20/20 - Born to Kill

Episode Date: October 10, 2026

When a young woman is found dead in an abandoned house, the prime suspect goes on the run, leading authorities on a cross-country chase.  To get ad-free episodes, early access to new true crime podcasts, and exclusive bonus episodes, subscribe to 20/20 True Crime+ on Apple Podcasts. ⁠Click here⁠ to start your free trial today. Terms apply. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello, everybody. Deborah Roberts here to tell you what our 2020 True Crime Plus subscribers are listening to this week, all six episodes of The Screen Murder, a new podcast from 2020. They're available to subscribers now ad free. And as always, subscribers get access to hundreds of our 2020 episodes going back years. If that sounds like something that you are interested in, well, subscribe to 2020 True Crime Plus on Apple Podcast. now. Black Friday is coming. Last year, businesses on Shopify made billions in sales. This holiday season, you could be one of them if you start now. Shopify helps you launch fast so you can design your site and start selling before the biggest shopping days of the year. What are you waiting for? Tis the season to start selling. Start for free at shopify.com. The crime scene was one out of a horror movie. The house was an old abandoned house deep into the woodline. You couldn't even see it from the street. The walls had holes in it,

old stained mattresses laying on the floor, empty beer cans, empty soda cans, just trash everywhere. The house itself had been abandoned for Lord knows how long. There was graffiti and stuff written on the walls. Satanic graffiti, real dark. If the house could tell stories, I'm sure, I have a lot to tell. I didn't even know what was there.

I've been in Fountain Inn in Simpsonville since 2002, and I never knew what was there. There was a lot of people that would go there and smoke and drink and things. I guess it was something a lot of high schoolers had done before us. A house in the woods that we could go hang out after school and not get in trouble

is what we thought it was. Looking back now, it's terrifying to even think about it. This is a picture that Katie took. This is me and Katie. That's me right there and that's her right there. This was the day of our fifth grade graduation. So like this is another one of her. You know, it just shows her smile

and there's like a little bit of goofiness to it. We went to Hillcrest High School together. All these photos were taken right before our senior year started. Everybody had to wear, you know, just something appropriate. Katie Blavent was a young girl living in Simpsonville, of South Carolina. Simpsonville is one of the South Carolina small towns, very few businesses. Everybody kind of knows everyone. She liked one direction. I just remember her being really big about them. My ring tone for her was, you don't know you're beautiful. And I hear that song, I still

cheer up because that's just, that was her song. She just didn't realize how beautiful she was. She just liked happy music, something with a good beat. She just always wanted to be bouncing, singing, going, doing, having fun, going on an adventure. Katie had gotten over some hurdles. She was on her way to a new life, working at PetSmart, gotten a new car. The co-sign for her a 2011, Fort Fiesta. Nice little car, really cute. And so she was happy to finally have her own little car.

She loved that thing. We worked at the PetSmart. In the Pets Hotel, which is a doggy daycare and boarding facility. She had the biggest heart I've ever known. Never met anybody that she was unkind to. Absolutely obsessed with animals. I loved Harry Potter. That's her turtle tattoo.

Turtles were her thing. Katie was my mom's little sister, so she was my aunt. We're four years and one week apart. She was just always there for me when I needed her, and she was my best friend. Always somebody who I could talk to. Not one person had a bad thing to say, Katie. Everybody said she was loving, she was fun, she had a good job. She was just doing

the things that normal 22-year-old would do. On October 24th, Katie goes to work. We have her time cards where she checks in at PetSmart. She ended up clocking out just a few minutes after 2 p.m. on the 24th. She was supposed to meet up with her niece Cheyenne later on in that day. Cheyenne called her after she'd gotten off work and I told her to come by. We'll go grab something to you. We'll hang out. I called her and I said, do you Do you want to come hang out with us after you're done with work? And she said, yeah, I'll call you later. Cheyenne even said that the conversation was a little weird,

that Katie wasn't her normal self on the other end of the phone, but she didn't really know why. She was just very vague on the phone, and I was like, what are you doing? And she was like, I don't really know. I didn't think much of it. Until later on, I look back, I realized that she sounded uncomfortable. But at the time, I didn't pick up on that.

She doesn't show up. She doesn't call. She's not answering her phone. It's like she's disappeared. No miss calls, no messages. Katie wasn't there. She's not answering her phone. Just nothing.

So then I just started up the chain, like call Mama. Make sure she's on this too. See if she's there. She asleep. Brandy calls me. She said, is Katie there? I'm like, no. She said, have you seen her?

Talk to her? I'm like, no. I said, she's not here. She said, something's not right. Word gets out in Simpsonville. hey, Katie's missing, so everybody kind of knows, hey, this isn't right, something's wrong. They're out there looking for her, friends, family, co-workers. Everybody went out looking for her.

Everybody. I said, if I don't hear anything by morning, I'm going straight to police stations. So I did. And I went down to Simpsonville Police Station and reported her missing. And then that's when law enforcement gets involved and starts trying to track down where Katie is. So they said, just go home and wait. And that was the hardest thing to do was just go home and wait. But we didn't.

We got in groups and we were searching places she'd hang out. I was the investigator who was on call. I got a phone call from the Uniform Patrol supervisor who was meeting with the family. He related the information about the case to me. I immediately felt like this was something we need to jump on as quick as possible. Contacted her cell phone carrier

and went ahead and requested what's called an exigent ping where they were able to, give us either the current location of the phone if it's turned on or the last known location. Her phone was pinging way out of state. And they actually get some information back from the wireless provider that shows that she's up in West Virginia. Katie's GPS actually said she was in Bluefield's West Virginia. I said, does this make any sense?

Do you know anybody up there? Is there any reason she'd be going in this path? They said, absolutely not. Katie's been missing about 24 hours now. And her friends and family are asking, what is she doing there? Did she go on her own? Or did someone take her there? Around 1.30, 2.30 in the morning, Brandy called me and said, Mom, something's going on.

I knew. I knew from that minute what happened. And I was just screaming. Simpserville is a nice rural town. We're about 15 minutes outside downtown Greenville, South Carolina. We've got the typical ice cream station that you'll find a line out the door every Friday night. Simpsonville's just a beautiful, quiet place where everybody knows everybody and everybody gets along. High school football up here is tremendous.

It's just a peaceful place. And that's another thing I think that shocked this community when this happened. Catherine Blauvel was last seen leaving her job at the Pets Marta Woodruff Road Monday around 2 o'clock. Last time anyone saw Katie was Monday night. It's now Tuesday. She's still missing. Her phone is still indicating that it's in West Virginia, and no one knows what's going on. From what I understand, they started tracking her phone, and they had some kind of miscommunication.

The cell phone company gave us the wrong cell phone information. We later found out that they had entered some incorrect information and provided the wrong information to us. And it really derailed the investigation for a while. They really lost about 12 hours of time looking for Katie trying to trace down why she could be up in West Virginia. Virginia. ...of your emergency. I'm in that... You're at Discover Church across from where?

Across them. Two of Katie's friends, Wayne Roper and Ricky Hargrove, go looking for her. And the first place that they search is honestly so creepy. It's the kind of place you expect to find a body. I was worried about my friend. Excuse me and she looked for a while now. They all hang out. Dispatch received a phone call from two young men.

