Read Online Whatever Mother Says... by Wensley Clarkson - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Wensley Clarkson
Ads: Link
sister?”
Detective Johnnie Smith had a hunch that Theresa Knorr might know something about her sister’s killing, so he called at the house just off Auburn Boulevard, in mid-December 1983.
The detective suspected there might have been some sort of relationship between Rosemary’s husband and Theresa because he had been spending a lot of time at the house.
Smith did not notice anything wrong inside that house when he sat down in the living room to interview Theresa Knorr. He saw all the children, except Suesan. And Theresa Knorr even struck him as a caring mother.
Theresa was charming to the visiting policeman. She told Smith a sob story about how her sister considered her the black sheep of the family because she had been married so many times. Smith never once heard Suesan Knorr whimpering, and he certainly had no idea she may have been manacled to a table in the kitchen while he was in the house.
The only thing that stuck in the detective’s mind was that Theresa Knorr looked very strange at the time, with her black, greasy hair down to her waist and very overweight. But he also noted the children were coming and going in a relaxed manner.
“I have thought about this so many times since,” he said ten years later. “I thought about whether there was something I should have detected. Was there some problem? But I was there on an entirely different matter.”
Smith left the house that day none the wiser as far as his investigation into the murder of Rosemary Norris was concerned. Theresa Knorr had tactfully answered all his questions, but provided him with no fresh clues as to the identity of the killer.
* * *
Three months later, in mid-March 1984, two men sitting in their four-door sedan did not even merit a glance in the busy roadway that led to the apartment block attached to the house, just off Auburn Boulevard.
They watched four of the Knorr children coming and going without even questioning the fact that one daughter never seemed to emerge from the house. But then that was not the purpose of the Placer County Sheriff’s Department surveillance operation.
Their job was to observe the movements of Floyd Norris Jr. following his wife’s mysterious death. It was a last ditch effort to try and pin the murder on the husband. They were still intrigued by his continual visits to his sister-in-law’s home. Perhaps they were having an affair, as police had suspected months earlier? Or maybe they were involved in some business scheme or other? Whatever the reasons behind Norris’s trips to Auburn Boulevard, Detective Johnnie Smith wanted some answers, and since Floyd was not talking, a watching and waiting game was their only option.
For more than three days Smith and his partner observed Floyd’s movements, completely unaware of the fear and injury being inflicted by Theresa Knorr on her children inside that very house. As it happened, antique dealer and furniture restorer Norris was reupholstering some chairs for his sister-in-law, and that seems to have been the only motive behind his regular visits. Unknown to everyone at the time, Theresa Knorr had had another falling out with her sister just a few weeks before her murder, following a row concerning some money Rosemary loaned to her sister. But Theresa was and never has been a suspect in the death of Rosemary Norris.
Detective Smith later conceded that Floyd Norris had been a suspect, but detectives never uncovered any evidence that would pin it on him.
Floyd Norris moved to Reno sometime after his wife’s death, and police have completely lost track of him.
Six
Whoever strikes his father or mother shall be put to death.
Exodus 21:15
Whoever curses his father or mother shall be put to death.
Exodus 21:17
With the arrival of spring, life inside that small house off Auburn Boulevard continued to go from bad to worse for Theresa Knorr’s daughters.
Terry remembers that by this time her mother was convinced that not only had Suesan
Detective Johnnie Smith had a hunch that Theresa Knorr might know something about her sister’s killing, so he called at the house just off Auburn Boulevard, in mid-December 1983.
The detective suspected there might have been some sort of relationship between Rosemary’s husband and Theresa because he had been spending a lot of time at the house.
Smith did not notice anything wrong inside that house when he sat down in the living room to interview Theresa Knorr. He saw all the children, except Suesan. And Theresa Knorr even struck him as a caring mother.
Theresa was charming to the visiting policeman. She told Smith a sob story about how her sister considered her the black sheep of the family because she had been married so many times. Smith never once heard Suesan Knorr whimpering, and he certainly had no idea she may have been manacled to a table in the kitchen while he was in the house.
The only thing that stuck in the detective’s mind was that Theresa Knorr looked very strange at the time, with her black, greasy hair down to her waist and very overweight. But he also noted the children were coming and going in a relaxed manner.
“I have thought about this so many times since,” he said ten years later. “I thought about whether there was something I should have detected. Was there some problem? But I was there on an entirely different matter.”
Smith left the house that day none the wiser as far as his investigation into the murder of Rosemary Norris was concerned. Theresa Knorr had tactfully answered all his questions, but provided him with no fresh clues as to the identity of the killer.
* * *
Three months later, in mid-March 1984, two men sitting in their four-door sedan did not even merit a glance in the busy roadway that led to the apartment block attached to the house, just off Auburn Boulevard.
They watched four of the Knorr children coming and going without even questioning the fact that one daughter never seemed to emerge from the house. But then that was not the purpose of the Placer County Sheriff’s Department surveillance operation.
Their job was to observe the movements of Floyd Norris Jr. following his wife’s mysterious death. It was a last ditch effort to try and pin the murder on the husband. They were still intrigued by his continual visits to his sister-in-law’s home. Perhaps they were having an affair, as police had suspected months earlier? Or maybe they were involved in some business scheme or other? Whatever the reasons behind Norris’s trips to Auburn Boulevard, Detective Johnnie Smith wanted some answers, and since Floyd was not talking, a watching and waiting game was their only option.
For more than three days Smith and his partner observed Floyd’s movements, completely unaware of the fear and injury being inflicted by Theresa Knorr on her children inside that very house. As it happened, antique dealer and furniture restorer Norris was reupholstering some chairs for his sister-in-law, and that seems to have been the only motive behind his regular visits. Unknown to everyone at the time, Theresa Knorr had had another falling out with her sister just a few weeks before her murder, following a row concerning some money Rosemary loaned to her sister. But Theresa was and never has been a suspect in the death of Rosemary Norris.
Detective Smith later conceded that Floyd Norris had been a suspect, but detectives never uncovered any evidence that would pin it on him.
Floyd Norris moved to Reno sometime after his wife’s death, and police have completely lost track of him.
Six
Whoever strikes his father or mother shall be put to death.
Exodus 21:15
Whoever curses his father or mother shall be put to death.
Exodus 21:17
With the arrival of spring, life inside that small house off Auburn Boulevard continued to go from bad to worse for Theresa Knorr’s daughters.
Terry remembers that by this time her mother was convinced that not only had Suesan
Similar Books
