After stabbing her boyfriend 37 times with a butcher knife, Katherine Knight skinned John Price’s lifeless body and hung him from a meat hook

After stabbing her boyfriend 37 times with a butcher knife, Katherine Knight skinned John Price’s lifeless body and hung him from a meat hook. She then cut him apart and turned him into a stew with pumpkin, beets, and zucchini. When the police arrived on the scene, they realized in horror that she had possibly served his corpse to his dog and his own children. 

Katherine Mary Knight (born 24 October 1955) is an Australian murderer and the first woman in the country's history to be sentenced to life imprisonment without parole. She was convicted for the murder of her partner, John Charles Thomas Price, in February 2000, and is currently imprisoned at the Silverwater Women's Correctional Centre in New South Wales. Knight stabbed Price to death, skinned him, and then put his skin on a meat hook. She then cooked his head and parts of his body with the intention of feeding them to Price's children but was stopped by police.

In February 2000, a series of assaults on Price culminated with Knight stabbing him in the chest. Finally fed up, he kicked her out of his house. On 29 February, he stopped at the Scone Magistrate's Court on his way to work and took out a restraining order in an attempt to keep her away from both himself and his children. That afternoon, Price told his co-workers that if he did not come to work the next day, it would be because Knight had murdered him. Despite their pleas that Price should not return home, he stated that he was afraid Knight would kill his children if he did not.[citation needed] Price arrived home to find that Knight, although not there herself, had sent the children away for a sleep-over at a friend's house. He then spent the evening with his neighbours before returning home and going to bed at 11 pm. Earlier that day, Knight had bought new black lingerie and had videotaped all her children while making comments which have since been interpreted as a crude will. She later arrived at Price's house while he was sleeping and sat watching television for a few minutes before having a shower. She then woke Price and they had sex, after which he fell asleep.[citation needed]

At 6 am the next day, a neighbour became concerned that Price's car was still in the driveway, and when he did not arrive at work, his employer sent a worker to see what was wrong. Both the neighbour and the worker tried knocking on Price's bedroom window to wake him, but they alerted police after noticing blood on the front door. Breaking down the back door, police found Price's body, with Knight comatose from taking a large number of pills. She had stabbed Price with a butcher's knife while he was sleeping. According to the blood evidence, he awoke and tried to turn the light on before attempting to escape while Knight chased him through the house. He managed to open the front door and get outside, but he either stumbled back inside or was dragged back into the hallway, where he finally died after bleeding out. Later, Knight went into Aberdeen and withdrew $1,000 from Price's account at an ATM. Price's autopsy revealed that he had been stabbed at least 37 times, in both the front and back of his body, with many of the wounds extending into vital organs.[citation needed]

Several hours after Price had died, Knight skinned him and hung the skin from a meat hook on the architrave of a door to the lounge room.[6] She then decapitated Price and cooked parts of his body, serving up the meat with baked potato, pumpkin, beetroot, zucchine, cabbage, yellow squash and gravy in two settings at the dinner table, along with notes beside each plate, each having the name of one of Price's children on it. She was preparing to serve his body parts to his children.

A third meal was thrown on the back lawn for unknown reasons, and it is speculated that Knight had attempted to eat it but could not. This has been put forward in support of her claim that she has no memory of the crime. Price's head was found in a pot with vegetables. The pot was still warm, estimated to be at between 40 and 50 °C (104 and 122 °F), indicating that the cooking had taken place in the early morning. Sometime later, Knight arranged the body with the left arm draped over an empty 1.25-litre soft drink bottle with the legs crossed. This was claimed in court to be an act of defilement demonstrating Knight's contempt for Price. Knight had left a handwritten note on top of a photograph of Price. Bloodstained and covered with small pieces of flesh, it read:

Time got you back Johathon for rapping [raping] my douter [daughter]. You to Beck [Price's daughter] for Ross – for Little John [his son]. Now play with little Johns dick John Price.