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Man Charged with 1994 Murder has Charges Dismissed
Richard Knapp was initially charged in 2019, and police believe another man may have committed the murder.
It was in April 2019 when the Washington State Police made an announcement, hailing genetic genealogy for the recent arrest of a suspect believed to be responsible for the 1994 murder of Audrey Hoellein Frasier.
On July 17, 1994, Audrey was twenty-six years old, and her body was discovered in her apartment after a neighbor called for a welfare check. She had been sexually assaulted and strangled to death. At the time of the initial investigation, multiple sources of DNA were found on her body and in her apartment.
In 2018 DNA from the case was sent to Parabon Nanolabs, and a suspect was identified as Richard Knapp. Knapp had a sexual assault charge in 1986 that he was convicted for, which seemed to be why Knapp was arrested over the other suspects.
Knapp maintained his innocence and, when being interrogated about the crime, did not recall knowing Frasier. Still, he did admit that at the time, he was known to abuse substances, particularly alcohol, and frequent bars that Frasier also went to regularly and recalled that at that time, it wasn’t uncommon for him to go home with women he met at the bar.
