Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Man axes wife to death on Christmas Eve, slits throat with knife

Episode Date: December 18, 2020

Christmas Day, a dad and his two children spend the holiday with grandparents. But mom Stephanie Kilhefner doesn't show up. At the end of the day, Dustin Klopp turns himself into police for an unthinkable act. Joining Nancy Grace today: Judge Craig Stedman, Landcaster County Court of Common Pleas, former Lancaster County District Attorney   Dr. Angela Arnold - Psychiatrist, Atlanta Ga www.angelaarnoldmd.com  Chris Byers - former Police Chief Johns Creek Georgia, 25 years as Police Officer, now Private Investigator and Polygraph Examiner,   www.chrisbyersinvestigationsandpolygraph.com   Joe Scott Morgan - Professor of Forensics Jacksonville State University, Author, "Blood Beneath My Feet" featured on "Poisonous Liaisons" on True Crime Network  Ray Caputo - Lead News Anchor for Orlando's Morning News, 96.5 WDBO Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. You know, I've worked so hard to get up our Christmas trees and the manger scene and the wreaths on the door. My daughter is cooking Christmas cookies or getting everything ready, sending out gifts to our family and friends across the miles. It's not like that for everyone at Christmas. I often say crime knows no bounds, whether it's what color you are, what your degree is, or how much money you make, or what neighborhood you live in. I always say that doesn't matter, that crime will find you. Well, sadly, the season doesn't matter either.

Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Stephanie Kilhafner is a country girl. Along with her two brothers and sisters, he's raised in the rolling hills of Lancaster, Pennsylvania. It's a small area, about 70 miles outside of Philadelphia and known for its large Amish community. There are only about 5,000 residents. She loves animals, especially her two horses, and is well known in the community for her generosity in taking in rescue animals of all kinds. In her mid-20s, Stephanie Kilhefner meets the man she will marry, Dustin Klopp,

a construction worker. The couple are together for several years and have a daughter first. After the wedding, they move from an apartment to a red brick home in Paradise Township and have another child, a son. On Christmas morning, Dustin Klopp takes his children to see their grandparents. The trio spends the day with the Klopps, but where's Stephanie? Wow, what a storybook tale. They actually live in Paradise Township, and that's near Lancaster County, which is Amish country, just rolling hills, horse-drawn carriages. I've been there many times when I was living in

Philly, and it's beautiful. Did you hear that the population is about 5,000? What does that mean to me? An incredibly low crime rate. Let me introduce to you our all star panel to break it down and put it back together again. First of all, the lead news anchor for Orlando Morning News, WDBO, Ray Caputo, professor of forensics, Jacksonville State University, author of Blood Beneath My Feet on Amazon and star of a brand new program, Poisonous Liaisons on the True Crime Network. Chris Byers, former police chief, Johns Creek, 25 years on the force now, a PI and polygrapher at chrisbyersinvestigationsandpolygraph.com. Renowned psychiatrist joining us from the Atlanta jurisdiction, Dr. Angela Arnold. You can find her at AngelaArnoldMD.com. And a very special guest joining us, a new guest to our show. Let's

welcome Judge Craig Stedman, Lancaster County Court of Common Pleas, the former Lancaster District Attorney. Now, can you just settle things once and for all, Judge? Many people say Lancaster, but as I recall, when I lived in Philly, I was admonished that it's Lancaster. Which one is it? Yeah. So I'm not originally from here and I had to learn it the hard way. It's Lancaster is the way they say it because I thought it was Lancaster and you got it right. Okay. I usually say it both ways so I can be 50% right and 50% wrong. So everybody will hate me. Just want to make sure that happens. Okay. Now that we've got that settled, we're talking about a beautiful young mother. Her name is Stephanie Kilhefner. I want to hear about the area. With me, Judge Craig Stedman, former district attorney,

