All language subtitles for dghty3

She had been strangled,

her body tossed off
the old bridge.

PETRILLO: He was taking
young women off the freeway,

down into a dead end.

We always told Cara,
if she needed help to go to

a policeman,
that's who you trust.

It does haunt you.
How could it not?

FLEMING: He was making
excuses for the suspect,

but police officers do not
make excuses for murderers.

I'm Sheriff Gary McFadden.

I was a homicide detective
for 20 years.

I've worked more than 800
homicides in my career.

But even for the most
dedicated detective,

there's no one harder to stop
than a killer with a badge.

CYNTHIA: On December 27th,
around 8 or 8:30 at night,

my younger sister,
Cara, called home.

She was on her way home from
her boyfriend's house.

An hour and a half,
two hours later,

my dad jumped up and said,
"Where's Cara?"

And he knew that something
was dreadfully wrong.

We started
to go into motion.

My dad took one route,
and I took another route.

Three, four in the morning,

we found her car.

Driver's side window was
rolled down.

Her bags
were in the backseat.

It was as if she stopped,

rolled down her window,
and then disappeared.

911, what's your emergency?

When officers
arrived at the scene,

they initially found
some blood on the door.

They ultimately checked
the old bridge near

the scene, which had been
turned into a bike path.

JARVIS: Cara's body
was thrown off

and landed
in the dry portion

of that creek bed
below the bridge.

20-year-old Cara Knott was
a junior at San Diego State.

She dreamed
of becoming a teacher.

CYNTHIA: Cara was
very interested in education.

Growing up,
she would take

our youngest brother,
John, and teach him

multiplication tables
and read.

JOYCE: She was very special
and kind.

She was just
a real pleaser,

so she wanted everybody
to be happy.

It was just horrifying.

I was watching
from a distance while

the officers got gloves
from their car

and walked underneath
the bridge.

You could visualize
what was happening,

but mentally,
you can't process it.

You just, like --
this isn't happening.

This isn't happening.

JOYCE: We basically
just fell apart.

All of us.

NULTON: I was at home
and received a telephone call

from my sergeant.

I became a police officer
because, uh,

I kind of followed
in my dad's footsteps.

I wanted to give back
to the community

and have a good impact on
individual people's lives.

Now we had
a young woman that had

been found off of
the Interstate 15 freeway.

It appears that she had
been murdered.

NARRATOR: Investigators can see
that someone attacked

Cara before she fell
from the bridge.

The body had started to bruise.

There was a ligature mark
around Cara's neck

and a bruise on Cara's face.

It actually looked like
someone hit her with

a flashlight.

NARRATOR: Technicians find
tissue under Cara's fingernails

indicating
she scratched the killer

trying to fight him off.

McFADDEN: When you enter
a confrontation with someone,

you're going to fight for
your life.

One of the training methods is,
if you don't have keys,

use your fingernails --
as they say,

gouge their eyes out --
finding the fingernail scrapings

underneath
the victim's fingernails

is crucial to
this case.

They did find blood
on one of Cara's boots.

There were some fibers

and hairs collected
from the bridge itself,

and it appeared a car
had been stopped

at the bridge
and left a skid mark.

We were able to measure
the width of the tire itself.

You have to remember this is
a bridge only used by bicycles,

so this is another piece of
key evidence that

could link the tire of
the killer to this case.

There's also a gas receipt in
the front seat of Cara's car.

It had a timestamp on it.

It had a location,
and we were able to backtrack

and find that she put gas
in her car

at a Chevron gas station before
getting on the freeway.

The attendant said it just
seemed like a normal stop.

She gassed her car.

Nobody bothered her at that
time that he could see,

and she was on her way.

NARRATOR: It doesn't take long
for camera crews

to arrive at the scene.

A murdered college student
is big news.

MAN: It was three days
after Christmas 1986,

a deserted lonely area
under the I-15 freeway.

In 1986,
San Diego was mostly, uh,

considered that vacation town

that you always
wanted to live in.

There was crime,
but nothing that

would have made
national news.

Not until Cara Knott.

