[johnleeknoefler]

I remember back at the time this murder happened I had heard Steve was really pissed off cause this woman got him sent to jail for awhile after he beat her.
I was about 100 yards away one day picking black berries and heard them once more arguing. It seemed like you could hear them arguing loudly several times a week. I was working on our family property that is just up the hill from where Steve lived. I remember one day I suddenly realized I had not heard them arguing for a couple weeks. I guess he found a way to shut her up.

____________________________________
Foothills man forced son to dig grave for ex-girlfriend


Knoefler sentenced 16 years to life for 2008 killing

August 01, 2011 10:48:00 PM


By Rob Young/Appeal-Democrat



Steven Shaun Knoefler forced his 14-year-old son to dig a grave for the woman Knoefler had just killed while the son watched, according to a Yuba County Superior Court document.

Knoefler, 49, was sentenced Monday to 16 years to life in prison for the May 2008 bludgeoning death of his estranged girlfriend, 36-year-old Vanessa Jane Hobbs, at his home near Rackerby in the Yuba County foothills.

Knoefler told the son, now 18, that he would "end" him if he did not dig the shallow grave and keep quiet about it, according to the transcript of a hearing where Knoefler pleaded guilty to second-degree murder.

In June, the son went to the Butte County Sheriff's Office and revealed what happened three years prior. Knoefler was arrested and did not dispute the account.

Yuba County Sheriff's Department investigators went to Knoefler's home and found Hobbs' body buried about 2 feet deep in a grave about 100 feet from his front door. Her skull had been smashed into 64 pieces.

Knoefler used a dumbbell to kill Hobbs. Detectives found it in nearby blackberry bushes.

According to the transcript, Hobbs was intoxicated when she came to Knoefler's home and the two began arguing. She would not leave.

Knoefler had recently spent time in jail after the two were involved in a domestic violence incident. He told her she would not be sending him back there again.

Knoefler picked Hobbs up by the neck and punched her until she was unconscious, then dragged her by the hair into a bedroom. When she regained consciousness and begged for her life, he hit her in the arm with an electric guitar, breaking the arm, then began hitting her with the dumbbell, according to the transcript.

Instead of immediately burying the body, Knoefler took it to a junkyard on his property and put it in a refrigerator. About a month later he wrapped the body in a tarp, put it in a black garbage bag and buried it in the grave his son had dug.

Hobbs had four children by four different men, not including Knoefler. On Monday, one of the children, Brandon Wilder, read his statement to the court. After his mother disappeared, he said, he repeatedly asked Knoefler where she was. Knoefler said he didn't know, Wilder said.

"I'll never forgive you," Wilder told Knoefler. "I don't want to hear any apology from you for what you did."

Instead of apologizing, Knoefler interrupted Wilder, saying Hobbs was responsible for what happened. A bailiff quickly silenced him.

His mother, Wilder said, was far from perfect "but she did the best thing by giving us up."

Two of Hobbs' older sisters declined comment as they left the courtroom. One said previously that Wilder and the other three children all ended up in the custody of their biological fathers.

It will be 16 years before Knoefler, who weighs 447 pounds and has multiple health problems, can apply for parole.

"It's two pages long," he told Judge Kathleen O'Connor about his list of ailments.

According to a Yuba County Probation Department report, he once tried to commit suicide with a drug overdose after killing Hobbs.

[**butterflylove**]

[wickedlara]

Kids should be taught to help out around the house I bet dad wishes now that he die "end" the kid after he dug the hole, he could've just dumped him in with her and he would still be free

[denemarsden]

any relation Johnlee???

[kik]

Oh man imagine the stench when he opened the refrigerator after a few months of her rotting in there.....no wonder the fuckers sick LOL.

[Cumulonimbus]

Piece of shit.

[maddy]

He must not be in to bad of health to beat the shit out of her like that.

[johnleeknoefler]

Originally Posted by denemarsden ↗

any relation Johnlee???

He's adopted. Was pampered all his life and never worked one day in his life. A complete welfare bum. I knew he was violent. He talked alot about killing people. I thought he was just ranting and delusional. Never thought he would actually do something like that. But ya, I knew him. My great uncle adopted him. And the son is also a delusional violent SOB. I saw him knock out his little sisters tooth during her birthday party. For now reason. Except maybe the cake had too much frosting for his metabolism.
Imagine what it's like living in that neighborhood with a psycho like that next door. Both dad and son. And I was listening to them argue outside several times a week. You could hear the screaming coming straight up that hill.

[SnowBun]

This is very interesting info, etc., but shouldn't it be in 'not' the death pictures threads?

[johnleeknoefler]

Originally Posted by wickedlara ↗

Kids should be taught to help out around the house I bet dad wishes now that he die "end" the kid after he dug the hole, he could've just dumped him in with her and he would still be free

"Help out around the house"? Once when Steve was trying to get custody of his youngest son he begged me to come help him make his place presentable for Social Services. I helped make an extra room for him. I cleaned up his yard and took away months of trash to the dump. I literally spent several days helping this lazy bum.
He would fake some illness and sit inside while I "enabled" him. It took me awhile to realize he wasn't sick at all. Just lazy. He begged me late summer one year to get him firewood because he had injured his back and couldn't do it. I suspected more gold bricking but he did have an injury he showed me. So I took his boy, (the same one that dug the grave) and told the boy that I would cut the wood but the boy must load and unload it. He loaded about 1/4 a cord and couldn't do any more. That's at 14 yrs old. It was shocking to see how weak the kid was. Next year Steve stole almost all my Grandmothers firewood. The police refused to help. I went out and cut Grandma some more wood of course.
Now Steve's friends are saying that he protected his son Steve Jr. who did the actual killing. That was why he forced little Steve to dig the grave.
Could be I suppose. The son was also very violent. It's just a sick sick sick family.
I arrived one afternoon with some food for his kids and saw little Steven out in the side yard molesting his little sister. Of course I told Steve when he answered the door. I told CPS about it as well but nothing came of it as far as I know.
At the little girls birthday party Steve Jr. for no reason busted out his little sisters tooth and then claimed it was an accident. I guess murdering his mother with a dumbell might of been an accident as well.
When Steve Sr. was a teenager he shot another kid seven times with a rifle. The kid lived. Steve claimed it was an accident and he only meant to scare the other kid. He accidently "missed" and hit him seven times. Steve Sr. is accident prone.
Every family has the crazy cousin or pervert relative no one wants to talk about. My family goes to the adoption services and adopts psychos. I guess it must be their "Christian" duty.
Any way I posted this crap before someone figures out the connection. I do post and blog under my real name after all. My FULL name. There is another John Wayne Knoefler who lives under that ASSUMED name. And still another John Knoefler/Brendlinger who is quadraplegic comotose and has been since he got drunk and did a head on with his adoptee father on the road. John Wayne Knoefler(Now Freeman) killed Renaldo Sylvester during an altercation on the mans front lawn in 1978. I think I am going to change my name now.