now judge. Judge, can you tell me about that area? I grew up on a dirt road in middle Georgia with nothing but, as I like to say, soybeans and pine trees as far as the eye could see. And there's pros and cons to that. We never worried about some creepy dude driving up in a white van and grabbing us. We could run and play and tromp through streams and climb trees until it got dark and it was time to come home. Tell me about the area, Judge. So, yeah, Paradise is very similar to what you're talking about, other than instead of the soybeans, it would be more corn and some tobacco crops. But yeah, it's very, very rural. Lancaster is a big county. We do have a city. Everyone identifies more with the Amish country and the farms, and that's what this area of the county is. Paradise is generally really safe. The neighbors know the neighbors. There'd be a lot of

people that leave their doors unlocked, and generally low crime. The neighbors know the neighbors. There'd be a lot of people that leave their doors unlocked and generally low crime. The Pennsylvania State Police cover it. They don't even have their own municipal police department. So it'd be generally not an area that we'd have a lot to deal with when I was in the DA's office. It just wasn't a lot going on there as far as crime. Very safe. Well, you and I had very different experiences in district attorney's office. I prosecuted in inner city Atlanta at the height of the drug trade. You know, everybody would send their dope, their heroin, their crack, their cocaine, their meth straight up from Miami, right off the boat, all the way to New York on all 41. And the first major metropolitan stop would be Atlanta.

So of course the drug trade brought with it more homicides than we could handle. So there was never a lack of business, as I always like to say, Judge Stedman. You know, we're talking about this woman and the very first thing that just jumps out at me. I don't know if you heard our friend from crimeonline.com, Joy Barge, state that Dustin Klopp takes his children to see the grandparents, but Stephanie,

the mom, isn't there. I mean, right there, Dr. Angela Arnold, nothing happens in our home without me being front and center because I don't want to miss a thing not one thing i want to be there to wake the twins up i'm going to be there sitting in the rocking chair where they fall asleep and i leave the room i want to be there for every minute it's really hard for me to get past the fact that they're spending Christmas morning without mom. Well, and also Nancy, you're probably the one that plans everything. Santa does that. Hush your evil mouth. Santa does all the planning at Christmas time.

Okay. I have nothing to do with it. Nothing at all. I wasn't online all night looking for a PlayStation 5. That was not me. Okay. Well, but I can tell you this, I'm right up in the middle of everything, Dr. Angie. And everybody depends on you to be there. And they're looking for you because the mommy makes everything right. And she makes everybody feel comfortable. And everybody knows that everything's

going to go along okay that day if mom is there. You know, right at the get-go to Chief Chris Byers joining me along with Judge Craig Steedman, Dr. Angie Arnold, Joe Scott Morgan, and Ray Caputo. Chief Byers, you know, I've wondered and wondered about this ever since I started prosecuting. Why is it that in our world, in our society, women and children are so often the crime victims? Why is that? No offense to all you guys on the panel, but what is it? When I see a mom missing out of a scenario, I immediately think the worst. Yeah, absolutely, because the statistics prove it. The statistics show,

just like you said, that the women and children are the prey. They're the easy targets that always seem to be the victims in these cases, for sure. So sad. Guys, we know that he, the husband in this scenario, Dustin Klopp, seemingly out of a fairy book marriage, shows up on Christmas morning at the grandparents without mommy. Question to you, Ray Caputo, lead news anchor, Orlando's Morning News, WDBO. When he showed up at the grandparents, was it his parents or her parents where they showed up? It was Dustin's parents, Nancy. And they were expecting, you know, them to all come over.

And you know what? It's so easy to say, oh, she didn't feel well, blah, blah, blah. But on Christmas morning, you know, seemingly all bets are off on Christmas. That's a command performance that you don't miss. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Guys, we're talking about a Christmas morning, a big gathering at the grandparents' house, the paternal grandparents' house, when mommy doesn't show up. 34-year-old Stephanie Kilhefner doesn't show up at the appointed time and location. The children are there.

The husband's there. The grandparents are there. Everything's decorated. The food is prepared. The party's going on. and mom never shows up. Right there, I smell a rat, especially on Christmas day. You know, Dr. Angie, do we put too much pressure on ourselves for Christmas? I put a tremendous amount of pressure on myself.