The media loves a homicide

when the victim is young,
attractive, and innocent.

WOMAN: 20-year-old
Cara Knott's body was

found in a deserted area off
the old Highway 395 bridge.

They will go on a feeding
frenzy for this case,

and they're gonna put pressure
on law enforcement to solve

this quickly, so the best place
for the detectives

to start now is with
the victim's family.

We were separated.

They talked to us individually,
one-on-one,

away from each other.

They took photographs of our
shoes and, you know, clothing.

You're realizing,
wow, you know, we're --

we're a suspect.

For the first 48 hours,
everybody is a suspect.

NARRATOR: Cara's family
can easily account

for her last 48 hours.

Cara's boyfriend, Warren, came
over for Christmas on the 25th.

Um, but he was --
he was under

the weather, he felt like
he had the flu.

So they left the next day,

then went up to Escondido,
and then she took care of him.

NARRATOR: When Warren
starts to feel better,

Cara calls home to say
she's on her way,

but she never arrives.

JOYCE: I stayed home
waiting for her.

I started calling
the hospitals to

see if there had been
an accident.

I remember spending hours
standing at the kitchen

window, waiting for
her car to pull up.

CYNTHIA: Throughout the night,
there were phone calls back to

my mom and my other sister.

They were like
the command center.

Cara's mother calls 911.

I said, "We can't find her,
can we file a missing report?"

And they said,
"Well, you can't file

a missing person's report
for 48 hours."

McFADDEN: Back in the '80s,
you could not file

a police report until
it's 24 to 48 hours.

That's valuable time lost.

And when the police officer
does not search for the victim,

who's going to search for them?
The family.

NARRATOR: The Knott family
continues to hunt

along Cara's route
throughout the night.

Nothing,

until her sister exits
the interstate

and looks down
a barricaded road.

By that point, it had probably
been seven or eight hours

of, you know,
constant checking.

And we had just, like,

a gut feeling, like,
we've checked everything else.

It was so foreboding.

Down the road,
we found her car.

Once we got closer,
we realized she wasn't there,

and it was this dark,
tomb-like area.

It's just
the most horrifying...

memory still to this day.

I think about it,
I just...

it's heartbreaking.

NULTON: There was just
nothing down there

in the middle of the night.

It would have been
extremely dark.

The location where
this car was found is key.

What about this location

make the killer says,
I'm gonna take this person here.

What about this location
makes the killer safe?

NULTON: She was directed
down there by someone

in authority
or she met a friend,

family member,
that she trusted.

NARRATOR: Or is it something
else entirely?

At the time,

the infamous Green River
Killer is on the loose,

targeting young women in
Oregon and Washington State.

WOMAN: The Green River case
has posed special problems for

investigators since it all
began back in July of 1982.

NARRATOR: By 1986,
he's killed more than 40 women.

I'm thinking to myself,
do we have

something like that
here in San Diego now?

I couldn't think of any reason
why a woman would be --

be found murdered off
the freeway like that other than

what was going on up north.

If you have a case like
the Green River Serial Killer

going around at that time,

that is a big what if.

San Diego detectives confront

a frightening possibility.

Could Cara Knott be the Green
River Killer's latest victim?

The Green River Killer
was killing prostitutes,

drug addicts,

and like a lot of
serial killers,

would find the people on
the edges,

because there would be
less hue and cry.

Even if you aren't
a prostitute or a drug addict,

you never know
when you can be mistaken

for somebody just walking
across the parking lot.

It was very scary.

NARRATOR: But detectives
determine Cara

doesn't fit the profile.

Cara's personality
was just sweet.

She seemed to get along
with everybody.

She exuded warmth.

Um, she wanted to be
everyone's friend.

As a teenager,

I never gave her
a bit of worry

because she would let me know
where she was.

She seldom got into
any trouble.

I mean, she just wanted to
always please.

NARRATOR: Her family made sure
Cara was always cautious.

CYNTHIA: We took
a self-defense training class

days before
she was murdered.

We learned how to defend
ourselves as women.

Go for their face,
primarily, going

for the eyes
and scratching the face.

