- In 1994, on the 27th of October, four days before Halloween, a little girl named Sabrina was born on the outskirts of Cleveland, Ohio. Fated with alcoholic and abusive parents, she became a child of the foster care system until Lisa Knoefel, a social worker specializing in sexual abuse, took her under her wing. From then on, Sabrina had it all: Two loving parents, two sisters, and a bright future ahead of her.
Or so she thought. . .
Since on August 6th, 2014, Sabrina was put on trial for the murder of Lisa, her own foster mother. - Two years before this was recorded, Sabrina was arrested inside her foster parents' home with a bloody knife in her hand. - Lisa Knoefel was stabbed to death.
Her 18-year-old foster daughter is in custody tonight. - I can't see the Sabrina that I know being violent towards anyone, let alone what she did. - She would never have done this by herself.
- At the time, the police's only other lead was Kevin Knoefel, the victim's husband and Sabrina's foster father. - But someone else knew what really happened. On the night of the murder, Megan Zanella, Sabrina's foster sister, was also present at the scene.
My name is Megan Zanella, and I am the daughter of Lisa Knoefel. This is my first interview and I have been waiting for this since my mom passed away. - After calling 911, Megan waited six agonizing minutes before the police arrived.
She tried to fight off Sabrina, but at only 13, she was easily overwhelmed. Eventually, she heard the sirens wailing in the distance. - I rush outside to meet them and they point a gun at me 'cause they thought I was Sabrina.
- She's waving her hands. “You need to hurry, hurry, hurry. ” Worst case scenario was going through my head.
What am I gonna see? How bad is this gonna be? - After clearing up the confusion, the officers entered the residence.
They called out to Sabrina and Lisa, but were met with only eerie silence. Eventually, after entering the first room past the stairs, the officers came face to face with Sabrina, covered in blood, knife in hand. - It was a very tense couple seconds.
I could see blood on the blade, I could see blood on her. Immediately we started screaming to drop the knife. - Sabrina looked straight at the officer for a couple of seconds, as if she was in a trance before throwing away the knife and putting her hands up.
While his partner cuffed her, Randy Mullenax approached Lisa's bed. - I could barely even see. It looked like she literally showered in blood.
I knew there was nothing I can do. - After his partner dragged Sabrina outside, the officer began clearing the room when he suddenly heard something unusual. - I could hear a child crying from my left.
We opened up the door to clear the closet, and that's when I found a very, very small child screaming. - This was Hailey Knoefel, Megan's little sister who crawled into the closet in fear once the attack began. Later, at the station, Sabrina tried to act as if she didn't remember anything, but couldn't hold it in when the detectives brought up Hailey and Megan.
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During their conversation, Lisa felt a deep sense of empathy for the teenager. At 16 years old, Sabrina never had a stable home or foster parents and longed for some sense of normalcy. Believing she and her husband Kevin could provide Sabrina with the support she needed, Lisa made a major decision.
- This wasn't her first time taking in a foster kid, so I do remember when we actually went to go pick up Sabrina. She was really nice and I thought she could be a big sister figure for me. - She worked a lot in counseling, how to cope and how to manage with everything she was going through.
She was going to class, getting good grades. I think Sabrina really was thriving in their home. - For over a year, Sabrina mingled well with the Knoefels, especially with her sisters, Megan and Hailey, even with Kevin, Megan's stepfather and Lisa's husband.
But eventually, Kevin began spending more and more time alone with Sabrina, neglecting the rest of his family. Lisa tried to address this through text messages, but Kevin dismissed her concerns, insisting she was overreacting. - I started to notice that something wasn't right between Sabrina and Kevin.
- Lisa being in the field of working for the job and family services in the sex division, I think she had a pretty good inkling on what was going on. - Sabrina had never experienced a stable family, a loving household, the sense of security, the sense of belonging. Kevin seemed to know how to prey on Sabrina's vulnerabilities.
- Kevin Knoefel is a sexual predator. He was no better than the people that sexually abused the kids that Lisa was trying to help. - With no way to prove her suspicions, Lisa began talking about divorcing Kevin and putting Sabrina back into foster care.
But her husband insisted they wait for Sabrina to finish high school before letting her go. In the meantime, Lisa became more strict towards her foster daughter, ensuring she stayed home to prevent Kevin from approaching her, but her safeguarding quickly escalated. For unknown reasons, Lisa isolated Sabrina from her sisters too, creating a very tense environment inside the house.
- There was some tensions between Lisa and Sabrina and then Sabrina and the minor child too, Megan. - It was all downhill from there. And I never knew that it could lead to this.
As he was leaving for work, she gave him a hug and she whispered something to him, and I just didn't think that was right. - From the corner of her eye, Megan noticed that Sabrina received an unusually high number of text messages over dinner and the rest of the evening. Even past bedtime, she could still hear her foster sister's phone buzzing from the next room.
Suddenly, at 1:00 AM, the sound stopped before a high-pitched shout pierced the silence. - I was hearing screaming and I was like, "What the hell is going on downstairs? " So I walked down there and Brie's stabbing my mother to death.
