Episode 350

<v Speaker 1>Sword and Scale contains adult themes and violence, and is
<v Speaker 1>not intended for all audiences.
<v Speaker 2>Listener discretion is advised.
<v Speaker 3>Unfortunately, you are right in the middle of all of this,
<v Speaker 3>and for to sit here and lie to us to.
<v Speaker 4>Begin with, is not helping you at all.
<v Speaker 3>This is a friend of yours or was a friend
<v Speaker 3>of yours, and somebody brutally marked I.
<v Speaker 1>Know, hello and welcome to season thirteen, episode three hundred
<v Speaker 1>and fifty of Sword and Scale, the show that reveals
<v Speaker 1>that the worst monsters are real. Simpsonville, South Carolina, is
<v Speaker 1>a small southern town where life moves at an easy pace,
<v Speaker 1>Families know their neighbors, church bells still mark the hour,
<v Speaker 1>and the peaceful atmosphere feels almost rehearsed. But on the
<v Speaker 1>afternoon of October twenty sixth, twenty sixteen, the calumn was broken.
<v Speaker 1>Inside a cramped interview room at the Simpsonville Police departm
<v Speaker 1>investigator spoke to a young man named Ricky Hargrove.
<v Speaker 5>I want to tell you once you've effectively done, Ricky,
<v Speaker 5>is you've inserted yourself into a murder investigation.
<v Speaker 6>I mean, what do you think I think you would
<v Speaker 6>do something like that?
<v Speaker 7>Take some kind of monster to do something like that
<v Speaker 7>or someone.
<v Speaker 1>This interview with Ricky was one of the first threats
<v Speaker 1>in an investigation that would spend nearly a decade. It
<v Speaker 1>was a horrific homicide case that centered around a twenty
<v Speaker 1>two year old woman named Katie Blavel. Katie believed she
<v Speaker 1>could build a simple life for herself in Simpsonville and
<v Speaker 1>was doing what she could do to make that happen.
<v Speaker 1>Katie was an animal lover, and in twenty sixteen, she
<v Speaker 1>was working full time at her local Pet Smart.
<v Speaker 8>I just want to confirm with you she was working
<v Speaker 8>here on Monday, and do you remember what her hours work?
<v Speaker 9>You're on Monday was nine am to two pm, nine
<v Speaker 9>to two.
<v Speaker 8>I don't know exactly what time she left, but I
<v Speaker 8>mean it was no later.
<v Speaker 9>Than two fifteen, So you were working on Monday, did yes?
<v Speaker 4>How was Katie's demeanor? That na perfectly fine. She was talking.
<v Speaker 10>About picking up her someone named Cheyenne, I don't know
<v Speaker 10>who that is to her, and they were going shopping together.
<v Speaker 1>On October twenty third, twenty sixteen, Katie worked a full
<v Speaker 1>time shift at PetSmart. When she clocked out at around
<v Speaker 1>two fifteen pm, she confirmed plants to meet up with
<v Speaker 1>her younger sister, Cheyenne.
<v Speaker 4>But I said, what are you doing? And she said,
<v Speaker 4>I'm driving around, Sir.
<v Speaker 11>I said, when you take me Kimany to get food
<v Speaker 11>and Canny, we'll buy you food. And she said, yeah,
<v Speaker 11>I'll be there in an hour. So if you don't
<v Speaker 11>know what you're doing right now, is at hour, get
<v Speaker 11>here you.
<v Speaker 6>And she said, I don't do.
<v Speaker 4>But I kind of just let it go because I
<v Speaker 4>was like, you know, maybe she DoD something she don't
<v Speaker 4>want to tell me about. She's grown, she can do that,
<v Speaker 4>you know.
<v Speaker 11>And so I fell asleep and I caught her back
<v Speaker 11>in like an hour and a half, and she.
<v Speaker 1>Didn't answy Katy never showed up to meet her sister
<v Speaker 1>that day. When phone calls went unanswered, Cheyenne felt the
<v Speaker 1>first wave of panic. She immediately knew that something was
<v Speaker 1>very wrong.
<v Speaker 4>Her phone was off.
<v Speaker 11>And then that's why I kind of started to worry,
<v Speaker 11>because I'm like, Katie never released her phone, you know,
<v Speaker 11>Katy never blows me off.
<v Speaker 4>I don't know.
<v Speaker 11>Like twelve thirty one o'clock, I called John. He answered,
<v Speaker 11>it be someon like he's just woken up. And I said,
<v Speaker 11>I can't find Katie. And I said, I mean to
<v Speaker 11>know if she's at your house or.
<v Speaker 4>If you see your day. Hasn't just tell me, you know?
<v Speaker 11>He said, no, I don't talk to her anymore, as
<v Speaker 11>what he said on the phone.
<v Speaker 1>Desperate to find her sister, Cheyenne did the only thing
<v Speaker 1>she could think of. She reached out to Katie's a
<v Speaker 1>strange husband, John, what's your wife?
<v Speaker 12>Full name Catherine and Wavelt?
<v Speaker 6>And are you you familved that she's missing? Yeah.
<v Speaker 1>Twenty eight year old John Blovelt was an active duty
<v Speaker 1>soldier in the United States Army when Katie went missing.
<v Speaker 1>He was living and working in Simpsonville as a recruiters.
<v Speaker 13>Understand, you've been deployed twice, yes, iraq or yeah on
<v Speaker 13>once the last time I got back.
<v Speaker 6>Two thousand and ten.
<v Speaker 12>Has recruiting the obviously a lot different than Yeah.
<v Speaker 6>That was probably the worst jot of the red Yeah,
<v Speaker 6>because you know, I joined the army at eighteen to
<v Speaker 6>fight and ira.
<v Speaker 13>Yeah, and then they had me sit behind the desk
<v Speaker 13>and you couldn't get a different assignment. No, it's one
<v Speaker 13>of it's like one of the armies, and like mandatory
<v Speaker 13>assignments you to take it.
<v Speaker 6>Or you get out.
<v Speaker 1>John and Katie met by chance outside the Army recruiting
<v Speaker 1>office where he worked. Her job was just a few
<v Speaker 1>doors down, and one afternoon, during a smoke break, their
<v Speaker 1>conversations began.
<v Speaker 6>So me and her just kind of met and started dating.
<v Speaker 6>I was staying at her house most days during the week,
<v Speaker 6>at her dad's house.
<v Speaker 13>And then we finally got an apartment in December, and
<v Speaker 13>you got married, what year twenty fifteen?
<v Speaker 1>After they married, it didn't take long for John and
<v Speaker 1>Katie to realize they weren't as compatible as they'd hoped.
<v Speaker 1>They barely lived together for two months before the relationship
<v Speaker 1>fell apart and Katie decided to walk away. She left
<v Speaker 1>John and the two were officially separated.
<v Speaker 12>O Kay of stuff, a y'all.
<v Speaker 6>Arguing about.
<v Speaker 12>Everything just normal, just normal stuff, people's stuff.
<v Speaker 13>And then being a recruiter, I talked to a lot
<v Speaker 13>of different people, So I had two phones, and I
<v Speaker 13>talked to a lot of females. And she didn't my chest,
<v Speaker 13>but was my job as a recruiter. I had to
<v Speaker 13>talk to everybody. Yeah, and she would like that. So
<v Speaker 13>then we argue about that.
<v Speaker 6>See, you guys weren't very long at all in two months.
<v Speaker 1>In October of twenty sixteen, Katie went missing, and naturally,
<v Speaker 1>her husband was one of the first people police wanted
<v Speaker 1>to talk to. For the most part, John was open
<v Speaker 1>and cooperative. He admitted that their marriage had been difficult,
<v Speaker 1>even horrible at times, but he insisted he'd never laid
<v Speaker 1>a hand on her or caused her any physical harm.
<v Speaker 13>I mean we were the worst couple, you know, we argued,
<v Speaker 13>but I think it was just bad timing, honestly, because
<v Speaker 13>she was going through some shit.
<v Speaker 6>I was going through some shit and she's left one day.
<v Speaker 6>It was the last time you actually saw her, I'd
<v Speaker 6>say probably July, because she moved out in the April.
<v Speaker 12>I think have you ever gotten some mad at her?
<v Speaker 12>That maybe he did something you didn't mean to do?
<v Speaker 6>Absolutely not, don't.
<v Speaker 1>So told investigators that he hadn't seen Katie for months,
<v Speaker 1>and he provided a reasonable alibi for the day she
<v Speaker 1>went missing.
<v Speaker 12>Did you work this Monday? What time did you get
<v Speaker 12>off on Monday?
<v Speaker 6>Like two thirties too? I don't know where'd you go
<v Speaker 6>it for home?
<v Speaker 12>Did you stop anywhere on the way home? Was anybody
<v Speaker 12>home with you?
<v Speaker 6>Yeah? My roommates were there.
<v Speaker 1>John's roommates backed up his story. They told investigators they
<v Speaker 1>saw him come home from work that day on the
<v Speaker 1>day that Katie went missing, though they did lose track
<v Speaker 1>of him later in the evening when he said he
<v Speaker 1>was going out for a job. Investigators also spoke with
<v Speaker 1>people who knew both John and Katie and were familiar
<v Speaker 1>with their relationship. Many described John the same way, polite, disciplined,
<v Speaker 1>the picture of an army soldier. For them, the idea
<v Speaker 1>that he could hurt Katie didn't seem possible at all.
<v Speaker 14>Used to buy a lot, but like.
<v Speaker 15>He was never like.
<v Speaker 16>Violent with her when I lived there, and a lot
<v Speaker 16>of the time it was like really her that like
<v Speaker 16>started argument.
<v Speaker 17>What do you think the chances are of the John
<v Speaker 17>lost his school and did something to her.
<v Speaker 14>I know he didn't know.
<v Speaker 18>I've been around hi when he's drunk, quite straight up
<v Speaker 18>drunk in it, and he's not angry. You know, they've
<v Speaker 18>gotten really upset and he just he just comes in
<v Speaker 18>and just cries, like I mean, I've seen him mad.
<v Speaker 4>But you know, he just yells and that's the end
<v Speaker 4>of it.
<v Speaker 1>After looking into John and finding no clear link to
<v Speaker 1>Katie's disappearance, investigators began to consider other possibilities. They knew
<v Speaker 1>that after the marriage ended, Katie had started dating again.
<v Speaker 1>This opened the door to new questions and a different suspect.
<v Speaker 19>I don't know when her family stile you.
<v Speaker 6>Hopefully she's been up front with you. Machine in dating
<v Speaker 6>around a lot.
<v Speaker 12>Okay, yeah, yeah, we're looking.
<v Speaker 6>Into some of that.
