A Mother’s Silence, A Child’s Cry: The Case Against Johnny Knuckles

0:00 Welcome everyone to Podcast 69 South, where we cuss and discuss true crime, code cases, current events, and hot topics, along with our state of society today. This is your trigger warning. Our podcast content is produced for adult listeners 18 years of age and older. We discuss situations that may be offensive and triggering to some listeners. Sit back, relax, and enjoy. Welcome back everybody to 69 South. As you know, I'm Chop your host, and shotgun is Julie the boss. How are you doing this morning? I'm good. Just getting ready to jump into this next case that's absolutely horrific.

0:44 Yeah, extra trigger warning for this shit, man. It's it's bad. And um we hope these little children are gonna come out of this on the other side of it good. But we're gonna talk about Johnny Knuckles today. And you know, for a dude to have such a cool ass fucking last name, he is just a straight bitch. A cool ass, I think it sounds dumb and fuck. Knuckles? Be like if he was a badass boxer, you know, man. Chop knuckles, man. Sucks. You know what I mean? Oh man. This is this is a rough one to even talk about. It's it's horrible. So we're gonna start in Shelby County, Indiana.

1:24 On November 24th, 2025, the detective was called out to Major Health Partners Hospital regarding suspected child sexual abuse. Upon arrival, the detective was advised by MHP medical personnel that a two-year-old female referred to as Victim One, which presented with vaginal bleeding, white discharge, and a labia bruise. Victim one was transported from MHP to Riley Children's Hospital, Center of Hope. While at Riley Children's Hospital, medical personnel surgically repaired two lacerations on Victim One's vagina, totaling eight centimeters in length.

2:12 And to put that in perspective, listeners, it says they repaired two lacerations, totaling eight round centimeters. That equals to a little bit over three inches. So putting that in perspective, that is fucking horrendous. That day the detective spoke with the child child's mother, she advised that she resided with Johnny Douglas Knuckles and their four children. So this was his child. These are his children that we're gonna be talking about.

2:52 So their four children were are victim one, then there's another five-year-old female, and then we have a three-year-old female, and then there's another child, which is a little boy. So she advised that she had been in the bath last night when the injury occurred. She stated that she did not see any bleeding or injury when she changed victim one last night, but there was blood in her diaper this morning. She stated that she waited and got all the kids together and they walked to urgent care. She stated that Johnny was also with them.

3:35 After the initial exam at urgent care, she and Victim One were transported by medics to Major Hospital, while Johnny and the other other children went back to the home. She denied knowing exactly what caused the injury as Johnny was watching the child while she was in the bath. She stated that Johnny told her that Victim One had fallen off the play slide and onto dishes, which might have caused the injury. She, Johnny, and the four children reside in Shelbyville, Indiana. And on November 25th, the Shelbyville Police Department served a search warrant on the apartment, and at the apartment, law enforcement located diapers containing blood and a large bloody menstrual pad inside of a diaper.

4:25 This poor baby was gushing, man, she was hurt bad. On November twenty-fifth, the detective received a call from the mother, and the mother advised that she wanted to do the right thing for her children. Mary advised that she had witnessed old Johnny Douglas Knuckles next to the victim's bed, nude and in a state of intoxication immediately prior to finding the blood on the bedding and injuries to victims one's vagina. Mary stated that she was threatened by Johnny to clean up and not tell anyone about the incident. Mary stated that Johnny discouraged her from seeking medical care for the victim. Mary stated Johnny told her, quote, she'll be fine.

5:08 You know what? I wasn't even gonna mother the mention mention the mother's name until yeah, I got down to this shit and she's lying to try to protect this dude when her daughter's private parts of her body are gushing blood, and you're more worried about what the hell he's gonna think. You're out of your fucking mind. You know, I mean, in all reality, any person with a half of a fucking brain walks into a room and sees a grown ass man standing there with his dick out and a little baby bleeding profusely down her legs, blood all over the bed and her private areas, she really could have legally fucking cut his ass up.

