Anna Knutson
Appearances
Dateline NBC
Murder in Minot
I felt like for a long time, and I still am, I'm like very hyper aware of like where I'm at, who's around.
Dateline NBC
Murder in Minot
We're not forgetting about this. We weren't going to give up. She wouldn't have. We weren't going to.
Dateline NBC
Murder in Minot
Butte is a tiny little town. It's, I mean, eight streets. Eight streets. Eight streets, 50 people. Tiny, tiny. Tiny, yeah.
Dateline NBC
Murder in Minot
I mean, it's such a close-knit community. It's really amazing. All over town, there's all these little pink ribbons tied up. You could drive by and it wouldn't be weird to see a pink bow tied to a light post type of thing.
Dateline NBC
Murder in Minot
I think just how many people were there to celebrate my sister. I mean, she truly was so well-loved. I mean, the whole church was full. They ended up having to open up the gym at the school for all of the overflow people. And they watched it like on a stream. Did you speak that day? I did, yeah.
Dateline NBC
Murder in Minot
I got up there and just said a few words about my sister and just talked about how just effervescent she was and beautiful and perfect, really. I think I wore one of Anita's dresses to her funeral.
Dateline NBC
Murder in Minot
Yeah, I mean, tons of whispers all the time. That's, you know, people never stop whispering. But yeah, constant, you know, Nicole's name, of course, has always been, never not been in the mix.
Dateline NBC
Murder in Minot
Yeah, I think that's kind of all I can say. It's so quiet. My dad was a mayor for 12 years in Butte. My friends would come over and have sleepovers, and my dad, the mayor, would wake us up to go hang up the holiday decorations on Main Street. It wasn't that fun.
Dateline NBC
Murder in Minot
I, like, turned around, and, like, it was just wild. It was just wild behavior for an adult.
Dateline NBC
Murder in Minot
Yeah, I mean, I think for me, anyone and everyone is a suspect. Even her friends? Yeah.
Dateline NBC
Murder in Minot
She and my mom talked like every single day on the phone. Even when she went to college? Yeah, even when she went to college, she was always, yeah, calling my mom. She was such a hard worker, but she still made time for her friends and for her family.
Dateline NBC
Murder in Minot
Yeah, I definitely thought that. And I would certainly email the Minot Police Department, like, hey, where are things at?
Dateline NBC
Murder in Minot
And I knew almost immediately that something was wrong. Like, this is the second phone call I've gotten where somebody's coming to pick me up. It was, like, almost, like, the same exact scenario. Very realistic. And I call Zach. And I'm like, what's going on? And I'm like yelling at him kind of on the phone. And he tells me on the phone that Daniel has passed away. And I just dropped to my knees.
Dateline NBC
Murder in Minot
I just felt like my whole body just kind of like fell away in that moment. Yeah, and my brother Daniel died by suicide.
Dateline NBC
Murder in Minot
Daniel, too, just like Anita, was so vibrant and just like a total light. I mean, the two of them, I mean, just like people could only dream of having that, just the brilliance that they had.
Dateline NBC
Murder in Minot
Yeah, I mean, he got a giant tattoo on his arm of one of her senior photos, and he was just different after she passed. Just different. He just maybe didn't hold on to joy in the same way.
Dateline NBC
Murder in Minot
The person whomever, you know, killed my sister also, you know, certainly was a catalyst for Daniel making the choice that he made.
Dateline NBC
Murder in Minot
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I mean, it's like, we're not forgetting about this.
Dateline NBC
Murder in Minot
I mean, I just felt so, I think, shocked, but also so angry. There's a person who they're arresting who has gotten to live her life very normally for the last 15 years. She's done these things that are so normal, and my sister didn't get a chance to do any of that.
Dateline NBC
Murder in Minot
Going through this the very first time as a 15-year-old person and then going through this again through the trial, it still felt like somebody had just died, like my sister had died a second time.
Dateline NBC
Murder in Minot
It was scary, I mean, because anybody and everybody is a suspect to me.
Dateline NBC
Murder in Minot
They came in and told us, like, we have a verdict. And the state's attorney was like, you know, no matter which way this goes, like, we need you to keep your reactions under control.
Dateline NBC
Murder in Minot
They told that to us, yes, yeah. He was, like, very intentional. And then we all, like, kind of start walking up. And I'm just, like, my hands, even now, I, like, are so clammy. I'm, like, shaking.
Dateline NBC
Murder in Minot
Can you calm down a little bit, please? I want to forget how their screams sound so much. Like, but they're just, like, in my brain, like, burned into my mind.
Dateline NBC
Murder in Minot
Just that she was so beautiful, like inside and out. So smart. Brilliant, really.
Dateline NBC
Murder in Minot
Daniel comes to pick me up and I get in the car and I could tell he'd been crying. Like something was very wrong. And I was like, well, what's going on? And he's like, and I can't tell you.
Dateline NBC
Murder in Minot
This is, of course, my first time with any type of grief at this level. But I learned about myself in that moment. Like, I don't want people around. I don't want people coming in to ask me if I'm okay every five seconds, especially people that don't know me.
Dateline NBC
Murder in Minot
Yeah, Southern California is such, it's obviously very different than North Central, North Dakota, for sure. For Anita, I think it was really hard. I mean, friendship was so important to her and leaving all of her friends behind. And I mean, it was a tough age too.
Dateline NBC
Murder in Minot
I mean, we went from being, you know, like being in a school where lots of kids look like us to being in a school where we're the only three black and brown kids there is pretty, jarring, to say the least. How did she overcome that? You know, I think for Anita, she was always good with challenges. Like, there was really nothing that she couldn't make it through.