They were friends of Katie's. and one of them had just gotten off work at the local Walmart at midnight. Wayne Roper was a good friend of Katie's, knew her for a really long time, went to school with her. And they decided to go to this house because it was a place that they had all hung out in the past. She's been missing for, I think, 30 hours now, and we went into the woods where we used to all hang out at, and there's a house there. And we went looking for her there just in case, like she might be there staying or something. They did a search of the entire house, and the last place they checked was the basement.

There was a concrete box formed in the floor of the basement. It was covered with a piece of plywood. These two boys removed the plywood and found Katie's body. What's wrong with her, sir? She's not a lot. She run away? No, ma'am. We found her in his house.

It went from a place where they used to socialize and have fun. to a team. I believe it was Investigator Moorcraft who called me to notify me that we had a murder and we had located Katie's body and that I needed to respond as an additional investigator to help out. I've got police on the way. All right, we'll state for you if you can just advise. All right, sir, I should have officers pulling up now.

Can you see them? Yes, sir. The abandoned house itself has got its own special brand of creepy. Then you add in the fact that law enforcement's discovering this crime scene. after midnight, late night. There's floorboards missing. There's all the spray paint on the walls. And then you see the camera pivot and turn

to walk down into the basement. Then you just see Katie's body. She is naked from the waist down. She's got her shirt pulled up and she's got that board covered on top of her and you can just see a stab wound on her neck, her shirt's soaked in blood. The actual handle of the knife wasn't present on the scene

and the entire blade was inside of her neck. The six-inch knife, 4.9 inches into her right neck, cut the carotid artery in the left jugular vein, and she bled to death. She wasn't wearing any clothes from the waist down. Obviously, makes you concerned if there's some sort of sexual assault. The coroner's office tested to rule out a sexual assault. There was no signs of sexual assault.

Police say that they find blood spatter in the undergrowth of the bushes near the house, which makes them think that Katie was likely killed outside and her body taken inside the farmhouse. They were dragging marks and blood leading from outside the house down to the basement and into this hole, if you will. You could tell she'd been there more than 12 hours or so due to some different things that we found on the body.

Pathologist said there was some injuries on her hands and all that would be consistent with defensive type wounds. I think she fought. There was no signs of where her cell phone was. It was still turned off. We couldn't locate it anywhere in an initial search of the crime scene. So that was the thing we really wanted to get our hands on. I passed by the abandoned house and saw all the cops there.

That night something just clicked in my brain and I was like, why else would they all be here? I knew. I knew Katie was dead. I got out and went and asked one of the policemen. I said, is it my daughter you found? Tell me. I just want to know.

They said, we can't tell you anything. You need to go home and just wait for somebody to contact you. I remember screaming. I was just screaming. And I remember somebody picked me up and put me back in the car and took me home to my mom and dad. And I was just screaming. I was checking the news. And I saw that there had been a body found.

And I kind of looked at my roommate and I was like, I'm not going to think anything until I hear something. I found an article just scrolling through Facebook and it said 22-year-old. found and I was just hoping and praying it wasn't her just please don't be her the body of a 22 year old Catherine Blyfeld was found in the cellar of an abandoned home on Main Street having about 1 o'clock this morning police say her family had reported her missing just hours earlier Tuesday afternoon I picked up the phone and I didn't want to hear what he said so I headed it to my husband and I remember watching my husband's face That's what told me there's nothing else to do.

Cops are asking themselves, what are the chances that these two guys who found Katie's body found it in the first place that they looked? What made you go to that house specifically at midnight? Since this is obviously a death investigation, we kind of have to treat everybody like they may have something to do with it. Simpsonville did a really thorough job investigating this case, so they looked at everyone. That included Wayne Roper, that included his friend Richard Hargrove that was there with him that day that found Katie. What we want to do this morning is talk to you about how you came about to find Katie. Just ask you some basic questions, okay?

Oh, these two guys called and said that they had found Katie's body in an abandoned house between Simpsonville and Fountain Inn. So tell me what happened once you got to live. What happened once you got to the abandoned house tonight? We went through all the rooms, then showing a light down and basement. At the bottom of the flight of the steps, there was some kind of concrete structure to the ride.

And it looked like somebody had shoved the body in there. Then I looked in there, I see the black jacket that had dirt on it. And then I looked, I lit it around in there. and see it on. Wayne pointed out the body. I couldn't believe it at first. All I did, I looked in there. I remember I said, oh my God,

I couldn't handle it. I had to, I started leaving right then. Who at 1230 at night is going to go to this abandoned house by themselves without contacting the police first or without going with a group of, you know, friends? So it seemed a little bit strange to us. This was a pretty obscure place for someone to, to find the body. We couldn't figure the odds of these two guys

decided they're gonna go look for Katie. And they go check one place and find her under a bunch of trash in the basement of this abandoned house. Tell my he knew this young lady. Katie? Yeah. She, I went to school with her. I've known her since then and then we did date.

And it's pretty much it. And we've been hanging out pretty so often. Has Kenny ever made you mad or? No, sir. Were you guys talking like you're trying to get together? Oh, no. This latest time? No, sir.

We were being friends. She was telling me everything that was like going on in life and everything. Detectives interview Katie's niece Cheyenne Paxton. She tells police there's no way Wayne could have killed Katie. White wouldn't do something like this to Katie. Wayne, we didn't Katie have known each other since I was 11 years old, and that's how I know Wayne.

And wait wouldn't do something like this to Katie. We just felt bad that he asked it. I understand, but you got to look at it from our perspective. It's very suspicious that he's the one of family body, especially where it was. Of course, we didn't know either of these two. We didn't know their relationship to Katie. So we got on pretty hard.

Let me ask you a question. Kind of blunt. Did you have anything to do with Katie's death? Is it? No, absolutely not. I bailing you work. I don't, I didn't know anything about her. She just came in my bonfires a few times.

Eventually, we're going to find out who killed her. I promise you that. If you have any involvement or any knowledge of it, now's the time for you to come forward. I don't, I don't do anything. Okay. All right, what I'm going to do is Swab Beach. each of your cheeks, okay?

If you don't mind, I'm going to take some of your keys on you. Wayne and Ricky submit to DNA tests. They have their bodies photograph. They turn over their cell phones. So it seems like Wayne and Ricky are in the clear. All right. We'll be in touch with you then. I appreciate your time. However, they get called back into the interrogation room

because a neighboring police department from Fountain Inn that's working on the case wants to talk to them. Ricky, I gotta tell you, man. It seems like every time you kind of go over the story, a little bit more is added to it. Is that not, is that resonating in your mind? I mean, you guys are asking me the questions on answering. And we run that blood on plants around that house

where a body's found, and it comes back, and you're the winner. What do you think is going to happen to you? You're ever think that I'm doing it? Do you see how we would think that anyway? It's, yeah, I think that it's weird that, like, I'm going on the founder and that we just, with, is this a weird coincidence? I just went to.

