[4][5] Knott's killer, Craig Alan Peyer (born March 16, 1950),[6] was a police officer and thirteen-year veteran of the California Highway Patrol (CHP).

At his trial, it was revealed that Peyer had been targeting women along the interstate and had made predatory sexual advances on multiple female drivers during traffic stops.

On the night of December 27, 1986, twenty-year-old Cara Knott was driving south on Interstate 15 from her boyfriend's home in Escondido, California, to her parents' home in El Cajon when Craig Peyer, who was on duty in a marked California Highway Patrol (CHP) vehicle, directed Knott to pull off the freeway on an isolated, unfinished offramp.

Coincidentally, two days later, while covering the investigation of the murder, a reporter with San Diego station KCST-TV interviewed Peyer during a ride-along segment about self-protection for female drivers.

At the time of the interview, Peyer had scratches on his face which, as details of the case unfolded, were thought to have been inflicted by Knott during the struggle with him.

[9] A distinctive and unusual gold rayon fiber—found to have been made using a yellow pigment instead of a dye—found on Knott's dress matched a shoulder patch Peyer wore on his CHP uniform.

At an initial parole hearing in 2004 after having served 17 years, when asked why he wouldn't provide a DNA sample, Peyer refused to answer.

[citation needed] Shortly after the trial, a wave of incidents was reported when female drivers traveling alone refused to stop when ordered to by the police.

At the time of his second parole hearing in 2008, he had "a nearly unblemished prison record" and "worked as an electrician at the facility"[16] for years, making $52 per month in salary from the job in 2003.