She was on her way home to her parents place in El Cajon, from Escondido
The unexplained killing set residents of San Diego County on edge. In response, a local news station filmed a ride-along segment with a California Highway Patrol officer Craig Peyer, who offered safety tips for stranded motorists days later on a local TV news segment. The scratches she left on Peyer’s face were seen by thousands of unwitting viewers.
After the news segment aired, dozens of young women called the police, all reporting unnerving encounters they had with Peyer in traffic stops that summer and fall. Not only did many of the callers resemble Knott in appearance and age, but they drove small cars. Seven of the women stopped were driving Volkswagen Beetles, the same model as Knott’s car.
The women said Peyer, then 36, had stopped them at night, often for trivial offenses, and directed them to exit the freeway at Mercy Road — even if it meant reversing on the freeway against traffic to do so — and drive to the bottom of the secluded, unlit off-ramp. There, Peyer detained them for as long as 90 minutes, chatting and asking them personal questions before letting them resume their drive. By comparison, when Peyer stopped men, those stops occurred in more visible areas, and they lasted less than 10 minutes.
Peyer was arrested 2 weeks later
Peyer was later convicted in the case and is serving a 25 years-to-life sentence in prison. In 2000, Cara's father, Sam, died of a heart attack, just a few yards from the exact place where his daughter was killed, while taking care of a garden the family built to honor Cara.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/cara-knott-craig-peyer-murder-san-diego_n_65837f5ce4b04da98425aa68
Her murder resulted in the change in eliminating the 48 hour waiting period to file a missing person’s report if you were 18 or older
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