The Cara Knott Case: Lured To Her Death By A Trusted Officer

Pulling over for an officer may be respectable instinct, but this case will have you second guessing about that.

[San Diego, California]

Cara Knott (20) was a vivacious young woman with golden blonde, voluminous hair and a bright smile. Her on-the-go personality led her to spending her free time helping animals and working at the zoo — a job many other people would be too nervous to do. Adding onto to her quest for a fulfilling life, she attended college at San Diego State University with the hopes of becoming a warm and welcoming elementary school teacher.

Anyone who knew Cara would have said her personality was the perfect fit to guide young minds. In fact, one of her biggest fans in life was her boyfriend, Wayne Bautista. Not only were the two a good-looking duo combined, but their love for each other was genuine and obvious to those around them. Therefore, when Wayne fell ill with the flu, Cara decided to drive 35 minutes from San Diego to Escondido, to care for him.

On December 27th, 1986, Cara asked her mother about typical medical advice before hopping in her car and taking the route to Wayne’s home. In typical Cara form, she wanted to offer Wayne the best possible care, but hadn’t been in a caregiver position before. She managed to safely arrive at Wayne’s and spend some quality time with him before calling her dad at around 8:00pm to say she would be home soon. However, several suspicious hours passed with no sign of Cara.

Her father, Sam, later explained that he felt a “call to his soul” that the situation was much darker than her simply being late. Without hesitation, he ventured off into his vehicle and started his own search for his daughter. Cara’s mother, Joyce, began her part of the search in the phone books shuffling through numbers to different hospitals and police agencies.

The following day, her father continuously drove through town in an attempt to find her vehicle — this time with police by his side. During one point in his search, he chose to cruise down a dark, abandoned, dead end road called Mercy Rd. There, at the end of that road, they alarmingly found Cara’s white Volkswagen Beetle. Her…