Morbid - The Senseless Murder of Sara Porter

Episode Date: January 27, 2019

This week's mini-sode focuses on Harold "Butch" Knight, who is currently one of Detroit's Most Wanted criminals. After strangling his wife, Sara Porter, Harold casually called police to tell them and then seemingly disappeared. Where is Harold Knight? Will justice ever come for Sara's family? This quick mini episode will have you thinking twice about those closest to you. Cowritten by Alaina Urquhart, Ash Kelley & Dave White (Since 10/2022)Produced & Edited by Mikie Sirois (Since 2023)Research by Dave White (Since 10/2022), Alaina Urquhart & Ash KelleyListener Correspondence & Collaboration by Debra LallyListener Tale Video Edited by Aidan McElman (Since 6/2025) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey weirdos, I'm Elena. I'm Ash. And this is morbid. It's a mini morbid. Mini, mini, mini, mini, mini, mini, mini, mini morbid. Mini, mini, mini, morbid. Mini morbid, mini morbid, mini morbid. Do you know who's mini, mini morbid it is?

This is an Ash, mini morbid. Ash centric. It's happening. I know. I was about to say that, and then I didn't. And then I said it. Ash centric. Ash. And see, we promise three episodes this week, and you're getting them.

And this might be the last time it ever happens. No, I'm totally kidding. No, we're just not going to announce three episodes in a week again, because it seems to be like a jinx on us. And everything in our lives, just like, no. So someday you'll get three episodes again. We're just not going to tell you. Because when we tell you, things go awry.

Life is like, yeah, you're going to put out three episodes, and you're going to deal with all this other shit. And I'm like, I don't know what? But we prevailed this week. We did travail. We did it. We pulled through. And actually, I got to mention this because I'm still really excited about it. I'm going to shit my pants. Like, I'm dying. So one of our, usually we don't do a lot of business on our mini episodes, but I got to do this. Somebody from the, one of our UK listeners, left us a really sweet review on iTunes. Thank you so much. And I'm going to get your name and I'll say it in the next one because I don't have it right now. But she also, he or she also said that they were like, hey, did you guys know you were mentioned on BB. Radio 4, like, Saturday review show last week, and it's like a big show and people listen to it. And that's really cool. And you were like, nope.

And I was like, say what? So I went and listened to it. And Luke Jennings, who is the author of the novel that Killing Eve, that new show is based on, recommended our podcast. Is it on Amazon or Hulu? I think it's on Amazon. I'm almost positive, but I'll double check it. but it blew our minds.

Like, it... My brain actually exploded. So Luke Jennings, if you're listening to this right now. We love you. We love you. Thanks for listening, Luke Jennings. And thank you so much for recommending us. That was really, really sweet, and it was really cool to hear.

And we feel like you're really intellectual, so, like, let us know if you want us to stop swearing. By all means, we will stop swearing for you. But I mean, it's just, like, super humbling to have somebody... Somebody recommend our podcast out of all the podcasts. So thanks for doing that. And thanks for telling us about it, UK listener, who I'm going to name in the next episode.

Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. So now, with that really excited, humble brag that we just did, onto the Ash-centric episode, which I don't know what this is about. So I'm not even going to actually, like, say what it's about. I'm just going to tell the story. Oh, my God. Is that cool? That's stressing me out, but do it.

Can I do it? Yeah, you can do it. All right. So, in 1995, Sarah. Porter met Harold Butch Knight in Fenville, Michigan. She was a respiratory nurse therapist, and she was taking care of his sick mom at the time. And according to friends and family, that's a meat cute. What's a meat cute? What's that mean? You don't know what a meat cute means? I thought that was like your generation's phrase. I don't really. Like a meat cute. How you guys,

like a meat cute is when in like sex in the city when Charlotte almost gets hit by what's his name's cab. And they end up falling in love. Like that's a meat. cute. Oh, I don't resonate with my generation. So taking care of somebody's mom as a respiratory therapist is a meat cute. Mom, just wait because it shouldn't have been a meat cute. Spoiler. We said meat cute so many times. Meekut, meat cute. Starting to sound like meat hook or something. I couldn't feel, I didn't know the words that you were putting together. It's changed meaning to me now. So carry on. Yeah, so anyways, they met. And according to friends and family, they were total opposites. And there was also an 18 year.