My husband seems to be completely unaware of it to make everything perfect for my children. Is it just too much pressure? It's a lot of pressure. That's all I take care of around the holidays is people are so stressed out. It's financial pressure. It's the pressure to do everything just right. It intensifies around keeping up with everyone around you. I mean, I don't know about you, Nancy, but on my street right now, the amount of money that people spend on holiday lights in front of their house. We did our own. There are three right there. And the baby fell down.

I was out there at 1 a.m. trying to hammer the thing back into the dirt. Go get, please. You could feed a small nation for what some of these people spend on their Christmas decorations. fell down i was out there at 1 a.m trying to hammer the thing back into the dirt i mean you could feed a small nation for what some of these people spend on their christmas decorations and this year you want to know something i didn't put any out front because i'm protesting that i really okay so yeah have you ever heard of the cut your nose off to spot your face thing just something of course i'm just a j. I'm not an MD like you, but that's just something for you to think about as we move forward, not putting up Christmas decorations to protest your neighbors. Okay. Well, you're the shrink, not me. You know,

another thing here, and you know, Joe Scott Morgan, you have, I think you do, you better, because I love your wife. Okay. I hate to tell you this, but more than you, Joe Scott, you have a happy marriage. You have in-laws. I'm just wondering, did the in-laws not notice she wasn't there? And I got to tell you something, Joe Scott, I've told you this before. My husband's parents, and they must have had to bite their tongue in all the years i knew david before we married decades we never had a crossword joe scott not one and if i had not shown up for christmas there would be hell pay they would want to they would be cross-examining david lynch up and down to find out where was I? What was wrong? Why wasn't I there?

No way would this have gone unnoticed. Yeah, you're absolutely right. It's as delicate as a Japanese tea ceremony. You know, Christmas is one of these things where you have to show up, or there is going to be a bill to be paid. You know, in the Catholic Church, they refer to Christmas service as one of the holy days of obligation. It applies at a family level too, doesn't it? Because even the most subtle thing, the slightest absence,

or maybe you didn't get the right gift, or maybe you didn't show up at the right time, or you didn't bring the right thing, a lot's going to be read into that. And the fact that this woman is completely, and I mean completely, absent and out of the picture tells you a lot because this is just something that doesn't normally happen in the normal context. And yes, there is such a thing as normal, and this is not normal behavior for a family. Well, we find out that it didn't start on Christmas morning. Take a listen to our friend Joy Barge at CrimeOnline.com.

On Christmas Eve, Stephanie Kilhefner's neighbors, Tim and Sheila Rohr, see her around 7.30 p.m. They're outside saying goodbye to their family members as Kilhefner pulls into her driveway. She waves and wishes them a Merry Christmas. At home, Stephanie puts the kids to bed. About 10, she and Dustin have an argument. You know, I'm just thinking about the night before Christmas on Christmas Eve when everyone is preparing, getting everything together, putting things together, staging. You know, let me go back to you, Judge Craig Stedman, joining us out of Lancaster County Court, former prosecutor. Do you see an uptick in crimes around the holidays?

I don't know that I could say that. I mean, you know, I don't think that we ever did a study that said so exactly. We have a lot of crime, but we don't have those kind of numbers. I mean, I can just give you a sense of it. We do have an increase. There's certainly an increase in stress. There's certainly increase in pressure. And, you know, one of the difficult things with domestic violence is a lot of it goes unreported. And as you all know, and so it's hard to get a true sense of what's going on behind closed doors. I don't know that I could tell you where there's increasing crime on Christmas. I can tell you that it stands out in my memory when we have.

Yes, I know there's an increase in tension over what I'm not sure, but how things went south so quickly, I don't know. You just heard Joy Barge tell us the neighbors see her pull in at 7.30 PM. She gets out of the car, waves, says, Merry Christmas to the neighbors, goes in the home. But take a listen to our friend, Ames Yates, Fox 43. How can anybody do that now? Jerry Fenninger has lived across the street from where it happened on Georgetown Road for almost two decades and was shocked to learn what happened.

