The skeletal remains of 15-year-old Tawnya D. Knight were found 21 years ago in a small Kansas town. Since that fateful night in 1996, detectives at the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office have continued to uncover clues in the hopes of locating Tawnya’s murderer.
Now, with the help of a private investigator, Tawnya’s family believes new light has been shed on the case, and that her killer may be within arm’s reach.
Here’s what you should know.
1. Her Body Was Found in a Farmer’s Field Six Months After She Went Missing
On December 7, 1996, Tawnya asked her father, Frank, if she could have a sleepover at a friend’s house. Frank says that Tawnya was always prompt in coming home on time, so when she didn’t turn up the next day, he was immediately concerned. “Something was really bad,” Fox 4 quotes Frank as saying.
Tawnya had been raised with her mother in Arizona, but moved to Kansas a few years prior to live with her father.
Speaking to classmates of Tawnya’s back in 1997, Fox4 learned that most people she attended school with thought she was not in danger, but had gone to live with a friend in Olathe. “… she had a lot of friends in Olathe, and that’s what everybody said. So nobody worried about it that much. I mean, none of the kids did really,” one boy told the news outlet.
2. Tawnya’s Mother Recently Hired a Private Investigator
Tawnya’s mother hopes that by hiring a private investigator, she may finally uncover the person responsible for her daughter’s death.
Jeff McDonald, the p.i. whom Lori called, tells Fox 4, “I just felt the timing was right… God must have put it there. I’ve done all my homework, and this is my opportunity to get in there and help somebody find out what’s happened 20 years ago.”
McDonald interviewed over 100 people in an attempt to piece together the events of the night Tawnya went missing.
3. McDonald Believes a Girl He Calls ‘the Mastermind’ and a Boy He Calls ‘the Heavy’ Were Behind It All
Jeff McDonald believes that there was no party the night Tawnya said she was attending one for a sleepover. He says he believes the lie was fabricated by a girl he calls “The Mastermind” and a boy he calls “The Heavy”, who had a crush on Tawnya.
McDonald explains that Tawnya enjoyed being around The Mastermind because she was a ‘bad girl’; it gave Tawnya an edge. But The Mastermind may have grown upset when Tawnya started getting more attention from boys than her. And he believes The Heavy was involved because Tawnya was turning down his advances.
The night of December 7, 1996, McDonald has theorized that Tawnya was “lured into the graveyard by The Mastermind and The Heavy. He believes there was a confrontation and Tawnya did not survive.” He says that he thinks Tawnya was subsequently thrown over a chain link fence, where her body would wait to be discovered six months later.
According to Fox 4 KC, the Mastermind was polygraphed and interviewed not long after Tawnya’s disappearance. McDonald says of The Mastermind’s polygraph reading, “When I watched it, she treated it as though it was kind of fun, especially the polygraph. I was surprised that a 16/17-year-old girl could think a polygraph could be fun. It would be something to take lightly, and chit chat about all sorts of things. Not be worried and concerned that the police are looking at me to polygraph me. That I’m this closely involved in a potential death.”
To this day, both The Mastermind and The Heavy insist they were not part of Tawnya’s murder.
4. Her Father Described Her as a Tomboy Who ‘Always Had a Smile on Her Face’
Speaking on KMBZ radio, Frank Knight describes Tawnya as a tomboy, and someone who always had a smile on her face. “She could probably outrun most of the boys her age. She was very fast.”
Fox 4 reports Lori Knight as saying, “It rips your heart out because it’s so hard to lose a child.”
… She didn’t deserve to wind up like this, and they can help make it easier because whoever did it doesn’t need to be out there,” Frank Knight told FOX4 after his daughter’s body was identified in the farm field next to the graveyard.
5. Lori Knight Is Offering a $5,000 Reward for Information Leading to an Indictment of the Person(s) Responsible for Her Death
Lori Knight is offering a $5,000 reward for information leading to an indictment of the people responsible for her daughter’s death. Her current Facebook page features Tawnya’s gravestone and information about her death, as well as information about the reward.
Check out her Facebook page here.
McDonald has said that the Mastermind and the Heavy were the only two of Tawnya’s friends who visited her house after she vanished. Tawnya’s father recalls, “They were asking more questions about the police were doing than anything. After the fact is said and done and over with — yeah, it didn’t seem quite right.”
Fox 4 News acknowledges McDonald’s theory could be incorrect, writing, “It’s possible neither of them had anything to do with it, but detectives believe someone out there knows more than they are willing to say.”