A local man, Benjamin Knell, age 40, was found by a friend on September 22 at mile marker 34 north of Fallon on Hwy 95, dead from wounds suffered in an explosion.
“We received a report of a subject found in the desert who had not been reported missing,” said Sheriff Richard Hickox, who said at the time, that his office believed the situation to be an accident and not intentional.
New information has come to light recently, which Hickox confirmed yesterday, that the investigation into Knell’s death led to the issuance of two search warrants on September 22, one for Knell’s official residence of record, 261 Serpa Place where he lived with his parents, Geoff and Dorothy Knell, along with another residence where Ben Knell kept a trailer at Tom’s Trailer Court on South Taylor Street.
Hickox confirmed on Tuesday, Oct 27, that the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were in Fallon on Sept 22, to assist with the investigation, as well as the Naval Criminal Investigative Service and the Drug Enforcement Administration. He confirmed that chemicals and explosives were found at the South Taylor residence, as well as in a shop in the back yard at Serpa Place. Additionally, sources said, and the Sheriff confirmed there is a 10’ by 12’ hole under the shop on Serpa Place.
Hickox’s office is still processing the electronic data that was collected from the Serpa Place residence. “We don’t know where the investigation will go, we are still processing all the electronic data we collected.”
Geoff Knell, Ben’s father, has a long history of “street preaching” in Fallon, often stationing himself near the high school or middle school where he calls children to repentance, engaging in threatening arguments with students. He also regularly attends local government meetings where he accuses elected officials of being “ungodly” and has said on several occasions, “I will do whatever it takes to stop you.”
Dave Murphy was a friend of Ben Knell who often went into the desert with him where they would “play with organic elements.” Murphy explained it was their hobby, but there is a grey area around the federal licensing of pyrotechnics and explosions. “What we liked to do is go out to the desert, we called it ‘recycling’ and we would take garbage we found out in the desert, and we would set up a binary target, which was an explosive, and we would shoot it and watch everything turn to dust.” Murphy said Ben was teaching him to shoot long range. “I was never able to hit my targets outside a hundred yards, but he was trying to work me up to a thousand yards.”
According to Murphy, he and Ben would create a target out of various chemicals or organic elements and then use that as a target for their shooting practice. They would use ammonium nitrate and aluminum powder, mixed into a container, and then shoot a bullet at that target. “The bullet hits the container, causing a chemical reaction of discomposure and it causes rapid expansion,” he said. “It’s Tannerite, but its homemade.”
Tannerite is the brand name of a binary explosive target used for firearms practice and sold in kit form. “You can buy Tannerite in the store, but we just found the recipes and started doing our thing to save money,” said Murphy. “We did take it a step further and started adding other components and getting different colors, and clouds, and sparks. We liked to call ourselves amateur scientists. He taught me a lot more science than I ever learned in school.”
Kat Allen, also a close friend of Ben Knell said he was “kind of addicted to doing explosives. He would gear up and go do it, but I guess he was just not careful this last time.” She said he had just turned 40 and once told her he had never had a birthday party, “so I threw him a birthday party, I’m so glad we got to do that for him. He was a really good guy, he would do anything for anybody. You should have seen the way his mom looked at him, she loved him so much.”
Allen said she was surprised that Geoff Knell left town to go on a trip right after Ben died. “He’s gone all the time; he flies all over the United States doing his thing that he does here in town. He left right after Ben died on a trip, so Ben’s mom was left to grieve all by herself.”
Both Allen and Murphy said Ben was one of the best people they’ve ever known. “He was such a confidence builder for anybody that he was around,” said Murphy.
At the Churchill County School Board meeting on Wednesday night, Geoff Knell was in attendance and spoke during public comment. “It’s amazing how corrupted the school boards are…its nothing but brainwashing our children. It’s terrible that our children in this county are being directed in a certain way…my child who died recently is part of your conditioning.”
Sheriff Hickox is urging the public to “be diligent and pay attention to people who are doing dangerous acts.”
This remains an ongoing investigation and we will continue to update the public as more information is released.
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