age gap, he was 18 years older than her. All right. So David Parker Ray action. Yeah, you know, like, live your life. I mean, like, whatever, age gap's work sometimes. Like, who cares? Sarah, um, was a hard worker and people said she had a natural way with others. And she really honestly just seemed to be like a, like an all-round good person. Like, she just seems like really nice. So she's going to die, I assume. That's why I'm a bitch. No, I'm just kidding. I assume when you're like, you know what, she was just a really all-around nice person. I'm like, so she's not. here. Well, I'm also saying was. Yeah. Oh, that's true. Yeah. Yeah. All right. So people, people were really skeptical of their relationship because Harold slash Butch, which I'm just going to

refer to him as Butch for this point on. Yeah, I like that. Yeah, I like that. Even though every time I I was writing notes had auto-corrected to bitch, and I found it really funny. Uh, so yeah, he just really didn't seem like a good match for her. People said he lacked drive and ambition, and they didn't really know, like what Sarah saw on him. They were like, Sarah, like, you're fucking great. What are you doing with bitch? What are you doing with bitch? Totally kidding with But what are you doing with bitch? But despite all of this, they ended up getting married in 2001, I believe. That's so good. There's like very little information about this case. So, like, some of the details are a little like fuzzy. Fuzzy. Fuzzy. But I did my best. Fuzzy wuzzy details. So they got

married in 2001 is the year that I found. And everything was a fairy tale at first. A friend. It always is. Yeah. Let me tell you, buddy. It's always a fairy tale at first. A friend of Sarah said that they had picnic lunches. They kayaked all the time. Well, that's just bullshit. Yeah, that's actually not true. No. I mean, maybe they did.

They were older when they got married. That's crazy. That's crazy. I didn't know people actually had picnic lunches. That's nice. Well, like, picnics came from somewhere. Good for Sarah and Butch. Yeah.

Do your thing. Sarah and bitch. So they had picnic lunches. They kayaked together. They were both like really into kayaking. Wow. I mean, do your thing. And they also visited different lighthouses in Michigan and in Maine.

It's very specific. Yeah, they had very interesting interests. So Sarah's daughter, Roxanne Cameron Harris, said that her mother really loved Butch, but beneath all of that, there was another side to him. Uh-oh. I imagine it's not like a super goofy, silly side. No, he's not like super goofy and silly and also likes to kayak and likes to watch lighthouses. It's just not like that. Yeah, I don't see this going well.

Yeah. So she said that I'm like living this with you. I'm excited. It's really good. Yeah, this is fun. This is why I wanted to do it so you could feel the case instead of knowing what happened. I'm stressed.

And like the listeners, like, we're all on this bus together and I'm driving the bus. Oh, God. Everybody jump off. Listen, I'm not that bad of a driver. So she said that as a teen, Butch was not the friendliest stepdad to have. She felt like he wasn't supportive of anything she really did. And he could be condescending and that he picked fights with her and her sister when her mom wasn't around.

That's good. she said that he seemed to have a different personality or different personalities and that he was like dealing with two different people eke and she said quote something wasn't right with him it's always that's like the kiss of death something just wasn't right if it's not right leave something wasn't right with bitch and the friends and family who questioned what she saw and butch in the first place were starting to notice more issues in their relationship as time went on He barely went to work or even had a job. That's good.

He was apparently very possessive over her and controlled, like, everything, including who she talked to, the money he wasn't making, and, like, pretty much all of her life decisions. I don't see any problem so far. Carry on. Yeah, I mean, and she was, like, the total breadwinner, pretty much. So no one stepped in, though, because they knew that Sarah was happy and they knew that she loved Butch. Guys, always step in. Be the one that's annoying and says it. You just have to.

