ALLEGAN COUNTY, Mich. — It's been just over ten years since the disappearance of Harold "Butch" Knight. The now 76-year-old is accused of killing his wife, Sara Lee Knight, on January 11th, 2015. Knight has been on the run since.
Sara's daughter, Roxanne Harris, is still awaiting justice, over a decade later. Harris' life was forever changed when she found out her mom's killer was her stepdad.
“I just want to know why," Harris said. "Instead of walking away, why did he have to kill my mom?”
Now, Harris has to live a life without her mom and best friend. “There's so many times that I want to call her and just say, 'Hey mom,' or 'I've had a bad day,' and she's not there, you know," Harris said. "Nobody will take her place, ever.”
After roughly 16 years of marriage, investigators say Knight took his wife's life. “It’s not fair that he gets to breathe air while my mom breathes dirt,” Harris said.
Two days after Sara's death, investigators say Knight called the Allegan County Sheriff's Office on a burner phone, and admitted to strangling her.
“They asked him what his name was. He said he wasn't going to give his name, that it didn't matter, and that he would be out of the country soon,” said Mike Brown, a Lieutenant with the Allegan County Sheriff's Office.
Lieutenant Brown says it's clear that Knight had a plan. “He researched how to get away with killing somebody, and he put some thought into, certainly, his escape," Lieutenant Brown said.
Knight's last known location to police was in Maine, where his car was found on January 30th, 2015. “We found he had gone into the Walmart there… he had bought hair dye to dye his hair and his mustache,” Lieutenant Brown said.
Lieutenant Brown says he paid a trucker for a ride out of the area, and then he went dark.
Knight also mailed a package to Sara's mother, including cash for a funeral and a letter. “He sent my grandmother around $2,000 and demanded my mom to be cremated,” Harris said.
Re-reading the letter over and over, Harris reflects on this man, her stepdad, who's now just a stranger. “He didn't want to play the father figure," Harris said. "He didn't want to be a part of my life. He kind of wanted mom all to himself.”
10 years later, if Knight is still alive, Harris just wants her day in court. “There is no closure, not as long as he walks," Harris said.
Lieutenant Brown says the Allegan County Sheriff's Office has received a number of leads over the years, but they've all been dead ends. Lieutenant Brown adds that the leads have led the Sheriff's Office to believe Knight is either out of the country or deceased. Still, Lieutenant Brown says they will continue to treat this case as if he's still alive.
In the last two weeks, they've re-submitted Knight's photographs to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to see if there's any updates, and to see if he is, in fact, out of the country. They're waiting to hear back.
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