We always told Cara to drive
with her car doors locked,

and if she needed help,
to go to a policeman.

That's who you trust.

JARVIS: Cara would not have
stopped for

somebody that
she did not know.

But if she saw someone that
she did know and it looked like

they needed help,
she would have stopped.

They learned that Cara was
very careful.

She was trained to
protect herself.

So then that means that
it's either somebody

she trusts or somebody
she just gave into.

Once you finish
interviewing the family,

you're gonna move on
to the boyfriend.

It's not inconceivable
that he could have

got into a car
and followed her,

and she would have
pulled over for him.

NARRATOR: Cara's boyfriend,
Warren Jenkins, tells

police he was still
sick in bed after Cara left.

His sister confirms it.

CYNTHIA: They were high school
sweethearts, they met in track.

He was, you know, around
for most of the holidays.

He was just
a real kind person.

You could see that the two of
them would be great together.

Cara and her boyfriend
had no problems

at all, and we knew
that immediately.

He was destroyed by
the information

she had been found dead.

NARRATOR: As the investigation
expands, media attention grows.

MAN: She had been strangled,

her body tossed off
the old Highway 395 bridge.

The Cara Knott case

really caught
people's attention.

It was Christmas time.

It was cold,
so people were more indoors.

People paid attention,
and women were freaking out.

People were coming up to us
saying, "Have you caught him?

Do you know anything?"

And of course,
we couldn't say

anything back,
because we knew nothing.

There's absolutely no way
that we could put words to it

that would give
anybody a sense of peace

or even that we had
control over it.

NARRATOR: Police urge the public
to be careful on the roadways.

When you have a case like this,
fear sets in to the public.

So what you want to do is go
on TV and give them the truth.

We don't know
who the suspect is.

So in order for us to be safe,

these are the things
you need to do,

but you definitely need to
tell the public there is

someone still out there.

NARRATOR: Calls flood
the police tip line.

One stands out...

a man stopping motorists
near the gas station

where Cara was
last seen.

NULTON: There was a tip
about a hitchhiker

who had been up on that road.

We canvassed the area.

We did get information
about a gentleman

driving a truck who picked up

a hitchhiker in another
location and dropped him off

in that area.

So we're thinking, well,
maybe that was the -- the guy,

but it still didn't give us
any information

as to who he was.

NARRATOR: Officers search
for the hitchhiker,

but there's a limit to
their manpower.

Chasing a hitchhiker is like
chasing dust in a windstorm.

That's the needle
in the haystack.

You know it's there,

but you're gonna have to go on,
because everybody wants to help

the family, especially when
you have a victim like this.

NARRATOR: Investigators continue
to look for leads.

And so does Cara's family,

beginning a day after
her body was found.

We made the flyers,
we blanketed San Diego County.

Crimestoppers in San Diego
put out a $1,000 reward.

We added to that,
made it $10,000 for any

information leading up to
the arrest of her murderer.

NARRATOR: Detectives try
to keep the family updated on

their progress,

but they can't
share everything.

The reason that homicide
keeps a closed mouth is because

they don't want people to find
out what they're investigating

so things don't happen that
would harm the investigation.

I think it's
a very common thing.

One of the worst things we do
in homicide is having to go

back to the family
and repeatedly tell them

that we have few leads,

but the detectives
have to be careful.

You never know.

The killer could be
listening at any time.

NARRATOR: One week after
celebrating Christmas,

the Knott family gathers
for Cara's funeral.

I just remember walking out
of, um, the chapel part, the --

the gravesite and, like,
hundreds of people there.

There was not enough room.

People were crowded outside.

The outpouring of support was
was amazing,

just caring and loving.

It was just...

so surreal

and heartbreaking.

NARRATOR: One mourner in
the crowd attracts attention.

We got information
that Bill Smith, uh,

was a family friend
at the funeral,

extremely distraught.

You know, over the top --
we became

interested in what's
his relationship with Cara?

So we had to sink our teeth
into that.

All detectives know
that you have to go to

the funeral, because
the funeral is like fishing in

a pond of suspects.

Mr. Bill is a fish that
you need to catch, because

he's not smelling right,
and you need to bring him in.