<v Speaker 1>Investigators learned that Katie had recently reconnected with an ex boyfriend,
<v Speaker 1>twenty one year old Wayne Roper. This was a bizarre
<v Speaker 1>relationship that quickly became the focus of their suspicions, and
<v Speaker 1>through a series of strange, unsettling events, that relationship led
<v Speaker 1>detectives to another name, the young man you heard at
<v Speaker 1>the beginning of this episode, Ricky Hargrove.
<v Speaker 7>Yesterday, when I was finishing up some assignments in my
<v Speaker 7>classes online, I got a call from Wayne at around
<v Speaker 7>one and thirty. Wayne called says, hey, man, can you
<v Speaker 7>can you come pick me up from work?
<v Speaker 1>On the night of October twenty fourth, twenty sixteen, Ricky
<v Speaker 1>received an unexpected phone call. It was from Katie's ex boyfriend,
<v Speaker 1>Wayne Roper, who asked for a ride home from the
<v Speaker 1>Walmart art where he worked. Ricky hesitated, then agreed as
<v Speaker 1>long as he got a little gas money.
<v Speaker 7>When he got out of the got into the car,
<v Speaker 7>I say, hey, man, what's up with Katie being missing?
<v Speaker 7>And he said they haven't been able to find her,
<v Speaker 7>and they pinged her phone in West Virginia or something,
<v Speaker 7>and then they pinged it again and it was in Simpsonville.
<v Speaker 7>And he said, Uh, yeah, there was this house that
<v Speaker 7>we used to hang out at and I've been wanting
<v Speaker 7>to check that because I think they that.
<v Speaker 6>She might be there.
<v Speaker 1>When Wayne climbed into the passenger seat, his request pot
<v Speaker 1>Ricky off guard. He wanted to go to a nearby
<v Speaker 1>abandoned farmhouse, a place that was rumored to be haunted. Strangely,
<v Speaker 1>Wayne said he thought Katie might be hiding there.
<v Speaker 7>I get out of the car with him, give him
<v Speaker 7>my lamp, my head lamb, and we walk in there.
<v Speaker 7>I'm talking about the house being haunted. I don't want
<v Speaker 7>anything to do with his and I tell him about
<v Speaker 7>you know, if we do find her. He says, we're
<v Speaker 7>going to call the cops. And I say, I got
<v Speaker 7>a bunch of wheat in there, and then I'm not
<v Speaker 7>expected to find her at all in there. And I
<v Speaker 7>was just kind of dismissive whenever we go in there.
<v Speaker 7>We checked all the upstairs rooms, and then when we
<v Speaker 7>get done checking those, we go downstairs.
<v Speaker 1>Reluctantly, Ricky drove Wayne to the abandoned farmhouse and together
<v Speaker 1>they searched the dark, empty rooms for any sign of Katie.
<v Speaker 1>After several minutes of searching, and after they made their
<v Speaker 1>way into the basement, Wayne Roper pulled out his phone
<v Speaker 1>and dialed nine one one.
<v Speaker 19>The pasion of your emergency.
<v Speaker 17>I was.
<v Speaker 5>In the woods.
<v Speaker 19>My friend.
<v Speaker 20>Uh, she's been missing for for I think thirty hours now,
<v Speaker 20>and we went into the woods where we used to
<v Speaker 20>all hang out at and there's a house there, and
<v Speaker 20>we went looking for her there, just in case, like
<v Speaker 20>she might be there staying or something. And we found
<v Speaker 20>her in the in the bottom part in the basement, covered.
<v Speaker 19>Up with pieces of wood. Okay, like was she was?
<v Speaker 19>She still alive?
<v Speaker 20>Mister nervous on She's pale.
<v Speaker 19>So she was pale and unresponsive. Yes, are you still
<v Speaker 19>there with her? No, sir, I walked away. I couldn't.
<v Speaker 19>Is anybody still there with her? Mister?
<v Speaker 1>That night, the body of twenty two year old Katie
<v Speaker 1>Blavelt was found in the basement of an abandoned farmhouse.
<v Speaker 1>She'd been covered with planks of rotting wood, and an
<v Speaker 1>autopsy later revealed she'd been brutally stabbed to death. Simpsonville
<v Speaker 1>wasn't the kind of place where people normally vanished or
<v Speaker 1>where murder made the nightly news. When it did, everyone
<v Speaker 1>knew about it, naturally. Solving Katie's murder became a top
<v Speaker 1>priority for local investigators, but answers didn't come quickly. Nearly
<v Speaker 1>a decade would pass before a jury would finally hear
<v Speaker 1>the case, and even then the truth was anything but certain.
<v Speaker 1>On October twenty third, twenty sixteen, twenty two year old
<v Speaker 1>Katie Blavelt was supposed to meet her younger sister after work,
<v Speaker 1>but by that evening she was missing. The following day,
<v Speaker 1>investigators began piecing together what little they knew, a troubled
<v Speaker 1>marriage with an army recruiter, a recent separation. At a
<v Speaker 1>late night drive to an abandoned farmhouse, that's where two
<v Speaker 1>young men, Wayne Roper and Ricky Hargrove claimed to have
<v Speaker 1>made a discovery they'd never forget. It was Wayne, who
<v Speaker 1>happened to be Katie's ex boyfriend, who reached for his
<v Speaker 1>phone and dialed nine one one.
<v Speaker 20>I was worried about my friends Kady, and she would
<v Speaker 20>have missed it. She's been missing for a while now.
<v Speaker 20>And who came in this house that we used to
<v Speaker 20>hanging all an elegance?
<v Speaker 10>And what's more, what's wrong with her?
<v Speaker 21>Sir?
<v Speaker 15>We fold her in himself?
<v Speaker 20>La, you found her what we fell? We found my
<v Speaker 20>friend Katie border did in?
<v Speaker 11>Okay?
<v Speaker 20>Okay?
<v Speaker 1>In other words, she's dead in that?
<v Speaker 11>Are you saying she's dead in the house?
<v Speaker 17>Now?
<v Speaker 5>Now you're sure she's dead.
<v Speaker 17>She's not breathing, is she cold?
<v Speaker 6>She's very real?
<v Speaker 20>And there was no response.
<v Speaker 22>There's no response? Okay, sir?
<v Speaker 19>And what's your name?
<v Speaker 20>Wayne's profra.
<v Speaker 1>After Wayne made this call, officers quickly arrived at the scene,
<v Speaker 1>and the search for Katie Blauvelt came to an end.
<v Speaker 1>Her body was found in the basement of the abandoned farmhouse,
<v Speaker 1>stuffed into a narrow cement opening and covered with planks
<v Speaker 1>of rotting wood. An autopsy later revealed the cause of death.
<v Speaker 1>She'd been stabbed multiple times, including twice in the neck.
<v Speaker 1>A fragment of the knife used to kill her was
<v Speaker 1>still lodged in her throat. Investigators later concluded that the
<v Speaker 1>murder had taken place somewhere else, likely nearby, perhaps in
<v Speaker 1>the driveway, and that Katie's body had been dragged into
<v Speaker 1>the basement in a hurried attempt to hide the crime.
<v Speaker 1>Now that Katie had been found and the case had
<v Speaker 1>shifted from a missing person to a homicide investigation, detectives
<v Speaker 1>turned their attention to the man who claimed to have
<v Speaker 1>discovered her body, Katie's ex boyfriend, Wayne Roper.
<v Speaker 6>Jemmy, how did you meet Kate? I'm going to school
<v Speaker 6>with her, Chris.
<v Speaker 2>Class.
<v Speaker 6>Y'all the same age. She's two twenty one.
<v Speaker 15>She's a few months older man, But y'all were inside.
<v Speaker 6>Gray she's a year buy okay, and the classes together.
<v Speaker 6>Y'all mate the.
<v Speaker 15>Bus together, and we also had the same watch a
<v Speaker 15>first met her of her friends at first.
<v Speaker 23>And then we dated for.
<v Speaker 6>Like a month or so.
<v Speaker 1>Wayne explained that his relationship with Katie had been a
<v Speaker 1>brief high school Flint, and then after they broke up,
<v Speaker 1>the two remained friends. Years later, after Katie married army
<v Speaker 1>recruiter John Blauvelt, Wayne ended up moving into their home.
<v Speaker 1>In a strange twist, he had become a housemate to
<v Speaker 1>his ex girlfriend and her new husband.
<v Speaker 12>John offered me.
<v Speaker 6>To move in within a roommate, so you lived with
<v Speaker 6>her and her husband.
<v Speaker 16>Yeah, it's weird.
<v Speaker 6>Did he know that when you moved in? Yeah?
<v Speaker 1>According to Wayne, John was aware of his past relationship
<v Speaker 1>with Katie and never seemed to be bothered by it.
<v Speaker 1>In fact, after a night of heavy drinking, Wayne claimed
<v Speaker 1>he was invited into their bedroom.
<v Speaker 5>When you were living with John A kat how often
<v Speaker 5>we all been intimate with each other?
<v Speaker 19>It was the long ones.
<v Speaker 6>And John was there or not there?
<v Speaker 1>It was and you know it.
<v Speaker 6>How did you not know it?
<v Speaker 12>I hate it was looking through something. And after that,
<v Speaker 12>like he just changed.
<v Speaker 6>And how did that come about? I only drinking, he
<v Speaker 6>was drunking. You know, that's the right idea.
<v Speaker 24>I can see where that might call some friction. But
<v Speaker 24>you continued to live there. Yeah, I mean he didn't
<v Speaker 24>say anything verbally to me, you know, and I just
<v Speaker 24>thought everything was gonna be okay.
<v Speaker 15>Then they started having arguments because of me, because she
<v Speaker 15>told me that he was jealous of me.
<v Speaker 12>Their arguments are eating worse.
<v Speaker 1>Wayne described how John and Katie's marriage had fallen apart,
<v Speaker 1>marked by constant fighting and tension in the house. Eventually,
<v Speaker 1>Katie moved out, and a few months later Wayne did
<v Speaker 1>as well. Then, after Katie went missing, Wayne claimed he
<v Speaker 1>had just decided on a whim to go look for
<v Speaker 1>her at the old abandoned farmhouse where her body was found.
<v Speaker 6>Tell me about the band in the house. I didn't
<v Speaker 6>you know about it. We used to go there and
<v Speaker 6>drink all the time. But I didn't get off of
<v Speaker 6>work until eleven.
<v Speaker 15>Now called called Ricky and see if you give me
<v Speaker 15>a ride, And yeah, I was almost home from work,
<v Speaker 15>and I asked him if he would undertake me together
<v Speaker 15>the band house to look. I used a flashlight to
<v Speaker 15>go in there, and I was looking at the fire
<v Speaker 15>flash flight. It was a headline, okay, And I was
<v Speaker 15>looking on the ground for any footprints or trash or anything.
<v Speaker 1>Wayne said he went to the abandoned farmhouse in the
<v Speaker 1>middle of the night to look for Katie, which was
<v Speaker 1>something investigators immediately found unusual and highly suspicious.
