'A REAL MONSTER': Florida man charged with kidnapping, raping two girls

Sarasota Herald-Tribune ^ | May 21, 2005 | Mike Saewitz

[JellyJam]

CHARLOTTE COUNTY (Florida) - A Port Charlotte man was arrested Friday and charged with kidnapping two young girls from their homes as their parents slept, then raping the girls before letting them go.

Erick Thomas Knapp, 31, is accused of entering the home Wednesday night of a 13-year-old girl who lived near him. Knapp threatened to cut the girl's throat, led her to a nearby home under construction and sexually assaulted her, her father said.

Knapp, a felon, is also accused of using similar methods to abduct and attack a 7-year-old girl only a few nights before.

[mewzilla]

Paging Bill O'Reilly...

[BBell]

Don't tell me your a low life living in Floida. What mid-western state are you from?

[BBell]

I'll remember that. I live in Louisiana and a bad hurricane season has been predicted.

[proudofthesouth]

Will our society ever get some cajones and execute these vermin after their first offense???? (Providing of course that DNA proves it.)

[BBell]

By not killing them he saved us two Jessica Lunsford type sagas.

[Just A Nobody]

Don't tell me your a low life living in Floida. What mid-western state are you from?

No, I am not. I thought you were referring to illegals. I am originally from Ohio but JUST moved to Virginia.

[samm1148]

You know it just occurred to me:

I'll have to be registered as a sex offender.

No I never molested or raped anybody. But think for a minute how things work in this country now:

People fly planes into buildings; law adibing citizens have to get ID cards.

Criminals commit gun crimes; law abiding citizens have to register their firearms.

An extremely small minority of people blow their fingers off with fireworks; now I can't buy them in my state. I have all my fingers.

So you see, we the law abiding citizens who have never raped or molested anybody will be registered. Because God forbid we start really punishing the people who actually commit crimes.

[justche]

IMO, there has to be some mercy shown to the monsters who do not murder. Call it an incentive to other monsters and a half-assed reward for not murdering.

Call it an incentive???? you're kidding! I don't even know how to respond to this logic. My mind immediately says "that's moronic" but that's a bit mean to say without really knowing you. Naive is probably a better word to use.

[darkangel82]

you'd think with all this going on, FL would start sending these guys to the chair like state law allows them to.

[varina davis]

Ping! I think it's time that folks start lacing their homes with alarms, motion detectors and outside lights. Way too many these offenders/predators sneaking into occupied homes.

[BBell]

Illegals were the farthest thing from my mind. I went to 3 High Schools in 3 states. Ne.,In., and Pa. For some reason Florida always seemed to appeal as the Land of Milk And honey where the streets were paved of gold to the low life loser types at all three High Schools. Actually Southern California was a popular place for the Ne. type low life losers. My wife is from Ohio and Florida was a popular destination for High School drop outs from there too. By the way, I think there is far too much illegal bashing as it is. I'm not pro-illegal immigration, I'm just tiring of the illegal bashing.

[bwteim]

While there is no doubt that sun draws a lot of folks and there is a tremendous construction boom, there are is a certain proportion of "low lifes" all over the U S of A.

You can assume that whatever the LLP ("low life proportion") is in the US, it is that way in Florida, too. Since they have a truck load of people, more seem to pop up. Plus the media is now on the alert for these stories.

According to US Census, in 2004, Florida was estimated to have more people than the 2004 estimated populations of 15 states and DC combined:

New Mexico, West Virginia, Nebraska, Idaho, Maine, New Hampshire, Hawaii, Rhode Island, Montana, Delaware, South Dakota, Alaska, North Dakota, Vermont, District of Columbia, and Wyoming.

You can figure it from their Excel charts.

And, here's the good news.... by 2030, "Three states -- Florida, California and Texas -- would account for nearly one-half (46 percent) of total U.S. population growth between 2000 and 2030, according to Census Bureau state population projections released today. "

Which means in the future, we may expect to see lots more stories of low lifes from Florida, Texas, and California.

For more see

http://www.census.gov/popest/states/NST-ann-est.html

http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/population/004704.html

[darkangel82]

I'm from Ohio, moved to Florida 5 years ago and my high school was full of those loser types.

[justche]

You know, as a parent, it's hard to know what to do. Do I alarm every window in the house? Do I have the German Sheperd sleep in my daughter's room? How are people so bold that they come into houses that are fully occupied?

[TheWriterTX]

I'm thinking of the economics. The money that we would typically spend keeping that monster behind bars could be better served paying for therapy for the victims and self-defense training for more young people.

We waste far too many resources as a country keeping rabid animals like this alive. Repeat offenders cannot be rehabilitated. The limits of my mercy extend to only the first offense (because the system is imperfect and innocent people do go to jail); after that, let's just end the madness once and for all.

[BBell]

Did they follow you to Florida? I hope not. BTW I'm not saying all the people who go to Florida for opportunity are low life losers. My wife is from North East Ohio and the economy hasn't been the best there for the last 20 years.

[Just A Nobody]

Thanks for clarifying.

[darkangel82]

Did they follow you to Florida? I hope not. BTW I'm not saying all the people who go to Florida for opportunity are low life losers. My wife is from North East Ohio and the economy hasn't been the best there for the last 20 years.

LOL, no, they're probably stuck back there working some boring office job. I met at least 10 former Ohioans the first 2 years after moving here.

[BBell]

"I met at least 10 former Ohioans the first 2 years after moving here."

Sounds like two months in the Service!

[JellyJam]

Bring back public hangings.

Sounds good to me!