In the spring of 2022, Alexander Renner, a 37-year-old male, was staying with a man named David Knotts at a home on Vienna Drive NE in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Renner was last seen walking into the house in May. On May 4, the two men got into an altercation that ended when Knotts fatally shot Renner in the head. After the shooting, Knotts wrapped Renner's body in a rug and left it hidden in the garage of the residence.
For months, Alexander Renner’s fate was a mystery.
His family, unable to contact him, reported him as a missing person in June 2022. As the summer went on, neighbors on Vienna Drive noticed a foul odor coming from the home where Knotts lived, but they believed at first that it was just trash. Meanwhile, the Albuquerque Police Department continued to investigate Renner’s disappearance.
By September, detectives learned that David Knotts was the primary suspect. They secured a search warrant for his home, and on September 22, 2022, they made a grim discovery. Inside the garage, officers found the decomposed remains of Alexander Renner, still rolled up in the rug where he had been left nearly five months earlier. The investigation quickly solidified, and police determined Knotts was responsible for Renner’s death.
On December 13, 2022, police arrested 52-year-old David Knotts. He was booked into the Metro Detention Center and charged with an open count of murder and tampering with evidence. The case concluded in January 2024, when Knotts pleaded no contest to voluntary manslaughter and failure to report a death. He was sentenced to six years in prison for the killing of his roommate.
