Ep. 24: Shelly Dear - Part 1

To those in the small town of Raymond, WA, Shelly Knotek was a loving mother of three girls who opened her home to those who needed it the most. To those that lived with her, she was a monster. 

Transcript

Hi, and welcome back to crime on the Clark Fork. The true crime podcast, where I tell you about big crimes that happen in small places, with each case having occurred in areas with populations of fifteen thousand or less. My name is Mackenzie Spence and I am your host. I'm excited that February is here and that I am here to share another case with you. Today's case is going to be a two parter because by the time I was done writing this script, it was over twenty pages long. And that's just seems far too long for one podcast episode. Um, so sorry mom. I know you would probably prefer me to read the entire thing and have it in one episode, but we're gonna split it between two episodes here. I did choose this case because I actually just finished listening to the audiobook that covers this case, and that goes way more in depth than I would ever be able to get to on this podcast. So when you're done listening to this episode, or even when you're done listening to this episode and the next episode, I would definitely recommend it to anyone who wants to dig a little bit deeper into this case and to get more firsthand accounts from this case as well. I listened to it on Spotify, but I'm sure you can find it any other place that you listen to. Audiobooks. the title of the book is If You Tell Highly recommend, Absolutely insane. And you will understand once I start into this episode. and with that, I'm not going to delay any further. We will just hop right on in here. The sources for this episode are Wikipedia. Find a grave. City of Raymond. Oxygen. Findlaw.com. The Astorian. KOMO news. Seattle Post-Intelligencer. The Spokesman-Review Murderpedia Chinook Observer. All that's interesting. The Seattle Times short form if you tell the Daily Mail and The Sun UK. Raymond, Washington nineteen eighty eight. Population two thousand nine hundred and one. Raymond, Washington is a small town in North Pacific County, Washington, just two hours southwest of Seattle. The town is known for its access to the outdoors and local waterways, where you can easily get in a kayak or on a paddle board and spend the day on the water or bring your fishing pole and set up and fish for the day. A lot of the town's economy is based on lumber and fish. Just like most other towns in this area of Washington. But for Niki and Sammy, no tech. Raymond Washington was not a place of awe and outdoor adventures. Their little farmhouse that was located on Monaghan Landing Road was a place of nightmares. Their mother, Shelley, was physically and mentally abusive to the girls and their stepfather, David. David was also at Shelley's beck and call. Shelley controlled everything about the girls lives, including when they could shower, when they could use the bathroom, or where they were allowed to sleep at night, which was often out on their front porch locked out of the home. Shelley would oftentimes not let them shower for weeks at a time, and the girls recall that when they would hear their mom leave them alone on the property, they would quickly hop in the shower to clean themselves and then make it look like they hadn't showered at all before their mom arrived back home. Shelley was born on April fifteenth, nineteen fifty four, and grew up in the town of Raymond, Washington. She was the oldest sibling and the only girl of three children. Her and her brothers began growing up with their mother, who was an alcoholic and was pretty mentally ill. She was also known to be a sex worker in the area. When Shelley was six years old, her mother left her and her brothers, so the three went to live with their father, les, and their stepmother, Laura. Shelley hated Laura and would often tell her that she hated her. Shelley tormented her two younger brothers. She would pick fights and blame them for missing homework, and she would even put shards of glass in their shoes and in their boots. So when they would put them on, they would cut up the bottom of their feet. Shelley's mother eventually died when she was thirteen years old, and her mother had been living with someone on Skid Row in LA, and she was beaten to death. But Shelley never asked or cared about what had happened to her mother. When Shelley was fourteen years old, she went to her school and told her school teachers and principal that her father had raped her. She was taken in to the doctor, who performed an examination which found that she had lied about the rape. Laura, her stepmother, later found a book in Shelley's room that had been dog eared. The book's title was True Confessions, and on the front of the book there was a headline in bold font that said I was raped at fifteen by my dad, which is where Shelley got the idea to lie about this. After this lie, Laura and Les brought Shelley to multiple sessions with a psychologist, but Shelley never accepted fault and maintained that she had never done anything wrong. Shelley then moved into Laura's parents home, but this change in scenery did not change her ways. She once again lied about abuse, but this time at the hands of her grandfather. She would also offer to babysit kids in their neighborhood to only barricade them in their rooms once there, once their parents left. Now, normally I don't love covering the childhood of those that commit the crimes that I cover on this podcast, but for this one, I wanted to, because it shows that even from a very young age, Shelley was already a dangerous person to those around her. So if Nikki or Sammy did something that Shelley did not like, she would use cruel and unusual punishment for her daughters, but especially Nikki, her oldest. One of the more common punishments that she would utilize was something that Shelley called wallowing. Wallowing required the girls to get completely naked and roll around outside in the dirt and mud in the middle of the night while their father, David, sprayed them with cold water from the hose and Shelley yelled at them from the sidelines. The treatment would last as long as Shelly saw fit, which could be five minutes or an hour. This would also be frequently coupled with the girls being locked in the chicken coop, or in a dog cage that was full of dog poop. And for the girls, they often had no idea what they were being punished for. But it could have been something as small as