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Toronto Sun
12-07-2025
- Toronto Sun
CRIME HUNTER: Did teen temptress' sex trysts with foster dad lead to murder?
Get the latest from Brad Hunter straight to your inbox TEEN TEMPTRESS: Did Sabrina Zunich murder her foster mother. OXYGEN/ SCREENGRAB The teenage girl was undoubtedly troubled. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Don't have an account? Create Account But she was getting good grades in high school, always the benchmark for many parents. Still, to Lisa Knoefel, 41, a social worker in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, something unnerving was happening in her home. Sabrina Zunich, 17, was the product of a dope-fueled relationship between her junkie parents. She was born in Cleveland but raised by her grandmother. Zunich was diagnosed with ADHD when she was four years old and also suffered from oppositional defiant disorder, anxiety, depression, and bipolar disorder. Sabrina Zunich was doing well in school. WHPD High school was one fight after another, punctuated by trips to group homes and multiple foster homes. When she was 16, Zunich was placed in the home of Kevin and Lisa Knoefel, in suburban Willoughby Hills. She was a social worker, and he was a truck driver. Lisa had a daughter, Megan, from her first marriage and the couple had another toddler daughter, Hailey, together. Your noon-hour look at what's happening in Toronto and beyond. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Please try again This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Zunich fit in well and became an older sister to the girls. But by December 2011, trouble was brewing in the home. Mostly between Lisa and the teenager. Sabrina turned to Kevin. 'They were too friendly. They were too close. They would make sexual jokes towards each other,' Zunich's friend Autumn Pavlik told Oxygen . FOSTER MOM: Lisa Knoefel, 41, a social worker in Cuyahoga County, Ohio. WHPD In the spring of 2012, their relationship shifted to overdrive. It started with the teen rubbing her foster father's inner thighs, quickly moving to touching his genitals and masturbating him. By that summer, oral and vaginal sex were added to the menu. Lisa and Kevin's marriage was falling apart. Kevin told pals a divorce might be on the horizon. 'She [Sabrina] asked me if I was able to get her a hit man,' Pavlik later said. 'She said that they [Kevin and Lisa] were going to get a divorce, and she was worth more dead than alive.' This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. And the cowardly lothario had a plan. Lisa had $1.1 million in life insurance policies. With that kind of dough, the teen and the creep could build a new life together with Hailey. Kevin even dared to ask a social worker if Sabrina could stay with him if he divorced his wife. Grisly crime scene. WHPD By October, when Sabrina turned 18, Lisa had become deeply suspicious of her husband and the teen temptress. Sabrina later bluntly said, 'She wanted me out.' The sordid situation was building to a climax. On Nov. 15, 2012, Kevin drove Sabrina to school as always. The teen and her groomer had sex nearly every day during these jaunts. But on this morning, he began crying and claimed he had a horrendous fight with his wife, and he would commit suicide if she didn't die. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. 'I was scared for him because I had fallen in love with him,' Zunich later said, adding she told her paramour that she would kill Lisa. MANIPULATIVE LOTHARIO: Kevin Knoefel would have sex with his foster daughter every morning on the way to school. WHPD And on Nov. 16, 2012, the temperamental teen did just that. Cops received a call from Megan, 13, saying her sister was stabbing their mother. Officers found Sabrina, soaked in blood and holding a 15-inch knife in her hand. Lisa Knoefel was dead in the master bedroom. An autopsy revealed she had been stabbed 178 times in the head, neck, torso, and extremities. The assault had been so violent, the knife had bent, and Sabrina herself had been injured in the attack. Sabrina refused to answer questions from detectives. Kevin was on the road and police notified him of the horrific tragedy. But to keen-eyed detectives, he seemed calm and emotionless. He was curious about the savage attack. He also tried to visit Sabrina in the slammer and was furious when his request was denied. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. LITTLE GIRL LOST: Tragic Sabrina Zunich. WHPD The months passed, and Kevin got his big insurance payout. He paid off the house, bought new cars and a pad in Florida while Sabrina rotted in the county jail. In August 2013, she flipped and spilled her guts to homicide detectives. Kevin Knoefel had groomed the teen for sex, then for murder. After tutoring the teen on which knife to use and how to make it look like a robbery, he made sure he was nowhere near the crime scene when the slaughter took place. Cops quickly indicted Kevin and charged him with conspiracy to commit aggravated murder and complicity to aggravated murder as well as six counts of sexual battery. The prosecution's star witness would be Sabrina Zunich, Kevin Knoefel went on trial in May 2014, and a jury found him guilty on all 11 counts. He was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole in 30 years. He will be 73 years old. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Read More Sabrina pleaded guilty to aggravated murder that August. 'The gruesome, shocking, revolting nature of this crime ranks among the worst I have ever seen in my many years on this bench,' Judge Richard Collins Jr. said in a video taken by WKYC-TV . She was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 30 years. Zunich will be first eligible for parole in 2042, when she will be 47. Wiping tears from her eyes, Zunich apologized for her actions, saying that her foster mom 'did not deserve what happened to her.' Now, it's time for a break. See you in a few weeks. bhunter@ @HunterTOSun Columnists World Relationships Editorial Cartoons Toronto & GTA
Yahoo
19-05-2025
- Yahoo
Winter Haven teen arrested for robbery during Facebook Marketplace meet-up