I don't believe in coincidence. It's not like that. I'm not opposed to helping anybody that's made a mistake, Wayne, but I can't help you if you don't tell me the truth. You're telling you the truth. You're telling me part of the truth. I'm telling you no full truth. It's just hard for me to get my mind around how they go into this abandoned house with flashlights and find her buried under a bunch of stuff.

I mean, just didn't pass the smell test to me. Wayne, did you kill? Did you kill her? Yes, sir. Do you knew she was dead, though? No, it didn't, sir. Why else would you go straight down to where she was? I didn't go straight there.

I don't know what... I'm not telling it. It's all. I've told you everything that I can think. And I'm like, I can tell him he didn't do it. I can promise you he didn't do it. I know he didn't do it. We were thorough enough that even though we were suspicious about that, you know, they were eliminated and they were actually, you know, telling the truth.

These gentlemen had nothing to do with it. And if I could ever say anything to Wayne, it's two things. One, thank you for being the one that found her. But I am so sorry it was you that found her. Because I can only imagine what he went through for that. And I hurt for him for being the one that actually found her. Police tell us they do have a few leads, but no defined persons of interest just yet.

Wayne and Ricky have been cleared, so police turn their attention to other people in Katie's life. They do start with the people closest to her. Even though Katie may look young, the 22-year-old has already been married. But then investigators find out that she's recently separated from her husband, and they decide they need to talk to him. And at this point, we're able to say that it is captain. Okay. I'm so sorry if we lost. This show is sponsored by Who Killed Angel Harris, a podcast from ID. On June 25, 2011, 31-year-old Angel Harris was found murdered in Gainesville, Florida.

More than 15 years later, her case remains unsolved. But on the new podcast, Who Killed Angel Harris, a podcast from ID, host Sarah Kalin travels to Florida to uncover what happened to Angel and who may be responsible. Retired Gainesville police detective Courtney Roberts joined Sarah to review evidence. That includes surveillance footage showing Angel with an unidentified man shortly before her death and then the same man walking away alone. Soon, the search for answers in one murder turns into an investigation of five unsolved. homicides. Who killed Angel Harris? Listen to Who Killed Angel Harris wherever you get your podcasts. This show is supported by Chime. Here's a message your younger self would have liked to hear. There's a bank out there where you don't have to pay all those endless fees. It's called Chime.

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Take your business to a whole new level. Switch to Shopify. Start your free trial today. Yeah. This is Josh Payton. He's a detective. Hey, ma'am. This is Gary Sessions.

Detective Corp. At the time of Katie's murder, she was actually living with her parents because she had separated from her husband. John Blavelt. What's your wife's full name? Catherine and Blalbelt? And are you familiar that she's missing? He didn't file the missing person's report because they weren't living together at that point in time.

They hadn't been married very long at all. They get married in December. They are married a few months before they had separated. She said that it was over. She was done. She didn't want to be with him. Naturally, detectives have questions for John, but before they can get to that, they need to inform him that his wife has been murdered. John Blaville is considered next of kin since he was still legally married to Katie.

John Blalveld is in the Army. He's currently serving as a recruiter. So myself, the deputy coroner and an investigator from Fountain Inn went to his office and made the death notification. Out off the southeast main street, there was a body that was found in the house, okay? abandoned house. And at this point, we're able to say that it is captain. Okay. I'm so sorry if we lost. We're obviously in the process of investigating this.

Katie and John Blavelt started dating sometime late of 2014. She worked at Firehouse Subs, which is a sub shop. And right next door was the Army Recruiting Station. And that's how it started. She just worked right next to. to him and I remember her saying that he would come in and get drinks and talk to her. He was nice, very talkative. She kept him secret for a while and the reason was I think is because he was separated

from his wife but he wasn't divorced him. And I found out he had a daughter but she would crawl up in Katie's lap in a heartbeat and Katie was very protective of her. She really loved her. We were laying on the trampoline in my mom's backyard. and we were just talking and she told me she said I think that I'm falling in love with John and I remember being a little shocked I was like I thought this was fun something you were playing with but I didn't know it was that serious I was at work

one day and we were texting and halfway through the text she said oh by the way me and John got married I'm like what when she said yesterday that was fast that was really fast for better or worse worse pretty quick and then Katie moved out of the house. We were the worst couple. We argued a lot. She moved out in April, I think, and then we talked on and off. Mostly she just wanted to see the dog.

So she would come over with her dog, but we couldn't really connect again. I wasn't really working. I know she still loved him. I do know that she talked to him. I do know she hung out with him. Him and Katie were definitely still around each other. They would both find excuses. You know, Katie was like there's still a way where we can fix everything, you know.

She wanted her marriage to work. But it's like every time she would go back, she would just realize how wrong it was. But then she gets up right back into it. Who do you know that would want to do harm to her? Not nobody. I can't think of nobody that would actually want to do anything that her because she's just average. Have you ever gotten so mad at her that? Maybe you did something you didn't mean to do.

No, absolutely not. I used to have a drinking problem, so I used to get her pretty mad. And we used to have, like, yelling matches and shit. But she has some lungs on her, so we can go back and forth all night. But I hadn't drank in two months now. Just because I'm trying to turn my shit around. Have you familiar with this abandoned house? Yeah.

Okay. That's the spot. What's the thing? a hangout spot. What was the last time you were there? Like a week ago, a month ago. It's been months. What starts out as a death notification starts morphing into an interrogation, and the more

questions that the cops ask, the more uncomfortable John becomes. Am I being charged with the crime because he's recording me and I'm not comfortable with that. No, if I am, I like their contact, a lawyer. Because this is uncomfortable. Okay. You're not, you're, you're not being charged. Okay, look for that right now. Our job is fine out.

What happened? Who killed her and bring them to justice. Keith Steve Moore tells us that Catherine Blauvelt was last heard from that same afternoon while driving in her car. That car is now missing. Her car was not located at the crime scene. We didn't know where the vehicle was. So we entered it on NCIC, basically as a vehicle of interest in a murder case. We believe that the car would hold evidence that we could use in this case.

But so far we haven't been able to find it. Now this is what that car looks like is a 2011 black Ford Fiesta. If you have seen or heard anything about this case, the Simpsonville Police Department wants you to call them. On the same day that cops are talking to John, there's a huge development in the case. A Greenville County deputy located the vehicle in the parking lot. over on White Horse Road and called in the VIN number on the vehicle and came back as a match to the vehicle we were looking for. We are pulling into the strip mall where Katie's vehicle was dumped on the day that she was killed.

Katie's car, key evidence about what happened in the last few hours of her life, and now surveillance video, is the killer caught on tape. The time her body was found, it was later that. that that car was found her. We got the 911 call a little after midnight and her car was located at Joe's Auto a little after 630, 7 o'clock. Law enforcement found that car quick. This is the parking lot where Katie's vehicle was stashed after she was killed same day. We put out a Bolo for her vehicle so area law enforcement agencies were looking for it in relation to her murder. Greenville County deputies came up on the vehicle.