Yeah. Be that bitch. Be that bitch when there's a bitch. Yeah. So in 2007, things were not going smoothly anymore. Hashtag be that bitch. Yes. I'm going to use that when I post this.

You know what I just thought? Brittany wasn't the only one who broke down in 2007. Oh, man. Butch and Sarah's relationship broke down. This is an ash-centric episode. Wow. Wow. They had a brandy level meltdown.

That's good. Essentially. Sarah still loved Butch and she wasn't ready to give up on their marriage. So she came up with the idea that they should move to Maine. Because remember, they like to go look at Lighthouses there. It's like, you know what? We're going to fix this. We're going to move to Maine.

Where there's literally not shit to do. Nothing else to do. Except fucking snowmobile and ski. Well, I mean. But it's like we're starting to hate each other. Let's go somewhere where we're only going to have to focus. on each other. Yeah.

Well, Sarah tried. Sarah tried. So a bunch agreed, and they did the damn thing. They fucking moved to Maine. He did the damn thing. Sarah found a nursing job, and surprisingly, bitch got himself a job. Oh, hey, bitch.

Yeah. He got a day. He was driving box trucks for the hospital. All right. So Sarah got him the fucking job. They lived quietly for seven years. Okay. So they lived there before,

and so they lived there for seven. years before Sarah made a phone call to her daughter saying that she was leaving Butch in Maine and she was coming home to Michigan. Leaving this bitch in Maine. Hashtag, be that bitch. Hashtag leave that bitch. That's the moral of the story. It is.

So she came back to Michigan. She wasn't happy with the marriage anymore and she moved in with her daughter. Her daughter obviously knew something big had happened for Sarah to actually leave him, but she never found out what happened. Oh. Yeah. So. When I looked at you, I thought you were going to be like, and that's it.

Well, she never found out why she left in the first place. That's annoying. But then the daughter was cleaning one day and she found a letter from bitch-butch to Sarah. And the last line said, or one of the lines said, I'm doing the list of things you wanted me to do. So at this point, Roxanne realized that maybe the separation wasn't going to be for long. Okay. Like Sarah gave him some like, you have to change this, this, this, this and this. And he was like, I'm doing it.

Yes, exactly. So she was right. And soon enough, but she moved back to Michigan to be with Sarah. So no more main. Dirty John. Like it's got a dirty John vibe to it. It's Dirty John-esque. They bought a new home together and they moved back in together.

And nothing seemed to change really after that because Sarah was still working a ton and she was actually traveling from state to state for her job. And Butch was just being his usual deadbeat self. Like, didn't have a job. Like, also, like, what did he do all day? That's not, it's like, how? Like, what do you do? How?

Like, how do you not, you have all this time on your hands? And he was just, like, watching TV and his recliner, I feel. He's just hanging out being a bitch. I don't have proof of that, but I think he had a recliner for sure. Oh, yeah. Like, I want a recliner. He had a barque lounger. No hate on anybody that has one, but I'm just saying, but he definitely had one.

For sure. And it was one that was like a different color on the seat than the rest of the... And it was definitely... Like it was worn. It was definitely blue. Oh, yeah. Like light-ish blue. It was that blue, like quarter-rowy.

Is that blue? Then you're like, yeah, that's blue. Yeah. That shit's blue. That's what that was. This whole story is blue. It really is. So, January 11th, 2015.

Sounds like it's going to be a great day. 911 dispatch receives a call. Not a good start. The caller says, I strangled her, she's dead and laying on the living room floor. Woof. And when the 911 operator asked who's calling, like who, what's your name, the caller said, uh, that's not important.

I'm getting ready to leave the country, but we need to get law enforcement there to do whatever they do with dead bodies. What? The actual. Like what? non-shalant as fuck details stop asking me i didn't tell you it was butch you just said he oh i'm sorry she he they we're just like stop giving me the third degree just come get this dead body i'm not trying to have a combo i'm not trying to get to know you 911 operator i also don't know what you

do with the dead bodies but get here and do what you do with them get here and do what you do with them. So, unfortunately, authorities raced to the home and when they got inside saw Sarah laying on the living room floor. And they determined that she had been dead for two entire days before the call was made. Oh my. The call had been made from a burner phone in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Whoa. Authorities later found out that before the 911 call, 911 call was placed, a large sum of money had been taken out of Sarah and Butch's account, and then the account was closed on January 12th. This doesn't look fishy at all. No.

