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Sabrina Zunich, The Girl Who Stabbed Her Foster Mother 178 Times
She later testified against the victim’s husband.
On November 16th, 2012, Megan was awoken by her mother’s screams. She found her foster sister, Sabrina Zunich, stabbing and slashing her mother, Lisa Knoefel. 13-year-old Megan was not able to stop her 19-year-old sister but she did dialed 911 where she frantically pleaded the operator to send help as she begged her sister to stop.
When police dispatch arrived, he found Sabrina Zunich covered in blood with a 12-inch knife in her hand and Lisa Knoefel had passed away. He also found 3-year-old Hayley Knoefel, the biological daughter of Lisa Knoefel and Kevin Knoefel, hiding in the closet where her mother was brutally killed in the very same room.
Sabrina Zunich was abandoned by her biological parents, Mark Zunich and Susan Edwards, because the unmarried couple had troubles with the law that included grand theft and drug abuse. Sabrina was then taken under the wings of her grandmother but was sent away because she was unruly. Finally, she was adopted by Lisa Knoefel, a social worker who mainly worked in the sex abuse department. Both Lisa Knoefel and Kevin Knoefel were divorced and had children from their previous marriage. The girl who called 911, Megan, was a child from Lisa’s previous marriage.
According to Sabrina’s grandmother’s testimony in the trial, Sabrina Zunich had plans to model or enroll in a cosmetology school. Sabrina’s assistant principal said,
“She was never in trouble, not once. She was never even tardy. She had never missed a day or was even tardy up to that point, she had perfect attendance.”
During the investigation, the coroners counted 178 stab and slash wounds on Lisa Knoefel. Despite Sabrina saying that she did not remember anything of the murder, she was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
When Kevin Knoefel, a truck driver, returned to town, he showed a lack of remorse. Soon, he cashed out his wife’s large life insurance…
