Investigators cited neck marks, a hospital interview, a child’s 911 call and unanswered text messages.
LITTLE CHUTE, Wis. — Police say visible injuries, a child’s emergency call and phone messages helped support felony charges against an Appleton man accused of strangling his girlfriend during a bedroom argument.
Rudolf Knapp, 59, was charged in Outagamie County with attempted first-degree intentional homicide, strangulation, substantial battery and disorderly conduct. The charges followed a late Sunday response by Fox Valley Metro police to a home in the 1500 block of Vandenbroek Road. Officers found an injured woman who later told investigators she had been choked until she went in and out of consciousness. Knapp denied trying to kill her and said he had acted in self-defense. Police said the physical evidence and statements collected in the hours after the incident did not support key parts of his account.
The first evidence officers noted was on the woman’s body. When police arrived, she was holding a bag of frozen food to her right eye. Officers also saw a bloody mouth and red marks on her neck, according to the criminal complaint. Those observations came before the woman gave a full statement. She did not want to discuss what had happened while her son was nearby, and she initially declined medical care. A friend later brought her to a hospital. There, she told police she and Knapp had been in bed eating gelato when an argument began. She said she did not recall the reason for the argument, but she remembered Knapp above her with his hands around the front of her neck.
The woman’s hospital statement described a loss of air and control. She said she could not breathe or speak and went in and out of consciousness. She told police she thought she was going to die. Investigators treated those statements as central to the attempted homicide count because the allegation involved pressure to the neck, reported loss of consciousness and fear of death. The complaint does not identify the woman by name. Police later said she had been released from the hospital. Her statement also included a request that Knapp be arrested so she could “feel safe,” a phrase investigators included in the complaint.
The second evidence path began with the emergency call. Police said the woman’s son called dispatchers at about 11:45 p.m. Sunday and reported that his mother was “screaming for help.” He said an unknown male was choking her. Dispatchers then heard screaming in the background, and the boy stopped responding to questions. When officers later spoke with him, he said he had heard a commotion in his mother’s bedroom and then heard her screaming. He entered the room and saw a man on top of her. The boy said he yelled at the man, asking who he was and what he was doing in the home. Police said the man was later identified as Knapp.
The third trail came from what happened after Knapp left. Police said he put on his coat and drove away in a Mercedes-Benz before officers reached the house. Investigators later reviewed the woman’s phone with her permission. They said it contained several unanswered messages from Knapp. One said he did not know how he had lost control and called himself “evil and sick.” Another thanked her for “one last good day.” Police said the messages also included suicidal threats. A friend of Knapp later told investigators that Knapp had confessed to the assault and made suicidal comments. Officers went to Knapp’s home, but he refused to answer the door.
Knapp later appeared at the Outagamie County Sheriff’s Office with a report of his own. Police said he told investigators he had been drugged and assaulted. His account included claims that the woman had given him hydroxyzine after church on Easter and had put Xanax in a soda. He said that when they went to bed, she began swinging a box cutter or razor blade while screaming about child custody. Knapp said he “had no other option” but to strangle her because she was going to kill him. Police questioned him about cuts on his body and told him they were not consistent with the struggle he described or the woman’s version.
The complaint also records statements in which Knapp spoke about his mental health and denied an intent to kill. Asked whether he was trying to kill the woman, he said no. “I just wanted her to stop hurting me,” Knapp said, according to the complaint. “I was just so tired of being hurt by everybody.” He also called himself “a monster.” Those statements are likely to matter as the case moves forward because attempted first-degree intentional homicide requires prosecutors to prove intent. At the same time, the strangulation and battery counts focus on the alleged physical acts and injuries described in the complaint.
Knapp was charged Tuesday after the Sunday night incident and made an initial court appearance April 7. A judge set his cash bond at $500,000. Local reports said a preliminary hearing date was not immediately set. At that hearing, prosecutors would not need to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, but they would need to show probable cause that a felony was committed and that Knapp probably committed it. If the case moves beyond that stage, the defense could contest the state’s evidence, including the meaning of Knapp’s messages, the source of his injuries and his self-defense claim.
Fox Valley Metro police described the matter as an attempted homicide investigation after first reporting an attack on a woman. Lt. Mark Wery said violence causes serious physical and emotional harm and undermines family safety. The department said the woman had been hospitalized and released. The public record does not say whether investigators recovered a box cutter, razor blade, Xanax or other physical items tied to Knapp’s claims. It also does not state whether toxicology tests were performed. Those gaps leave some questions for later court filings, but the complaint presents the woman’s injuries, the boy’s call and Knapp’s texts as the main foundation of the case.
Rudolf Knapp remained in custody after the initial appearance as the case awaited further scheduling in Outagamie County court. The next milestone is expected to be a preliminary hearing or related court filing setting the path for the felony charges.
Author note: Last updated April 29, 2026.