<v Speaker 12>Then we went down to the basement.
<v Speaker 15>I looked at her in that conquered thing, and I
<v Speaker 15>seen her jacket looks.
<v Speaker 6>At the I see her, Hey, you know it was her.
<v Speaker 15>She was missing, Like it's the first thing that thought
<v Speaker 15>in my head. Am sure that we ran out of there,
<v Speaker 15>and then once I got to the to the road.
<v Speaker 14>I called on.
<v Speaker 1>Investigators also spoke with the young man who had driven
<v Speaker 1>Wayne to the farmhouse, Ricky Hargrove. His account of that
<v Speaker 1>night largely matched Wayne's version of events.
<v Speaker 7>And then he looks down and he said that I
<v Speaker 7>think he said there she is, Oh my god. And
<v Speaker 7>then I looked playing stattered. I said, oh my god.
<v Speaker 7>I turned around and hears him say Katie, like trying
<v Speaker 7>to wake her up or something, and I'm like, dude,
<v Speaker 7>I think she's dead. I'm kind of going up the
<v Speaker 7>steps by then, and he comes up behind me when
<v Speaker 7>they's pulling out his phone, calling IDEM.
<v Speaker 1>Naturally, investigators were puzzled by this story. Something about it
<v Speaker 1>just didn't add up. It was strange enough that these
<v Speaker 1>two guys had randomly decided to search for Katie in
<v Speaker 1>the middle of the night, but even stranger was the
<v Speaker 1>first place they looked they found her body. Detectives knew
<v Speaker 1>something wasn't right. One of them, or maybe both, had
<v Speaker 1>to be lying.
<v Speaker 6>Why didn't you call the place? They already put out
<v Speaker 6>a report and I'm talking about all.
<v Speaker 5>This conversation about the abandoned house. I'm just curious, why
<v Speaker 5>didn't you refer it and say, hey, look i'm.
<v Speaker 6>Holding over there, and look, I didn't think of it.
<v Speaker 4>I didn't.
<v Speaker 6>That's kind of odd.
<v Speaker 19>It's just like.
<v Speaker 6>I just didn't expect anything to be there.
<v Speaker 5>You did a call and said, hey, I don't know
<v Speaker 5>if he's any truth to the is, but I've heard
<v Speaker 5>people talking and there's.
<v Speaker 6>No man in the house down here, and you all
<v Speaker 6>may want to check that.
<v Speaker 12>That makes sense to me.
<v Speaker 5>Putting on a headlamp while a miner ain't going to
<v Speaker 5>bed there at midnight don't make no sense to me.
<v Speaker 1>Another detail that bothered investigators was that Katie's car wasn't
<v Speaker 1>at the scene. It had actually been found the day before,
<v Speaker 1>abandoned in a parking lot several miles from the farmhouse,
<v Speaker 1>with its license plates removed. So when Wayne and Ricky
<v Speaker 1>showed up at that old house, investigators had to wonder
<v Speaker 1>why go inside at all? If Katie's car wasn't there,
<v Speaker 1>what made them think she would be?
<v Speaker 6>Did you think she was dead?
<v Speaker 17>No?
<v Speaker 5>I didn't, okay, because there's no cars there, so one
<v Speaker 5>of the odds if she's really there, that she would
<v Speaker 5>be Okay, I just I.
<v Speaker 6>Mean, help me understand. I mean, I don't know. I'm trying.
<v Speaker 6>I'm trying to get it.
<v Speaker 5>Because you drive up there because you're you're kind of
<v Speaker 5>worried about her. When you get there, there's no cars, right,
<v Speaker 5>So what's the probability that she's really there?
<v Speaker 6>How was she had gotten there? You know what I'm saying,
<v Speaker 6>this is just you know she was dead.
<v Speaker 1>Detectives pressed Wayne with simple questions, one that should have
<v Speaker 1>been easy to answer, but instead of explanations, they got
<v Speaker 1>shoulder shrugs and a string of I don't know.
<v Speaker 6>It's really hard for me.
<v Speaker 5>To get through my brain that you got hundreds of
<v Speaker 5>ball for phil officers looking for this little girl that.
<v Speaker 6>You said was a friend of yours.
<v Speaker 5>We're peening phone, we're subpoenaing records, we're trying to find
<v Speaker 5>this squirrel because people that love her are trying to
<v Speaker 5>find her, and yet you.
<v Speaker 6>And other guy in there, the first place they look,
<v Speaker 6>they find her. What are the odds of that?
<v Speaker 21>What do you mean?
<v Speaker 6>I think they's a sail of men. You had a
<v Speaker 6>bunch of options.
<v Speaker 5>Yeah, but if you really cared about her, why didn't
<v Speaker 5>you tell somebody.
<v Speaker 6>Why didn't you get somebody else in it? Why would
<v Speaker 6>you think the best idea is for you to walk
<v Speaker 6>into what turns out today her final resting.
<v Speaker 5>Place where somebody murdered her and dumped her down there
<v Speaker 5>like a piece of trash.
<v Speaker 6>Why do you think the best solution for you and
<v Speaker 6>Richie is.
<v Speaker 5>To go up there and put your DNA all over
<v Speaker 5>a murder crime, saying why.
<v Speaker 12>I just I didn't think about that.
<v Speaker 1>Listening to this interview, it's not difficult to figure out
<v Speaker 1>what investigators were thinking. They clearly believe that Wayne already
<v Speaker 1>knew what had happened to Katie, He probably knew where
<v Speaker 1>her body was, and this so called discovery had been
<v Speaker 1>completely staged.
<v Speaker 5>And we need to decide whether we're going to continue
<v Speaker 5>to risk being accessory before after the factual murder, helping
<v Speaker 5>dispose of a body after it was already dead, or
<v Speaker 5>play stupid and ended.
<v Speaker 6>Up getting charged with all of it.
<v Speaker 14>Yeah, I'll be good right now.
<v Speaker 5>We can't put your hand being the one that killed
<v Speaker 5>that girl, but you finding her there, that's way too
<v Speaker 5>big of a quiescence for me, Powell, So I'm not
<v Speaker 5>opposed to him. For anybody has made him say, Wayne,
<v Speaker 5>but I can't help you if you don't.
<v Speaker 6>Tell me the truth.
<v Speaker 14>You're telling me the truth.
<v Speaker 6>You're telling me part of the truth. I'm telling you
<v Speaker 6>the full truth. I've told you of it.
<v Speaker 16>Then.
<v Speaker 6>Yeah, I told us everything in that Wayne, But it's
<v Speaker 6>time for you to do that, okay.
<v Speaker 1>Investigators kept pressing Wayne for what they believed was the truth,
<v Speaker 1>but no matter how hard they pushed, he stood by
<v Speaker 1>his story that he'd simply found Kittie's body and he
<v Speaker 1>had nothing to do with her death or how she
<v Speaker 1>ended up in the farmhouse.
<v Speaker 25>No, you took that your poor unsuspecting friend right down
<v Speaker 25>the crowd stay because you knew exactly where she was,
<v Speaker 25>and you couldn't send that that she was gonna be
<v Speaker 25>there and might not be found.
<v Speaker 6>That's what I think happened. You took that boy in
<v Speaker 6>there so you could find her body.
<v Speaker 14>No one didn't.
<v Speaker 6>I'm telling you the full truth. I've told you everything
<v Speaker 6>that I can think of.
<v Speaker 12>What kind of hand did you have in putting her
<v Speaker 12>body there?
<v Speaker 6>None at all? None, whatever, none, whatsoever.
<v Speaker 1>Despite the investigator's efforts, Wayne stuck to his story and
<v Speaker 1>to his claim of innocence. After several hours of questioning.
<v Speaker 1>Both he and Ricky Hargrove were released and sent home.
<v Speaker 1>From there, the focus shifted to the farmhouse itself. Detectives
<v Speaker 1>began narrowing down their list of suspects by looking for
<v Speaker 1>anyone who not only knew about Katie but was familiar
<v Speaker 1>with the property. They soon learned the house had a reputation.
<v Speaker 1>It was a popular hangout spot for local teenagers looking
<v Speaker 1>to drink or get high.
<v Speaker 26>Because the abandoned house that she was found in, like
<v Speaker 26>it was released in the news, was a high school
<v Speaker 26>hangout for us. We'd go over there and chill sometimes.
<v Speaker 26>But uh, the only people that really knew about the
<v Speaker 26>house was the immediate group, which was me, Cameron, Wayne,
<v Speaker 26>who found Katie, Cyane, Ali, Nick, and John.
<v Speaker 1>When detectives reviewed the names of people connected to the farmhouse,
<v Speaker 1>one caught their attention. John Blavel, Katie's husband. He was
<v Speaker 1>thirty and an army recruiter. So what was he doing
<v Speaker 1>hanging around a known teenage party hotspot?
<v Speaker 12>Are you familiar with this abandoned house?
<v Speaker 6>Yeah, okay, that's the spot.
<v Speaker 12>That's like, what's the stuf hangout spot? I've been there
<v Speaker 12>a couple of times. So when was the last time
<v Speaker 12>you were there, like a week ago, a month ago,
<v Speaker 12>spend months.
<v Speaker 1>When asked, John admitted he was familiar with the farmhouse.
<v Speaker 1>He'd partied there before with some local teenagers, but he
<v Speaker 1>claimed he hadn't been there in months. Even if that
<v Speaker 1>was true, investigators couldn't ignore how strange it was for
<v Speaker 1>a nearly thirty year old army recruiter to be socializing
<v Speaker 1>with high school students. As they dug deeper, they learned
<v Speaker 1>that John's job often brought him into contact with juniors
<v Speaker 1>and seniors, and that drinking with them had apparently become
<v Speaker 1>part of his routine. Many of those students said they
<v Speaker 1>admired him, and why wouldn't they. It was a good
<v Speaker 1>looking soldier with a confident smile in a uniform that
<v Speaker 1>commanded respect. On the surface, he looked like a man
<v Speaker 1>who had his life in order, disciplined, trustworthy, the kind
<v Speaker 1>of person parents might even encourage their kids to follow.
<v Speaker 1>But beneath that polished exterior, investigators were hearing something very different.
<v Speaker 1>According to several of those same teenagers, it wasn't unusual
<v Speaker 1>for John to invite potential recruits back to his house,
<v Speaker 1>where he'd let them drink and get high.
<v Speaker 26>He was doing recruitment thing and I guess he wasn't
<v Speaker 26>meeting his quota, so she had. He had told her
<v Speaker 26>to invite some friends over to smoke and then he
<v Speaker 26>would do the recruitment stuff then and then that's how
<v Speaker 26>we met him.
<v Speaker 6>So it was a pretty such study.
<v Speaker 15>That's a hangout or if I had your rights back
<v Speaker 15>then to hang out drugs, drink alcohol.
