On the early morning of January 15, 2015, Scott Allan Knopfel, 50, was working as the night manager at the Drury Inn & Suites near Interstate 44 and Hampton Avenue in St. Louis when a stranger entered the lobby just before 3:00 a.m. The visitor spoke with Knopfel, then produced a handgun, jumped over the front desk, and demanded money. While Knopfel tried to open the register a struggle followed and the assailant shot him in the chest and head. Knopfel died at the scene despite emergency response.

Surveillance footage showed the suspect hiding the weapon before the attack and leaving in a black Honda with under one hundred dollars taken. Investigators identified Joseph Bowens of Poplar Bluff and recovered a jacket from his residence with Knopfel’s DNA; Knopfel’s DNA also was found on Bowens’ hands. Bowens was charged, tried, and convicted; family members at sentencing remembered Knopfel as a charismatic man who had worked for TWA and returned to hospitality because he liked helping people.

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