Matawan Man Admits To Killing Father, Hiding Body In Basement

MATAWAN, NJ —A Matawan man admitted to killing his father and then hiding the body in the home the men shared, Monmouth County Prosecutor Raymond Santiago announced Thursday.

Kenneth H. Knapp Jr., 32, pleaded guilty Tuesday to charges of first-degree aggravated manslaughter and second-degree desecration of human remains.

This happened in May of 2022: Shortly after 12 p.m. on May 1, 2022, a Sunday, Matawan Police went to the home, on the 200 block of Matawan Avenue, for a welfare check on the father, 58-year-old Kenneth Knapp, Sr.

This was after friends and family members had been unsuccessful in contacting him over the previous week.

In the home’s basement, officers located Knapp’s body, wrapped and bound inside a tarp, hidden inside a large plastic container. Police say Knapp, a former collegiate wrestler, had assaulted and killed his father in the home’s bathroom a week earlier before hiding his body in the basement.

The cause of death was blunt-force trauma, according to the autopsy.

He was taken into custody in Somerset County on Friday, August 19, 2022.

He will be sentenced April 18, 2024, and the Monmouth County Prosecutor said it will ask for 30 years in prison.