<v Speaker 1>As investigators spoke with these teenagers, they began to get
<v Speaker 1>a clearer picture of John and Katie's relationship. What they
<v Speaker 1>learned didn't quite match the simple and amicable separation story
<v Speaker 1>John had been telling during the.
<v Speaker 23>Time that you were around when they were together, did
<v Speaker 23>you ever see any violence between the two of the
<v Speaker 23>many arguing.
<v Speaker 26>Yes, yes, there was frequent. They were always fighting about
<v Speaker 26>something and then John would always be yelling and screaming
<v Speaker 26>at her, and then they would go in their room
<v Speaker 26>and locked the dole in this fight. And we wouldn't
<v Speaker 26>see any of it like visually, but there was a
<v Speaker 26>we could always hear it.
<v Speaker 1>Investigators eventually discovered that before her death, Katie had filed
<v Speaker 1>a police report with a different department than the one
<v Speaker 1>handling her murder case. In that report, she stated that
<v Speaker 1>John had threatened to kill her and her entire family.
<v Speaker 27>Katie filed a criminal domestic violence report with Fountain In
<v Speaker 27>Police in January, and in the report, she detailed a
<v Speaker 27>fight that she had had with her husband a month earlier,
<v Speaker 27>where he threatened her several times at home with a revolver,
<v Speaker 27>threatening to kill her if she would not open or
<v Speaker 27>unlock her phone. The report went on to say that
<v Speaker 27>John Blofeld grabbed his shotgun, both sets of keys, and
<v Speaker 27>left the house, saying he was going to kill everybody
<v Speaker 27>she knows.
<v Speaker 1>Following this incident, Katie made up her mind to leave John.
<v Speaker 1>She went to the police and reported what had happened.
<v Speaker 1>Within days, officers were at the door to arrest him.
<v Speaker 13>She's left one day, it was like a Tuesday, and
<v Speaker 13>then she came back Friday with the entire Fountain police barman,
<v Speaker 13>and it was a pretty big scene.
<v Speaker 6>Were our thing.
<v Speaker 1>When police arrived at John's door, he was drinking and
<v Speaker 1>getting high with high school students.
<v Speaker 26>And then the night that it happened, when the cops
<v Speaker 26>showed up, he was I'm not sure what he was on,
<v Speaker 26>but he was running around the house waving guns saying
<v Speaker 26>that he wasn't gonna let the cops in and that
<v Speaker 26>he would rather like use the gun before he let
<v Speaker 26>them in.
<v Speaker 6>So is this the night he got arrested? Yes, Okay.
<v Speaker 1>Strangely, when officers arrested John, it wasn't for threatening Katie
<v Speaker 1>with a gun, even though she'd file the report saying
<v Speaker 1>he had. Instead, he was charged with contributing to the
<v Speaker 1>delinquency of a minor for drinking and using drugs with teenagers.
<v Speaker 1>After the arrest, the Army was notified and John's recruiting
<v Speaker 1>duties were suspended pending investigation.
<v Speaker 13>Because of the civil investigation, online recruiting newies have been suspended.
<v Speaker 6>So I've literally been sitting here since about March.
<v Speaker 12>During the day, just off his touchstone, playing on the phone.
<v Speaker 1>John knew that the Army's investigation was mostly a formality.
<v Speaker 1>He knew what the outcome would be. He'd be found
<v Speaker 1>guilty and discharged, ending a ten year military career with
<v Speaker 1>a dishonorable record after a decade of service, He'd essentially
<v Speaker 1>destroyed everything he'd built. But instead of any self reflection,
<v Speaker 1>instead of admitting that giving alcohol and drugs to teenagers
<v Speaker 1>might have been a bad idea. John looked for someone
<v Speaker 1>to blame. All of his anger landed squarely on as
<v Speaker 1>soon to be ex wife Katie Blovel, And I.
<v Speaker 4>Do you think kind of went back for a little while.
<v Speaker 4>He looks like that he's losing his job. He just
<v Speaker 4>blames it all. And I don't know if this matters.
<v Speaker 11>Or not, but I know he hasn't gone a fifty
<v Speaker 11>thousand dollars life insurance policy aren't here.
<v Speaker 1>As John waited for the army to discharge him, his
<v Speaker 1>behavior didn't change. He continued drinking with the high school students,
<v Speaker 1>and according to several of them, he often talked about
<v Speaker 1>Katie's life insurance policy and his desire to see her dead.
<v Speaker 2>I was over there one day with a bunch of
<v Speaker 2>friends and, like John, like he plotted out ways to
<v Speaker 2>like kill her, but it was joking.
<v Speaker 1>Incredibly, John also offered a sixteen year old girl fifty
<v Speaker 1>thousand dollars to help him build a false alibi. He
<v Speaker 1>planned to have this teenager drive his car and take
<v Speaker 1>his phone to Charleston so it would appear he'd left town,
<v Speaker 1>when in reality he'd still be in Simpsonville killing Katie.
<v Speaker 4>And he was like, do you want to go to Charleston,
<v Speaker 4>and I was like, he doesn't longer tells me?
<v Speaker 28>Yeah, me to what?
<v Speaker 12>And he's as long as he.
<v Speaker 4>Was take my car on the phone. And I was
<v Speaker 4>like me, you and cy in and he was like no, no,
<v Speaker 4>just dude.
<v Speaker 9>I realized a why and he was like, I can't
<v Speaker 9>really tell you and he was like no, I didn't
<v Speaker 9>want to tell me.
<v Speaker 4>And I was like, well, why, I know, why do you?
<v Speaker 4>He like, hit my car, I'm going my credit card,
<v Speaker 4>that's what you wanted to do.
<v Speaker 11>And he was drunk and he was like, I'm getting
<v Speaker 11>feel okay, he was gonna get I left the tanking
<v Speaker 11>his credit card in his phone to Charleston.
<v Speaker 4>Well, he asked why and he said so it look
<v Speaker 4>like I was in ust. And he asked him what
<v Speaker 4>he was gonna do what she wasn't Charleston.
<v Speaker 21>He said he was.
<v Speaker 10>Gonna kill Katie and he would give her fifteen thousand dollars,
<v Speaker 10>which is the exact amount of life and transposing naturally.
<v Speaker 1>After hearing these things about John, investigators confronted him with
<v Speaker 1>the act accusations. John denied it all.
<v Speaker 12>Have you ever and probably jokingly, I would assume, made
<v Speaker 12>a statement.
<v Speaker 17>To any of your friends about wanting.
<v Speaker 6>To kill Katie.
<v Speaker 12>Ever said you know, well if Katie dies, you know
<v Speaker 12>we'll get some money or want money to do anything with.
<v Speaker 23>Have you ever gone up to any friends and said, hey,
<v Speaker 23>would you do me a favor and take my car,
<v Speaker 23>take my keys, my debit card, my phone, go away
<v Speaker 23>for the weekend to Charleston, say, and that'll make it
<v Speaker 23>look like I'm out of town so I can kill Katie.
<v Speaker 12>No, so, somebody who told us that they're making that up?
<v Speaker 6>I believe so. Yeah.
<v Speaker 1>After being confronted with the accusations, John pointed the finger
<v Speaker 1>at Katie's family, claiming they were spreading lies about him.
<v Speaker 1>In his version of events, he was the real victim
<v Speaker 1>and just as hurt as everyone else who loved Katie.
<v Speaker 13>That's the same type of shit that from out her
<v Speaker 13>found now for the last fucking two weeks, and I'm
<v Speaker 13>getting kind of sick of it because I don't feel
<v Speaker 13>safe in my house anymore. Fucking dirt bag ass family,
<v Speaker 13>Well you gotta understand right now, they're going through a
<v Speaker 13>lot too, trying to understand. But I'm going through the
<v Speaker 13>same fucking shit.
<v Speaker 6>I lost a friend. Maybe not the best life, but
<v Speaker 6>I lost the fucking friend.
<v Speaker 1>There was another crucial element in this investigation, one that
<v Speaker 1>would eventually give investigators their best shot at justice for Katie.
<v Speaker 1>It's entered around a teenage girl named Hannah Thompsons.
<v Speaker 17>A sort of hand I tell me about her, hear
<v Speaker 17>and John like a couple.
<v Speaker 4>And John I've been.
<v Speaker 12>Sorting together, I guess for like.
<v Speaker 4>Seven eight months.
<v Speaker 6>Seven months so pretty much since he and Katie stood up.
<v Speaker 1>While John and Katie were still living together, John began
<v Speaker 1>sleeping with seventeen year old Hannah Thompson, and after Katie
<v Speaker 1>moved out, Hannah became John's living girlfriend. Once investigators learned
<v Speaker 1>about Hannah and her connection to John, they were of
<v Speaker 1>course eager to speak with her.
<v Speaker 12>When was the last time you saw Katie, like a
<v Speaker 12>few months ago, what was her feelings shorts for?
<v Speaker 8>I mean, I always like, I've always seen her as
<v Speaker 8>like a friend, because like you know, she always told
<v Speaker 8>me that she's like here for me if.
<v Speaker 4>I are need day thing.
<v Speaker 17>So it's a very saying you were good turns slither.
<v Speaker 12>Once she was killed.
<v Speaker 9>We had a good relationship, like we were a little
<v Speaker 9>kind of close.
<v Speaker 17>John never make any mention of life insurance policy.
<v Speaker 19>In her I don't know.
<v Speaker 12>He never talked to me about it, has ever joked
<v Speaker 12>around about things to be better.
<v Speaker 17>If she's dead, I should kill her he joked about that. Yes.
<v Speaker 1>Within moments of speaking with Hannah, investigators were fairly certain
<v Speaker 1>of one thing. She was trying to cover for John.
<v Speaker 1>In other words, she was lying to protect him, which
<v Speaker 1>was an extremely dumb thing to do.
<v Speaker 17>We've been working the space steady since she disappeared, so
<v Speaker 17>there's a lot of these things that we know the answers.
<v Speaker 17>I can tell you already you're lying to me. Okay,
<v Speaker 17>you do not want to get wrapped up and catch
<v Speaker 17>the murder charge. You're seventeen years old. You know your
<v Speaker 17>entire life, and you may love John, and you may
<v Speaker 17>think you two him to get married and walk down
<v Speaker 17>yellow brick Road.
<v Speaker 6>Okay, but no man and.
<v Speaker 17>No woman is worth going to prison.
<v Speaker 1>Investigators gave Hannah the typical pep talk about honesty, consequences,
<v Speaker 1>and the importance of coming clean, but none of it
<v Speaker 1>seemed to sink in.
<v Speaker 6>When you told me earlier that you and John aren't
<v Speaker 6>an item, that was a lot right.
<v Speaker 21>No, they're not.
<v Speaker 4>Really a leagal loss.
<v Speaker 6>So who are you doing.