Katie's car contains clues, but we're not talking about DNA or fingerprints here. It has this tiny little insurance device that's called a snapshot that's hidden underneath the dashboard. It was equipped with a data collection unit that plugs into the OBD port, and it measures their driving activity to get lower rates or higher rates in some cases. Snapshot from Progressive, plug it in, and you can save on cars. insurance. The insurance company says it uses this device to personalize rates so it can measure how good and safe a driver you are and Katie was trying to save some money. Now authorities are hoping that this little box is going to pay off for them. I think that was

some pretty good evidence that we've found because not only did it show his erratic driving but it also showed the trajectory of Katie from when she left work to when she got to the abandoned house as well. It's powerful. It's just powerful. It's breadcrumbs from murder to where they left the car finally on Whitehorse Road. It showed us a lot of information that we would have never gotten. It was able to pick up speeds, locations, duration of said locations, how long it took her to get from point A to point B, how long she was at that specific location, and it showed us a trajectory of of where she went from when she left PetSmart

to how she got to where her body was located. She wasn't able to speak again, but thank goodness, thank God, that her progressive insurance snapshot kind of spoke for her after that. Police say the device even recorded the driving behavior of the killer as they made their getaway.

The way her car was driven after we know she was dead, you can just see it's a completely different person driving that car, it's got really high rates of speed, He was breaking really quickly, speeding up, taking curves really fast, and all that matches up with that device that was on the car. The device shows that Katie's car sat at the abandoned house for about an hour and a half and then drove about three and a half miles away. They found the car without a license tape. So then, being very good law enforcement, they looked for video. One of our captains located the business across the street, an auto repair shop, and we found that they had.

video surveillance the day of the cross white horse road and covered the area where the vehicle was parked the cameras were located back behind us at Joe's Auto Shop he's got his video going captures when both cars are coming in in the surveillance video from Joe's Auto we were able to see the victims vehicle being driven past Joe's into the parking lot that we're currently in shortly thereafter a light color vehicle which we believe to be a Prius pulled in right behind the victim's vehicle and parked right next to the victim's vehicle. The driver of Katie's vehicle exits the vehicle and goes to the back of the vehicle

and ends up removing the license plate from the vehicle. Then gets into the gold vehicle and they both leave the scene. You see that gold prurius leaving across the street on whitehorse road from chose auto salvage. That's incredible evidence. So who is that riding around in Katie's car after her murder? Investigators are talking to people in her her life, like the housemates who live with her estranged husband, John, at the house she once shared with him. John Blavut was living here in October of 2016, along with a few roommates. So Brandon Tucker and Crystal Gorda were roommates living with John.

So they were actually there at the house the day that Katie went missing. You'll remember Crystal is Katie's childhood friend. Crystal and her boyfriend were sitting in the front room to the right of the front door. that time they saw a small black vehicle pulling the driveway. I was sitting right here and down sitting at the end of the table and we saw her car come from like the back of the road. Right. Come in and went in driveway and then backed up and went down the road real quick.

It was so fast. It was so fast and they pulled in. I guess saw who all was home realized not today and drove off. Like it just, it just. It happened that fast. You know, and I was like, wasn't that Katie's car? And I was like, I think that was Katie's car. Okay.

What did you see who? I didn't see who's driving the car, but never wearing a black jacket. What they were wearing was a black zip-up jacket and the hood was on. I just saw the black jacket. And I was like, I know that's not Katie. Could you think it was?

I don't know. I have not a clue. They saw the car come in and saw it leave, Just a short while later, John Blavelt comes back in from the back wooded area. After the car length, it's probably 15 minutes. After that, he'd come up from the woods. He didn't know, where were you at? He was like, I was just going for a run.

You know, he went and took the shower. Was he sweating? Yeah, I mean, he was just getting back from a run. He was sweating. Stay with it. If you had to take a guess of who got her. I feel like it has to be somebody that knows. has money that knows John because they pulled in John's drive-white in her car.

And that's just what I keep going back to. Police have a lot of questions about John Blabelt, and he has a lot of questions about the police. But he didn't ask you, would you tell me the police? No, I didn't tell me to you right? No, I didn't tell him. What were his exact words? I mean, he was just like, what were they asking you,

or in all the other stuff? What police do next is incredible. So Katie's body has a viewing. Law enforcement decides to set up a camera in the viewing area. Police put a hidden camera in the funeral home. Now that's John Blavelt. But the question is, who's that with him? I was flabercasting.

I couldn't believe that they would come together. As they talk to witnesses and they gather more evidence in the homicide of Katie Blahveld, Investigators start focusing in on her husband, Sergeant John Blavelt, as suspect number one. And then in a move that you'd expect to see in a mob investigation, police put a hidden camera inside the funeral home for Katie's visitation. The footage is decently muffled. John shows up to the viewing of Katie's body. He gets a private viewing separate from the rest of the family. He brings Hannah Thompson, his 17-year-old girlfriend, to the viewing as well.

He makes a remark that she still has blood on her. Like they could have done a better job cleaning her up. You do not see an emotional man looking at his wife. He's kind of making fun of her. He's talking about how dirty she is. He showed up with Hannah. The last person he should have showed up with. Who brings another woman to your wife's funeral?

Even if they're separated, you just don't do that. You just don't? Their relationship started before Katie even moved out. And then after Katie moved out, Hannah moved into John's bedroom. At the time of Katie's murder, John, who's 28, is dating 17-year-old Hannah. She was my friend from high school. She just was around with us a lot. coming to his house,

hanging out and smoking, and that's how John met her. All right, so November 2nd, 2016. So we contacted him again, and he voluntarily came to the police department. I lost a friend. Maybe not the best wife, but I lost a friend.

We would have always been the worst married couple on the planet, but she was always going to be my friend. We've heard a little bit about this abandoned house. You've been there before? Yeah. He denied being in the cellar at one point, even though all of his roommates told us that they would hang out there.

And I abandoned out with this stuff through. He used to go to hang out with our friends and stuff. Uh-huh. And the only people that I know, they know about it, they know Katie as well. You know, there's not many people. Have you guys ever been in the basement? I have been on there before.

John's been there too. You ever been down the stairs in the basement? No. Because the one size all flooded out, and then you can only climb down. down and then the other stairs is like missing the last step and it's all like oh sketchy you can feel it i don't know if you've gone down there but you can feel like every step like wobbling back you don't know how you're gonna get back up he even knows that they're wobbly when you step on them

and how do you know that if you've never been down there and he also knows that another part of the basement that the katy's body wasn't even in was flooded and it's not visible unless you actually go down there go down the steps to see that it was flooded. Police then asked John, why would you bring Hannah to your wife's visitation? So I'm there by myself. I'm dealing with by myself. I'm dragging her around because she's willing to be drug around. So John was a recruiter at the local high school and he really just kind of became everyone's friend. He was the cool guy, the guy that would throw all the parties. It seemed like a great place to hang out and do things we weren't supposed to do.

Instead of recruiting them for the Army like he was supposed to, He was recruiting them to come party at his house. Katie was against it, and she's like, I keep trying to get him to stop and tell him the kid to quit coming. But they just let them in and they keep coming. And there's an incident at the house about eight months before Katie is murdered. There's a party with underage teens. They're allegedly drinking and smoking. And then the cops knock on the door.