NARRATOR: On the same day
as the funeral,

four days after
Cara was killed,

officers get a call
to the crime scene.

There was a highway patrol
officer who was there

detaining a couple of people

who had been off-roading it
down in the area.

Highway patrol
investigate accidents.

If what the highway patrol
officer is detaining someone

for falls into the purview of
what police do,

then they call us.

I received a radio call to
meet the California

highway patrol officer near
the scene where the murder was.

So when we arrived, I saw his
unit parked on the dirt side

of the road, and I saw a truck
with two males

standing outside.

I asked him, "Do you think
these guys are good for it?"

And he said, "No."

And I said, "Do you think
they're up to something?"

He said, "No."

I said, "Then why
are we doing this?"

And he said, "Well, they were
at the scene," and I said okay.

NARRATOR: The highway patrol
officer starts

asking questions
about Cara's murder.

FLEMING: "What are the homicide
detectives telling you?

"What are they telling you?

I want the scoop,"
and I didn't feel that it was

like a law enforcement officer
talking to a law

enforcement officer --
he was very excited

and then so desperate
to find out something that...

it was as if he was, uh,

somebody who had never been
to a crime scene before.

She has this patrol officer
talking to her,

and he's saying
some strange things.

He's asking too many
questions, he's poking the bear,

and she's thinking, why do
you want to know all of this?

And then he said,
"I heard they found, uh,

an earlobe in her mouth."

I said,
"I don't know about that."

And he then grabbed
his earlobes and went,

"Well, I got both of mine."

And I looked at him, I said,

"I don't think you have
anything to worry about."

And he goes, "Well, what else
could they get?"

And I said,
"Well, you know, they're --

they're doing an autopsy."

And then he asked,
"Well,

what could they get in a --
in an autopsy?"

And I said, "Well,
they could get scrapings

"from under her fingernails.

"They could possibly get
blood type.

They could get
all sorts of stuff."

And he starts cleaning
his fingernails!

And I'm looking at him,

and I'm thinking,
that's a very strange response.

NARRATOR: The patrolman
asked Sergeant Fleming
what she's heard.

FLEMING: I know that she got
thrown over at this side of

the bridge.

And he said, "No, you don't
know what you're talking about.

She went over
this side of the bridge."

Why would he say the other
side of the bridge,

and he has nothing to do
with this investigation?

And this is something
that only

the killer and the detectives
would know.

FLEMING: And I said,
"If you know so much,

why are you asking me?"

And he got very mad,

and I said,

"You know, you obviously
read up more than I did."

And he says, "What do you think
is gonna happen?"

And I said,

"To be honest,
I hope they find him

and hang him by his."

And he gets furious
at this point, says,

"You don't know what
you're talking about it.

"It could have
been an accident.

"It could have
gotten out of control.

"It could have
been something that --

that was just not planned."

And he turns around,
and he goes

to his car quickly,
and he floors it.

McFADDEN: This is
some strange behavior.

If this was me, I would
tell the other detectives

and the other officers,
"We need

"to pay close attention
to this guy, because we believe

his cheese has slipped
off of his cracker."

FLEMING: Had this man not
been in a marked unit,

I would have questioned if
he was law enforcement,

because of his reactions,
because of his behavior,

because of his questioning.

He was making excuses for
the suspect.

Police officers do not make
excuses for murderers.

Back at the station,

Sergeant Fleming
writes up what happened.

FLEMING: I took the report after
my shift to the homicide office.

The detectives explained
that they were really getting

a lot of calls,
and they were incredibly busy,

but that he would take it,
and he would turn it in.

And I said, "I really think
we need to look at this,"

and he said, "I promise you,
Jill, it'll be looked at."

I always found Jill
to be very smart,

and I did attach some very

routine significance
to her talking to me.

When the detectives follow up,

they find out the patrol
officer's name is Craig Peyer,

and he's considered
one of CHP's best.

Peyer was working the night
Cara was killed,

and they're told
his log book shows

he was miles
from the crime scene.