<v Speaker 9>I'm not dating anybody.
<v Speaker 6>But if you look at your.
<v Speaker 13>Facebook, sass, you just posted on Sunday that we're currently
<v Speaker 13>in the most amazing relationship ever something along those lines.
<v Speaker 6>So who was that relationship with on Sunday it was, I.
<v Speaker 9>Mean, it was with John, But we're not like in
<v Speaker 9>a relationship.
<v Speaker 14>We're not dating.
<v Speaker 4>I just have a good relationship with him.
<v Speaker 1>Well, Hannah denied being in a romantic relationship with John.
<v Speaker 1>Investigators only turned up the pressure. They were clearly convinced
<v Speaker 1>that she knew a lot more than she was saying.
<v Speaker 10>Well, after me and John started like getting together, Katy
<v Speaker 10>started not liking me.
<v Speaker 4>And I'm going to say it right now, I'm like,
<v Speaker 4>she was not nice sometimes, but she did.
<v Speaker 9>Not deserve that.
<v Speaker 8>What she deserves right now is for us to figure
<v Speaker 8>out who did this. Oh I know, I know, And
<v Speaker 8>at this point nobody needs to cover for anybody. If
<v Speaker 8>you know something and you're trying to cover up for it,
<v Speaker 8>you're going to go down with the rest of them.
<v Speaker 8>You're going to go down with the person.
<v Speaker 9>Who did this to her.
<v Speaker 10>I don't know anything about you, do.
<v Speaker 6>We will do you do? We know more than anything
<v Speaker 6>which is evident.
<v Speaker 12>I don't.
<v Speaker 3>Got it because you know who else can't talk right now?
<v Speaker 4>It is Katie.
<v Speaker 6>She's ever talk again.
<v Speaker 1>Investigators kept pressing Hannah, but they went too far. The
<v Speaker 1>moment they showed her the photos of Katie's body, the
<v Speaker 1>interview fell apart.
<v Speaker 6>What do you think about.
<v Speaker 17>Somebody that would sad girl in the neck to the
<v Speaker 17>point where the knife went all the way through to
<v Speaker 17>the other side, and then stick her body like a
<v Speaker 17>piece of trash in the basement of an A band
<v Speaker 17>has to sit there for a day and a half
<v Speaker 17>before somebody finds her.
<v Speaker 12>Let's go right here.
<v Speaker 11>I want to look at her.
<v Speaker 4>I don't want to do this anymore.
<v Speaker 17>I don't want to do what.
<v Speaker 3>I don't want to us find out who Kilbert.
<v Speaker 6>I'll go w Is tell the truth.
<v Speaker 17>It will be.
<v Speaker 6>You gotta tell you something To tell the truth.
<v Speaker 17>You don't have to try.
<v Speaker 6>It just flows. It just comes out.
<v Speaker 4>Please leave, Hannah. This is a friend of yours and
<v Speaker 4>I'm trying to do I don't listening. You listen to
<v Speaker 4>me for just a second.
<v Speaker 3>This is a friend of yours, or was a friend
<v Speaker 3>of verse, and somebody brutally marked Okay, Unfortunately you are
<v Speaker 3>right in the middle of all of this, and for
<v Speaker 3>to sit here and lie to us to.
<v Speaker 4>Begin with, is not helping you at all.
<v Speaker 1>Before long had abruptly stood up walked out of the room,
<v Speaker 1>and the investigators had no choice but to let or go.
<v Speaker 1>Around the same time, their interview with John ended as well,
<v Speaker 1>after he refused a light detector test and said he'd
<v Speaker 1>be contacting a lawyer.
<v Speaker 12>I'm just gonna ask you to be a point blank.
<v Speaker 12>Did you cop Kate?
<v Speaker 29>No?
<v Speaker 12>Do you have it killed her?
<v Speaker 17>No?
<v Speaker 12>Would you be willing to take pographs? So we can
<v Speaker 12>go ahead and do that with you and eliminate you and.
<v Speaker 4>Start looking about that first.
<v Speaker 6>Okay, see what he says, because I don't know about
<v Speaker 6>that at all.
<v Speaker 1>By this point, investigators had gathered a good amount of
<v Speaker 1>evidence against John. Several interviews with friends and acquaintances painted
<v Speaker 1>the disturbing picture of John repeatedly talking about killing Katie
<v Speaker 1>and hiding your body. One witness said that John even
<v Speaker 1>offered them money to help him create a false alibi.
<v Speaker 1>Investigators also knew John had a documented history of domestic
<v Speaker 1>violence towards Katie and that he was the sole beneficiary
<v Speaker 1>of her life insurance policy. Also, cell phone records placed
<v Speaker 1>John's phone near the park a lot where Katie's car
<v Speaker 1>was abandoned at the exact time it was left there.
<v Speaker 1>Despite all of this, investigators decided to hold off on
<v Speaker 1>arresting John, wanting more time to strengthen their case. They
<v Speaker 1>let John walk out of the interview room. This was
<v Speaker 1>a decision that would turn out to be a very
<v Speaker 1>big mistake.
<v Speaker 27>Hannah Thompson's mother reported her missing yesterday to the fountain
<v Speaker 27>In Police department. The report states that the teen was
<v Speaker 27>last seen on October thirtieth. Hannah's mother told police that
<v Speaker 27>her daughter is believed to be with John Blofeld, the
<v Speaker 27>known homicide suspect. Investigators told Hannah's mom that Hannah's bank
<v Speaker 27>account has been left untouched since her last paycheck.
<v Speaker 1>In November of twenty sixteen, When investigators went looking for
<v Speaker 1>John and Hannah again, both of them were gone, no note,
<v Speaker 1>no warning, no trace. They had simply vanished. Their phones
<v Speaker 1>were dead, their car missing, and every lead hit a
<v Speaker 1>dead end. Overnight, the prime suspect of his teenage girlfriend
<v Speaker 1>had disappeared into the wind, leaving behind a grieving family
<v Speaker 1>in an open murder case. For the next six long years,
<v Speaker 1>the investigation into Katie's death would remain frozen in place,
<v Speaker 1>just waiting for the day that John Blauvelt finally resurfaced.
<v Speaker 1>In November of twenty sixteen, the investigation into Katie Blovelt's
<v Speaker 1>murder took a shocking turn. Her estranged husband, the prime suspect,
<v Speaker 1>army recruiter John Blovelt, had disappeared. It fled town with
<v Speaker 1>his teenage girlfriend, Hannah Thompson, and nobody seemed to know
<v Speaker 1>where they might have gone well.
<v Speaker 27>Twenty eight year old John Blofeld is charged with murder
<v Speaker 27>in the death of his wife, Catherine, who went by Katie.
<v Speaker 27>Katie's body was found in an abandoned house in Simpsonville
<v Speaker 27>back on October twenty sixth. Investigators say she was killed
<v Speaker 27>with a knife two days earlier. Her husband was last
<v Speaker 27>seen on November fifteenth in New Mexico and remains on
<v Speaker 27>the run Simpsonville police. The investigators believe that he's with
<v Speaker 27>his seventeen year old girlfriend.
<v Speaker 1>After John and Hannah fled, police spent weeks chasing scattered
<v Speaker 1>tips across state lines, but nothing brought them any closer
<v Speaker 1>to finding the couple or even knowing where they might
<v Speaker 1>be hiding. For Katie's mom and the rest of her family,
<v Speaker 1>this was a crushing setback because.
<v Speaker 30>Losing your child, I mean, losing a member of the
<v Speaker 30>family's hard, but losing your child is just unbearable. And
<v Speaker 30>then in the beginning, we had hopes that we knew
<v Speaker 30>John did it. We just you know, hearts you knew
<v Speaker 30>John did it, but police have to go through their
<v Speaker 30>steps before they can serve once and get him. And
<v Speaker 30>waiting was hard.
<v Speaker 1>But we thought, you know, we know where they got
<v Speaker 1>him to get him.
<v Speaker 30>But then when he ran our hearts sunk.
<v Speaker 11>Like now what.
<v Speaker 1>Weeks turned into months and there were still no credible
<v Speaker 1>signs of John or Hannah. Then, just when it seemed
<v Speaker 1>like all hope was lost, Hannah Thompson walked into a
<v Speaker 1>police station and turned herself in.
<v Speaker 22>Obviously, we brought you in here today because we wanted
<v Speaker 22>to talk to you about the trade of about everything
<v Speaker 22>that's been going on with you. That let me tell
<v Speaker 22>you that we are very glad that you're back and
<v Speaker 22>that you're safe, and that's nothing bad.
<v Speaker 14>Happened to you.
<v Speaker 1>After Hannah returned to Simpsonville, investigators wasted no time to
<v Speaker 1>find John. They needed to know what they'd been doing
<v Speaker 1>while they were gone.
<v Speaker 14>Well, where did you go first?
<v Speaker 31>When you guys first left from the Simpsonville Fountain area?
<v Speaker 14>Where'd you guys go? We went to Startenberg first because John.
<v Speaker 16>Had a friend that he worked with that said that
<v Speaker 16>we could park.
<v Speaker 14>The car in his yard to sleep there, and so
<v Speaker 14>we did that for a few days, and then.
<v Speaker 16>He drove like for two days straight, like not sleeping
<v Speaker 16>or anything like, through Georgia and then oh, then he drew.
<v Speaker 14>He basically drove all the way to Texas, where we're
<v Speaker 14>going to sleep.
<v Speaker 1>According to Hannah, she and John hit the road and
<v Speaker 1>never looked back. They drove through several states, living like fugitives,
<v Speaker 1>mostly sleeping in their car, always on the move, and
<v Speaker 1>always looking over their shoulder.
<v Speaker 14>What was the game plan when you guys left? I
<v Speaker 14>don't think we really had one, Like I guess both
<v Speaker 14>of us just kind of panicked, and he decided that
<v Speaker 14>he wanted to leave, like the stay and.
<v Speaker 4>He told me that we were going to leave, and
<v Speaker 4>I was like, Okay, what.
<v Speaker 14>Was the reason for panicking? I think that was like
<v Speaker 14>around the time that like you and like the other
<v Speaker 14>investors had been like texting me and he wouldn't let
<v Speaker 14>me reply or anything.
<v Speaker 1>Hannah told investigators that John had simply panicked. He knew
<v Speaker 1>it was only a matter of time before he was arrested,
<v Speaker 1>so he ran. As for Hannah, she claimed she'd only
<v Speaker 1>left with John because he'd convinced her that she had
<v Speaker 1>no other options.
<v Speaker 32>He just kept telling me that if I talked to anybody,
<v Speaker 32>that I was going to jail. When I went back home,
<v Speaker 32>I was going to jail. I left him, I was
<v Speaker 32>going to jail. Like he just kept saying that, like
<v Speaker 32>pretty much every day. He made me believe that, like
<v Speaker 32>he knew what was best for me, and he.