making a face that their mother didn't like, or not drying the dishes correctly. At one point, Shelly shoved Nikki, her oldest daughter, through a glass door which left cuts all over her body. She then blamed Nikki for what happened and said, look what you made me do to her young daughter. Generally, after torturing and abusing her children, a flip would switch in Shelly and she would immediately begin to shower them with affection in a way to ensure that she maintained her control over them. Shelley would also spend a lot of money on the girls clothing, um, making sure that the appearance to the outside world was maintained. So they would still be seen as the perfect family in Raymond. In nineteen eighty eight, Shelley's thirteen year old nephew Shane came to live with the family in Raymond, and this was just before Shelley and David's daughter Tori was born. Shane's mother was a drug addict from Alaska, and his father was always on the road in a motorcycle gang, and he was often in and out of prison. Shelley would often shower Shane in words of love, which he did not get from his parents, So when he was invited to live with them, he gratefully accepted. At this time, he had been living with his grandparents, Lester and Diana Watson. But when Shane got the invitation to move in with the no techs, his father agreed to let him go and live with them. At first, Shane was treated really well by Shelly and David, but it didn't take long for him to begin getting the same treatment that Sammy and Nikki often endured. There were multiple times where Shelly would make Nikki and Shane, who were roughly the same age, get naked and slow, dance with each other in the living room while she watched. On other occasions, Shelly would make them strip naked and go to the hill behind their house and just sit there until she said their punishment was over and that they could return into the home. It also didn't matter how cold or hot it was outside. While the two girls had their own rooms in the upstairs portion of the house, Shane lived in the basement near the boiler, and Shelley would often take away his things, including his bed, as a punishment. Another form of punishment and torture that Shelley would use on Shane specifically, was making him rub icy hot on his penis and then leave it there. So Shelley met David in nineteen eighty two, and David claims that Shelley was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. Before this, Shelley had been married twice before and had her two daughters, Niki and Sammy, all before meeting David. The couple were married in nineteen eighty seven, and then in nineteen eighty nine they had their first child together named Tori. This was just after Shane moved into the home. When David and Shelley met. David had recently finished his service with the Navy and he was working construction jobs. It really didn't take long into their marriage before Shelley began verbally and physically abusing David, who was never really able to stand up to her. And since all of this has happened, Sammy has also mentioned to the media that while she loved her stepfather, he was a very weak man who never stood up to Shelly's abuse, both to him or to his stepdaughters. Not long after, Shane moved into the no tech house in nineteen eighty eight, another person moved in. A woman named Kathy Loreno. Kathy was a hairdresser, and in small towns, it's sometimes hard to get clients because a lot of the business that hairdressers in these types of towns get are their friends, or are clients that they have had for a very long time and are very loyal to their hairdressers. Due to this, Kathy had a really hard time making ends meet, especially after she had a falling out with her mother because of her friendship with Shelly. Her mom did not like Shelly. Kathy was also in a new relationship, and her mother also did not like this person that she was dating either. So they had a falling out and Kathy moved out of her mother's house. But in exchange for babysitting and helping with household chores, Kathy agreed to move into the no tech house for free. Room and board. Kathy was known as someone who aimed to please others and was really kind to the children in the home. She was very non-confrontational and a rather quiet woman. At first, Shelly and Kathy got along really well and Shelly would often lovebomb Kathy. But shortly after moving in to the no tech home, the two young girls and Shane began to notice that Kathy seemed like she was being drugged, which they assumed was Shelly's doing because they had been given medication from Shelly that made them feel the same way that Kathy was acting. They came to find out that Shelley would drug Kathy, whether it was with muscle relaxers or tranquilizers or depression medications. They don't know exactly what she was getting, or if it was a mixture of multiple different types of medication, and Shelley was also withholding food. Kathy quickly became hooked on that medication, which further solidified Shelley's hold on her. Now, the children did turn a blind eye to the abuse of Kathy that they were witnessing, because they knew that if they helped Kathy, or if they told on Shelley, they would get in trouble. And Kathy seemed to know this too. If Kathy was the one getting abused, then the kids were more safe from Shelley because she was not paying attention to them. To justify withholding the food. Shelley would often torment Cathy for her weight, stating that she was only trying to help Cathy lose weight and to be healthy. She would even plant food under Cathy's bed, and then convince her that she was sleep walking and eating everything in the house while she was doing it, which is why she wasn't losing weight. Shelley would often take out molded items from the pantry and fridge, blend them together, and then make Cathy drink the concoction, which would be her only source of nutrients that she would get for days at a time. Shelley would also move Cathy from living in the house to the pole barn on the property. She would lock her in the pole barn for days at a time before moving her back into the house, into the basement, or into the laundry room. At one point during this, she gave Kathy a full cup of salt and required her to eat all of it. Over the next six years, Kathy lost over one hundred pounds and also lost most of her teeth. During this time, Shelly took everything that Kathy owned, stating that Kathy wasn't grateful enough for what Shelly was giving her. It went as far as Shelly taking all of Kathy's