I said, "Get off of her! " I was actually on her at one point and she shoved me so I immediately go into the office area and call 911. - At only 13, she was trying to explain the situation to the operator while fighting off Sabrina in an attempt to defend her mother.
- And this keeps going on for over six minutes, Megan's worst nightmare coming true. - I have trouble sleeping every night. I have flashbacks all the time, and that will never stop.
- Following Sabrina's arrest, she had to be taken to a hospital to treat the numerous stab wounds Lisa and Megan caused to her hands during the attack. After she was stabilized, police took her back to the station and immediately began her interview. - Our main goal when we first interviewed Sabrina was to get Sabrina to tell us exactly what happened.
We caught her coming out of the room, so we knew she did it, but we wanted to know why. - For over an hour, Sabrina claimed she had no recollection of the events and was unaware of Lisa's passing. Her story was that she took too many ibuprofen, blacked out, and woke up in the hospital.
But Parmertor, a veteran detective, knew the teenager was hiding something. - First thing she does is she has an itch on her forehead for no apparent reason. When people touch their face or start scratching or start tapping their toes, it's a good indication to us that the person's probably lying, they're nervous.
- The detective couldn't gather anything from her except that she was deceptive. Several people at the station proclaimed he shouldn't open an investigation since they caught Sabrina red-handed, but Parmertor couldn't shake off the fact that it was unusual for a suspect to deny everything whilst being caught in the act. So he asked Kevin to come to the station for an interview.
To his surprise, Kevin requested that his attorney be present and Michael Connick, said attorney, refused on his behalf. To convince them to show up, Parmertor gave them a false pretense. They would only talk about Lisa's work.
- The police couldn't help but find this strange. Why wouldn't Kevin help them? Why was Michael so defensive with his client?
But what really caught Parmertor off guard was Kevin and Michael's reaction when he brought Sabrina into the conversation. Before then, the detective knew nothing of Kevin and Sabrina's strange relationship. - In the aftermath, Kevin kept looking over Megan for a few days before her own father could move her out of the house.
During that short period of time, the 13-year-old witnessed many things that forced her to reconsider her stepfather's involvement in the events of November 16th. - All I know is that the next day, he was getting rid of my mom's stuff. She was just murdered.
She didn't die from cancer. It wasn't long coming or anything. She was murdered.
- On that very same day, mere hours after his wife's murder, Kevin was on the phone with his insurance company. Turns out he previously had terminated his own coverage along with those of his two children and transferred them to Lisa, giving her quadruple protection six months before her death. When he hung up, he had cashed in over $785,000.
- He did, taking it out the morning of. I was shocked. It was a lot of money, and he blew through all of it.
- He was buying cars, he was buying a camper. He was remodeling his house all with Lisa's insurance money. - During the rest of the week, Kevin tried to visit Sabrina in jail every single day, but was denied each time.
Megan couldn't help but wonder why Kevin would do such a thing, but his strange behavior had only just begun. The next day, he brought an ax into her mother's bedroom. - The bed my mom was stabbed to death on, he was chopping it up, like cutting it up.
I thought that was very odd. - Even after Megan reunited with her biological father, her suspicions kept rising. Every time she saw Kevin, she noticed something strange about his behavior.
At her mother's funeral, he asked the attendees to pray for Sabrina, the person allegedly responsible for the murder of whom they came to mourn. By merely glancing at her stepfather on that day, Megan knew she was onto something. - I was looking over at Kevin.
He had no emotion. It's like my mom was never there. Your wife was murdered and you haven't even cried once?
That's weird and sketchy and that's when I knew. . .
He did this. - After six months, the case went cold. Both Megan and Parmertor knew Sabrina did it, but didn't know why and couldn't shake off how odd Kevin had been acting since the murder of his wife.
That was until Sabrina, still in custody, agreed to talk to Karen Kowall, her case prosecutor, through a process called a proffer. - So a proffer is a good faith first step. When the defense attorney, the prosecution meet with the suspect, it's an opportunity for them to be 100% completely honest and tell exactly what happened.
- As Parmertor and Kowall investigated, it became clear that Sabrina was probably trying to protect somebody when she claimed to have blacked out during the attack. Even from inside her cell, Sabrina appeared to be overwhelmed with regret for what she did and her concern for the rest of her foster family never lessened. For these reasons, Kowall went straight to the point during the proffer interview.
- From what they've gathered, Kevin appeared to be a groomer, a sexual predator who builds a relationship with an underage person to gain their trust and prepare them for sexual abuse. Kevin often used attention, gifts, and secrets to make the 17-year-old feel special and dependent on him. He promised her that he would help her get into a massotherapy school and that she should train on him.
From there, it didn't take long for him to get what he really wanted from the teenager, and he would continue to exploit her every time they were alone together. - Sabrina had an appendix surgery, her appendix burst, and I visited her in the hospital. That day while I was there, shortly after, Kevin had sexual relations with her in a hospital bed after she just had appendix surgery.