The fact that a young lady was
found and thrown off a bridge

under his watch,

he may be feeling
a little guilty.

Guilt will set in as a law
enforcement officer,

especially when a murder
happens in your district.

With potential leads drying up

and little hard evidence,

detectives head back to
the bridge

and spot someone
who shouldn't be there --

Bill Smith,
the same friend

whose behavior at Cara's funeral
seemed so strange.

NULTON: We actually saw him
walking across the bridge.

Uh, my partner and I spoke
with him, and he said

he was just looking around to
see if he could find anything.

You have to ask yourself,
why is Bill at this bridge?

Why is he just walking around?

Does he feel guilty,
or is he the killer

returning back to
the scene of the crime?

NARRATOR: Investigators
look further into Bill Smith.

They realize the car
registered to him

could be connected to a tip

that's come in about
the night of Cara's murder.

NULTON: A man was seen
pushing a blonde woman

down on the passenger side
of this car,

and it wasn't too far from
Mercy Road and Interstate 15,

which was the crime scene.

We had to see if he had
a similar type of car.

So I went up to his house very

early morning hours
and took a picture of it

so we could use it to show

people that maybe could help
identify it.

NARRATOR: It turns out Smith's
car is the wrong color,

but detectives still
want to talk to him.

Smith tells them
he's known the Knott family

for years and is especially
close to Cara.

NULTON: It was quite apparent to
us that him showing this grief

wasn't so unusual based on his
relationship with the family

and with Cara.

NARRATOR: Smith insists he was
at home the night of the murder.

He did have a clear alibi.

He had people
that could vouch for him.

When you have a case like
this, a lot of leads will come

in, and after following all
those leads,

a few leads would dry up, and
then you're gonna come down to

only a few leads and none of
them are promising.

But the media believes that
all leads are promising,

and the media
is gonna continue

to put pressure
on the detectives.

With the public in an uproar,

the California highway patrol
has one of its

officers do a ride-along
on the evening news.

OFFICER: And once you get
into a car with somebody,

anything can happen.

Uh...

being a female,
you could be raped,

robbed, all the way to where
you could be killed.

NARRATOR: Calls start
coming in from women

who recognize
the CHP officer on TV.

PETRILLO: So they said,
"He pulled me over for

a bouncing headlight" or
"Your tail light's flickering."

He was taking young women
off the freeway

and down into basically
a dead end,

no lights, and talking
to them about weird stuff.

The officer in the video...

Craig Peyer.

Once you get in
that other person's car,

you're at their mercy.

FLEMING: I had seen him
on the news and said,
"Wait a minute,

that's the guy that was weird
with me on that stop."

There was something in me...

as a woman that was like, no.

Had I not been in uniform
with a gun

on my hip with a cover unit
right there,

I probably would have
been frightened.

Craig Peyer was a real
ambitious officer in the field.

He was considered
a hot pencil.

Uh, he'd write
a lot of tickets.

He was
a training officer and viewed

as a good officer doing
his job.

McFADDEN: This officer is
respected by the agency.

So detectives have a very
difficult job to do,

but that shouldn't matter
at this point.

You should kick the pedestal
from under this officer

and continue your job,

especially when you're talking
about a homicide investigation.

NULTON: It was routine for him
to be stopping people,

particularly young women,

directing them
underneath the freeway.

SACHS: He's got them
pulled over, and he's talking

to them for up to an hour,
getting them out of

the vehicle so he can
check them out,

see what they look like,
and maintain control over them

so they could not leave.

McFADDEN: All of these females
said that they received

this creepy behavior from

the same patrol officer who
was asking too many questions

on the crime scene.

I do not believe
in coincidence.

Coincidence don't happen in
a homicide case.

Twelve days after Cara's murder,

detectives asked Peyer
to come in for questioning.

Yelled across at me

in my office,

"Lieutenant Jarvis,
how the hell are you?

I see you on TV all the time."

Either this guy is
a hell of an actor

or he's covering
his tracks now.

NULTON: The initial interview
was the --

the usual, "Tell us about
your routine.

"Tell us specifically
what you did that night.

And did you kill Cara Knott?"