clothing. Shelly would then require Kathy to work completely naked in her yard, and when again, when she wasn't sleeping in the pool barn, she would sleep in the basement next to the boiler that would leak fuel. If Shelley decided to bring Kathy anywhere with her, Shelley would make her ride in the trunk of the car. Also during those six years, David would help Shelley torture Kathy, and Shelley would also make Shane partake in the torture so he wouldn't be subject to her wrath. Shelley eventually took away Kathy's showering privileges completely, so David and Shelley would waterboard Kathy or duct tape her legs and arm together, as well as putting duct tape over her mouth before pouring pure bleach into her open wounds. The last person to see Kathy alive, aside from the notebooks, was a woman named Carolyn Barnum, who was a long time friend of Kathy. Kathy had run away from the no tech home and made it to Carolyn's home, asking if she could stay with her. Carolyn quickly said of course she could, and Kathy ended up staying there for three days. On that third day, the two went to the Aberdeen Mall together to help Kathy find a job. But unfortunately for Kathy, Shelly found them there. Shelly began yelling and screaming for Kathy to go back home with her, and the two got into a huge argument in the women's restroom, where they stayed for an hour, half an hour before emerging from the bathroom. When they finally came out, Kathy, who was visibly shaken and unwell, told Carolyn that she was just gonna go home with Shelly. In nineteen ninety four. After not hearing from Kathy for some time, and after Shelley had fabricated a lie that Kathy had run away with the truck driver that she fell in love with, Kathy's mother reported her daughter missing. At that time, Kathy was actually still living with the no techs on the property, being constantly abused by Shelley. When Shelley was contacted by police about this missing persons report and Kathy's disappearance, she stuck with her story that Kathy had run away with her new boyfriend to California and had not been in contact with her. After the police were unable to gather any information on where Kathy's was, Kathy's brother hired a private investigator in an attempt to locate her. It didn't take long before the P.I. came back to her brother And told him that he believed Kathy had been killed in the no tech home at the hands of Shelley. Now, unfortunately, this theory was true. Kathy died in nineteen ninety four. By this time, she had lost all of her teeth, had lost most of her hair, was no longer able to walk or talk, was nearly blind, and half of her face drooped as if she had had a stroke. That one day in nineteen ninety four, Shelley brutally beat Kathy to the point of unconsciousness, and then Kathy choked on her own vomit. David was actually at home when Kathy passed away, and he remembers hearing noises coming from their laundry room, which is where he found Kathy choking on her own vomit as her eyes rolled to the back of her head. David attempted to scoop the vomit out of her mouth, and he did perform CPR for about five minutes, but it was too little, too late. After Cathy passed, Shelley took the three girls to a hotel for a couple of nights to get away from the home, but unfortunately during this time David made Shane assist him in burning Cathy's body in their burn pile on the property. When the girls returned home, Shelley made Nikki, Shane, and Sammy dig through the ashes from the burn pile and remove any hard white plastic that was in there and put them in a jar. The children knew that what they were removing was not plastic, but rather the bones of the woman who had been living with them for the past six years. Years later, one of the girls found that jar full of bone fragments in the house, like Shelly was keeping them as a trophy. In February of nineteen ninety five, a few months after Kathy died, Shane told Nikki that he had Polaroid photos of Kathy's wounds that he wanted to bring to the police. Nikki, who was rightfully fearful of her mother and what she would do if she didn't tell her, and she found out that she knew told Shelly about Shane's plans. Shelly found the photographs of Kathy's wounds hidden inside a stuffed teddy bear, which she promptly destroyed, as well as the photos, and beat Shane for having them. Two weeks after that, Shane went missing. Shelley claimed that Shane had left her a beautiful birdhouse that he had made, and a note that said that he was going to go to Alaska to work on a fishing boat, and that he loved Shelley. The girls found it very odd because Shane had run away a couple of times in the past, and Shelley would get all of them into the car and look for him for hours until she was finally able to bring him home. But this time they did not go out looking for Shane, and they also didn't believe that Shane would have ever left a note for their mother, especially one saying that he loved her because he openly hated her and often talked about running away to get away from her and her abuse. When Shane's friends would call to ask where he was, Shelly would always tell them that he left to go work in Alaska. Shane's grandmother, Diana, would also often call and ask to speak to Shane, but Shelly would just tell her that he was not available and he was out with his friends and that he was just a teenage boy. He was never home. Until one day she told Diana that Shane had moved to Alaska to join a fishing boat. Now, this really didn't make sense to Diana because she knew that her grandson wanted to finish high school and he was so close. It was his senior year. It even got to the point where Shelly would make David take off days of work. Shortly after Shane's Disappearance to look for him, and the girls really thought that their dad was just honestly trying to find where Shane had gone, but nothing ever came from his searches. Now that is the end of the first part of this case. As always, if you could give me five stars on Spotify and Apple Podcasts, as well as a review on Apple Podcasts, I am always looking for cases to cover. So if you do have a case suggestion, please visit the link in the show's Instagram page at crime on the Clark Fork. I also post pictures from the cases that I cover on my Instagram page, so if you want to go, give that a quick follow and let me know what you think so far. I know I left kind of abruptly, but there is a reason for this. So I hope you enjoyed this episode and I'll catch you next time with more big crime in small places.