WINTER HAVEN, Fla. (WFLA)—A teen was arrested for armed robbery after he stole a key fob programming device during a Facebook Marketplace transaction, the Winter Haven Police Department announced. On May 6, around 7:25 p.m., the victim met with the 17-year-old on Fuji Court in Winter Haven to sell an AUTEL key fob programming device that he used for his locksmith business. The victim opened the trunk of his car to get the time and was taking it out of the case when the suspect asked how to pay, police said. Lakeland leaders consider school speed zone enforcement cameras Winter Haven teen arrested for robbery during Facebook Marketplace meet-up Man arrested for drunk driving with child in car on I-4: FHP The teen suggested CashApp, and the victim, who had his back to the teen, called his girlfriend to get the information for her CashApp account. The teen then grabbed the machine from the victim and began running through yards in the neighborhood. Police said the victim chased the teen and grabbed his hoodie pocket before the teen crashed through a plastic fence gate. The teen then got up and hit the victim before continuing to run until the victim could no longer keep up. Officers were called back to the home where the teen crashed through the fence on May 7, because the homeowner located a magazine for a firearm in the yard on the front side of the gate, WHPD said. On May 9, the same homeowner called police to report that when they were taking out the garbage from behind the gate to the curb, a Ruger 9mm pistol was found. This firearm was reported stolen from a vehicle on April 9, 2025. Video from the date of the robbery was obtained by police on May 14 and showed the teen walking from the Gotthard Pass area to Seedorf Drive, where he got into a blue Mercedes-Benz SUV driven by his mother. Detectives contacted the teen's parents, who identified him in the video, and his mother stated she got a call from him asking her to pick him up. His mother told detectives she could tell something was wrong, but the teen would not say what it was. Video taken from the teen's home showed him exiting the vehicle just after officers passed the location during the initial response to the robbery, WHPD said. The teen was questioned, and he told them he took the item from the victim and sold it to someone in Winter Haven. The teen was taken into custody on May 14 and charged with robbery with a firearm, dealing in stolen property, and violation of probation from another county for three separate cases in 2023, police said. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
06-03-2025
- Yahoo
Winter Haven PD releases bodycam video after photo of child with hands behind back circulates on social media
The Brief Winter Haven police addressed an incident involving a small child while officers worked to detain two people on Tuesday. The child's mother was ordered to get on the ground, which is when the child mimicked her actions. Winter Haven police said they detained the woman, and immediately calmed the child down, saying the officer's gun was never pointed at the child. WINTER HAVEN, Fla. - The Winter Haven Police Department is addressing an incident that happened Tuesday afternoon involving a small child while officers worked to detain two people. The backstory Officials said Winter Haven police officers were dispatched to Santiago's, which is located at 898 Havendale Boulevard, for a disturbance involving a gun. The police department said the 29-year-old seen with the gun got into an altercation with a store employee in the parking lot, but the 29-year-old man ultimately left the property heading south on Hwy 17. READ: Florida man accused of taking out 'man bits' in back of Lyft ride from Walmart to mobile home park: PCSO A "be on the lookout" (BOLO) was issued after the disturbance for a red Nissan Altima with the 29-year-old as the driver and a woman and small child as the passengers. Officers said they found the vehicle at the American Legion, located at 300 Avenue M NW in Winter Haven. Dig deeper The 29-year-old man and the woman and child had gotten out of the vehicle, and the man was found inside the building where he was quickly apprehended by officers. The 27-year-old woman, who was a passenger in the vehicle, was also directed to get on the ground, and she immediately complied with their orders. However, her young child mimicked her actions, which sparked outrage on social media from community members. Follow FOX 13 on YouTube The 27-year-old woman was quickly detained by officers, and WHPD said they immediately calmed and cared for the young child. A diamondback 9mm semiautomatic pistol was found inside the vehicle by officers. What they're saying In a press release sent out Wednesday afternoon, WHPD officials stood behind the officers' actions, saying that they "responded with an appropriate level of caution with the understanding there was a weapon involved seeking to resolve the situation." Authorities said the officer approaching the 27-year-old woman immediately pointed his gun toward the ground when he saw the child. WHPD said the officer's gun was never pointed at the child. MORE: 33 arrested as Hillsborough deputies dismantle drug-trafficking ring run with smuggled prison cell phone: HCSO The department notified the Department of Children and Families of the incident, because "it was a violent crime committed in the presence of a child." However, both the man and woman were released by police, along with they child, because the store employee didn't press charges. The 29-year-old man, 27-year-old woman and the store employee were not identified by FOX 13, because they were not charged with any crime related to the incident. What's next Officials said that a complaint affidavit was filed with the State Attorney's Office for the 29-year-old man for affray, which means fighting in a public setting, and improper display of a weapon. A complaint affidavit was also filed for the store employee for affray. Winter Haven Police Chief Vance Monroe, Assistant City Manager for Public Safety Charlie Bird and City Manager T. Michael Stavres are expected to address the incident at 10 a.m. on Thursday. The Source The information in this story was released by the Winter Haven Police Department. WATCH FOX 13 NEWS: STAY CONNECTED WITH FOX 13 TAMPA: Download the FOX Local app for your smart TV Download FOX Local mobile app:Apple |Android Download the FOX 13 News app for breaking news alerts, latest headlines Download the SkyTower Radar app Sign up for FOX 13's daily newsletter