And he denied it,
and he said

that he would never do
anything like that.

NARRATOR: Then Peyer asks
a question of his own.

He says, "But if I did do this,
what will happen to me?"

That is pretty much
admitting to the crime.

But you want to know
if I go forward with this,

what will really happen to me
if I tell you the truth?

That is a huge red flag.

Peyer was super cooperative.

If I were a police officer
being accused of murder,

and I did not commit a murder,

I would say,
"Tell me what you got.

I'm out of here."
I'd be angry about it,

and that wasn't
the case with him.

He was, you know,
"What can I do for you?"

It was bizarre to me,

his demeanor.

NARRATOR: Peyer agrees
to take a polygraph.

NULTON: He failed this test in
a deceptive sort of way

more so than any test
I'd ever seen.

We were particularly
interested in speaking

with officers
that worked with him.

And it was
real eye-opening.

We learned about some
scratches on his face,

and Craig told his supervisor
it occurred while

he was gassing his vehicle at
the gas pump,

and he fell forward
into a chain link fence.

NULTON: To me,
it seemed ridiculous.

I mean, you don't fall face
first into a fence without

trying to break
your fall, uh, in --

in some other manner
besides your face.

McFADDEN:
He had scratches on his face.

We have to remember that
the victim scratched her

assailant because they found
the fingernail scraping

underneath her fingernails.

His story is that
he fell into a fence.

Well, he should have began
with, "Once upon a time."

Detectives find a new angle.

The highway patrol all use
the same dry cleaner for

their uniforms,

and Peyer made a drop off there
two days after Cara's murder.

And what does he tell
the clerk at the cleaners?

"Could you pre-spot
these pants for blood?"

When we looked at Craig's car,
we found nylon rope.

And we asked
numerous highway patrolmen,

"Is that a standard piece
of equipment?"

And they all said no.

NARRATOR: Cara Knott had
ligature marks around her neck

when she was found, showing
she had been strangled.

Even though they got
strong information,

his log book is gonna
give him his alibi.

The log book will show
that he was miles away.

Detectives need to take
a close look at that log book.

Can we find anything in
that log book

would help us trap
this killer?

Peyer's log book shows an alibi

for the time of Cara's murder.

He wrote that he stopped
and provided assistance

to this motorist
and called him a tow truck.

NARRATOR: Detectives know this
alibi is the key to the case.

They send the log book out for
forensic experts to examine.

SACHS: There was actually,
like, erase marks in

the log, and there was
an hour and 20 minute gap.

What happened?

What does he do?

He backdates another stop
that occurred after

he murdered her
to that time period.

They pretty much
had him dead to

rights on that particular
piece of evidence.

He believed that his fellow
officers would never go

to this length to look
at his log book.

They would trust him
as a law enforcement officer.

I'm happy to know that
detectives in this case was not

going to let him
being an officer

stop them in this case.

NARRATOR: As more evidence comes
in from the forensic testing,

it points again and again
to Craig Peyer.

SACHS: The blood spot

on Cara's right boot
matched Peyer's blood.

The patches on his highway
patrol shirt were determined

to be consistent with fibers
that were collected from her.

And the forensic orthodontist
identified ligatures, without

a doubt said that
that piece of

rope in the trunk of that car
made those marks

on Cara Knott's neck.

And there's more.

The tire track measurements
taken at the crime scene

match Peyer's patrol car.

There was evidence
after evidence,

but then the smoking gun
in this case,

the most telling evidence,
were the fresh scratch marks

on his face.

He's got all kinds of scratch
marks on his face that

he can't explain except he
says it happened from a fence.

It was obvious as
a sledgehammer that

he was the one who did it.

NARRATOR: Before detectives
arrest Craig Peyer for murder,

they visit Cara's parents,
Joyce and Sam Knott.

JOYCE: They told us then
that they were arresting

a police officer,
and my poor sweet daddy,

he just fell to the floor.

He was such a believer
in law and order, and...

it just knocked
the wind right out of him.

I don't think it was
so shocking to Sam.

Almost all along,

he thought it must be
an officer.

Who else could have
pulled her over?