Cold, and then put her in a, you said, stuffed her in a bag and put her out in a shed. Oh, yeah, yeah. It's just unbelievable. Unbelievable to us. Other neighbors told us the couple have two children, both under it's just unbelievable. Unbelievable to us. Other neighbors told us the couple have two children, both under the ages of 10, who are now staying with their grandparents. Meanwhile, Klopp is being held at the Lancaster County Prison. His bail has been denied.

For the people that live here, it's still a shock. I feel sorry for the family, too. We just couldn't believe it. And something like that happened this close to home. Something like that would happen here in our neighborhood. You know, I'm always amazed to you, Chief Byers, Chris Byers joining us, former Police Chief Johns Creek, now Chris Byers Investigations and Polygraph.com. Nobody ever thinks it's going to happen in their neighborhood. And they're so shocked but it does happen in everybody's neighborhood from New York to LA to Atlanta I was just reading in the paper

the other day chief buyers were outside some swanky country club a guy was trying to get a ride his wife had just given birth he was at this big country club. A guy was trying to get a ride. His wife had just given birth. He was at this big country club for a wedding reception or something. And he was outside waiting for an Uber. And the guy came up, arm-wrapped him and shot him dead. Right there at the gate

to this really exclusive country club. And the neighbors in that neighborhood couldn't believe it happened there. It does, Chief. Oh, it happens everywhere. I can tell you, I spent the last 13 years of my career

in what was named for at least six years ago the safest city in Georgia, fourth safest city in the United States for a long time running, probably the richest zip code in Georgia, I believe we were named a couple years. And probably one of the most horrific crimes in my entire career that I saw happened in that town. And I worked kind of like you in parts of Atlanta, in the largest county here in metro Atlanta. And right there in the richest neighborhood in the state of Georgia, horrific

crimes. It happens everywhere. And you're right, people are always shocked when they, you know, say it would never happen in their neighborhoods, but you're absolutely right. It happens everywhere. Take a listen to our friend Pete Muntean at Fox News 8 WGAL. State troopers say a Christmas Eve crime inside this Paradise Township home went unnoticed for nearly a day until the man they say did it had a change of heart. You know, when we've seen nine cruisers go up and of course I stopped at my house thinking that was the address. We knew there was something up. Neighbors of 36-year-old Dustin Klopp did not want to be identified after they heard what police found here. Just released court documents say Klopp and his wife of three years, Stephanie Kilhefner, were in an argument late Wednesday night. Police say Klopp then punched his wife,

slit her throat, and then hit her in the head with an axe. She wished us a Merry Christmas. And, you know, I just can't crime stories with nancy grace let's go straight out to judge craig stedman lancaster county court of common pleas judge County Court of Common Pleas judge, former Lancaster County District Attorney. What can you tell us about the case, Judge? So this was, you know, not the typical case that we get that we normally we find the body or get a call if shots fired, as you know, and you respond and you start unwinding. Now, who are your suspects? Who would who would want to do this? In this case, the first law enforcement got involved was from Mr. Klopp himself.

He he called the police, the state police, admitted that he that he had killed her and drove into the state police barracks. His father drove him down there. And as he's confessing to it to them, the state police are responding to the scene. Okay, wait a minute, Judge. Hold on just a second. I got to take in what you're saying. It's like drinking from the fire hydrant. Did you say with me, special guest Judge Craig Steadman, current judge, former prosecutor in this jurisdiction,

he drove himself into police HQ? His father drove him. So they, so, you know, on Christmas, so Christmas Eve, this takes place. And, and I guess I'll back up and, and what started it was just, as far as I can remember, it's six years and dozens of homicides ago. And it was just a typical domestic argument that turned physical. He ended up punching her. I believe that there was some head trauma. She may have hit something when she fell. And he has an opportunity to stop there. He doesn't stop. He gets a knife and tries to cut her throat and kill her. He still didn't kill her. He actually has another opportunity to stop there. He doesn't stop. He gets a knife and tries to cut her throat and kill her. He still didn't kill her. He actually has another opportunity to stop and he arms himself

