In the quiet, affluent community of Lake Hopatcong, New Jersey, the lives of Alita Knott and her family took a devastating turn. On the morning of July 6, 2014, police responded to a call at their Log Road home to find a grim scene. Inside, 47-year-old Alita Knott and her husband, 45-year-old Julian Knott, were found deceased. The female victim was of Filipino descent.
Investigators from the Morris County Prosecutor's Office and the Jefferson Township Police Department quickly determined the sequence of events. Their investigation revealed that Julian Knott had shot his wife multiple times before turning the gun on himself in a murder-suicide. Authorities found no evidence of a home invasion and assured the public that there was no wider threat to the community. A motive for the tragic act was not publicly disclosed.
The couple had moved to the United States from London a few years prior for Julian's career.
He was an executive director for JPMorgan, a position he had been promoted to after a long career with the company. Alita had previously owned a nursery school in West Sussex, England, and at the time of her death, was working as a real estate agent. Friends and acquaintances expressed their shock on social media, with many remembering Julian as a kind and gentle person.
The couple left behind three children: a college-aged daughter and two teenage sons. In a poignant online tribute, their daughter expressed her heartbreak over her parents' deaths, writing that she found some solace in knowing they were 'now stress-free in a much better place' and would be 'angels watching over' her and her brothers. As the perpetrator in Alita Knott's death was her husband, who also died at the scene, no arrests were made.
