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For decades, St. Anthony Police were aware of John Allen Knutson's battle with mental illness. He'd broken neighbors' windows, damaged a Schwan's delivery truck and unleashed verbal threats.
"He'd be treated for his mental illness and get better and be brought back home and he'd be fine," Lt. Jeff Scholl said Saturday. "There would be years nothing would happen and we wouldn't hear from him, but every now and then he has bad days and there would be occasional flare-ups."
Knutson (pictured), 61, remains in the Hennepin County jail after police, assisting social service workers, found the decomposed body of a 58-year-old woman July 10 in the house they shared. Police were waiting for the Hennepin County Medical Examiner to positively identify the body and determine how she died, but they believe the dead woman is Dolly Koch.
"We have a concern with Dolly and we haven't located her," Scholl said.
Police were called to the house last month, about three weeks ago, when Koch had fallen and Knutson needed assistance lifting her up. Scholl believes she had been dead for more than two weeks and neighbors described an odor coming from the house.
For more than five years, Scholl said police would often see the couple walking through the community. Dolly would usually wave.
"John would be hot and cold and very unpredictable," said Scholl, who has been aware of Knutson's mental health issues for 25 years. "Sometimes, he talks to you and other times he doesn't want anything to do with you."
With garbage and filth piled up inside, police wore special suits to enter the house on the 3100 block of Bell Avenue NE. Scholl said the body was found in a living area, but declined to discuss more specifics or whether there were signs of foul play. Authorities have until noon on Monday to charge Knutson. He was cooperative when police took him away.
Scholl said neither Knutson nor Koch have many family members in the area. Knutson's sister on Saturday would say only that the state has all her brother's mental health records.
Beth Haller, Ph.D., is Co-Director of the Global Alliance for Disability in Media and Entertainment (www.gadim.org). A former print journalist, she is a member of the Advisory Board for the National Center on Disability and Journalism (https://ncdj.org/). Haller is Professor Emerita in the Department of Mass Communication at Towson University in Maryland, USA. Haller is co-editor of the 2020 "Routledge Companion to Disability and Media" (with Gerard Goggin of University of Sydney & Katie Ellis of Curtin University, Australia). She is author of "Representing Disability in an Ableist World: Essays on Mass Media" (Advocado Press, 2010) and the author/editor of Byline of Hope: Collected Newspaper and Magazine Writing of Helen Keller (Advocado Press, 2015). She has been researching disability representation in mass media for 30+ years. She is adjunct faculty in the Disability Studies programs at the City University of New York (CUNY) and the University of Texas-Arlington.
From the Star-Tribune:
