Kriti Mehrotra
In the evening of September 15, 2014, the town of Pickering in Ontario, Canada, was left baffled to the core as Carmela Knight’s remains were recovered from her home. The 39-year-old mother of 2 was found after neighbors had dialed 911 upon seeing raging flames over her garage, but it was already too late, as explored in NBC’s ‘Dateline: Fire & Ice.’ What followed were extensive investigations, eventually leading to an unwitting confession from an accomplice and authorities then finally identifying the killer as her husband, David Knight.
David and Carmela Knight Were in the Process of a Divorce at the Time of Her Death
David Knight and Carmela Knight had fallen head over heels in love before tying the knot sometime in the late 1990s. The couple subsequently settled into a 4-storey home in Pebblestone Crescent, near Finch Avenue and Dixie Road, in Pickering, Ontario, where they welcomed two adorable sons. They appeared to be an idyllic family from the outside, especially with the way they always seemed enthusiastic and supportive of one another. This ranged from his career as a Project Manager in construction to her working at a local TD Bank to their sons’ passion for hockey. In fact, they were often deemed typical suburban hockey parents with how they showed up for games.
However, despite David and Carmela owning their home and another property in Indian Rocks Beach, Florida, the reality of their financial and familial situation was very different. That’s because they had been having monetary troubles by the time 2014 rolled around, and were even living in different bedrooms because she had filed for divorce after 15 years of marriage. According to records, the mother of two had learned that her husband was having an affair with a woman in Florida named Jill Hartman around a year and a half prior, via photos on his phone.
Carmela had decided to give David a second chance at the time, once he promised to end the extramarital relationship, but things changed the moment she realized he was still seeing his mistress. Although he allegedly “begged her” to stay by asserting he could change, she moved forward with filing for divorce, the ensuing proceedings of which initially seemed amicable from both sides. We assert initially because, per the ‘Dateline’ episode, the construction professional was soon allegedly badmouthing his estranged wife to anyone who would hear, even if they didn’t believe him.
David Knight Quickly Came Under Suspicion For Murder Because He Had a Financial Motive
When Carmela’s remains were recovered from the garage of the home she shared with her estranged husband and their two kids following a blazing fire, officials quickly tracked them down. It turned out the trio had been at a hockey rink, with David revealing they had left their residence at around 3:30 pm, gone to McDonald’s, and then arrived at the icy complex for practice. He asserted they had been there for hours, a claim supported by surveillance footage, and according to detectives, even his reaction to the tragic news of what had transpired seemed genuine.
Nevertheless, once it came to light that Carmela’s death was not an accident but a homicide from blunt force trauma, they looked in all possible directions to ensure they left no stone unturned. That’s when they uncovered that David had recently taken out two life insurance policies worth over $800,000 on his estranged wife and had reportedly even stopped paying their mortgage. When the bank employee had learned about the latter, she’d immediately filed for full emergency custody of their kids, the hearing of which was scheduled to take place three days after her death.
As investigations continued, officials also alleged that David had cheated his ex-business partner out of $200,000, but they couldn’t question him because he had lawyered up. They thus suspected he had something to do with his estranged wife’s murder, and his reported plan to quickly relocate to Florida to start a brand new construction business didn’t help either. Police alleged that he forged documents to attain a new passport when his original was seized by police, and his brother had also moved there after reportedly telling his wife he could’ve stopped the incident.
Related
David Knight is Spending a Life Term in Prison Today
David’s brother, Matthew “Matt” Knight, provided detectives with the lead they needed to resolve the case, leading them to Graham MacDonald. The latter was a contractor who had previously done some work at the Pebblestone Crescent house, and he was reportedly also close friends with both brothers. Per Matt’s wife, Heather, in a police interview, when they had received the news about the fire, her husband rushed out of the home, not to David but to Graham. However, when questioned, he refused to cooperate. Even Graham claimed he was innocent, telling investigators he had visited his grandmother before taking the train home from Toronto on the fateful evening.
When his alibi couldn’t be verified, he claimed it was possible he had the details wrong, as he had been “smoking crack that night” and couldn’t recall much. In the end, it took months and an elaborate ruse for officials to get a breakthrough, with Graham confessing to the crime to an undercover detective posing as someone with a reputation for fixing legal problems. As per Graham’s confession, David had offered him $100,000 and a new life in Florida to remove his estranged wife from the picture, so he had carried out the murder.
Graham said he hadn’t received any payment by that point, though, so a sting was set up, during which David was caught paying him $5,000 for the murder for hire scheme on camera. As a result, both of them were arrested in February 2015 and ultimately convicted of first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder, and arson. They were subsequently handed down a sentence of life in prison with the possibility of parole after 25 years. So, today, at the age of 52, David remains incarcerated in a prison in Ontario, Canada.