Everything seems really on the up and up here. Totally. Yeah. I don't know who this could be. Authorities also found out that Butch purchased a Glock 22, 40 caliber handgun with 40 rounds of ammunition. I mean, yeah, I don't see what these are all, we're grasping here. Yeah, like nothing's really. This is all just, this is just stuff. So, spoiler alert, Butch strangled his wife. Wow.

In case you didn't know yet. I am shocked. I thought you were going to say shooketh. I was not. I'm too old to say that. You say that sometimes. Shooketh? I say shook. I don't say shooketh though. That's like another level. I think whatever. You've never been Shooketh. I've been shook. I've been shook. I don't know. know if I've been shooketh. I'm close to be in shooketh. If you don't know when you're shooketh, you haven't been shooketh. Yeah, I haven't been shooketh. I don't think. So anyway, in the weeks following the murder, Butch was seen multiple times in Maine. And about two weeks after the murder, Carolyn Porter, Sarah's mother, received a package postmarked from Maine from none other than Butch himself.

Oh, no. She turned it over to the authorities because she was like, I'm not fucking opening that. She's like, you know what? Something smells and I don't want it. Yeah, no, don't want that. And a year after the murder, they finally revealed the contents, which included letters taunting the family, saying that he could get away with murder because he watched a lot of crime television. Wow. Like you and the rest of the world, Butch, I was just going to say, we've all seen at least three episodes of criminal minds. There are 400 separate like spin-offs of CSI that have been on since I was. I was just going to. I was just going to. I was. I was just going to say. We've all seen. We've all seen. We've all seen. There are. There are. There are. There are. There are. There are. There are. There are. There are. There are. There are. There are. There We've been was in like junior high since before i was born essentially the whole world is very fascinated by forensic work but that doesn't mean that we can all just go willy-nilly murdering we all watch him

but you can't go you can't go doing it no you can't go doing it you can't go doing it you can't sorry butch yeah it's just not okay so he also said that he killed sarah to do what i had to do drug sales incoming. Bitch? Bitch. What? So he claimed that he was selling drugs and that Sarah was a liability. But the police found no evidence.

But the weirder thing is that they found no evidence to support that he was selling drugs of any kind. So this dude is literally just making up this like entire, like he's watched too much narcos on. For sure. And he's watched too many forensic files. He's just watched too much TV because he didn't. have a job and he couldn't get out of his recliner. So he was at home watching oxygen and watching snapped. Fun fact, I actually found this through oxygen because Mama loves that network. So he got, he was watching snapped. Sure was. Amongst everything else that he left, this is the strangest thing

of all, he put $2,000 in there to cover the cost of Sarah being cremated because that's what she would have wanted. What a guy? What a gentleman. Like, thank you, bitch. That's a partner in life. That is. Someone who will send your loved ones, cash money, money to cremate your body

after you've murdered them. With your bare hands, essentially. I mean, that's what we all are looking for, right? That's what I would definitely put in my... We want white picket fence, we want sitting on the porch swing together. And we want to... Manila envelope full of cash to cremate our bodies sent to our loved ones after we're murdered by our husband.

That's all I can think of. That's the American dream. The dream. Yeah. Man. So, on January 31st, 2015, police in Farmington, Maine found Butch's car abandoned in a Walmart parking lot. He is also caught on surveillance, but with an altered appearance. His normal white hair and white mustache,

We're colored black. Ooh. So he's failing himself. So he's just, he's just gone over to the dark side. Literally. Yeah, he's just feeling himself. And then,

well, yeah. It's one thing to, like, dye your hair with, like, that, like, sell some blue stuff that's like, like the salt and pepper kind of thing. Yeah. It's a whole other. Like, I just want to look like I haven't,

you know, I'm aging gracefully. But to dye your hair black. Yeah, that's a lot. Like, wow. Wow. He went full Brittany. Wow, bitch. Wow, bitch.

