Katherine Knight’s story reads like the plot of a horror film.
Knight, the first woman in Australian history to be sentenced to life in prison, was arrested in 2001 after police discovered her unconscious alongside her murdered husband, John Price, whom she had brutally stabbed to death before skinning him alive with the intention of serving his remains in a stew to his two children.
Knight has been dubbed “Australia’s Hannibal Lecter,” according to the Australian Broadcasting Company and news.com.au.
PEOPLE is reflecting on the horrific 2001 murder case and the warning signs that investigators say preceded Price’s gruesome death, all of which were documented in journalist Peter Lalor’s book Blood Stains a year later.
Warning Signs from Knight’s Past
Prior to the murder, Knight had a reputation in her Aberdeen, New South Wales, community as “a very proficient meatworker,” neighbor Rick Banyard told ABC on the 20th anniversary of the murder.
But Knight also had a short fuse, according to former detective Luke Taylor, who told news.com.au that she had a “violent” personality that stemmed “from an abusive childhood.”
According to the outlet, Knight claimed she was sexually abused by various men in her family throughout her childhood, which resulted in a string of troubled relationships with men throughout her adulthood. “There were so many warning signs yet none were heeded,” Taylor told the audience.
Lalor’s book on Knight examines some of these incidents: Her childhood classmates remembered her as a bully who once beat up a boy. She attempted to strangle her first husband, David Kellett, on their wedding night, and then fractured his skull with a frying pan during a domestic dispute. She has also killed another partner’s dog and stabbed him with scissors.
“She was a horror movie in the making,” Taylor, the former detective, admitted.
Price’s Murder
Barnyard told ABC that neighbors and coworkers thought Knight and Price’s relationship was “normal.” “I think, basically, nobody sort of expected any significant drama at all, let alone the crime that became recorded as one of the worst pieces of history in Australia,” he recalled.
However, Knight was abusive and once stabbed Price during an argument, resulting in Price receiving a restraining order against her. However, the couple briefly reconciled, according to the outlet.
After another heated argument at home, Price reportedly told coworkers that if he did not show up for work the next day, they should call the cops and come look for him.
Neighbors called police the next morning, March 1, 2000, after becoming concerned about blood stains on the couple’s front door. According to news.com.au, when police arrived, they discovered Price’s body mutilated inside the home and Knight passed out nearby.
“When I arrived at the scene, Katherine was leaving in an ambulance. She had taken a few pills. “Not enough to kill her, but they made her sleepy,” former Sergeant Robert Wells told the outlet earlier in 2025, 25 years after the heinous killing.
“When I walked inside, I noticed the human skin pelt hanging up, completely intact in one piece.” John Price’s decapitated and skinned body lay on the floor in the lounge room. We found his head, which had been boiled and cooked in a pot on the stove.
There were several slices of rump taken from his human rump, baked in the oven with some vegetables, and served on plates with the names of two of his children on them.”
Knight was sentenced to life in prison without parole in 2001 and lost his appeal in 2006, according to The Guardian.
“The last minutes of [Price’s] life must have been a time of abject terror for him, as they were a time of utter enjoyment for her,” Supreme Court Justice Barry O’Keefe said during Knight’s sentencing, according to the newspaper. He was stabbed 37 times before Knight started chopping up his body.
Knight is the first woman in Australian history to be sentenced to life without parole. She is still in custody at Silverwater Women’s Correctional Centre.
If you are experiencing domestic violence, contact the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 or visit thehotline.org. All calls are toll-free and confidential. The hotline is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week in over 170 languages.