Killer Woman
Theresa was charged in the torture slayings of her two daughters and arraigned in a Salt Lake City courtroom on November 15, 1993. Theresa pleaded not guilty and was remanded to the Sacramento County Jail. That same day, Judge Couzens ordered William Robert Knorr prosecuted as an adult.
Rather than spend the day with her and the baby, Clifford went out drinking with his friends. Later that evening, he strolled in drunk and Theresa boiled over. She berated him for neglecting his family and wasting their much-needed money on booze.
Knorr primarily focused her anger and abuse on Terry's older sisters, Suesan and Sheila. Theresa eventually got the idea in her head that Chester Harris had turned her daughter Suesan into a witch. It's not known where the wild idea first came from, but Suesan began taking advantage of it and would use it against her mother. She would regularly say that Harris was going to initiate her into his cult by deflowering her in the name of Satan. The stories did not serve to spare Suesan any abuse and she began suffering the worst of Theresa's blows.
She, however, soon accused Sheilah of becoming pregnant as well as catching an STI which she said she has contracted from their home toilet seat. Theresa however, first got rid of her second daughter, Suesan in the most bizarre manner. Among the numerous incredible accusations she heaped upon Suesan was that her last husband, Chester turned her into a witch and that she is using her witchcraft to make her gain weight.
Swannie Cross had a son and a daughter from a previous marriage. Jim Cross worked as an assistant cheese maker at a local dairy. He eventually saved up enough money to buy a house in Rio Linda, California. In the late 1950s he was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease which forced him to quit his job. He developed depression and reportedly took his frustrations and anger out on his family. Theresa was reportedly very close to her mother and was devastated when she died of congestive heart failure in March 1961.
Theresa and Robert Knorr's marriage began to deteriorate after Theresa began accusing her husband of having affairs. Fed up with Theresa's constant accusations, Knorr left her in June 1969 and was granted a divorce in 1970. After the divorce, Robert Knorr attempted to see his children but Theresa prevented him from doing so.
He received a sentence of three years that will run concurrently with his murder sentence of 1991. William was placed on probation and ordered to undergo therapy. The much-divorced Theresa started to drink even more, gained weight, and became severely short-tempered and abusive towards her children. Not satisfied with mentally torturing her children, she started physically punishing them too.
She coerced Robert and Bill into helping her dispose of Suesan. They drove her to Sierra Nevada, Interstate 80 outside Truckee, laid her down, poured gasoline on her and burned her alive. After escaping from her mother, Terry Knorr attempted to report her sisters' murders to the Utah police but they dismissed her stories as fiction as did a therapist she visited. In 1992, inspired by an episode of ‘America's Most Wanted’, Terry contacted the Nevada County Sheriff’s office and informed them of Suesan’s and Sheila’s theresa knorr murder.