with an ax and finishes her off that way. But she was still alive at the time he used the ax on her head. Then now he's got two kids in the house. Fortunately, they didn't see any of this. That's the only minor upside in which it's a horrible tragedy is that all week, the best we could tell, they saw or heard nothing. So they're up in bed. He's got to make a decision as to what to do. He doesn't do the right thing. Even at that point in time, he cleans up the blood the best he can.

He takes her body, puts her in a plastic bag, takes her to like a woodshed. He put her in the woodshed in a pile of wood, as I recall. And then you had the panels discussing about the pressures of Christmas. He still has another decision to make. And what his decision is, is let's go through with Christmas for these kids. And I can't imagine, you know, what what's going through his mind at this point in time. So he takes the kids to his parents to celebrate Christmas to the extent that he can. And I don't know what happened. I don't know whether he talked to his father or his mother or both of them or what exactly took place. But he

makes a decision at that point in time later in the afternoon to turn himself in. So he calls the state police as he's driving to talk to the police and admit to what he did. The state police are driving the other way to the house to find the house. And of course, they find her. And unfortunately, he was telling the truth. So it's just a real unusual situation for us. I mean, you talked about this was a rural area, but we have our Lancaster City actually run a drug corridor as well. So we had a lot of those homicides as well. Just I don't I couldn't remember one where someone had called where it hadn't been a self-defense situation where I had to shoot the guy because he was breaking into my house or whatever. So this was this was a very strange case in that respect.

And of course, it carries the the the just the ripples of the tragedy compounded by the fact that it's Christmas. And so all these people, they got a lost victim, they got the defendant, but the grandparents, the kids, all the surviving family members, I mean, I'm sure Christmas is ruined for them forever. So that's the essence of what took place. Just a verbal argument turned physical and turned deadly. And he had a lot of chances to stop before it went that far, and he made his choices. And she paid for it with her life.

Judge Craig Steadman, was there any suggestion about what they were arguing about? I know it's irrelevant to the fact of murder one, but what were they arguing about? Six years ago, I don't remember. I did try to get the files from the DA's office. So I was not able to get that. My recollection was it was really super inconsequential. It wasn't about the kids. It was something that just, just really stupid. So I remember when the reporters were asking me about it, I was,

I was just, it made me even more upset. It was, I mean, there'd be nothing that would justify any of it, but this, as I recall, was particularly inconsequential. Just something so insignificant and that, you know, talking about how crime affects everybody, you look at just how something like this, an argument about something minor can turn out, turn into somebody losing their life. And that's why, you know, life is so precious. And we need to be aware and treasure every day when you see cases like this, and just reminders of how quickly things can turn so bad. You know, it's interesting, and I'm sure a lot of people on our panel today feel this.

After you investigate cases like this, you were, I guess, the elected DA or an assistant DA at the time, Judge? I was the DA. So I was the DA for the last 12 years. Yep, yep. And I was a prosecutor for many years before that working my way up. You know, judge and, uh, chief buyers, Joe Scott Morgan, death investigator, these cases stick with you. And now like, uh, judge Craig Stedman was describing how these children will forever remember this at Christmas. We remember it. I think about cases at certain times of the year that I prosecuted that I remember.

Ray Caputo, lead news anchor, WDBO, what more can you tell us about the murder? Well, I can tell you that Dustin Klopp wasn't an upstanding citizen. He had a list of charges, you know, serious stuff, too, you know, resisting arrest, DUI, drug charges. And, you know, we're talking about the argument and how petty it was, but some people that knew him said he was paranoid. And, you know, there's an old saying, keep your head on a swivel. I've talked to many people in law enforcement, and they do things like sit in corners in restaurants facing outward so they can see everyone. You know, that's just being perceptive to the dangers of the world. Dustin seemed to get upset over small things.