John wouldn't come to the door, basically barricaded himself inside. and at that point it kind of became a standoff of sorts. We essentially just rushed the door and got him handcuffed and that was it. That same night, Katie goes to the police. Katie went down to the fountain in police department and reported the fact that at some point in time John and her had gotten into an argument and he pointed a gun at her and threatened to kill her. They did arrest him for contributing to the legacy of a minor and a criminal domestic violence. They arrested him for both of those that night.

It really impacted his career, so he immediately gets written up and then goes from being an active recruiter to working a desk job. He blamed her for him losing everything, like his whole downfall was all her fault. Katie's the person that ratted him out. Katie's the one that made up these allegations and went to law enforcement. Katie's the person that has ruined his military career. What was Hannah's response when you guys were at the viewing? Just kind of taking them back.

I mean, that was when our friends too. I mean, they were close. They were real close for months. You have the right church? As I'm. Mm-hmm. And if police want to know more about Hannah, well, she accompanied John to his interrogation

at the police station. No, he brought Hannah with him, and that was a great opportunity for us to interview her as well. So who are you dating? I'm not dating anybody. But if you look at your Facebook status, you just posted on Sunday that you're current,

in the most amazing relationship ever or something along those lines. So who was that relationship with on Sunday? It was, I mean, it was with John, but we're not, like, in a relationship. Like, we're not dating. I just have a good relationship with him. Hannah may be a 17-year-old with braces, but she holds her own against a tough interrogation. You may love John, and you may think you two are going to get married and walk down Yellowbrook Road.

Okay. But no man and no woman is worth going to prison. Do you agree? Yes, sir. Okay. Hannah stands by John doesn't say anything to police even when they show her Katie's autopsy photos. That's your friend? I don't want to do this anymore.

Don't want to do what? Don't want to help us find out who killed her? All you got to do is tell the truth. It would be so easy. Can I? I can't look at her. Can I? And she literally got up out of the room and left.

He just told her. I don't want to do it. I'm sorry. I can't talk about. At that point, we had nothing to charge her to hold her, so we had to let her leave. Hannah and John are free to go. You either have the evidence to make the arrest or you don't. If you don't, you have to let them go.

I think that's one of their biggest regrets is that they didn't arrest him on the day that they searched his car and took his DNA. But this investigation is just getting started, and police will soon catch a break. In an initial search of the crime scene, There was no signs of where her cell phone was. They went back to the house and they drain out the basement and they ultimately find Katie's phone there. Nowadays cell phones are a treasure trove of information. They're able to extract it and get some of the information out. There was a photo.

That photo was actually taken at the crime scene. Police now have a chilling window into Katie's last few minutes of life. Black Friday is coming. Last year, business. businesses on Shopify made billions in sales. This holiday season, you could be one of them. If you start now. Shopify helps you launch fast, so you can design your site and start selling before the biggest shopping days of the year.

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so you can design your site and start selling before the biggest shopping days of the year. What are you waiting for? Tis the season to start selling. Start for free at Shopify.com. I started Or Not in 2013, and we make bike apparel. The best part of Shopify for me is our ability to run the business

as essentially non-technical people. We're able to admin everything on the back end front end and sell things online easily. If Shopify were a bike accessory, I think it would actually be the bicycle. It's the thing that you do the thing on. We run the business on Shopify. Start your free trial on Shopify.com. The body of a 22-year-old Catherine Blybilt was found.

She was found in the cellar of this abandoned home. About 1 o'clock in the morning. At that point, we had a lot of evidence pointing towards John. but not enough to physically arrest him. Hi, Crystal. Hello. How are you? I'm going to go.

I told him anything and everything that I could. Where he was, what's he been doing? And you know, I didn't have a whole lot of insight. He was just mad. John was just mainly pissed. You know, he was like, I know everybody's going to be looking at me. I know her family is going to point it straight towards me. The level of suspicion around John Blavow out at that time,

was extremely high. The very next step is an arrest warrant and I think John sniffed that out. Did you work yesterday? Was yes? Thursday. What? What are you? What are you? Sir? That's him.

That's him. Hello? Hey, what's up? Hey, y'all. No, not really. I mean, nothing's changed. Nobody's come to the house or anything like that. He's behaving very terrified. Skidish, watching his back, paranoid, anxious. Yeah, I think he felt like all the eyes were pointed at him.

John, you know, who else has motive to kill her? Who else had the opportunity? Who else could have gotten her into a vehicle? And just days after that secret video of John at the funeral home is taken, he skips town. So he had a second vehicle at GMC Yukon, and that's the vehicle that he flooded. When he turned up missing, Hannah was missing also. She had completely wiped her cell phone and stuck it in the mailbox of her parents' house. He books, basically tells Hannah, we're leaving, you're going with me.

And he flees. They just proved their guilt right there. I mean, why would you run if you're innocent? Kind of suspicious to me. I don't even say it's on the run. He just leaves. But he fully cooperated with him. He gave the keys over voluntarily.

He opened his mouth for the buckle swab. He gave the phone over. The walls are closing in. I'll take my chances on the road. John Blauvel made me on the run with a 17-year-old girl. This was a huge story. There was a national manhunt. Everyone was looking for him.

Do they think this 17-year-old girl is in danger? Absolutely. And they say the reason for that is because of what he has done in the past. I thought we were in for a long haul. With his training and his knowledge and his motivation, he's got every reason to give it 100%. You know, if you've got the motivation,

this is a big country, big world. About a week and a half after John takes off, the Simpsonville police issue an arrest warrant for Katie's murder. John is now officially a fugitive on the run. There's a nationwide blowout for the two of them, His vehicle was entered into a national database as being wanted in connection with a murder. I contacted the local U.S. Marshals' office.

We are just there to assist them in the apprehension of John Bliveld. But also, we were looking for Hannah Thompson, who at that point, what we believe as an endangered juvenile. We were afraid she was going to end up the same way, that we were afraid that she was going to going to meet her demise at his hands. We had good reason to believe that John had left the state. We got a photo of Hannah and John what looked like they were buying camping supplies in a store in Alabama. And then we got a picture of John attempting to withdraw fund from an ATM.

There was different license plate reader sightings of it going basically South and West. It was always a day late, basically, day late, dollar short. Even though the marshals were getting hits on where Hannah and John were, that was the problem. That's where they were. They had already moved on by the time the marshals were notified. The license plate reader picked up John's tag in Las Cruces, New Mexico.

Before we could mobilize our guys out there, we didn't know where they were, where they were going. And that was pretty close to the Mexico border. border, so for a while we were afraid that he had crossed the border. He does have training, and then he was like one step ahead. And just when they think John and Hannah may have slipped out of the country, a major new development. The biggest thing that developed was Hannah coming back.

She ended up doing an interview with me. What did he tell you about going to me? Tonight, the search is continuing for a man who the police say is wanted for murder. Nearly five weeks after Hannah disappeared, she resurfaces, not in Mexico, but in Oregon. She calls her family to say, I want to come home, so her father drives out west and brings her back to Simpsonville. The biggest thing that developed was Hannah coming back. She ended up doing an interview with me. Come on him happy.