5:53 I probably would have killed the dude if it would if I would have been in her shoes, and I'm just sorry. You have a you have a moral ob obligation to protect your children, especially at this age. This is unbelievable to me. And to shrug it off like, oh, she'll be fine. Oh my God. So on November 25th, the detective interviewed Johnny Knuckles at the Shelbyville Police Department. Johnny was advised of his rights under Miranda and understood them. Johnny admitted to drinking Sunday, November 23rd into the early morning hours of November 24th. Johnny stated that he is on medication that affects his memory.

6:34 Johnny stated he recently had several strokes and suffers from clots in his neck and his heart. Johnny stated he is not supposed to drink alcohol while on these medications. He stated that he was drinking four loco, Malibu, and Svetka. Johnny stated he was drinking upstairs in the bedroom and loft area of the apartment. He stated that he left briefly to attempt to sell his cousin an Xbox. When he returned to the apartment, he went directly upstairs. He said that he and Mary were planning to have sex, so he was naked. Johnny stated he ended up sitting, drinking, and watching TV too long, so Mary fell asleep and they did not have sex.

7:20 Johnny stated he was still nude, and when he heard Victim One start to cry, he stated that he went downstairs to check on Victim One. He sat next to the bed. Then Johnny demonstrated the way he was sitting next to the bed, which was a seated position with his legs crossed Indian style in front of him. He stated that Mary came down shortly after him. Johnny stated Mary located the blood on Victim One's legs, and he went upstairs and went to bed. He said that he did not help clean up Victim One or the bed, and Mary cleaned everything up.

8:01 Johnny stated he initially discouraged Mary from getting medical care for Victim One due to the family's involvement with the Department of Child Services, but later relented and went with Mary and the children to fast-paced urgent care. Johnny stated he believes the injuries were caused by Victim One falling off of a play slide and landing on some dishes that were left on the ground. Johnny stated that Victim One was wearing a diaper and pants when this incident took place. When challenged on the severity of the injuries not likely to be caused by a short fall, Johnny had no other explanation.

8:42 He stated he didn't believe he had done anything to Victim One because he never found blood on himself, and it would not be in his character to do something sexual to a child. Later in the conversation, Johnny stated their oldest child, which is the five-year-old girl, did the majority of the diapering for the two youngest children, including Victim One. Johnny alluded that this child may have done something to cause the injury to Victim One. Johnny specifically stated that he had not changed diapers because he could not stand urine and feces, but also because he didn't want to be accused of child molesting.

9:28 Johnny Douglas Knuckles was arrested following this interview. Can you just imagine the dumb fucking look on this dude's face? Oh, she must have fallen off. You know them play slides. They ain't, but they're not, but you know. 36 inches? Yeah, two or three feet off the ground. And then, you know, and then you got dirty dishes. Why why is there dirty dishes on the on the ground where kids are playing? I don't know. And and he said that the five-year-old is the one responsible for changing the three-year-old and the two-year-old's diapers. Get the out of here.

10:09 And then tried to blame it on the five-year-old child. Oh, the five-year-old must have done something to the baby. I wonder why Mary is not the primary uh diaper changer in the one that's taking care of the kids. It's odd that Johnny would say, Oh, well, no, our five-year-old daughter's the one that changes all the diapers and shit like that. Well, obviously the detectives saw right through his ass because he was arrested immediately after this interview. So I bet he was just the just completely an idiot, and they saw right through it. So later on that day, the five-year-old girl and the three-year-old girl and the four-year-old little boy witness was interviewed at a JC House Child Advocacy Center in Richmond, Indiana by a forensic interviewer.

11:00 The following disclosures were made in the interviews. And this is what the five-year-old girl told the interviewer. She disclosed that she didn't see quote unquote nothing because she was under the covers with her head under there. She stated that she had her head under the covers because Daddy was doing something inappropriate to the victim one. She stated that Daddy put covers over her head so she couldn't see. She stated that she was in her bed and Daddy was in the victim's bed naked and the victim was naked too. She stated that she heard the victim and the three-year-old girl crying. She stated that the victim was crying because of Daddy.