Like, he was really petty. He cussed out a FedEx driver, posted a no trespassing sign, even told his neighbors, you know, if you see anyone near the horses, let him know. And, you know, the neighbor found that out because they don't live near very many people. So he was just a paranoid guy. And, you know, it seemed like the writing was on the wall for this guy to snap at some

point. I understand you, Joseph Scott Morgan, a death investigator, professor of forensics, according to the Pennsylvania state police, Klopp attempted to clean his wife's spattered blood from their home. How successful was that? I can't imagine it was successful at all. Let's think about what he did, Nancy. The trauma that he inflicted on this woman was really over the top. This is a very violent action. You know, first he punched her in the face, and I can only assume that by doing this he probably generated a bloody nose and she fell back as we understand then he retrieved a knife and one of the things I found

very curious is they keep using the term that he slit her throat at that point so you're going to produce blood this way but the coroner actually stated that that did not kill her. He went on to say that in fact, uh, these blows that she sustained, uh, to her head with the ax, she was still alive as she was sustaining these. So she's still bleeding out. You know, it's a lot of people think that, uh, that, you know, if you slit somebody's throat, they're, they're going to die instantly. That doesn't happen. As a matter of fact, it takes quite a bit of work to accomplish that. And you have to know what you're doing. When he began to assault her, bludgeon her with this ax. Now we don't know which end of the ax

he used. He would have generated a copious, a large amount of blood all over the place. So you're never going to get all of this up. I can only imagine the horror that the pathologist felt when they began to examine these wounds in her head because they saw that she had hemorrhaged into these wounds in her head, which automatically tells them from a physiological standpoint, she was alive while he was doing this. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Guys, we are talking about the Christmas Eve death of a young mom of two,

murdered at the hands of her own husband. And what is also so amazing is that he cleaned up the crime scene, put her in a bag, dragged her body to a shed, and the next day, Christmas morning, went about Christmas with the children as if nothing had happened. Take a listen to our friends, Ames Yates at Fox 43. Police say Klopp initially called them around 5. 30 p.m. Christmas day to say he had killed her. About an hour later, they say that he came to the Lancaster barracks and told them the violent details. State police say Klopp told them he got in an argument with Kilhefner on Christmas Eve and punched her in the face. When she fell to the ground, he took a knife and slit her throat.

Then he grabbed an axe and hit her in the back of the head repeatedly before hiding her body in a shed near his house. To Judge Craig Stedman, now Lancaster County Court of Common Pleas judge, former elected Lancaster County District Attorney after working his way up through the ranks. Judge, of course, the law is that no case can be in criminal court, can be prosecuted based on a confession alone. That's the law. Now, the scene that you discovered when cops got to the home, did it corroborate exactly what Klopp said? It did.

Yeah, it matched up exactly. You know, there's only two people that knew exactly what took place. It wasn't hard to find. He didn't do a good job trying to clean up the blood. It was very apparent. Her body was exactly where he said she was, and the wounds matched up with what he had admitted to doing. So whatever took place between the homicide and his decision to turn himself in, he did change his mind and come forward with the truthful details, the horrific details. As far as investigative work and challenges for us, this was one of the

easier ones. And I don't mean to, you know, lessen the impact of the crime, but this really was, he told us what he did. She was right there. There wasn't a lot of investigation for us to do. You know, to Chief Chris Byers now at Chris Byers Investigations and Polygraph.com, you just heard Judge Stedman speaking, who was the DA at the time. And even then and now, it's very rare that you get a killer come straight into the station and confess and then all corroborates with the physical evidence. That just doesn't happen. Usually a defense attorney will get a hold of them and suddenly everything changes by the time they get to court and you go to trial. Basically rolling the dice, it's either plead guilty or hope one juror will give you a mistrial and you'll get a cheaper deal after that. But I think what had to do, what had a lot to do with his confession, did you hear Judge