So how was your birthday? Isn't it good? Yeah? You got, what, 18 minutes? The interview was five hours. long and I tried to get every detail out of her. She's a potential witness, she's a potential defendant. We had no idea at that point in time what her involvement was, if any,

so we really kind of treated her softly in the beginning. We wanted to get information, we wanted to locate and find John. Where did you go when you had looked left? They got into Columbia on a footgast when you stopped there. John had bought with the bunch of stuff. Like a tint and then like a bunch of clothes. He bought a gift card. Like four $500 gift cards

with the rest of the money. We went to Mexico to Arizona and then we thrust it in the car at a rest off in Phoenix. Then after that, we didn't... I just drove, you know, where it felt like a really long time in when we were in Oregon. I think she realized that life on the lamb is not as glamorous as some of the movies make it. With no income coming in, those funds dry up pretty quickly.

He was always getting a car. He was like, all the money that was on it. Just day-to-day living just to try and stay. and stay under the radar. He stopped and get down to him, and then he was going to use, like, Wi-Fi. He had connected to the Wi-Fi while she went to the bathroom, and we believe it was at this point

that John had looked himself up on the Internet and found out that he was now wanted for Katie's murder. He, like, to drove up into the mountains, and he, like, was, like, freaking out, And then he just got the car, like, stuck in the, like, in treaties, like, in the mountains. And then I was like, why did you do that? Like, what are you doing? Like, how are we going to get it back out?

Panic was able to help locate an area in which they got the Yukon stuck during them fleeing. He was right at the border of Washington and Oregon in a national park literally wedged in between two trees. Then I heard like a growl And it was like I looked over And there's like a bear Like right next to us And I started like freaking out

Hannah has had enough No money No car Stuck in the mountain with bears Hannah reaches out to family in Oregon And says I want to go back home to Simpsonville I'm like crying

I don't want to do this Like I'll go home That first time she went there She came with John Bob out I think she was under the extreme influence of him then. But she didn't come clean the first time, didn't tell the truth. I'm sorry.

When she comes back now, starts telling more, implicating him more, helping us figure out how he met Katie and that sort of thing. Hannah had told me that she was talking to John about Katie's killing. And he'd tell me, like, every day that, like, it's my fault. It's like you did it for me. and like... What if you say he did for you? Something he killed here for me.

I'm just scared. Like, I don't want anybody to think that, like, I would do or help somebody to do something like that to anybody. Like, I just really scared. And that was kind of the gotcha moment. It was the nail and the coffin we were waiting for. What did he tell you about killing him? He told me that.

He told me that the last night broke. He told me that the last one. The last thing she said was out. And she says that before that, but if he let her go, and she wouldn't call the police, she never cried about her or anything. She just, I just like it did her husband. I think she's fortunate to be alive.

I think they were one argument away from her being hurt. Did he tell you where they were when he killed her? Or what did he think about that one? He said that he put her there, that he in the phone the water. What he did her find in the water? What water did he were bringing to? He doesn't think it was funny. So at the time there was no signs of where her cell phone was.

We couldn't locate it anywhere in an initial search of the crime seen. So that was the thing we really wanted to get her hands on. And we had suspicion that there were still some communication between Hannah and John. Hannah knows. Hannah knows where he's at. We took a gamble. She will lead us to him. If you know where he is, we need to find out. Now's the time to tell me. I started or not in 2013, and we make bike apparel. The best part of Shopify for me is our ability to run the business as essentially non-technical people. We're able to to admin everything on the back end, front end, and sell things online easily. If Shopify were a bike accessory, I think it would actually be the bicycle.

It's the thing that you do the thing on. We run the business on Shopify. Start your free trial on Shopify.com. I was an Avenger, but I'm not a hero anymore. On October 14th, the Vision returns for the final chapter of the groundbreaking trilogy. That family wasn't real. You sure about that? I had a father called Vision.

How is this possible? Don't miss the two-episode premiere of Marvel Television's Vision Quest. Nothing bonds a family together quite like Mortal Jeopardy. Streaming October 14th, only on Disney Plus. If anyone wanted to commit a murder, up here would be the greatest place in the world to hide the body. But no one will find it. He acted friendly. He talked friendly. He sounded friendly. They all knew that I did the scary boogie stuff

And they said maybe she'll find out where this girl is I saw him violent Backhanded a bow And that's exactly what made us all think He had something to do with him The clock is ticking down And the woods are calling There are a lot of demons in Putnam County

But I've met the devil And he's real I'm Paul Solitone are off, and this is season two of the Devil's Quarry. Listen to The Devil's Quarry Season 2 on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear The Devil's Quarry Season 2 add free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Hannah had come back.

I could have a seat right there in that chair for me. She told me that John had told her that he had taken Katie's cell phone and thrown it in a flooded area in the abandoned house. We were able to go back and locate a separate basement area, so not the same area that Katie was located in. And it was flooded about two, three feet of water. So they find the phone, and it is submerged in water. So they call the forensic technicians. They say, hey, we have this phone. What should we do with it in order to try to be able to extract it?

And they tell them to put it in rice for a while. Put it in a bag of rice and hope for the best. And so we had to give it a shot. We let it dry out the best we could. Eventually, they were able to get data out of it. There was a photo, what appeared to be a selfie taken by Katie. You can see there's woods in the background, which is consistent with the woods of the abandoned house.

She still is on her PetSmart shirt. We had a timestamp. Around 417 on October 24th, she was at the abandoned house. So we know that's the time frame when she was killed. She was smiling. She was happy, not knowing what was going to happen. I don't think she knew she was in any danger. But this critical new evidence doesn't get police any closer to finding John Blavelt, who's still on the lamb.

Police unable to find him for years. The case is still unsolved. Then Katie's family is begging for answers. It's bad enough knowing your daughter was murdered and will never be back again, but to know her murder is free running around doing who knows what. Hannah returns. She's not charged with anything. Myself and others, we believe there was still a chance they would be in contact.

I threw a fit about Hannah. Every chance I got, Hannah knows, Hannah knows where he's at. We took a gamble. She will lead us to him. Authorities are certain. that Hannah is the key to finding John and the U.S. Marshals interview her multiple times over the years. I looked and spent hours and hours and hours, many hours, looking at every individual that was interviewed in that case. Over and over and over, there's a seven seconds piece that I showed Hannah that actually broke the case.

This is one of the interviews that the Simpsonville PD did for John. Yeah, well, I took Hannah and I'm dragging her. because she's willing to be drug around. John doesn't say, oh, Hannah was my girlfriend that I loved her and I trusted her. Instead, he says, because I could drag her around. In that moment, John reveals his true self to Hannah. Because she's willing to be drug around.

That's it. When I played that for her, that was the key here, right there. I knew that 100% I told we're going to catch this guy. We called Simpsonville, and I said, I will have her in your office tomorrow at 9 a.m. She is going to tell you everything. How you been? Good.

Yeah? It's been a long time, huh? How old are you now? It's been, what, six years? And 22. All right, well, I heard you wanted to talk to me. Floor is yours. I want you to tell me everything.

We had suspicion that there were still some communication between Hannah and John, and she did end up omitting to the fact that she spoke with John all the way up through January or February of 2019. of 2019, which is a little over two years since when they actually fled. And how are you guys communicating? Through the very beginning we were communicating on Facebook and Messenger. And then after that we were talking on Snapchat.