In early February. however, U.S. Marshals were sent to a motel in Maine where the owner realized after seeing a photo of Butch that he'd been there previously under a different name. Oh, damn. Imagine finding that out later. Yeah, like not at the time. He was there. So he was there only four days after Sarah had been killed.

Oh, my God. And the owner thinks that he actually might have dyed his hair in that bathroom because there was color in the sink and on the pillowcases. So it seems like somebody... do that, but he was, he was doing it poorly. Well, and he did it, like, rudely. Yeah. Clean up your mess. Yeah. I bet he didn't even properly ventilate when he did it. Yeah, you got to open a window. You sure have to. You do. I know it. Yeah. He also recalled, the owner also recalled, asking Butch what he was doing while he was in Maine, like, oh, small talk, what do you up to?

Yeah. Why are you alone? Why are you all dressed in a camo, snowsuit? Just small talk. He was all dressed in a camo snow suit, by the way. That's fine. That's totally fine. Hey, live your best life. That's fine. And Butch said that he was snowmobiling. Yeah. But he didn't have a snowmobile with him. So if you're going to go ahead and like tell a cover-up story, then you should probably have the item with you that you claim to be using. That's like pulling up somewhere and being like, what are you doing my ear? And you're like, I'm raising giraffe. Is that what that's like? I'm grooming my zebras. Of course. Is this a zookeeper running from the law?

Like, what the fuck? I love it. I'm snowmobiling. Where's your snowmobile? I don't have one. So this is the end. Police believe that Butch might have gotten a ride to the border of Canada and made his way through.

To this day, he is still at large and one of Detroit's most wanted. Bitch! Bitch! And Sarah Porter's daughter wants everyone. to know that if he's ever found, she wants to see him standing in front of the judge in orange waiting to be put away. I don't blame her. She wants to have her day in court. Oh my God. And that is the murder of Sarah Porter. That is so sad. I know we're making a lot of jokes, but we're making a lot of jokes at bitch's expense. Not Sarah. Well, and it's just really sad because she like had her whole

shit together and she just like worked and supported his ass forever. And then what does she get in return? Um, strangled. And it's, well, and these things always make me crazy because it's like, you marry someone. And I did, and I just, like, obviously I just think of, you know, the one person that I am married to John. Yeah. And I'm like, I imagine someday if he was just totally a different part, like 100% not the person I've known this entire time. Like that, you should never have to worry about your spouse murdering you. That should never be something that comes into your brain that they might murder you. It's also just so fucked that he called the police like two days after he killed her. So chill.

Do whatever you do with bodies. With dead bodies. Like that's what he was thinking of his wife. Like his wife of years. Yeah. That's bananas. Do whatever you need to do with her. Bye.

Ew. Isn't that case really fucked up? And he's in Canada now, essentially, pretty much. Canada, get him. Well, they've sent like U.S. marshals there and stuff and they, he is nowhere to be found. Isn't that so bonkers? that somebody can just disappear. He's also like 71 too, so. So he's probably going to kick it soon anyway. I hope fucking so. When you've lived the kind of life he's lived, I'd hope you kick it early.

Yeah, definitely. I hope that they find him before he kicks. I know, I really, really hope they find him before he kicks it, because if he dies before that, her daughter gets justice. Well, and she has two daughters, but the one daughter is the one that seems to be like. That's such bullshit. And it's just so sad because they're, they're me cute was going to be. Yeah, they're me cute. Like she was taking care of a sick mom Yeah, like I was like, oh my God, what a way to meet. And I don't know if she, I couldn't find anything about how she was before, but she had two daughters. So obviously her first ordeal didn't work out either.

And then that's what she gets. And then she is like trying to go into another thing to, man. It was not really sad. Damn, I thought there was going to be an ending there where we could be like, bitch, but no. No ending. No, it's just like bitch. Bitch. Where are you in Canada?