<v Speaker 1>Like keeping me saved, like and I explained that. After
<v Speaker 1>several weeks on the run, the couple made it all
<v Speaker 1>the way to Oregon. That's where John's paranoia began to
<v Speaker 1>take over. It was unraveling more and more each day
<v Speaker 1>and panicking over the smallest things. Then one afternoon at McDonald's,
<v Speaker 1>his anxiety finally got the better of him.
<v Speaker 14>He stopped doing in McDonald's. And he's gonna use like
<v Speaker 14>Wi Fi.
<v Speaker 32>Because that's usually when we would go, like start with
<v Speaker 32>to McDonald's to get the whig fire.
<v Speaker 14>And he like went to go finding tables, and I
<v Speaker 14>went to the bathroom, and then when I came out,
<v Speaker 14>he was like he like packed everything up like really
<v Speaker 14>fast and like go like right now. And I'm like
<v Speaker 14>asking him why, and he just wasn't like talking to me.
<v Speaker 19>He was just like we just got to go.
<v Speaker 14>And we got in the car and he like he
<v Speaker 14>just kind of like threw the lapstop like on my
<v Speaker 14>lap and like basically for it out of McDonald's. And
<v Speaker 14>I had asked him, like what's going on, Like what's wrong.
<v Speaker 14>He's like I can't talk right now, and he's like
<v Speaker 14>I'm trying to focus.
<v Speaker 1>Don had seemingly snapped. It began driving like a madman,
<v Speaker 1>weaving through the winding roads of Eugene, Oregon, pushing deeper
<v Speaker 1>into the mountains as his paranoia took over me like
<v Speaker 1>you can drove up into.
<v Speaker 14>The mountains and he like.
<v Speaker 16>Freaking out, like just being really like heaptic and like
<v Speaker 16>in his own hand and you know, just panicking.
<v Speaker 14>I kept asking him one he just kept telling me
<v Speaker 14>to be quiet and not talk to him and stuff
<v Speaker 14>like that, and then he just got the car like
<v Speaker 14>stuck in and like intrigues like in the mountains, and.
<v Speaker 11>I was like why did you do that?
<v Speaker 14>Like what are you doing with how are we going
<v Speaker 14>to get it back out? And he was like, well
<v Speaker 14>figure it out, and he said that we would hike.
<v Speaker 14>He had to hike more off the mountain.
<v Speaker 1>Basically, John's paranoia had made a very bad situation even worse.
<v Speaker 1>The couple was already on the run for murder, and
<v Speaker 1>now John and managed to get their car stuck deep
<v Speaker 1>in the wilderness. There was no way to get it
<v Speaker 1>out without drawing attention, which meant they just lost their
<v Speaker 1>only means of transportation. Hanna said this was the moment
<v Speaker 1>it finally hit her. Something inside her seventeen year old
<v Speaker 1>brain finally clicked. She was trapped in the middle of
<v Speaker 1>nowhere with a man who was losing his grip, and
<v Speaker 1>for the first time she realized that her life was
<v Speaker 1>in real danger.
<v Speaker 10>I feel like when he got the car, he was
<v Speaker 10>trying to kill new or both huge, just driving like
<v Speaker 10>into trees, like full of speed, just like so fast.
<v Speaker 9>And we were hitting stuff that I really I got scared,
<v Speaker 9>like at that.
<v Speaker 12>Point that like I was going to die.
<v Speaker 1>That night, John and Hannah spent what would be their
<v Speaker 1>final night in the car. John talked about ending at
<v Speaker 1>all a double suicide, he said might be their only
<v Speaker 1>way out. The next morning, as they made their way
<v Speaker 1>off the mountain, he confessed something that was just as terrifying.
<v Speaker 29>That night, I remember if I went to bed, he
<v Speaker 29>told me he was like, I'm thinking about letting.
<v Speaker 9>The car run all night so that we both die
<v Speaker 9>in our sleep.
<v Speaker 4>And then the next morning he had taken a gun.
<v Speaker 29>With him, like when we left, and he the next
<v Speaker 29>morning he said he really thought about shooting me in
<v Speaker 29>my sleeping and shooting himself.
<v Speaker 1>After weeks of living on the road and dealing with
<v Speaker 1>John's spiraling, unpredictable behavior, Hannah finally broke. She wanted out,
<v Speaker 1>she wanted to live, and she wanted to go home.
<v Speaker 14>And I was just at that point, I was kind.
<v Speaker 5>Of like.
<v Speaker 14>Not really having it, and I was crying, and I
<v Speaker 14>was like I can't do this anymore, Like I need
<v Speaker 14>to go home, like.
<v Speaker 16>And he and he just started crying and he was
<v Speaker 16>like saying, I don't worry to fix Andaly fixed it.
<v Speaker 16>He I'll find it somewhere. He started like yelling.
<v Speaker 28>At me and calling me names and saying that if
<v Speaker 28>I left, he was gonna kill himself.
<v Speaker 14>He like ran on me from me, like he ran
<v Speaker 14>away from me, just like screaming, and then he came.
<v Speaker 32>Back and he was just like and was panicking against
<v Speaker 32>like he was like saying that he did all that
<v Speaker 32>stuff for me, like and all.
<v Speaker 28>This stuff kill king, Like he was like, I did
<v Speaker 28>that for you, and like all that kind of stuff,
<v Speaker 28>like trying to make me feel like it was my fault.
<v Speaker 33>Like.
<v Speaker 4>And he kept telling me that like.
<v Speaker 14>If I went home, like I wanted to get to
<v Speaker 14>see my parents, because I would just go straight to jail.
<v Speaker 9>He was just trying to make me feel really guilty,
<v Speaker 9>and like he told me that like he was the only.
<v Speaker 14>Person that I could ever trust in the world. He
<v Speaker 14>basically told me I didn't have anybody else with him.
<v Speaker 1>And I told investigators that John had manipulated her into
<v Speaker 1>staying with him, convinced her she didn't have a choice.
<v Speaker 1>But then one day John was simply gone.
<v Speaker 14>Then like one morning, like.
<v Speaker 16>He had gotten up, he was like, I'll be right back,
<v Speaker 16>like I'm going to get into the bathroom. I was like, okay,
<v Speaker 16>I'd come half sleep. She just cried up in love
<v Speaker 16>and then I went back to sleep, and one had
<v Speaker 16>woken up. He used a moment back, and I was
<v Speaker 16>just like, I'm not just gonna like sit here.
<v Speaker 14>Like and by then I was having to use the
<v Speaker 14>bap and choo, So I got up.
<v Speaker 16>I went to.
<v Speaker 12>Try and find the.
<v Speaker 1>Library, and I said. She made her way to a
<v Speaker 1>nearby library, logged into a public computer, and sent a
<v Speaker 1>few messages through her social media. A friend responded, offering
<v Speaker 1>to come get her and take her home to Simpsonville.
<v Speaker 1>She accepted and said that from that moment on, John
<v Speaker 1>Blauvelt was gone from her life.
<v Speaker 14>By the time I had.
<v Speaker 16>Gotten back on a computer, everybody like responded to me.
<v Speaker 16>And that's when like Angie came to hit me up
<v Speaker 16>like they had like a range, shit can pick me up?
<v Speaker 4>Did you ever see Johnian?
<v Speaker 1>During this interview, it became clear that Hannah had switched sides.
<v Speaker 1>She now recognized that John was dangerous and manipulative, and
<v Speaker 1>investigators appeared to believe her story. At least that's the
<v Speaker 1>impression that gave her.
<v Speaker 14>Do you understand now what he was trying to do?
<v Speaker 14>Is ability trying to like man just think he would
<v Speaker 14>be alot so that I wouldn't tell anybody anything.
<v Speaker 31>Nail like he was looking out for his best interest
<v Speaker 31>the whole time, and it really.
<v Speaker 34>Had nothing to do with the visions, because like, I've
<v Speaker 34>never trusted somebody that much before.
<v Speaker 1>With Hannah now seemingly on their side, investigators shifted focus.
<v Speaker 1>They pressed for details about Katie's murder. They wanted to
<v Speaker 1>know what Hannah knew, how she ben and anything John
<v Speaker 1>might have told her.
<v Speaker 14>The last time you want to work with him was
<v Speaker 14>that that Monday. That was the last time you would
<v Speaker 14>to work with him.
<v Speaker 31>So he was driving you in, passing her seat with joy, Yeah,
<v Speaker 31>and you want up to work with him at I.
<v Speaker 11>Did you sit in the car?
<v Speaker 14>Did he go walk around?
<v Speaker 9>What did you do?
<v Speaker 14>I sat in the car, and I remember him telling
<v Speaker 14>me he needed me to drop.
<v Speaker 16>Him off on wood He throw and so I turned
<v Speaker 16>and you were in a parking lot and she got
<v Speaker 16>out of the car.
<v Speaker 14>He started walking, and I didn't think to ask him
<v Speaker 14>what you been doing, like because at this point we've.
<v Speaker 16>Been dating for kind of like a while, and it
<v Speaker 16>was just not something that I usually do, like ask
<v Speaker 16>him what he's doing, or like why did.
<v Speaker 14>He seeing something?
<v Speaker 15>Had?
<v Speaker 1>I told investigators she had nothing to do with planning
<v Speaker 1>Katie's murder, and claimed shouldn't even know what John was
<v Speaker 1>up to. According to her, on the day of the murder,
<v Speaker 1>she simply gave John a ride to a remote parking
<v Speaker 1>lot and dropped him off without asking any questions. Investigators
<v Speaker 1>later concluded that John had likely lured Katie to the
<v Speaker 1>abandoned house where she was killed. Phone records showed that
<v Speaker 1>despite their separation and despite the restraining order, the two
<v Speaker 1>were still in contact. It seemed that Katie, ever hopeful,
<v Speaker 1>wanted to believe their marriage could still be saved. John
<v Speaker 1>used that hope to his advantage and ultimately to lure
<v Speaker 1>her to her death.
<v Speaker 14>What was his relationship with Katie?
<v Speaker 34>Did he still communicate with her to your knowledge? Or
<v Speaker 34>every time they talked, she'd call from a private number
<v Speaker 34>and they would only use like texting apps to talk.
<v Speaker 16>To each other because they hadn't her straining order, I guess,
<v Speaker 16>and so they were like kind of thing around talking
<v Speaker 16>to each other.
<v Speaker 1>And I also claimed that John later described the murder
<v Speaker 1>to her. He told her that when he stabbed Katie,
<v Speaker 1>the knife broke off in her neck, and as she
<v Speaker 1>bled to death, Katie begged him to let her go.
<v Speaker 9>At some point they were like on the trail leading
<v Speaker 9>up to the abandoned house. He told me that's where
<v Speaker 9>they went. He took her there.