So what was his Facebook page? It was then a Benjamin. Hannah was still very much in love with John and thought that once the heat, so to speak, went away, that they'd be able to start their life together. I was going to move to Colorado. You were going to live there, and then I did it. Like when I got to Texas, I was just thinking about everything. I was scared.

And so I came back home. I think enough time had lapsed between the spell that John had on her, that she was no longer trying to keep him hidden. If you know where he is, we need to find out. Now is the time to tell me. I don't know what he is. I heard him mention from Ashland and Ledford. I don't know for sure, but I feel like it was in Oregon.

My name is Chris Tamayo, Deputy U.S. Marshall, and I was assigned to the cold case unit for this case. There was deputies and officers in South Carolina that discovered that through interviews with Hannah, she was still in communications with him. I just know the number that he is usually to communicate with me. Did you ready to give that to the Marshalls? Yes, no. Okay. We ended up getting records that had conversations between them via text.

And once we saw this 541 area code, we immediately honed in on 541, that's an Oregon area code. We ran that phone number through a normal law enforcement database and it came back to us, Stephanie. I know that he was living with something. living with somebody who um a girl that he said that they were dating and when we further checked into stephanie it came back to this address that's right here behind me they saw him in the yard he had changed he'd had a full beard no longer the short haircut army haircut uh but had his shirt off christima the marshal's office said he had a unique tattoo it was of a pirate i did that drive-by we saw the tattoo and I communicated that to them.

I said, you know, we can take him outside. We can take him right now. It's him. Are you good with that? He had no shirt on. They could see his waistband. He didn't have his gun. What do you want us to do?

Go get him. So John's far in the back there. We turned up the driveway. The team got in front of the vehicle, gave John commands, police, US Marshals, warrant, get down on the grass. and John dropped right in the back there. The team's got him in cuffs. I looked down at John's face.

I said, look at me. I take a photo. We got a 10-15. Fugitives is apprehended. They found John Blabelt. I said, you got to be kidding me. What was John doing for all those years? How was he able to survive as a wanted man?

Police are hoping that the woman he was living with might be able to explain. We're not like six years. The first pictures that came. came out where of him on the ground, getting arrested. I said, what's your name? That's when he said, Ben Klein. It's like, OK, we're going to play that game. I just went behind him and started rolling his fingerprints.

Said John Tufton Blavelt wanted out of South Carolina for homicide. I remember turning around to him and just kind of no smile anymore, deadpans, and looks down. And I was like, yeah, you're going to jail. Stephanie, the woman he had been living with for five years, had no idea when she came home from work as a postal carrier, that her house would be surrounded by U.S. Marshals. At the time, there were pets.

We wanted to make sure the house was secure before we just took off, and we knew that Stephanie had been with him so long. She was questioned and interviewed by the U.S. Marshals. She was completely beside herself. She had absolutely no knowledge of who this man really was. To her, he was Ben Incline. Now, you said his name is John what? John Tufton Blowell.

So he's being arrested on charges out of South Carolina for murder. Are you serious? Yeah. That moment that she found out, it's so raw. Her cries are so deep and cutting. Like, you can feel her pain. He murdered his wife. And then went on the run and came here to Horton.

I mean, because that's how long we've been looking for him. Who she thought she knew is not the person that she knew. You ever seen any IDs or identification? No, he always said that he was just like off the gridder, didn't like any. So I just choked it up to him being like a hippie. I believed her. I knew she wasn't involved with this because she truly broke down. He found someone that would allow him to live here, take care of him,

and he didn't have to do anything else. He would do random odd jobs and then just random Craigslist things. He was basically here watching my cats and my dog all the time. While Stephanie is being interviewed by one U.S. Marshal, another one walks in and says,

hey, do you know where this bag is that John's talking about that he wants us to get for him? Is that something you would allow us to take a look at? The rafter. I think it's green. It's a green hiking bag.

It's filled to the brim. We're going through the backpack looking for anything that may just show how he was on the run. Fake IDs, stolen IDs, checkbooks, something that just indicates there. He was living another life. So once we went through it, it was the journal, some fake IDs that he had. At this point, U.S. Marshals know they have something here, but they don't know how important that journal will become. He had kept that journal what appeared to be during the actual fleeing. It was during the trip with Hannah.

He's writing about everything on his run. You know, where they're staying, what they're doing, where they're eating. He's drawing pictures of the ocean. There's a letter to his daughter in there. He talks about how sorry he is that he had to do what he had to do, but that girl was evil. And then he's writing this thing, and there's certain letters capitalized at the end.

And so letters that are capitalized at the bottom of this journal entry, if you put together all the capitalized letters, it just says, I did it. I did it, which I don't see that much. It just doesn't happen. Leveld is being held in a jail in Oregon, but he will be extradited back to South Carolina to face his charges. A day or two later, we had flown back with him and got him back here. He really didn't show much of any emotion.

After nearly six years on the run, Ron John Blavelt appeared in court in Greenville. He pleads not guilty. A judge denied bond. He's charged with murder and possession of a weapon during a violent crime. And eventually those 2016 charges of domestic violence and contributing to the delinquency of a minor were dropped.

And not long after John's arrest, Hannah Thompson was also arrested. Hannah Thompson is now charged with obstruction of justice accessory after the fact. The state attorney general's office says Thompson is looking at potentially a 55-year prison sentence. She ended up getting arrested. I think she had five different warrants between Simpsonville and Greenville County. She had an ankle monitor and house arrest that she was on prior to trial. This is a prepaid collect call from... John Willville. An incarcerated individual at Greenville County Detention Center.

While John is sitting in jail awaiting trial, he's He starts calling all his friends and his family, who he hasn't spoken to in years. Where are you been, Mom? I've been all over the country, man. And it's so bizarre. He's filling them in on what it was like being on the run. I was like working on pot farms and stuff like that. And I met a girl that moved in with her.

Just called it down like that. A lot of out, all in her name. And then one morning, the U.S. Marshals came. I was out front, tended to my vegetable garden. And the U.S. Marshalls just pulled up in the driveway. That was right. But that night I got the best sleep that I've had six years. So I guess there's a positive to it.

I do imagine that there is some sort of relief that comes with that because it's got to be a little bit freeing. That I'm not having to look over my shoulders anymore. I'm not having to pretend to be somebody else. I got a lawyer visit tomorrow. We're going to trial. Nearly eight years after Katie's murder, John is finally headed to trial. He probably thinks he's going to get off because he just that lucky. And the star witness for the prosecution is his old girlfriend, Hannah.

All these years later in John's trial is about to begin, and he is facing the possibility of life in prison for the murder of Katie Blauveld. The trial is underway in Greenville County for an upstate man accused of murdering his estranged wife. Six inches, 2,724 miles, and 2086,000. Those were significant numbers in the six inches that blade went into her body. The number of days that John Blauvet was on the run. And then the distance from Simpsonville to Medford-Ory. It's hard looking at him because he's like smug.

