A 59-year-old Wisconsin man faces attempted first-degree intentional homicide charges after allegedly strangling his girlfriend while she ate gelato in bed, police said. The woman's son called 911 reporting she was being choked, and officers found her with injuries including red marks on her neck. The suspect claimed self-defense, saying he had no other option.
Police in Little Chute, Wisconsin, responded to a home at 11:45 p.m. on Sunday after the victim's son called 911, reporting his mother screaming for help and being choked by an unknown male. Officers found the woman holding frozen food to her right eye, with a bloody mouth and red marks on her neck. She initially declined to speak in front of her son but later told police she wanted Rudolf Knapp arrested to feel safe, and a friend took her to the hospital where she was treated and released the next day, according to the criminal complaint and a Fox Valley Metro Police Department Facebook post as reported by Law & Crime, but primarily from police statements and the complaint reviewed by Law & Crime, but drawing from the complaint and witness accounts as detailed in the police report summarized therein, wait no: stick to facts: she told police while at hospital that she and Knapp were in bed, she eating gelato, when they argued. Knapp got on top of her, choked her neck; she couldn't breathe, went in and out of consciousness, thought she was going to die. Her son heard commotion, saw Knapp on her, yelled; Knapp fled in his Mercedes Benz. Knapp, 59, texted her: 'I have no idea how I lost control... I am evil and sick. There is no question... what I have to do now,' and 'Thank you for one last good day,' with suicidal threats. A friend told police Knapp confessed the assault and made suicidal comments. On Monday, Knapp went to Outagamie Sheriff's Office claiming he was drugged and assaulted. He said the woman gave him hydroxyzine after Easter church for anxiety, then swung a box cutter screaming about child custody, put Xanax in his soda; he had 'no other option' to strangle as she would kill him. Cuts on him were self-inflicted; he cited mental health issues, saying 'I am a monster. I've never been a bad person.' Knapp is held on $500,000 cash bond at Outagamie County Jail after arrest Sunday; he appeared in court Tuesday, next date unscheduled.