Suesan Knorr
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Suesan Knorr (September 27, 1966 - July 16, 1984) was a teenager from Sacramento, California, who was shot and later killed by her mother, Theresa Cross.
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[edit] Abuse and Shooting
None of Theresa Cross's children were immune to the physical and psychological abuse she doled out. However, according to an interview with her daughter Terry in an episode of A&E's Cold Case Files (titled "Mommy's Rules"), Cross had a special hatred for her daughters Suesan and Sheila, fueled by jealousy that the girls were growing up and blossoming into young women while she faced the prospect of growing old and losing her looks. For years Cross beat and tortured her daughters in various ways, including burning them with cigarettes and forcing them to eat large helpings of macaroni and cheese mixed with lard (if they vomited, she forced them to eat their vomit).
In a heated argument in 1982, Cross grabbed a 22-caliber pistol and shot Suesan in the chest. The bullet became lodged in her back, but her mother refused to seek medical help and left Suesan to die in the family bathtub. Cross then handcuffed Suesan to a soap dish and began to nurse her back to health, and Suesan eventually recovered from her wounds without professional treatment [1].
[edit] Death
In 1984, Suesan decided to tell her mother she would like to move out. Cross agreed under one condition: that Suesan let her remove the bullet from her back. The removal took place on the kitchen floor with Mellaril capsules and liquor being used as the anesthetic. Cross ordered Robert, Suesan's 15-year-old brother, to remove the bullet with a scalpel. Not long after, an infection set in, her skin turned yellow from jaundice, and she became delirious. Suesan lay dying on the floor and Cross demanded the other children to merely walk over her. As Cross' daughter Terry told Cold Case Files, Cross told her other children that Suesan's illness was a result of possession by Satan and that the only way to purge the demon was with fire. She asked Suesan's brothers, Robert and Bill, to help her to dispose of their sister. They drove Suesan to Sierra Nevada, Interstate 80 outside Truckee, laid her down, poured gas on her and burned her alive [2].
The following year, Suesan's older sister, 20-year-old Sheila, also died at the hands of Theresa Cross. According to the website cited above, Cross had forced Sheila to work as a prostitute to support the household. Although Theresa subsequently relented slightly in her abuse of Sheila, she soon accused her daughter of giving her a venereal disease by way of a toilet seat. Sheila was severely beaten, locked in a stifling hot closet and denied food or water. She soon died. Cross and her sons stuffed Sheila's body into a box and deposited it in a lake at a campground in Nevada County, California, where it was discovered just a few hours later. Sheila's body was so severely decomposed, however, that she remained unidentified for years afterward.
Subsequently, Terry Knorr claimed, Cross forced her to burn down the Sacramento apartment the family had called home, hoping to destroy any evidence that might implicate her in Sheila's death. Terry later said she survived because she stood up to her mother and demanded to be allowed to leave the house.
[edit] Aftermath
Cross was eventually caught based on a police report from Terry, who, according to her Cold Case Files interview, was inspired to contact authorities after watching an episode of America's Most Wanted. On November 15, 1993, she was charged with two counts of murder, two counts of conspiracy to commit murder, and two special circumstances charges: multiple murder and murder by torture. On October 17, 1995, she was sentenced to two consecutive life sentences. She will be eligible for parole in 2027.
[edit] References
- Article at crimelibrary.com
- http://www.littoral.net/books/mothers_day/mothers_day.html
- See also: Cold Case Files (A&E), Episode #48: "Mommy's Rules" (featuring an exclusive interview with Theresa Cross' youngest and only surviving daughter, Terry).
