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had reached his mid-teens and was hanging out with all the wrong types.
    Neighbor Sean Martin grew up with the entire Knorr family from the mid-seventies up until when Theresa Knorr sold the house in 1982. He witnessed dozens of odd incidents, but the death of his dog Bijou is a typical example of how rumors could quickly spread about the “weird” Knorr family.
    It all began when Bijou nipped youngest daughter Terry on her leg one time when she was teasing him in the front yard of Sean’s home. Terry—eleven at the time—was not that bothered about the injury, but Theresa Knorr was convinced the dog had rabies, and she reported Sean and his family to the SPCA and got the dog quarantined for a month.
    Bijou was actually released from quarantine after only four days because he was given a complete clean bill of health. The next day Sean walked into the backyard and found the animal dead.
    No one knows who killed the dog, but Sean believes it was poisoned. The incident went down in Bellingham folklore as gossip flew around that Theresa Knorr had killed the dog. But no one ever proved if the story was true.
    The Knorr house in Orangevale had a strangely designed interior. The orange and white drapes were thumbtacked to the wall, and there were just bare lightbulbs—no lamp shades.
    The furnishing inside the house consisted of a very basic leaf table with six chairs around it. One tatty couch. But there were no knickknacks or posters or pictures on the walls, and the TV was on constantly. The carpet was a dreadful, sickly, pea-green color. It seemed as if personal touches were nonexistent inside the Knorr family home.
    Sean Martin—now twenty-four, and working as a doorman at one of Sacramento’s biggest sports bars by night while going to school during the day—got into trouble with Robert one time when they were just twelve years old. The two boys stole hundreds of dimes out of a neighbor’s house.
    After being caught, both boys accused each other of committing the evil deed. Sean’s mother marched him down to her neighbor’s house to apologize for stealing. Then she took him to the Knorrs.
    On their arrival at the house, the front door opened and there was a stench of marijuana wafting onto the porch. One of the Knorr children hollered for their mother, but was ordered to slam the door shut, and Sean’s mother never did actually get to talk to Theresa Knorr about their respective sons’ illicit behavior.
    Sean frequently heard screaming and pounding on the walls while playing on the sidewalk near the house. But instead of reporting the noises, he just tried to avoid going near the house. Other neighbors commented on the noises, but they also did nothing.
    On other occasions, Sean heard streams of profanities coming from Theresa Knorr inside the house. It surprised him that an avid Bible reader should use such foul language.
    Sean only ever got to talk to Theresa Knorr during her rare trips out to the local store when she would walk past his front yard. The conversation was always brief and ineffectual. Theresa Knorr—whose weight had soared beyond the 200-pound mark by this time—would waddle up the street with her long dark hair down to her waist and wearing a vast pair of bell-bottom pants. She looked like a huge, fat version of the lady out of the Addams Family, he remembered years later.
    Sean also suspected some sort of devil worshiping going on inside the Knorr house. It coincided with the time the children were made to shave their heads by their mother and wear certain types of clothes. But once again, no one did anything to bring the family to the attention of the authorities.
    Not surprisingly, the Knorr children never wanted to go home when they were out playing with their friends.
    Terry and Billy Bob were constantly around Sean’s home, which had become known locally as the “Kool-Aid house” because it was such a relaxed place. The Knorr children stayed there for meals and told their friends they