Shane ’s body in their 1000 and scattered his ash over the water .
“ The reason why my mom was able to control Dave was because — while I love him — he ’s just a very weak Isle of Man , ” Sami Knotek report . “ He has no backbone . He could have got happily married and been an awesome husband to somebody , because he really would ’ve been , but instead , he just incur his life ruin , too . ”
Gregg Olsen / Thomas & Mercer PublishingSami Knotek and Shane Watson .
Before justice found them , the Knoteks take one more victim : Shelly Knotek ’s friend Ron Woodworth , who moved in in 1999 . Like the others , it did n’t take long for the abuse to start .
Woodworth was a 57 - year - old gay veteran with a drug trouble , “ an ugly skunk , ” Shelly would secernate him , who could use a steady dieting of pills and beatings to get his life history together .
Shelly did n’t grant him to use the bathroom , so he was instead forced to go outside .
Then , in 2002 , Shelly Knotek also take over the care of James McClintock , an 81 - year - old retired merchandiser crewman who had reportedly willed Knotek his $ 140,000 estate once his black lab Sissy died .
Perhaps coincidentally , perhaps not , McClintockdied from a head woundhe allegedly suffered after falling in his home .
Police , however , were never capable to officially link Knotek to his death .
Back at her plate , Knotek ask that Woodworth cut ties with his family unit , forced him to drink his own weewee , then ordered him to alternate off the roof . He did n’t die from the two - storey capitulation , but it left him badly injured .
As a “ discussion , ” Knotek poured bleach over his combat injury .
In August 2003 , Woodworth yield to the twisting , and died .
Greg Olsen / Thomas & Mercer PublishingThe Knotek home in Raymond , Washington .
Shelly Knotek hid Woordworth ’s corpse in the Deepfreeze , telling his friends that he had gotten a occupation in Tacoma . David Knotek eventually swallow up him in their 1000 , but it was Woodworth ’s “ disappearing ” that led now-14 - year - old Tori to realise what was really happening in her household .
Her older sister had moved out by this clip , but when Tori told them what she believe had materialise , they urged her to meet Woodworth ’s belonging so they could make their case to the authorities . She did .
The Knotek Sisters Turn In Their Mother
police force enquire the Knotek holding in 2003 and found Woodworth ’s buried body . David and Shelly Knotek were arrested on August 8 of that year .
Thomas & Mercer PublishingSami Knotek revisiting the home in 2018 .
While Tori Knotek was placed in her sister Sami ’s custody , David Knotek confessed to burgeon forth Watson and burying Woodworth five calendar month later . He was load with second - degree execution for fool away Watson . He dish 13 class .
Michelle Knotek , meanwhile , was charge with second - grade murder and manslaughter for the deaths of Loreno and Woodworth , respectively . She was sentence to just 22 years .
It did n’t take long for her family to begin reverence what might happen upon her eventual release .
“ If she ever turns up on my threshold , ” Sami pronounce , “ I can just see myself lock in all my doors and barricading myself in the can to call the constabulary . ”
Nikki and Sami are now in their mid-40s , living in Seattle . Tori , however , needed a change of scene and moved to Colorado .
In 2018 , David Knotek was paroled and reached out to his daughters to necessitate for forgiveness . Sami and Tori have gone on record saying that , despite everything , they do forgive their father , whom they consider to be just another of Michelle Knotek ’s victims .
Nikki , however , did not take her father ’s apology . For her , the abuse was unforgettable — and unforgivable .
Then , at long last , after serving only 18 years , Shelly Knotek was released from the Washington Corrections Center for Women in Gig Harbor on November 8 , 2022 at the age of 68 . Since then , Knotek has delay under the radiolocation , leave behind the next chapter in her chilling story yet to be written .
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