11:40 She stated that she didn't know why the three-year-old was crying. She said that Daddy made victim one naked and then himself. She said that when mommy was coming down the stairs, Daddy got off of the victim. She also said mommy yelled at daddy, and Daddy said he didn't do anything. She said this has happened before. It was the same, but she wasn't bleeding before. Wow, so she's stating she has seen Johnny Knuckles do this to the two-year-old little girl before this time. I can't imagine what this all these babies, but the five-year-old having to explain this is just breaking my heart.

12:24 She also said that it had happened to the victim and the three-year-old before. But she said that was a long time ago. And a long time ago could just be a couple of months for a five-year-old. Right. She said it happened two more times with the victim. She stated that she heard mommy and daddy yelling because of what daddy did to her, to the victim. She also said that Daddy had done it to her in the bathroom a long time ago. She used an anatomical diagram to identify which body parts were used. She circled the penis on the male diagram and the vagina on the female diagram. She said she was upstairs in the bathroom when it happened to her. She stated she couldn't stop crying because Daddy was putting his finger in her.

13:08 And then she also used the diagram to show, you know, that his finger in her private area. It's just so hard to read, folks. She said that only Daddy knows about that time. She said that that time with the three-year-old, and only daddy knows about that as well. So he has by the five-year-old's, you know, statements. Statements, th this man, Johnny Knuckles, not only has he been molesting or raping the two-year-old, he's also done it to the three-year-old little girl and the five-year-old little girl. This is a house of horrors. Your and your own children.

14:33 I just don't see how this lady, she had to know what the fuck was going on. Oh, yeah, definitely. In my opinion, yes. She she she had to know something. Now, the three-year-old little girl, her statement was that daddy made the baby bleed. She stated that, or explained that the baby is victim one, and that victim one was bleeding from her butt. Then we have the four-year-old little boy, which he's considered a witness. He disclosed that victim one is bleeding from her pee pee, poop, and butt.

15:18 The witness said that he was in bed sleeping and said he heard daddy hurting the baby. He said that daddy put his no no square in her no no square and the baby was crying. He said he heard this happen from his bed. He used anatomical diagrams to identify victim one's no no square as her private part and her daddy's no no square as his penis. The witness stated that victim one was naked because daddy took her diaper off, and that he also seen said that Daddy was naked too.

16:01 So on November 26th, the detective was given consent by Mary to return to the apartment for further search and documentation. In the children's bedroom, the detective located bedding on two of the four children's bed that appeared to have blood on it. On the bed identified by Mary as the victims, the detective located a toddler mattress with a large amount of blood staining. In the bedroom identified as Johnny and Mary's, the detective located blood covered baby wipes. These wipes were located on the side of the bed utilized by Johnny. All items were photographed and or collected as evidence. The detective also located the play slide described by Johnny, and it measured just over twenty five inches tall, so it was just it was two foot.

16:47 The detective located the dishes that were described by Johnny as the ones that Victim One fell on. No damage to the dishes or silverware were noted. These were all photographed. So they were still in the same spot days later. I think it's safe to say that this house might have been a wreck. Yeah, and and and the baby wipes, they found baby wipes on the side of his bed on the floor with blood on them. So what do you do? Just clean his shit up and just throw it on the floor, like who gives a shit about none of this? And the baby will be all right. It's just the whole thing is fucking disgusting. On November 26th, the detective interviewed Mary in person in an audio and video recorded interview.

17:33 During this interview, Mary signed consent for her cellular phone to be forensically examined. She stated that she and Johnny had been drinking alcohol on Sunday, November 23rd. Mary stated that she and Johnny had discussed or insinuated that they were going to have sex, but she got tired of waiting and went to bed. Mary stated Johnny was dressed in his Chucky underwear and sitting on a chair in their bedroom when she went to sleep. She stated she woke up and had a gut feeling that she needed to check on the children. She stated when she went downstairs that Johnny was laying in or next to Victim One's bed. Mary stated that when she came into the room, Johnny jumped up quickly.

18:19 She stated Johnny was naked and when he stood up, he put his underwear on before going upstairs. She stated that Johnny was mad and punched a hole in the wall on the stairs. She stated she found Victim One in her bed with blood down her legs and coming from her vagina. Mary stated that Victim One was not wearing a diaper and that she took Victim One upstairs and cleaned her up. She stated that Johnny told her not to take Victim One to the doctor and that she would be okay. Mary stated she changed Victim One's diaper a few times through the day and used extra pads to provide comfort and prevent additional trauma.

