A cruise ship captain has been detained for leading a double life after the murder of husband. She was exposed while renewing her mariner’s license.
What happened?
The 53-year old woman identified as Cynthia Lynn Knox, will spend three years in federal prison for stealing the identity of a dead baby to obtain U.S. passports, mariner’s licenses, and TSA credentials for the operation of her party yachts.
Since 1994, she paraded as Christina White, or “Captain Christina” to the revelers on her Houston-area luxury yachts. But her reign aboard the Royal Princess party ship would end soon after she applied to renew her license with the U.S. Coast Guard.
Suspected to have been involved in murder:
She is suspected to have been involved in the murder of her first husband Harold “Skeeter” Lyerla and was announced to be arrested in March 2016 by the federal prosecutors. They believe Knox and John Litchfield—her second husband and yacht business partner—are connected to Lyerla’s fatal stabbing in 1988.
Victor Perea, who was convicted of slaying the 29-year-old Lyerla, was a landscaper for Litchfield and lived on his ranch. At a 2012 parole hearing, Perea claimed Litchfield convinced him to do it and that he saw Knox’s car drive past when he fled the crime scene. When the feds interrogated Knox about her identity theft scheme, investigators from the Santa Barbara area arrived for questioning, too.
Relationship gone sour:
Harold “Skeeter” Lyerla, a motocross enthusiast met Cynthia Knox when he was competing in an event somewhere in California. They relocated to a Thousand Oaks apartment complex, where Knox caught the eye of a much older businessman as she lay by the swimming pool.
Sixteen years her senior, John Litchfield wooed her with flowers and promises of an acting and modeling career. He also bought her a flashy new Corvette—and a rented apartment near his ranch. Litchfield hired Knox to clean his house in 1986, and they had an affair, according to Pickarts.
Despite their romantic upheaval, Knox and Lyerla married in Las Vegas in July 1987. Their baby girl, Kajsa, arrived nine months later.
First husband’s murder:
As their marital strife continued, Cynthia Knox and Harold “Skeeter” Lyerla separated in the months after their daughter was born in April 1988. Cynthia and baby Kajsa moved in with Litchfield, a moneyed investor with a ranch in Agoura Hills, and Skeeter stayed at their Lompoc residence. In November 1988, Lyerla was found dead, he was 29 years old at the time of his death.
Lyerla died of a fatal stab to the back, a thrust that pierced his liver and diaphragm before reaching his heart.
Investigators caught onto the killer, Victor Perea, after finding a bloody kitchen knife and single fingerprint in the sink. Perea was a landscaping contractor who worked on Litchfield’s property and worked for him.
The landscaper was convicted of Lyerla’s murder in May 1989 and sentenced to 56 years behind bars. (During a 2012 parole hearing, Perea claimed that Litchfield gave him $4,000 to kill Lyerla and that Litchfield convinced him that Lyerla was an abuser.
Soon after the trial began, Litchfield proposed to Knox with a $12,500 diamond ring and they got hitched. Then Knox disappeared and thereby avoided being subpoenaed to testify in her first husband’s murder case.
Daughter found dead:
Two months later, Knox and Litchfield divorced. And Knox and Lyerla’s daughter was found dead. Kajsa Lyerla, only 15 months old, had drowned in a shallow pond at the Santa Barbara residence of her maternal grandparents in July 1989.
Harold Lyerla’s mother, Marilyn Marks, believed Kajsa’s death was no accident, however.
In 1990, Marks filed a lawsuit against Knox, Litchfield, and others alleging the wrongful death of her son and granddaughter.
An amended complaint accused the defendants of violations of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act—alleging that they conspired to kill the father and daughter for life insurance payouts.
Those checks totaled $278,520, according to the complaint, filed in the Superior Court of California in Santa Barbara County.
The lawsuit claims that Lyerla’s former employer advised Knox that her 8-month-old daughter was a co-beneficiary under her deceased hubby’s life insurance policies and that the girl was was entitled to receive $139,260.
Shockingly, the complaint alleges that Knox tried to kill her own daughter three times after this revelation—an allegation Knox’s attorney denied.
In November 1988, Knox administered an overdose of Advil in an attempt to kill Kajsa, but she survived, the lawsuit alleges.
In January 1989, the mother placed Kajsa in a bathtub full of water in an attempt to drown her and obtain the baby’s life insurance proceeds, court papers allege.
After Kajsa’s death, Knox received $25,000 from a third life insurance policy, the lawsuit claims.
The lawsuit also accused Knox of fraudulently obtaining widow’s benefits from the Social Security Administration while she was married to Litchfield—and as misrepresenting her finances and marital status to obtain educational loans.
Transition as a Captain:
Litchfield and Knox stuck together, even after they divorced following Perea’s trial. They moved to the Houston area together and launched a yacht charter and dinner cruise business in 1994. Their fleet grew to include yachts for weddings, with the waters of Clear Lake and Galveston Bay as a backdrop.
But Knox wasn’t known by her real name. At her company, Majestic Ventures, everyone knew her as Christina White.
Randy Pruitt, who owns CRP Marine, told that Knox—known to him as Christina White—was “very competent.”
As Christina White, Knox had easily obtained and renewed her mariner’s license four times over the span of 15 years. She also successfully acquired TSA documentation for entry into secure port areas.
When “Christina White” reapplied for her U.S. passport in 2015 and her mariner’s license last year, the feds began probing her true identity. Authorities checked her fingerprints and linked them to prints taken as part of Lyerla’s murder investigation.
As part of the probe, retired Lompoc detective Heidt identified a photo of “Christina White” as Cynthia Knox.
Stole a dead baby’s identity:
According to court papers, Knox obtained a copy of a birth certificate for a Christina White in July 1992 and used it to obtain a Social Security number under that name.
The real Christina White, however, was born in June 1965 in Santa Ana, California, and died the same day, and thus did not have a Social Security number.
After snagging the birth certificate, Knox obtained a driver’s license in Arizona using the stolen identity, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Houston.
Knox was arrested in March 2016 and admitted she was not Christina White but said someone else obtained White’s birth certificate for her. That month, she pleaded guilty to charges of making false statements in a passport application and aggravated identity theft.
In July, Knox was sentenced to 12 months for the phony passport and 24 months for identity theft. After her three-year sentence in federal prison, she will have one year of supervised release.
As the feds questioned Knox about her identity theft, California investigators flew to Texas to interrogate her about Lyerla’s death.
When asked why Litchfield and Knox divorced shortly after Perea’s trial, Floyd said the couple rushed to get married and it didn’t work out.
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Source: The Daily Beast