<v Speaker 4>He says that they were talking for a little bit.
<v Speaker 29>He doesn't say like exactly the conversation they were talking,
<v Speaker 29>and then he just did it.
<v Speaker 9>And he said that he stabbed her in her neck
<v Speaker 9>and that there was a lot of blood, and she
<v Speaker 9>told him that if she lets her go, she won't say.
<v Speaker 4>Anything to anybody.
<v Speaker 1>Investigators believe that after Katie bled to death, John dragged
<v Speaker 1>her body into the basement of the abandoned house and
<v Speaker 1>covered her with planks of wood. Then he went home,
<v Speaker 1>met back up with Hannah, and once again asked for
<v Speaker 1>her help.
<v Speaker 4>So I went back home.
<v Speaker 14>John was outside, like, I didn't even go inside the house.
<v Speaker 14>He was outside and he was like and he used
<v Speaker 14>to follow me in spout car somewhere, and I was like, okay,
<v Speaker 14>And he had this bag.
<v Speaker 1>John loaded what investigators believed was a trash bag full
<v Speaker 1>of his bloody clothes in Hannah's car. Then he told
<v Speaker 1>her to follow him as he drove Katie's vehicle to
<v Speaker 1>an empty parking lot.
<v Speaker 16>And I followed him and he.
<v Speaker 5>Just throve like.
<v Speaker 14>For a long time because he didn't get on the
<v Speaker 14>highway at all.
<v Speaker 1>John parked Katie's car, removed the license plates, and climbed
<v Speaker 1>into Hannah's vehicle. The two then headed back home, but
<v Speaker 1>not before stopping at a couple of dumpsters, where John
<v Speaker 1>disposed of the place, the bag of bloody clothes, and
<v Speaker 1>anything else that might tie him to the crime.
<v Speaker 8>When he threw the clothes away or at the bags away,
<v Speaker 8>did you know at that point in time what was
<v Speaker 8>in the bagh?
<v Speaker 4>Okay?
<v Speaker 14>Then what happened?
<v Speaker 9>Did you go home?
<v Speaker 1>Hannah claimed that as she drove John around that day,
<v Speaker 1>she had no idea she was essentially acting as his accomplice.
<v Speaker 1>She said she didn't even know Katie was dead until
<v Speaker 1>days later, after the body was found and after the
<v Speaker 1>story hit the media.
<v Speaker 14>When I woke up in the morning, my mom had
<v Speaker 14>like sent me like the news story that like a
<v Speaker 14>body was found in the mint house, and I was
<v Speaker 14>just like I immediately got like home chilled, and.
<v Speaker 16>I was like, oh my gosh, what is going on?
<v Speaker 14>Like I used to do that all the time.
<v Speaker 4>It was really scary.
<v Speaker 14>And I immediately moved him up and I showed him.
<v Speaker 1>Hannah said that once she learned about Katie's murder, the
<v Speaker 1>truth slowly began to sink in. At first, John denied
<v Speaker 1>having anything to do with it, but deep down she
<v Speaker 1>knew he was lying. Eventually, he admitted to what he'd done,
<v Speaker 1>though he rarely talked about the details, and whenever Hannah
<v Speaker 1>tried to ask him, he'd turned it back on her,
<v Speaker 1>making her feel guilty for even bringing it up.
<v Speaker 35>It was just so crazy because like I didn't know
<v Speaker 35>what to think, and he had told me, like the
<v Speaker 35>poo' even want to talk to you, like you to
<v Speaker 35>lie in the road.
<v Speaker 14>You're gonna go to jail, like you know, you get
<v Speaker 14>to see him, mom, Like like the way that I felt,
<v Speaker 14>it felt like I did it. You knew, Like why
<v Speaker 14>didn't he fell about it?
<v Speaker 11>He killed her?
<v Speaker 14>She never like came out and said I killed her,
<v Speaker 14>but like.
<v Speaker 4>But he knew when you're good that he did it.
<v Speaker 9>Yeah, did you Jim?
<v Speaker 31>Hey, John's joking, he said, he's just he would just
<v Speaker 31>brushing off like he like you.
<v Speaker 14>Want to talk about that right now? Like kind of
<v Speaker 14>you show them the one to know for asking it.
<v Speaker 1>Considering Hannah's relationship with John, that she was sleeping with him,
<v Speaker 1>running with him, and protecting him. It would be easy
<v Speaker 1>to doubt her story, but honestly I don't. John completely
<v Speaker 1>played her for his own benefit, and I do believe
<v Speaker 1>that he turned her into an accomplice without her even
<v Speaker 1>realizing it. Doesn't even by the way the investigators treated Hannah,
<v Speaker 1>I don't think they doubted her story either.
<v Speaker 14>I'm not saying that you knew what he was about
<v Speaker 14>to do, Annah, Okay, And.
<v Speaker 31>Quite honestly, I don't think that you had a hand
<v Speaker 31>in it at all.
<v Speaker 35>Anybody who thinks that like I would do there.
<v Speaker 14>Here's what I think.
<v Speaker 12>Okay.
<v Speaker 14>One, I know he took advantage of you.
<v Speaker 17>He trusted you.
<v Speaker 31>And he lured you in, promised you whatever, told you whatever,
<v Speaker 31>and then made you do stuff that in the long.
<v Speaker 1>Run was good to save him and his return to
<v Speaker 1>Simpsonville was a good thing for several reasons. For one,
<v Speaker 1>she was safe and no longer on the run with
<v Speaker 1>a killer, and it also gave investigators another potential witness
<v Speaker 1>that could testify against John when his case went to
<v Speaker 1>try But that would only matter if they could actually
<v Speaker 1>find him and catch him.
<v Speaker 9>We're still nothing for John while he's out there.
<v Speaker 32>There's no telling him what.
<v Speaker 14>He's going to do.
<v Speaker 31>Did he ever talk about going in my Togo or
<v Speaker 31>Canada or flying anywhere?
<v Speaker 14>Loo first where she talked about going to Mexico.
<v Speaker 1>Unfortunately, when it came to John's whereabouts, Hannah didn't have
<v Speaker 1>much to offer. As far as anyone knew, John might
<v Speaker 1>not have even been in the country anymore, and the
<v Speaker 1>investigation into Katie Blauvelt's murder remained open and unresolved for years.
<v Speaker 36>This week marks three years since twenty two year old
<v Speaker 36>Katie Blauvelt was.
<v Speaker 6>Brutally murdered in Simpsonville.
<v Speaker 36>Police say her estranged husband, John is a suspect in
<v Speaker 36>her murder, but Simpsonville Police say he's been on the
<v Speaker 36>run since they found her body in a cellar of
<v Speaker 36>an abandoned home.
<v Speaker 6>Now.
<v Speaker 36>He was last seen on the West Coast back in
<v Speaker 36>twenty sixteen and not been seen since.
<v Speaker 1>By twenty twenty one, investigators had renewed their efforts to
<v Speaker 1>find John. Part of that effort meant bringing Hannah Thompson,
<v Speaker 1>now twenty two years old, back into the interview room.
<v Speaker 4>John is not a good.
<v Speaker 9>Person, obviously, and we were trying desperately to find him, Okay,
<v Speaker 9>but we're still looking for and he needs to be
<v Speaker 9>responsible for what he's done.
<v Speaker 4>Okay.
<v Speaker 1>During this follow up interview, hadn't made a disturbing admission.
<v Speaker 1>She told investigators that she'd remained in regular contact with
<v Speaker 1>John for years after returning to Simpsonville in twenty sixteen.
<v Speaker 9>And how are you guys communicating?
<v Speaker 29>But to began communicating on Facebook Messenger, and then after
<v Speaker 29>that we were talking on Snapchat. Like at first we
<v Speaker 29>were talking every single day, multiple time, like for hours
<v Speaker 29>a day. I was the one that stopped communication with him,
<v Speaker 29>and I had just decided to do it.
<v Speaker 21>I didn't tell him like I'm not going to talk
<v Speaker 21>to you anymore, I don't think, And so I think
<v Speaker 21>the conversation was pretty like no substance to really just
<v Speaker 21>maybe like hey, how are you? Where was he?
<v Speaker 19>Then?
<v Speaker 9>I know that he was living with somebody who you
<v Speaker 9>girl that he said that they were dating. She had
<v Speaker 9>her own house.
<v Speaker 4>I think I think it was an apartment. But he
<v Speaker 4>also did like meet her parents and like they had
<v Speaker 4>gone to her.
<v Speaker 9>Parents' house stuff like that too.
<v Speaker 14>So what's the girls?
<v Speaker 4>I don't know where was that at?
<v Speaker 9>I don't really know. Whenever I would ask him like
<v Speaker 9>where he was, he would not tell me. He'd say like,
<v Speaker 9>I'm not telling you that, or.
<v Speaker 12>I can't tell you that.
<v Speaker 1>Unfortunately, by the time Hannah made this admission, it had
<v Speaker 1>been nearly a year since she'd last heard from John.
<v Speaker 1>Even so, the information helped investigators narrow their search. In
<v Speaker 1>twenty twenty two, about six years after Katie's murder, John
<v Speaker 1>Blavelt was finally.
<v Speaker 37>Found tonight, an Upstain man on the run since twenty
<v Speaker 37>sixteen who investigators say killed his estranged wife, is now
<v Speaker 37>in custody. The victims family just confirmed to us John
<v Speaker 37>Blovelt was arrested in Jackson County, Oregon. Online record show
<v Speaker 37>he's been booked into that local detention center today.
<v Speaker 1>After his arrest, John made several jail house calls to
<v Speaker 1>friends and family. The recordings gave investigators a glimpse into
<v Speaker 1>his state of mind, as well as the events that
<v Speaker 1>led him to go on the run.
<v Speaker 33>Oh you're not even in prison yet.
<v Speaker 19>No, I still got to go to trial and everything.
<v Speaker 19>I'm going to be in his jail for two to
<v Speaker 19>three years.
<v Speaker 5>Oh no, I think you are in prison.
<v Speaker 19>Oh okay, that's why I need a lawyer. I got.
<v Speaker 19>I signed up for public defender. But you know they're
<v Speaker 19>like fresh out of college. They don't give a shit
<v Speaker 19>what happens. They just need to do their car. So
<v Speaker 19>but I could get a real attorney, but we'll see,
<v Speaker 19>I'm going to be in this jail for years. You know,
<v Speaker 19>they're not going to give me a pond because they
<v Speaker 19>know I'll run, because I just ran for six years.
