Loyal mom of 4 seduced her ex-lover before killing him. Then she skinned him and cooked him with gravy for her kids
Some doors should stay closed
Being welcomed back into an ex-partner’s life can look like a chance to repair a broken relationship. For one Australian man, however, that decision ended with something police would struggle to forget.
John Price already had reasons to be careful. Violence between partners can become deadly whether it ends with poison slipped into a drink or an argument allegedly turning into a stabbing. Price had reportedly separated from Katherine Knight and even obtained legal protection against her before letting her back into his life.
According to the Daily Mail, that decision preceded his brutal killing on February 29, 2000, in Aberdeen, New South Wales. Knight reportedly entered his home while he slept, showered, and went into his bedroom. After the former couple had sex, Price went to the bathroom. When he returned, Knight was waiting with a butcher knife.
What police found changed everything
Knight attacked Price as he desperately attempted to escape. He suffered 37 stab wounds, including injuries to his back, buttocks, and legs, leaving blood throughout the house before he collapsed near the front door. His death was only the beginning of what investigators would discover.
Knight had previously worked in slaughterhouses and was skilled with knives. She used that experience to skin Price’s body, removing his skin in one piece before hanging it from a meat hook near the kitchen. Investigators later noted that his stab wounds remained visible in the removed skin.
Knight also decapitated Price and put his head into a pot of boiling water. She then cut flesh from his body and cooked portions of it with vegetables before adding homemade gravy.
The meals were apparently intended for Price’s children. Police arrived before they were eaten.
The killing was horrifying, but Knight’s violence did not begin that night. Former partners described years of attacks, threats, and intimidation when relationships did not go the way she wanted.
One former partner was reportedly stabbed with scissors. Knight allegedly killed his dog after he came home late for dinner. Other men described being attacked with a frying pan and a hot iron.
Price had experienced that side of Knight as well. Their relationship had become increasingly volatile before they separated, and friends reportedly warned him not to be alone with her. He nevertheless briefly allowed her back into his home.
Knight’s life before meeting Price also contained violence and instability. She left school at fifteen and began working at a slaughterhouse, where she became known for her strength and ability with knives.
People who knew her described a strikingly different side, too. Knight was a mother of four who reportedly doted on her children, helped neighbors, and could be generous and fiercely loyal. Her violent outbursts, however, left people around her afraid of what could happen when she became angry.
Psychiatrists assessed Knight before her trial and found features consistent with borderline personality disorder, including intense fears of abandonment and problems regulating her emotions. That assessment did not remove her legal responsibility for Price’s death.
Doctors concluded that Knight understood what she had done and knew that it was wrong. She was considered fit to stand trial.
Knight ultimately pleaded guilty to murder. In 2001, she was sentenced to life imprisonment, with the court ordering that she never be released.
That made Knight the first woman in Australian history to receive life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. More than two decades after Price walked back into his Aberdeen home, she remains behind bars.
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