Episode 350

Sword and Scale contains adult themes and violence, and is not intended for all audiences.

Listener discretion is advised.

Unfortunately, you are right in the middle of all of this, and for to sit here and lie to us to.

Begin with, is not helping you at all.

This is a friend of yours or was a friend of yours, and somebody brutally marked I.

Know, hello and welcome to season thirteen, episode three hundred and fifty of Sword and Scale, the show that reveals that the worst monsters are real. Simpsonville, South Carolina, is a small southern town where life moves at an easy pace, Families know their neighbors, church bells still mark the hour, and the peaceful atmosphere feels almost rehearsed. But on the afternoon of October twenty sixth, twenty sixteen, the calumn was broken.

I want to tell you once you've effectively done, Ricky, is you've inserted yourself into a murder investigation.

I mean, what do you think I think you would do something like that?

Take some kind of monster to do something like that or someone.

This interview with Ricky was one of the first threats in an investigation that would spend nearly a decade. It was a horrific homicide case that centered around a twenty two year old woman named Katie Blavel. Katie believed she could build a simple life for herself in Simpsonville and was doing what she could do to make that happen. Katie was an animal lover, and in twenty sixteen, she was working full time at her local Pet Smart.

I just want to confirm with you she was working here on Monday, and do you remember what her hours work?

You're on Monday was nine am to two pm, nine to two.

I don't know exactly what time she left, but I mean it was no later.

Than two fifteen, So you were working on Monday, did yes?

How was Katie's demeanor? That na perfectly fine. She was talking.

About picking up her someone named Cheyenne, I don't know who that is to her, and they were going shopping together.

On October twenty third, twenty sixteen, Katie worked a full time shift at PetSmart. When she clocked out at around two fifteen pm, she confirmed plants to meet up with her younger sister, Cheyenne.

But I said, what are you doing? And she said, I'm driving around, Sir.

I said, when you take me Kimany to get food and Canny, we'll buy you food. And she said, yeah, I'll be there in an hour. So if you don't know what you're doing right now, is at hour, get here you.

And she said, I don't do.

But I kind of just let it go because I was like, you know, maybe she DoD something she don't want to tell me about. She's grown, she can do that, you know.

And so I fell asleep and I caught her back in like an hour and a half, and she.

Didn't answy Katy never showed up to meet her sister that day. When phone calls went unanswered, Cheyenne felt the first wave of panic. She immediately knew that something was very wrong.

Her phone was off.

And then that's why I kind of started to worry, because I'm like, Katie never released her phone, you know, Katy never blows me off.

I don't know.

Like twelve thirty one o'clock, I called John. He answered, it be someon like he's just woken up. And I said, I can't find Katie. And I said, I mean to know if she's at your house or.

If you see your day. Hasn't just tell me, you know?

He said, no, I don't talk to her anymore, as what he said on the phone.

Desperate to find her sister, Cheyenne did the only thing she could think of. She reached out to Katie's a strange husband, John, what's your wife?

Full name Catherine and Wavelt?

And are you you familved that she's missing? Yeah.

Twenty eight year old John Blovelt was an active duty soldier in the United States Army when Katie went missing. He was living and working in Simpsonville as a recruiters.

Understand, you've been deployed twice, yes, iraq or yeah on once the last time I got back.

Two thousand and ten.

Has recruiting the obviously a lot different than Yeah.

That was probably the worst jot of the red Yeah, because you know, I joined the army at eighteen to fight and ira.

Yeah, and then they had me sit behind the desk and you couldn't get a different assignment. No, it's one of it's like one of the armies, and like mandatory assignments you to take it.

Or you get out.

John and Katie met by chance outside the Army recruiting office where he worked. Her job was just a few doors down, and one afternoon, during a smoke break, their conversations began.

So me and her just kind of met and started dating. I was staying at her house most days during the week, at her dad's house.

And then we finally got an apartment in December, and you got married, what year twenty fifteen?

After they married, it didn't take long for John and Katie to realize they weren't as compatible as they'd hoped. They barely lived together for two months before the relationship fell apart and Katie decided to walk away. She left John and the two were officially separated.

O Kay of stuff, a y'all.

Arguing about.

Everything just normal, just normal stuff, people's stuff.

And then being a recruiter, I talked to a lot of different people, So I had two phones, and I talked to a lot of females. And she didn't my chest, but was my job as a recruiter. I had to talk to everybody. Yeah, and she would like that. So then we argue about that.

See, you guys weren't very long at all in two months.