They knew who Cara was.

They knew that this is one of
the only things that could

make any sense as to why
her life was taken that night.

I got called into the office
and told the homicide division

is about to make an arrest of

a California highway
patrol officer.

And at that point, I knew
that he was the monster.

I know.
I didn't even do it.

NARRATOR: Craig Peyer is
arrested on January 15th,

1987, 19 days after
Cara Knott's murder.

This is an officer that took
advantage of his position.

He forced women in
these deserted areas,

terrorized them, where he knew
that they would never get help.

NARRATOR: Detectives believe
Cara's murder started the same

way as all of
Peyer's traffic stops.

The officer saw the pretty
blonde driving on the highway

and flashed his headlights,
directing her

to the barricaded road.

NULTON: Craig Peyer
was doing his routine

chit-chatting, and she wasn't
buying it at all.

I think she started to
look around.

This is getting really creepy,
and I think he reached out,

touched her,
tried to comfort her,

you know, "Relax,
don't get upset,"

and her self-defense
training kicked in,

and she scratched him,

and she started to fight for

her life, because she was
feeling threatened.

And he hit her
across the forehead

with his flashlight
and knocked her out.

SACHS: And he saw his whole
life flashing before his eyes,

his whole police career ruined,

and made the conscious
decision to murder her.

NULTON: He went to
the trunk of his car,

he got that piece of rope out,
put it around her neck,

and he strangled her,
and then...

he's got to decide what
he's gonna do at that point.

And he drives out to
the center of the 395 bridge,

and he pushes her
up and over

the side and down
into the creek bed.

NARRATOR: Fifteen months
after Cara Knott's murder,

Craig Peyer goes on trial for
the crime.

SACHS: Prosecutors made sure
that every I was dotted,

every T was crossed,
so not only was it

proof beyond
a reasonable doubt,

but it almost became proof
beyond any doubt that he was

the one who did this crime.

NARRATOR: Dozens of women tell
the court about Peyer's

predatory behavior.

Sergeant Fleming
also testifies.

FLEMING: Sam Knott would
come up to me, and he would

put his hand on my arm, and he
would thank me for being there.

And he said,
"I know it's hard

to testify against
one of your own."

And I always said to him,
"He's not one of mine.

He's not one of mine,
and he's not one of ours."

NARRATOR: Craig Peyer
is convicted of murder

and sentenced to 25 years
to life in prison.

SACHS: He's the billboard
for someone who

does not deserve to
be released.

He was a Jekyll and Hyde,
and the Hyde that came

out was the individual that
did all the dark,

monstrous deeds.

It does haunt you.

How could it not?
If you're a living, breathing,

caring, human being,
and most police officers are,

it'll be with me
the rest of my life

until I'm not
breathing anymore.

Just so senseless,
and not only is it senseless,

but it's perpetrated

by a person from
the fraternity.

And it's beyond me
that a law enforcement person

would do something like that.

I had a daughter about
that age, and I just think,

you know, this could have
happened to me.

I miss her all the time.

Not just once a day,
every minute.

I want Cara remembered for
the good that

she brought to the world in
her short time,

not for the way she died.

NARRATOR: Cara's father, Sam,
never recovered from her death.

Twelve years after her murder,

he suffered a massive heart
attack as he drove away from

the memorial garden
he had planted at the site.

It destroyed my dad.

At the end,
he died of a broken heart,

and he was only 63.

The monster murdered him just
like he murdered my sister.

She was shot in the back of
the head.

Everbody was a suspect.
Who would do this?

You hate to think that
we've got a brother officer

involved in a murder, but you
can't leave anything unturned.

This killer wants total control
over their victims.

I just had a feeling that
something wasn't right.

A lot of people didn't believe
the official story.

The real truth is

nobody wants to get rid of bad
cops more than good cops.

He was the ideal officer.

His exact words were "You're
gonna get yourself killed."

If this is a bad cop then we
are in a whole other league.

Who would know how to stage
a crime scene

better than someone who
investigates crime scenes?

They found who killed my sister
and I just couldn't believe

it was a freakin' cop.