That makes me sick to my stomach. - Kevin extended his control over Sabrina during the following year. After every sexual encounter the two would have, he would talk about Lisa, twisting the narrative to make Sabrina believe that the only way for them to be together was to get rid of his wife permanently.
Slowly but surely, he manipulated Sabrina into believing that killing Lisa was her only option. - But things didn't go as planned. Lisa woke up while Sabrina stood frozen in front of her bed.
Realizing she'd reached a point of no return, the teenager attacked her foster mother and fell into a blind rage when Lisa and Megan tried to fight back. - Kowall and Parmertor were hesitant at first since Sabrina could have easily invented everything. Yet, instead of demonstrating the usual behaviors associated with lying, Sabrina was now much more confident, assertive, and consistent in her account of the events.
To back her claims, she even mentioned that someone else knew about the plot, her high school friend, Autumn Pavlik. - Myself and a chief assistant prosecutor knocked on her door. We introduced ourselves and she says, "I've been expecting you guys.
" - Since Kevin had already talked to Autumn about his plan, the police thought he might do so again if she confronted him. So they wired up the 17-year-old and sent her to meet Kevin. When she accused him of killing his wife and if having conspired with his foster daughter to do so, Kevin didn't deny her claims.
He didn't even react at all. - If somebody's accusing you of being involved in something you know you're not involved, you would say something like, "What are you talking about? I have no idea what you're talking about.
" - Armed with Sabrina and Autumn's testimonies, Parmertor didn't waste any more time. - I got an arrest warrant. We went to Kevin Knoefel's house and we arrested him.
I don't think he was surprised. It was kind of weird because he was sleeping up in Sabrina's room. - After his arrest, the police finally had Kevin to themselves, but it wouldn't last long.
- Lake County grand jury indicted the man for plotting to kill Lisa with help from his foster child, but that's not all, he's also accused of sexual battery for having relationship with that child. - I was out to eat and I remember just seeing my mom's face on the news and my dad looked at me and said, "Kevin got arrested today. " And I was like, "Really?
" And I had no emotion. I had no emotion 'cause I didn't know what to say. - At the trial, 12 witnesses took the stand, from Sabrina's teachers and social workers to family and friends of the Knoefels.
Each of them corroborated that he acted suspiciously after the murder, and many either knew or witnessed him acting suggestively with Sabrina. Even Kevin's best friend, David Strunk, testified against him. In a report he filled in the weeks after the murder, he explained that Kevin insisted on showing him some of Sabrina's suggestive modeling pictures and that he kept talking about visiting her in jail just like Megan noticed.
- He told me that he just wanted to let her know that he was still there for her. This was the person that had just killed his wife and I was shocked that he would want to have any sort of contact with her. - After nine hours of consideration, the jury came back with a verdict.
- In an interview with Karen Kowall, the case prosecutor, journalist Josh Mankiewicz remarked that even though they had won their case, a judgment like this bore little satisfaction. - This is really just betrayal on top of betrayal on top of betrayal, isn't it? I mean, you got Kevin betraying Lisa, Sabrina betraying Lisa.
Then you have Kevin betraying Sabrina, and ultimately, Sabrina betraying Kevin. - Yeah, it's a perfect circle. - But the journalist is forgetting someone in this allegory because no one has been betrayed more than Megan.
Forced not only to witness the attack, Megan tried to save her mom to no avail, and now she has to carry that trauma with her for the rest of her life. - If I had to pick one emotion, I would say angry. I am very angry.
To take away someone who was helping a lot of people in their life and doing what they could for their family is awful. - I believe that I should do time because I know they deserve justice and the only justice they could get is me behind bars. - Sabrina pled guilty to all charges and like Kevin, was condemned to life behind bars without parole until 2042.
In 2017, Hailey and Megan filed civil suits against them and were awarded over $6 million in damages. From her jail cell at Dayton Correctional, Sabrina was interviewed twice since her incarceration, once by Dateline in 2015 and again by HLN in 2020. In both cases, she pleaded for forgiveness from her former foster sisters.
- I realized that there's more than one victim in this story. If I had a chance, yeah, I would tell them that I was selfish and that I'm sorry and that I never meant to hurt them. And I know, how can I say that when I killed their mother?
I was in a place that I wasn't thinking about anybody but myself, and that was wrong and it doesn't make it right. I know no matter what I say, I can't bring her back and I can't undo what's already been done and what they've felt. If it means anything, I truly do apologize.
- Sorry will never be enough for the act that you did. The pain I go through every day knowing that my mom is not there to see me get married and have kids, you took that away from me. - Since Sabrina and Kevin's condemnation, Megan has grown up to become a strong and independent woman.
She may never forgive her former sister, but instead, she turned her adversity into purpose by studying criminal law in college, hoping to someday bring justice and reparation to other survivors of violent crimes. Today, Megan continues to show a desire to help others, a trait she will forever share with her mother. - She just wanted to help people, you know, make a difference.