In October of twenty sixteen, Katie went missing, and naturally, her husband was one of the first people police wanted to talk to. For the most part, John was open and cooperative. He admitted that their marriage had been difficult, even horrible at times, but he insisted he'd never laid a hand on her or caused her any physical harm.

I mean we were the worst couple, you know, we argued, but I think it was just bad timing, honestly, because she was going through some shit.

I was going through some shit and she's left one day. It was the last time you actually saw her, I'd say probably July, because she moved out in the April.

I think have you ever gotten some mad at her? That maybe he did something you didn't mean to do?

Absolutely not, don't.

So told investigators that he hadn't seen Katie for months, and he provided a reasonable alibi for the day she went missing.

Did you work this Monday? What time did you get off on Monday?

Like two thirties too? I don't know where'd you go it for home?

Did you stop anywhere on the way home? Was anybody home with you?

Yeah? My roommates were there.

John's roommates backed up his story. They told investigators they saw him come home from work that day on the day that Katie went missing, though they did lose track of him later in the evening when he said he was going out for a job. Investigators also spoke with people who knew both John and Katie and were familiar with their relationship. Many described John the same way, polite, disciplined,

Used to buy a lot, but like.

He was never like.

Violent with her when I lived there, and a lot of the time it was like really her that like started argument.

What do you think the chances are of the John lost his school and did something to her.

I know he didn't know.

I've been around hi when he's drunk, quite straight up drunk in it, and he's not angry. You know, they've gotten really upset and he just he just comes in and just cries, like I mean, I've seen him mad.

But you know, he just yells and that's the end of it.

After looking into John and finding no clear link to Katie's disappearance, investigators began to consider other possibilities. They knew that after the marriage ended, Katie had started dating again. This opened the door to new questions and a different suspect.

I don't know when her family stile you.

Hopefully she's been up front with you. Machine in dating around a lot.

Okay, yeah, yeah, we're looking.

Into some of that.

Investigators learned that Katie had recently reconnected with an ex boyfriend, twenty one year old Wayne Roper. This was a bizarre relationship that quickly became the focus of their suspicions, and through a series of strange, unsettling events, that relationship led detectives to another name, the young man you heard at the beginning of this episode, Ricky Hargrove.

Yesterday, when I was finishing up some assignments in my classes online, I got a call from Wayne at around one and thirty. Wayne called says, hey, man, can you can you come pick me up from work?

On the night of October twenty fourth, twenty sixteen, Ricky received an unexpected phone call. It was from Katie's ex boyfriend, Wayne Roper, who asked for a ride home from the Walmart art where he worked. Ricky hesitated, then agreed as long as he got a little gas money.

When he got out of the got into the car, I say, hey, man, what's up with Katie being missing? And he said they haven't been able to find her, and they pinged her phone in West Virginia or something, and then they pinged it again and it was in Simpsonville. And he said, Uh, yeah, there was this house that we used to hang out at and I've been wanting to check that because I think they that.

She might be there.

When Wayne climbed into the passenger seat, his request pot Ricky off guard. He wanted to go to a nearby abandoned farmhouse, a place that was rumored to be haunted. Strangely, Wayne said he thought Katie might be hiding there.

I get out of the car with him, give him my lamp, my head lamb, and we walk in there. I'm talking about the house being haunted. I don't want anything to do with his and I tell him about you know, if we do find her. He says, we're going to call the cops. And I say, I got a bunch of wheat in there, and then I'm not expected to find her at all in there. And I was just kind of dismissive whenever we go in there.

Reluctantly, Ricky drove Wayne to the abandoned farmhouse and together they searched the dark, empty rooms for any sign of Katie. After several minutes of searching, and after they made their way into the basement, Wayne Roper pulled out his phone and dialed nine one one.

The pasion of your emergency.

I was.

In the woods.

My friend.

Uh, she's been missing for for I think thirty 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. And we found her in the in the bottom part in the basement, covered.

Up with pieces of wood. Okay, like was she was? She still alive?

Mister nervous on She's pale.

So she was pale and unresponsive. Yes, are you still there with her? No, sir, I walked away. I couldn't. Is anybody still there with her? Mister?

That night, the body of twenty two year old Katie Blavelt was found in the basement of an abandoned farmhouse. She'd been covered with planks of rotting wood, and an autopsy later revealed she'd been brutally stabbed to death. Simpsonville wasn't the kind of place where people normally vanished or where murder made the nightly news. When it did, everyone knew about it, naturally. Solving Katie's murder became a top

I was worried about my friends Kady, and she would have missed it. She's been missing for a while now. And who came in this house that we used to hanging all an elegance?