Stedman state the father drove him to the police station? He didn't do it all on his own. I think that's what ultimately got him in to make the confession was his father telling him to do the right thing, I guess, on behalf of their children. Yeah, absolutely. I agree with you. I don't remember a case ever like this in my 25 years where someone came and confessed and it was corroborated. So yeah, you know, I was thinking as you guys were talking on Christmas day and you've got his kid there, his father, I mean, just how many generations, you know, yeah, it's ruined for those kids, Christmas and the dad, but how many generations is it going to affect the kids' kids? And so I have a feeling that, yeah, being Christmas Day and dad convincing him to do the right thing probably is how it played out because that

just does not happen. No, never, never have I seen it happen that way. Not once have I seen somebody just come in, confess, and it all lines up with the physical evidence. Speaking of physical evidence to death investigator Joseph Scott Morgan, Joe Scott, even if the crime scene techs say, hey, the guy's been given a confession right now, they can't just pack up their bags and leave. They've got to process that scene as if it were going to trial. You bet they do. And you know why? Because of lawyers. You have to, Nancy.

There is no stone you guys leave unturned. And you have to anticipate every possibility. This is no time to get lazy as an investigator. You do your job. You cover this thing as if the person has skipped the country and has is left and there's a worldwide manhunt for this person. You still have to process the scene because you never know what will happen. And how do you know? How do you know that this guy was the perpetrator? Now, he may have walked in and confessed to this thing, but how do you know someone else wasn't involved?

Look, as forensics people, as death investigators, we're all cynics. I assume everybody is lying to me when I'm conducting a death investigation. I have to do that, Nancy, in order to cover all of my bases. And you have to continue to process these scenes until the job is done. I think it also says a lot about him. Not that he's insane. Don't tune up with that, Dr. Angela Arnold, because I know that's where your mind goes, insanity.

But as Judge Stedman pointed out, he had so many times to stop. It first began with a punch, a blow, then another wound. She wasn't dead yet. Then another attack. He had so many chances to back out of this thing. Nancy, I don't think that, I do not think that this is a matter of insanity, but I do believe with the little that we know about this man, which is, which is a lot that he, that he has some sort of pathologic narcissism and his, and that turned into a narcissistic rage.

Now, wait a minute, wait a minute, just to break it down. Now, again, you're the shrink. I'm just a trial lawyer, but I believe when you say pathological narcissism, you mean unstoppable narcissism. Narcissus was the star of a Greek myth that was so in love with himself, he would forever look into a quiet river to see his own reflection. Right. That's exactly right. And what happens, what happens when, when someone actually has pathologic narcissism,

they have, they can't regulate their self. They can't regulate their emotions or they, or their behavior. And so they have, they have impulses. It's just, I mean, it's awful. Their impulses just take over, okay?

Well, you know what, Dr. Angie Arnold, I appreciate all that psycho discussion. But in my world, it's, are you insane legally? Did you know right from wrong at the time? Or do you have some uncontrollable mental delusion that somehow this is an evil troll that's jumped into your home to kill your children? None of that existed that would tried to clean up the scene, tried to hide the body, went through with Christmas morning and the grandparents to hide everything shows he knew what he did was wrong. And we're learning a little bit more about the crime. Take a listen to Pete

Muntean, News 8. Investigators say Klopp moved his wife's body to a shed on the property, then went to Christmas celebrations with the couple's two children. But it was not until 5 o'clock Christmas night that Klopp turned himself in here at Lancaster County State Police Headquarters. It's where police say Klopp confessed to killing his wife.

I guess he did develop a conscience. That's why he turned himself in. But I don't know what was going through his head. It just hits home. You think of the two kids that they had at Christmas time. It's sad. Before you start blaming the Christmas season and tensions that some families have, let me report that additional sex assault charges were added to the murder

based on findings during the autopsy report. As we close out our story regarding Stephanie Kilhafner, her children are being cared for by relatives, and they are growing up, and they are surviving. My prayer for them is that Christmas not be forever tainted, and that somehow in the future they find joy. Nancy Grace, Crime Story, signing off. Goodbye, friend.