SAN DIEGO -- San Diego County District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis will be on hand Thursday to argue against paroling a former Highway Patrol officer who strangled a 20-year-old college student after a traffic stop 21 years ago.

It will be the second bid for parole by Craig Peyer, now 57. He was convicted in 1988 of first-degree murder in the Dec. 27, 1986, death of San Diego State University student Cara Knott and was sentenced to 25 years to life in state prison.

Two of Knott's sisters, a brother, a San Diego police homicide detective and the man she was dating at the time of her death are also scheduled to attend the hearing at the California Men's Colony in San Luis Obispo.

"Craig Peyer used his position as a law enforcement officer to commit a heinous crime with callous disregard for his young victim," Dumanis said.

"He continues to pose a very real danger to the public. Our office is fully prepared to provide the board with information they need to make that determination."

If the parole board denies him a release date, Peyer would not be eligible again for parole for anywhere from one to five years, she said.

Knott called her parents the night she was killed and told them she was on her way home to El Cajon from her boyfriend's residence in Escondido.

When she didn't return home, the Knott family called authorities because their daughter had always been reliable and responsible.

They would later find out that Peyer, then a 36-year-old patrolman, followed their daughter down Interstate 15 and signaled for her to pull off the freeway at Mercy Road, a dark and isolated off-ramp.

Prosecutors said the woman became uncomfortable with Peyer and tried to escape, but he strangled her and dumped her body over a bridge.