And what's more, what's wrong with her?

Sir?

We fold her in himself?

La, you found her what we fell? We found my friend Katie border did in?

Okay?

Okay?

In other words, she's dead in that?

Are you saying she's dead in the house?

Now?

Now you're sure she's dead.

She's not breathing, is she cold?

She's very real?

And there was no response.

There's no response? Okay, sir?

And what's your name?

Wayne's profra.

After Wayne made this call, officers quickly arrived at the scene, and the search for Katie Blauvelt came to an end. Her body was found in the basement of the abandoned farmhouse, stuffed into a narrow cement opening and covered with planks of rotting wood. An autopsy later revealed the cause of death. She'd been stabbed multiple times, including twice in the neck. A fragment of the knife used to kill her was

Jemmy, how did you meet Kate? I'm going to school with her, Chris.

Class.

Y'all the same age. She's two twenty one.

She's a few months older man, But y'all were inside.

Gray she's a year buy okay, and the classes together. Y'all mate the.

Bus together, and we also had the same watch a first met her of her friends at first.

And then we dated for.

Like a month or so.

Wayne explained that his relationship with Katie had been a brief high school Flint, and then after they broke up, the two remained friends. Years later, after Katie married army recruiter John Blauvelt, Wayne ended up moving into their home. In a strange twist, he had become a housemate to his ex girlfriend and her new husband.

John offered me.

To move in within a roommate, so you lived with her and her husband.

Yeah, it's weird.

Did he know that when you moved in? Yeah?

According to Wayne, John was aware of his past relationship with Katie and never seemed to be bothered by it. In fact, after a night of heavy drinking, Wayne claimed he was invited into their bedroom.

When you were living with John A kat how often we all been intimate with each other?

It was the long ones.

And John was there or not there?

It was and you know it.

How did you not know it?

I hate it was looking through something. And after that, like he just changed.

And how did that come about? I only drinking, he was drunking. You know, that's the right idea.

I can see where that might call some friction. But you continued to live there. Yeah, I mean he didn't say anything verbally to me, you know, and I just thought everything was gonna be okay.

Then they started having arguments because of me, because she told me that he was jealous of me.

Their arguments are eating worse.

Wayne described how John and Katie's marriage had fallen apart, marked by constant fighting and tension in the house. Eventually, Katie moved out, and a few months later Wayne did as well. Then, after Katie went missing, Wayne claimed he had just decided on a whim to go look for her at the old abandoned farmhouse where her body was found.

Tell me about the band in the house. I didn't you know about it. We used to go there and drink all the time. But I didn't get off of work until eleven.

Now called called Ricky and see if you give me a ride, And yeah, I was almost home from work, and I asked him if he would undertake me together the band house to look. I used a flashlight to go in there, and I was looking at the fire flash flight. It was a headline, okay, And I was looking on the ground for any footprints or trash or anything.

Wayne said he went to the abandoned farmhouse in the middle of the night to look for Katie, which was something investigators immediately found unusual and highly suspicious.

Then we went down to the basement.

I looked at her in that conquered thing, and I seen her jacket looks.

At the I see her, Hey, you know it was her.

She was missing, Like it's the first thing that thought in my head. Am sure that we ran out of there, and then once I got to the to the road.

I called on.

Investigators also spoke with the young man who had driven Wayne to the farmhouse, Ricky Hargrove. His account of that night largely matched Wayne's version of events.

And then he looks down and he said that I think he said there she is, Oh my god. And then I looked playing stattered. I said, oh my god. I turned around and hears him say Katie, like trying to wake her up or something, and I'm like, dude, I think she's dead. I'm kind of going up the steps by then, and he comes up behind me when they's pulling out his phone, calling IDEM.

Naturally, investigators were puzzled by this story. Something about it just didn't add up. It was strange enough that these two guys had randomly decided to search for Katie in the middle of the night, but even stranger was the first place they looked they found her body. Detectives knew something wasn't right. One of them, or maybe both, had to be lying.

Why didn't you call the place? They already put out a report and I'm talking about all.

This conversation about the abandoned house. I'm just curious, why didn't you refer it and say, hey, look i'm.

Holding over there, and look, I didn't think of it.

I didn't.

That's kind of odd.

It's just like.

I just didn't expect anything to be there.

You did a call and said, hey, I don't know if he's any truth to the is, but I've heard people talking and there's.

No man in the house down here, and you all may want to check that.

That makes sense to me.

Putting on a headlamp while a miner ain't going to bed there at midnight don't make no sense to me.