<v Speaker 19>The day I ran, I wasn't staying at my house anymore,
<v Speaker 19>and I was on my way home from work or
<v Speaker 19>something from somewhere because I just like to stop buying
<v Speaker 19>and check on my dog. And I saw the police
<v Speaker 19>at my house knocking on my door, so I said, okay,
<v Speaker 19>I'm leaving, and then I left, and you know, almost
<v Speaker 19>almost for a while. And then I was working for
<v Speaker 19>a while and I met a girl and I lived
<v Speaker 19>with her for like four years, and then one morning
<v Speaker 19>the US Marshals came. I was out in front tending
<v Speaker 19>to my vegetable garden and the US Marshalls just pulled
<v Speaker 19>up in the driveway. But that night I got the
<v Speaker 19>best sleep that I've had in six years. So I
<v Speaker 19>guess as a positives too, yeah, I.
<v Speaker 9>Was.
<v Speaker 19>I've been anxious, you know, I've had that anxiety depression
<v Speaker 19>the whole time. But I'm actually feeling really good now,
<v Speaker 19>I'm at peace.
<v Speaker 1>During these calls, John said more than once that he
<v Speaker 1>was relieved to be caught, happy even that he no
<v Speaker 1>longer had to live his life constantly looking over his shoulder.
<v Speaker 19>I was on the run for six years, man, I was,
<v Speaker 19>and I was used to the pace. Every night. I
<v Speaker 19>would pace in the living room until like three thirty
<v Speaker 19>four o'clock in the morning, fully dressed like ready to run,
<v Speaker 19>you know what I mean. It was like when I
<v Speaker 19>seen the Marshals like pull into the driveway, like ten dudes,
<v Speaker 19>guns out and I just swear, dude, I smiled. I
<v Speaker 19>was like, I was like, I can't believe it's over.
<v Speaker 19>I got in the I got in the truck and
<v Speaker 19>the Marshal was like six years a long run, man,
<v Speaker 19>and I was like, oh, I'm glad you finally found me.
<v Speaker 19>I was like, it was a nightmare.
<v Speaker 1>What's most disturbing about these calls is what John didn't say.
<v Speaker 1>Not once did he mention Katie, her family or show
<v Speaker 1>a single hint of remorse. Like a textbook narcissist, every
<v Speaker 1>word was about himself and the supposed peace he'd finally found.
<v Speaker 9>Even after the.
<v Speaker 14>Fact, Why do you say that she never cried about her.
<v Speaker 4>I feel like.
<v Speaker 14>I'm not get at me I crying about it.
<v Speaker 1>In later phone calls, John shared more about the six
<v Speaker 1>years he'd spent on the run. He described how he'd
<v Speaker 1>managed to weasel his way into another woman's life, lying
<v Speaker 1>about his name, his past, and who he really was.
<v Speaker 19>Then I met that girl, been real good. I maintain
<v Speaker 19>her budget on diet, turned her life around. We bought
<v Speaker 19>a house together in September. I said three years to say.
<v Speaker 21>Look poor.
<v Speaker 19>We bought a house all in her name. And then
<v Speaker 19>I got arrested. The US marshals tracked me down and
<v Speaker 19>I called her like a week later from jail, and
<v Speaker 19>she was like, fuck you, you ruin my life. I'm like, okay,
<v Speaker 19>you didn't know about anything. I guess no, hell no,
<v Speaker 19>I didn't. I had a fake name. I was going
<v Speaker 19>by Ben. I like that name too. We had a
<v Speaker 19>good time. We had a good life. Man. We had
<v Speaker 19>a house, We had a dog, do three cats. I
<v Speaker 19>didn't work for two years. I worked for the first
<v Speaker 19>two years we were together. I was a landscaper, small
<v Speaker 19>and lawns, building fences and stuff like that. Right, and
<v Speaker 19>then that guy retired. He retired, so and I was
<v Speaker 19>out of a job. And she was like, well, you
<v Speaker 19>can just stay at home, just piece the house clean,
<v Speaker 19>take care of the dog. And I was like all right.
<v Speaker 1>Once again, this narcis seemed either blissfully unaware or simply
<v Speaker 1>incapable of understanding that by dating this woman, living with
<v Speaker 1>her for years, and hiding his past, he'd made her
<v Speaker 1>a victim as well. So he's being arrested on charges
<v Speaker 1>out of South Carolina for murder?
<v Speaker 4>Are you serious? Year? He would do random on jobs.
<v Speaker 4>He was basically here watching my.
<v Speaker 33>Cat, so my dog all the time.
<v Speaker 1>When John's girlfriend learned the truth, she was devastated, And
<v Speaker 1>who wouldn't be imagine living with someone for nearly six years,
<v Speaker 1>loving them, trusting them, only to find out they were
<v Speaker 1>wanted in another state for murder, that the name and
<v Speaker 1>the backstory they'd given you were complete lies. The man
<v Speaker 1>she thought she knew had been living a double life.
<v Speaker 1>But this woman wasn't the only one to face the
<v Speaker 1>fallout with John Bars. It was finally time for Hannah
<v Speaker 1>Thompson to face justice as well.
<v Speaker 38>There is also a second suspect in Katie's death. Hannah
<v Speaker 38>Thompson was John Blauvelt's teenage girlfriend who fled the state
<v Speaker 38>with him. She is now twenty five in charge with
<v Speaker 38>obstruction of justice and accessory after the fact.
<v Speaker 1>Despite the charges against her, Hannah agreed to testify against
<v Speaker 1>John at his trial without any promise of leniency from prosecutors.
<v Speaker 1>Unlike John, Hannah's remorse seemed genuine, and as the star
<v Speaker 1>witness for the state, she helped ensure that John Blauvelt
<v Speaker 1>received the prison sentence that he deserved.
<v Speaker 33>On Friday, a jury found John Tufton Blavelt guilty of
<v Speaker 33>murdering his estranged wife in twenty sixteen. Blavelt, the former
<v Speaker 33>US Army recruiter out of Greenville, now a convicted killer,
<v Speaker 33>was sentenced by the judge to life without the possibility
<v Speaker 33>of parole.
<v Speaker 1>As for Hannah, she pleaded guilty to her charges and
<v Speaker 1>received probation for helping John flee after the murder. Her
<v Speaker 1>reduced sentence reflected both her cooperation with investigators and the
<v Speaker 1>fact she was only seventeen when she ran away with them.
<v Speaker 1>There's no question that Hannah was also a victim in
<v Speaker 1>this case. John clearly manipulated her, but one thing about
<v Speaker 1>her lenient punishment still feels hard to accept. After returning
<v Speaker 1>to Simpsonville in twenty sixteen, Hannah stayed in contact with
<v Speaker 1>John for years, and she didn't tell investigators about this
<v Speaker 1>until twenty twenty one. She said nothing knowing that Katie's
<v Speaker 1>family was still suffering. She said nothing knowing that a
<v Speaker 1>killder was still out there. It could strike again at
<v Speaker 1>any time. Maybe a more fitting punishment would have been
<v Speaker 1>a prison sentence that matched the years she kept this secret.
<v Speaker 1>But that's just my opinion. What do I know, I'm
<v Speaker 1>a podcaster. In the end, what matters most is that
<v Speaker 1>Katie's family finally got some measure of justice and hopefully
<v Speaker 1>a bit of peace. And knowing that John Blovelt will
<v Speaker 1>spend the rest of his life behind bars, that's one
<v Speaker 1>thing that we should know about Katie.
<v Speaker 30>One of the things I had was something about her
<v Speaker 30>laugh and her big eyes and her smile, and she
<v Speaker 30>just had a true heart. And her name is Katie,
<v Speaker 30>but her name is Catherine, and it meant innocent.
<v Speaker 19>And pure, and that's what she was.
<v Speaker 1>And we lost that the murder of Katie Blovelt wasn't
<v Speaker 1>a crime of passion or a moment of rage. It
<v Speaker 1>was the calculated act of a man who understood appearances,
<v Speaker 1>how to weaponize them, and how to hide behind them.
<v Speaker 1>As a soldier, a recruiter, and a husband, John Blovelt
<v Speaker 1>knew exactly how to make people believe he was something
<v Speaker 1>worth trusting. But beneath that uniform an easy smile, was
<v Speaker 1>a manipulator who saw others as tools to use, to control,
<v Speaker 1>to discard. He fold his wife, his girlfriend, his community,
<v Speaker 1>and for a time, even the system meant to hold
<v Speaker 1>him accountable. In the end, John's greatest deception wasn't how
<v Speaker 1>he escaped justice. It was how long he convinced everyone
<v Speaker 1>that he was one of the good guys. If nothing else,
<v Speaker 1>Katie's murder is a reminder that trust should never be automatic,
<v Speaker 1>because anyone can wear a uniform that hides their deception,
<v Speaker 1>and sometimes that person wearing it is a monster. We
<v Speaker 1>hope you enjoyed that episode, like we hope you enjoy
<v Speaker 1>all episodes of Certain Scale, which are available on our website,
<v Speaker 1>swordscale dot com. If you do enjoy that sort of content,
<v Speaker 1>get on over there. Maybe download our app as well.
<v Speaker 1>Sign up for Plus you can get all kinds of content.
<v Speaker 1>You can get hundreds and hundreds of hours all news stories,
<v Speaker 1>and you can also get Sword and Scale television or
<v Speaker 1>TV OFFERINGE features hour long episodes, each dedicated to a
<v Speaker 1>particularly gruesome case, and it's filmed in a very uh,
<v Speaker 1>how would I say, maybe David Fincher like style.
<v Speaker 6>If that helps.
<v Speaker 1>It's very moody, it's very esthetically pleasing. I don't know
<v Speaker 1>how to really break it down for you, but we
<v Speaker 1>spend a lot of time getting it right and making
<v Speaker 1>sure that it's the best goddamn true crime show you
<v Speaker 1>can find anywhere on TV or podcasts or anywhere. So
<v Speaker 1>definitely go take a look see if you like it.
<v Speaker 1>It's right there for you. All twenty six episodes, plus
<v Speaker 1>we got one coming every month of the rest of
<v Speaker 1>the year, so make sure to check it out. Why
<v Speaker 1>you can't because it seems like true crime isn't really
<v Speaker 1>in vogue these days. A lot of people aren't that
<v Speaker 1>interested anymore. So it's you, yes, you keeping the lights on,
<v Speaker 1>making sure that we continue offering this show for you
<v Speaker 1>every week. So one way to make sure that happens
<v Speaker 1>is to support us. This is my long beg. I
<v Speaker 1>only do this once a year. I do a long
<v Speaker 1>beg it's part of it's part of my routine before
<v Speaker 1>I go back to my natural habitat. But yeah, I'm
<v Speaker 1>running out of things to say here, so yeah, just
<v Speaker 1>buy it or something. I don't know or don't I
<v Speaker 1>guess it's a free market. Speaking up probably shouldn't have
<v Speaker 1>alienated all of you woke people. Sorry about that. Oh well,
<v Speaker 1>I guess I made my bed. For those of you
<v Speaker 1>still left, I hope you have a wonderful, wonderful rest
<v Speaker 1>of your week, and I don't know, stay sick.