NJ man who killed father, stashed body at home heads to prison

🔴 NJ man admitted to killing own dad

🔴 Victim’s body stashed in basement

🔴 Must serve majority of term

A 33-year-old Matawan man has been sentenced to 30 years in state prison for killing his father and then hiding the body in the home the men shared, Monmouth County Prosecutor Raymond Santiago announced on Friday.

Kenneth H. Knapp Jr. was sentenced on Thursday in Monmouth County Superior Court.

In January, he had pleaded guilty to first-degree aggravated manslaughter and second-degree desecration of human remains.

The body of 58-year-old Kenneth Knapp Sr. was discovered by police in May 2022, over a week after the man had been killed.

🔴 Victim’s body stashed in basement bin

Matawan police arrived at the Knapp home on a Sunday afternoon, after being called by relatives and friends of Knapp Sr. to do a welfare check.

Police found his body inside a large plastic container, where it had first been wrapped and secured in a tarp.

Knapp Jr. was arrested more than three months later.

Investigators said that the adult son — who had wrestled in both high school and college — had attacked and killed his father in their shared bathroom, before then stashing the body downstairs.

Knapp was sentenced to 25 years on manslaughter and a consecutive five years for desecration.

He must serve at least 21 years of the longer term before becoming eligible for parole.

Asbury Park Press was in the courtroom for the sentencing, and shared video online:

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