Man. So yeah. Wow, that was good. I had not heard about that case. I know it was a quickie, but I just thought that it was like interesting. It's good. Hey, mini-sowed. Mini-sowed.

You never know how long these are going to be. You just don't know. You don't know. And I think you made it. Yeah, you'll make it to the half hour mark. Hey. Hey. You did it. I did it.

You did it. And I talked fast. So if I talked slower, I probably could have got to the 35-minute mark. So yeah, that was a good one. Thanks. Good job, Ash-centric. episode. Thanks. You can find me on Instagram at, no, I'm just kidding. Find me if you want to. You can find us on BBC Radio 4 on Saturdays. Last Saturdays episode at like the 43 minute mark.

Listen to it. Listen to it, guys. It's so fun. Shout out to our man. Humble brag. Elena told me and I sent her, do you say Jiff or GIF? GIF. I sent her a gif of me saying, like, don't touch me, peasant. Because I was like, don't touch me. I'm famous. You can tell that, like, things like this don't happen to us often, like people mentioning this because we're like, wow. I screamed in the break room at work in my boss. I was like, really? I was very excited. Yeah. And I was like, guys, I'm famous in Britain. And they were like, you're not, though. You're not. And I was like, no, I am. No, I totally. Listen to me. So I think that you'll be, you guys are going to be getting part two of the Black Dahlia next week.

Hey-ho. We're going to talk about all the suspects and theories and all that fun stuff. And you'll be getting another mini. Another mini. An Elena mini. And we're also going to be doing, I don't know if it's going to be next week. I'm not going to promise anything. We are going to be doing some bonus episodes for our Patreon donors in the very near future.

You're going to be getting those within the next couple weeks. For sure. And we won't do a movie. Yeah, we're thinking the next bonus episode we're going to do is going to be a case. We might even do two cases back-to-back. for bonus episodes and then a movie review. We're going to mix it up a little. So you guys, you know, you don't get bored because you guys are amazing for supporting us.

You seriously have done us wonders. So we want to make sure we give you some great stuff in return. We love the chesticles out of you. And also, people have been, like, really active on our Twitter and stuff lately. And I appreciate that, guys. It makes me very happy when I see it. I get really sick. Literally everything you guys do makes us happy.

Yeah. You have no idea. It's a point of reviews. Don't leave us one. Yeah, don't do that. Actually, guys. I have something to say. Oh, man. I'm just upset because our rating went down to 4.5.

It's because of those one stars that are like, the ones that are like, I hate that they talk. Yeah. Like, well, you shouldn't be listening to a podcast then. I was like, yeah. This is probably not the medium for you, I feel. Not for you, bud. We're not for everybody. But if you guys feel so inclined, yes.

Would you just leave us a review on iTunes? Yeah. Because honestly, recently, you guys have been like so helpful with that. We've got a lot of really good reviews recently on iTunes. People seem to be doing them. I just want to bump us back up to five stars. So if you haven't left a review and you feel it, you feel it in your heart that you want to leave us a positive review, I mean, I would prod you to go ahead and do that.

I would too. I'm not bribing you. We can bring our rating back up where it belongs because those one stars are all kind of bullshit. So, but honestly, recently, like, there's been a lot of activity on the Instagram and the Facebook and the Twitter and people just commenting and saying really funny things. and all the messages we're getting, which we're going to try to get to all our messages, we got really overwhelmed and backed up. But we're going to try to answer them, like, in slowly. You know, like, we're getting there.

We will absolutely respond to you guys. Every single one of them, just so you know. With our own four eyeballs. But, yeah, you guys have just been awesome lately, and we wanted to tell you how much we love you. So. I love you. I love you. That is it for our Ash-centric minisode.

Thanks for tuning in. And we'll see you next week. So we hope you keep listening. And we hope you keep it weird. But do not strangle your spouse. But not so weird that you strangle your wife. Yeah, not that weird, man. Not so weird that you flee to Canada.

There's a fine line. It's a weird line. Not so weird that you ruin your recliner. Bye. Blue Bark alone. You. Bye. Bye.