He probably thinks he's going to get off. I was trying to look at his eyes because like right here doesn't change. I stake on F Winters. Thank you, Your Honor. The state calls Keith Moorcraft. more crap. Katie's cell phone had been dumped in a separate side of the basement. They say your name for the record? Cheryl Scowfield. I was confident we had a great prosecution team and I was confident with what evidence we had. Hey, I mean different witnesses. State of that's our Ali Somerville. Allie Somerville was

one of John's roommates and also a close friend that he confided in. Please be something. Allie Somerville had a really good insight into John Blavelt. She was around a a lot. John probably shared a lot of information with her. He said that he was born to kill, that good and bad people, that he loved to kill. That's what he was born to do. John Blavowell told you he was born to kill. Yes, sir. Good and bad people. Good and bad people. That's what his purpose was here on this earth. The most important witness was Hannah Thompson. Hannah Thompson was the only person that got us from A to Z in the entire case. The day of the murder, he had told Hannah, today, days a day I'm going to kill Katie.

Then told her, I need you to drive me near Katie's job. And I'm going to stand outside of her vehicle until Katie gets off of work. That was when John had gotten in the car with Katie. Hannah testifies that she brings John's phone back to the house to make it look like he's there. He had staged Katie's car in a gravel wooded kind of like drive-through that was somewhat behind John's house at the time. What were you told to do then? The evening was.

To follow him while he drove Katie's car in our straying with the Prius. Do you remember where you ended up? We pulled into a parking lot on Whiteler's Road. Thank God for Joe's Auto. He's got his video going, captures that, when both cars are coming in. Who pulled in first? John. His car was he driving?

Katie's car. Who pulled in Saturday? Me. John gets on the police car and he gets into the car and I'm joining. And then you see that Gold Pruis is just leaving that Reefiating. That's incredible evidence. That was tied together by Hannah Thompson.

By the time we got to trial, Hannah had a full version of events of John giving a full confession to her about how he did it. That was version number 11 of events. I don't know anything about her murder. And that had been going on for several years. In those eight years, you've had now 11 opportunities to come before this court and saw the truth. Yes.

And today's that day? Yes. You lied to your friends and your family? Yes. And you count blind. Yes. I don't know how you parse out. What part of her statement is the truth?

Her story was constantly changing, and so she alone by herself in a vacuum is not credible enough to try an entire case. But we were able to corroborate every single little step of her story. What is this? It's just a journal that John kept. She was one of the reasons why the diary was actually present in the trial. She wrote in that diary. She was able to identify that John's handwriting was.

in the diary. And again on page 39, is that John? I bought out and run. Yes. Somehow how you understand why I did it. Back world was evil to me. Sorry that I had to do that, but there was no other way for me. I don't know that I would categorize anything in there as a confession.

John is talking to is writing a letter to his daughter. He's not confessing and he's not apologizing for killing Katie. He's apologizing for running and not being there for his daughter and missing out on her growing. her growing up years. So everyone is wondering, is John going to take the stand in his own defense? And he reached the suit. Yes, sir. I will not this way.

After three days of testimony. We are raised for a close and arguments. I recognize the state. Thank you, Your Honor. May it please the court. You don't have to take Hannah Thompson's word for it. You don't have to take Investigator Moorcraft, Investigator Schofield, or even my word for it because you can take his words for it.

I did. We're here because of tunnel vision. It became obvious that he was going to be the only person that law enforcement investigated. Then fear got the best of him, and he decided to take his chances on the road. Was John a perfect husband? Absolutely not. Absolutely not. But does being a terrible husband make you guilty of murder?

No. After just hours of deliberations, the verdict is in. Breaking news right now out of Greenville County, the of Greenville County, the jury just reaching a verdict. The jury deliberated for about five hours today. The verdict did come back. I was just watching the judge because I am hard of hearing. Foreman, understand that you agree to the verdict.

Is that correct? Yes, sir. I wanted to see his lips when he said what he said. As to the charge of murder, we the jury, and as when fine the defendant, John Teak of Laveau, Loveth. Guilty. I even grabbed my husband, I said, guilty? Just to make sure I heard it right, you know. And I couldn't believe it.

I just started crying like crazy and couldn't stop because that's when I guess all the emotion and the stress I've been going through, it just finally broke through. He was sentenced to life in prison for the murder. In South Carolina, since 96, life means life. It's a pine box life, as we call it. It means you don't get out unless you're in a pine box.

No freedoms, hopefully no happiness. If we can't get the pain and suffering he caused my sister, at least he doesn't get anything else either. A second suspect was John Blauvel's teenage girlfriend. She is now 25 in charge with obstruction of justice and accessory after the fact. Hannah Thompson was looking at trial at 50 years in prison. John's been convicted of murder, so what about Hannah Thompson? John Bluvel's girlfriend, Hannah Thompson,

who was 17 at the time of the crime faces lesser charges in this case. Hannah Thompson was looking at 50 years in prison. By the time we get to sentencing, though, three of the five charges against Hannah have been dropped, so now she's facing a potential of 20 years in prison. She pled guilty to obstruction of justice and Ms. Prison of a felony.

The judge that presided over her plea got to see the value of her information that she provided and ultimately sentenced her to a probationary sentence instead of active time. She's scyed for life because of this, and she knew she was manipulated. She participated she should have done sometime. It's hard to accept, and I recognize that,

but you have to decide what's important for the conviction of the person that actually did the killing. John Blavent will never get out of jail, and a lot of that was due to the testimony of Hannah Thompson, tying it together. And as much justice as we got with John, We got the total opposite with Hannah.

And so she's living free as a burgundy. Come and go and do what she wants now. And that's just wrong to me. She knew what he was doing. She knew his plans. She helped him make sure he had an alibi, a slap on the wrist, and a pat on the back. That's what she got.

After Katie's death, her mother Patty brought flowers to the place where she was murdered. That abandoned farmhouse. And we went down to where they found Katie. I laid roses down there. He put her there because he was taking out the trash. My daughter's not trash. She was a beautiful soul who did not deserve this.

Would she have had kids? Would she have had someone who truly loved her? What would she have been doing, you know, in this moment? We've got necklaces that have a little piece of her. So she just take her everywhere we go. After she passed, I got her signature on my wrist from a birthday card and the word parabate. It comes from a book series we liked,

and it meant two warriors who were supposed to fight through life together. Katie had my name saved as that in her phone when she died. Nobody's ever heard this letter. She wrote this when she was 17. Dearest Crystal. Remember I love you. Promise me you'll always remember me how I can never be mean to someone without feeling guilty, how I always have to say thank you or I'll feel bad.

Remember me as I sang with you on the bus not caring who hears or if we were in tune. Oh the good times we have I really hope we have more but if we don't remember the ones we did have. Always and forever, Katie. She was a sister I never got to have. I would give anything just to have her back. Her name, Catherine,

and it meant pure and innocent. And that's what she was. She was pure and she was innocent. Along with her family, Katie continues to be remembered by her colleagues at that PetSmart where she worked. In fact, they've installed a memorial to her. That even includes a picture of her favorite animal, a sea turtle. As for Katie's killer, her estuary's killer, her estuary.

estranged husband, John Blavelt. He's appealing his conviction. That's our program for tonight. Thanks so much for watching. I'm Deborah Roberts. And I'm David Neur from all of us here at 2020 in ABC News. Good night. Black Friday is coming.

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