19:03 Mary stated she felt that if she tried to call the police or an ambulance, that Johnny would hurt her or the children. Mary stated that she continued to insist that Victim One needed to be seen by a doctor. She stated that this is when Johnny told her about using the incident where victim one fell off the slide as the cause of the injuries. Mary stated that Victim One did fall off the slide the night before Victim One was found with injuries, but she doesn't believe that is what caused them. She stated she told providers the story because that is what Johnny told them. Mary denied that victim two did the majority of diapering for the children and stated that Victim Two only changed diapers and helped change them occasionally.

19:53 Mary stated that she and Johnny spent most of their time upstairs in the apartment while the children played downstairs. Now these are children two, three, four, and five years old. No way do you want to leave these children alone downstairs for any amount of time at all. Now Mary stated she would go downstairs when the kids needed something or to cook. So that tells me a lot right there in that sentence about this woman who let her daughter go on bleeding all day out of her vagina because she's trying to protect old Johnny Knuckles. We had to take a little bitty break, folks, because I was getting so pissed off reading the parts of this PC.

20:39 Hey, I actually bit the pen and it broke and I I'm sitting here with ink all over my lips and my fingers and everything. But can you believe the audacity of this dude to I bet he thought he was just the fucking king of this castle. And then he he's so pissed off because he what he got caught raping the little baby, so he's gonna run upstairs and punch a hole in the wall like he's king shit. You know, for a second, I almost felt sorry for this married chick. Like, you know, how how horrible would it have to be to live with a man that used fear to subdue, you know, raping all these kids. But, you know, and then I get to thinking, the shit's been going on.

21:22 It's happened to all three of her kids. The little baby's gotta be suffering, profusely bleeding blood out of three-inch gashes in her private area. And you're not woman enough to stand up to this dude. Or, you know, you know he's so fucking lazy, she probably went to the store by herself, so she could have snatched the kids up, you know. Hey Johnny, play your Xbox up there in your Chucky shorts and jack off or whatever the fuck you're doing, and I'll go to the store. She should have done something to get out of there. I'm I'm just I don't I don't see She had a phone. She could have texted 911 and they would have been there immediately. She sure could have. And she wouldn't have been on the phone, she could have texted what was going on.

22:04 I mean, they have shit like that where you can get to emergency services if you need them. Even on phones that aren't aren't connected, they all go to 911. We'll post pictures of this dude on Patreon. He it's not like he's a big scary dude. He's a he's like five's like 130 or 40 pounds. It's disgusting. My 15-year-old son is bigger than him and would probably whoop his ass. Probably his ass. I know he would. This case resembles so much. I mean, it resembles when I say that, I mean in the trauma sense to this little girl's body. It reminds me so much of my cousin Shaylin Ammerman, her case where, you know, she didn't make it out.

22:49 She was abducted and murdered at 15 months old by Kyle Parker, and he had ripped her insides out, poured bleach all over her body. We're gonna talk about that case one day. It's just it's really hard to talk about. This Shaylin was such a beautiful little girl, a little bundle of joy, the prettiest blue eyes. She was just a basket of joy, and it's just hard to talk about. My granny's still in grief therapy over that. That was a horrible case as well. And there is some stuff out there that you can find on that case also, but be careful what you look at because there's a lot of misinformation on that case.

23:33 You know, we had front row seats to it, unfortunately, and we're gonna come out with that case and it's gonna be nothing but straight facts. So I wonder where this case is gonna go um concerning Mary, because they definitely got to charge her with something. There's no way I you know what, she's she's complicit by proxy in my eyes for not getting her daughter immediate help. You see that little girl laid there all day long the next day bleeding, and you know every time she moved, she felt pain or she was suffering the whole the whole time until they got her medical attention.

