Dateline Season 3 Episode 40, titled Written in Blood dealt with the case of Karen Pannell, who was stabbed to death, and the letters ROC were found to be written by blood on the murder scene.
The official synopsis of the Dateline episode reads,
“A woman, Karen Pannell, is murdered and the letters "ROC" are found scribbled in the victim's blood. A dying declaration pointing to the suspect or something more sinister?”
As it turned out, it was Timothy Permenter, Karen Pannell’s then-boyfriend who killed her brutally. Let us now explore in detail who Karen Pannell was and what exactly led her to this unfortunate end as shown in Dateline.
Karen Pannell was a customer service supervisor with American Airlines
Karen Pannell was an American Airlines employee when she met Timothy Permenter. She and Permenter dated only for a few months before Karen was killed by him. She met him while buying a car at a dealership in Clearwater.
Karen had six brothers and had an outgoing personality. Her brother Randy Pannell had mentioned to the North Pinellas Times,
“Karen, being the only girl and the youngest, she was always very special to her brothers.”
Unfortunately, such a loving girl ended up with Permenter, who already had several criminal charges against him and that led to the end of her.
Timothy Permenter killed Karen Pannell by stabbing her
Only a few months after dating, Karen came to know of the criminal history of Permenter and naturally wanted to break up with him. On September 29, 2003, she also came to know that he had charges of attempted murder against him and had to serve time for that.
Then in October 2003, Karen was killed by Permenter at her residence in 2030 Montego Court. He had stabbed her 16 times, injuring her mainly around her heart and neck. However, to misguide the police, Permenter himself rang them up and informed them that he had come across Karen’s dead body when he came to visit her.
He also very cunningly wrote the letters ROC in blood, which referred to one of Karen’s former lovers to steer the investigation and suspicion his way. On his call to the police, Permenter sounded genuinely shaky and teary, which initially led them to believe that he was indeed innocent.
However, he soon emerged as a suspect and then, George Solomon, Permenter’s roommate also testified against him, saying,
“Tim came up to me and said he had killed Karen.”
He further added that while confessing his crime, Permenter appeared to be
“shaky, very shaky.”
With all this proof and other evidence, finally, after four years of Karen’s murder, Permenter was declared to be the killer. To this, Yvonne Pannell, Karen’s stepmother said,
“My heart goes out to her. I know his mother is in pain. And we've been in pain for four years.”
He was given life sentences without the possibility of getting parole. There was a discussion of giving him the death sentence as well given the brutal nature of the crime, but eventually, he was given a lifetime in prison.
Dateline can be streamed on Peacock.
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