Prosecutor: 32-Year-Old Man Pleads Guilty to 2022 Murder of His Father

An area man has pleaded guilty to the 2022 murder of his father, Monmouth County Prosecutor Raymond S. Santiago announced on Thursday.

Appearing before Monmouth County Superior Court Judge Henry P. Butehorn on Tuesday, Jan. 23, the 32-year-old man, Kenneth H. Knapp Jr., pleaded guilty to the charges of first-degree aggravated manslaughter and second-degree desecration of human remains stemming from the murder and hiding the body.

Sentencing in the case has been tentatively scheduled for Thursday, April 18, 2024. At that time, the state intends to recommend a term of 25 years in state prison on the manslaughter charge and an additional five years on the desecration charge, with the former term subject to the provisions of New Jersey’s No Early Release Act (NERA), which mandates that 85 percent be served prior to the possibility of parole.

The case background …

At 12:35 p.m. on Sunday, May 1, 2022, Matawan police responded to a home to conduct a welfare check on the victim, 58-year-old Kenneth Knapp Sr., after friends and family had been unsuccessful in contacting him the previous week.

In the home’s basement, officers located Knapp’s body, wrapped and bound in a tarp inside a large plastic container.

A cooperative investigation by detectives of the MCPO Major Crimes Bureau and the Matawan Police Department revealed that Knapp, a former collegiate wrestler, had assaulted and killed his father in the home’s bathroom a week earlier before hiding his body in the basement. He was taken into custody in Somerset County on Friday, Aug. 19, 2022, then lodged in the Monmouth County Correctional Institution (MCCI).

— Edited press release from the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office