24:15 I mean, it was still so bad that the next day that they had to stitch her up, so she was profusely bleeding. It just makes no sense to me how a mother can do that. And if you're a mother like that, you're a real piece of shit. You know, even let's just let's just play fairy tale here. Even if she didn't know that it happened to the five-year-old and she didn't know that it happened to the three-year-old, just a simple fact, like you said, babe, that immediately not getting that baby when she found getting her help when she found dude standing there naked, and the little girl was in that position. That's a fucking charge right there in my eyes.

24:57 Neglect. Yeah, absolutely. Failure to report, neglect, all kinds of shit. She needs, she definitely needs to be charged as well. We're gonna keep an eye on that and um try to advocate for her to get charges as well. Obviously, these babies don't need to be in her care. And ignorance uh doesn't mean you're innocent or you know, I just because you're ignorant and you're not taking care of these kids the way that they need to be taken care of. Ignorance is not bliss in this situation at all. It sure isn't.

25:37 So what's this dude's rap sheet? I mean, does he have a history of of mething with little kids or well he he was on probation in 2024. He got it transferred, I'm guessing, from Decatur Superior Court, because there's a lot of cases there. He's got a dema a domestic battery with uh prior conviction. Shocker. Um there's uh level six uh felony fraud, criminal recklessness, domestic battery again, domestic battery again.

26:17 I mean it it's just it goes on and on and on. But for this case, he's charged with two level two or excuse me, two level one felony child molesting charges. Hopefully he'll get more. Oh, level one, that's that's the that's the good bad ones right there. Yeah, that's the worst. Well, I'll tell you what, old Johnny Knuckles is probably gonna be seeing a lot of knuckles against his face. Oh, let the inmates find out what he did. I I'm sure or they they gotta have him locked up by himself. That that it it it would probably be negligence on their part if they didn't, if people find out what this guy's done.

26:59 This story kind of just popped off here within the last week or so. We posted it on our Facebook page and it was blowing up. Let's read some of the comments people said. Oh, Mr. Glenn says, Y'all let us know when he gets to prison justice, please. We'll we'll keep uh we'll keep an eye on that, buddy, and we will definitely update you on that shit. Raylan says, hoping he doesn't make it to trial, 69 South is my new favorite podcast. Love you guys. Shout out to Raylan, we love you too. Quite a few people have put pictures of wood chippers with the quote, feet first. I don't know if that's if that's quite good enough for this dude or not.

27:41 You know what I mean? I personally would like to tie his ass up out to a tree and let everybody take a brick and smash him with it. We got a comment from Carrie that says the mother needs charge too, because she knew about it. She sees it too. Barbie says to the train station, and I agree. That's like a quote from the Yellowstone where they was taking dudes and killing them and throwing them off a cliff. And also a special chat shout out to um Chomo Slayers. To he has really been advocating about this case, and he's he spoke, or they, their organization have spoke a lot about it.

28:23 And thank you for getting this story out to the people because we all definitely need to be aware of these predators lurking in the shadows. We don't enjoy talking about the suffering that these children go through, but we do enjoy putting these assholes on blast and exposing these people. If you see something, man, say something. If you think anything is going wrong with these little kids. If you look at a picture of this dude on our Facebook, I don't know what it is, but it looks like he's got blue hair on the surrounding part of his red hair. He's just I bet he's just as dumb as he looks. We are definitely gonna be saying prayers, and hopefully these babies get straightened out and they can move past this.

29:08 It's gonna be a really hard life for them after all the trauma and shit that they've been through and seen. I bet these siblings stick together like glue after this. Yeah, and I can I just feel like that five-year-old little girl is gonna be traumatized. The oldest one that, you know, it seems like she knew more about what was going on with her brothers and uh her sisters. I bet she's a little grown-up type five-year-old. She was probably down there. She was changing diapers, cooking, cleaning, probably doing everything for her siblings. Mary said she only came down to get something for the kids or cook. But the other time she admitted she stayed upstairs and chilled down there while her two, three, four, and five-year-old just ran the house downstairs.

30:00 Here's a note for ladies. If you don't want to take care of kids, don't keep fucking having them. Please check out our Facebook. And if you would love to support us, which we would love for you to do, please go to Patreon.patreon.com forward slash 69 South. We have Patreon only episodes on there, and we'd appreciate you guys being a member. But until then, be safe. Have a good day. Good evening.