Another detail that bothered investigators was that Katie's car wasn't at the scene. It had actually been found the day before, abandoned in a parking lot several miles from the farmhouse, with its license plates removed. So when Wayne and Ricky showed up at that old house, investigators had to wonder why go inside at all? If Katie's car wasn't there, what made them think she would be?

Did you think she was dead?

No?

I didn't, okay, because there's no cars there, so one of the odds if she's really there, that she would be Okay, I just I.

Mean, help me understand. I mean, I don't know. I'm trying. I'm trying to get it.

Because you drive up there because you're you're kind of worried about her. When you get there, there's no cars, right, So what's the probability that she's really there?

How was she had gotten there? You know what I'm saying, this is just you know she was dead.

Detectives pressed Wayne with simple questions, one that should have been easy to answer, but instead of explanations, they got shoulder shrugs and a string of I don't know.

It's really hard for me.

To get through my brain that you got hundreds of ball for phil officers looking for this little girl that.

You said was a friend of yours.

We're peening phone, we're subpoenaing records, we're trying to find this squirrel because people that love her are trying to find her, and yet you.

And other guy in there, the first place they look, they find her. What are the odds of that?

What do you mean?

I think they's a sail of men. You had a bunch of options.

Yeah, but if you really cared about her, why didn't you tell somebody.

Why didn't you get somebody else in it? Why would you think the best idea is for you to walk into what turns out today her final resting.

Place where somebody murdered her and dumped her down there like a piece of trash.

Why do you think the best solution for you and Richie is.

To go up there and put your DNA all over a murder crime, saying why.

I just I didn't think about that.

Listening to this interview, it's not difficult to figure out what investigators were thinking. They clearly believe that Wayne already knew what had happened to Katie, He probably knew where her body was, and this so called discovery had been completely staged.

And we need to decide whether we're going to continue to risk being accessory before after the factual murder, helping dispose of a body after it was already dead, or play stupid and ended.

Up getting charged with all of it.

Yeah, I'll be good right now.

We can't put your hand being the one that killed that girl, but you finding her there, that's way too big of a quiescence for me, Powell, So I'm not opposed to him. For anybody has made him say, Wayne, but I can't help you if you don't.

Tell me the truth.

You're telling me the truth.

You're telling me part of the truth. I'm telling you the full truth. I've told you of it.

Then.

Yeah, I told us everything in that Wayne, But it's time for you to do that, okay.

Investigators kept pressing Wayne for what they believed was the truth, but no matter how hard they pushed, he stood by his story that he'd simply found Kittie's body and he had nothing to do with her death or how she ended up in the farmhouse.

No, you took that your poor unsuspecting friend right down the crowd stay because you knew exactly where she was, and you couldn't send that that she was gonna be there and might not be found.

That's what I think happened. You took that boy in there so you could find her body.

No one didn't.

I'm telling you the full truth. I've told you everything that I can think of.

What kind of hand did you have in putting her body there?

None at all? None, whatever, none, whatsoever.

Despite the investigator's efforts, Wayne stuck to his story and to his claim of innocence. After several hours of questioning. Both he and Ricky Hargrove were released and sent home. From there, the focus shifted to the farmhouse itself. Detectives began narrowing down their list of suspects by looking for anyone who not only knew about Katie but was familiar with the property. They soon learned the house had a reputation.

Because the abandoned house that she was found in, like it was released in the news, was a high school hangout for us. We'd go over there and chill sometimes. But uh, the only people that really knew about the house was the immediate group, which was me, Cameron, Wayne, who found Katie, Cyane, Ali, Nick, and John.

When detectives reviewed the names of people connected to the farmhouse, one caught their attention. John Blavel, Katie's husband. He was thirty and an army recruiter. So what was he doing hanging around a known teenage party hotspot?

Are you familiar with this abandoned house?

Yeah, okay, that's the spot.

That's like, what's the stuf hangout spot? I've been there a couple of times. So when was the last time you were there, like a week ago, a month ago, spend months.

When asked, John admitted he was familiar with the farmhouse. He'd partied there before with some local teenagers, but he claimed he hadn't been there in months. Even if that was true, investigators couldn't ignore how strange it was for a nearly thirty year old army recruiter to be socializing with high school students. As they dug deeper, they learned that John's job often brought him into contact with juniors and seniors, and that drinking with them had apparently become

He was doing recruitment thing and I guess he wasn't meeting his quota, so she had. He had told her to invite some friends over to smoke and then he would do the recruitment stuff then and then that's how we met him.

So it was a pretty such study.

That's a hangout or if I had your rights back then to hang out drugs, drink alcohol.

As investigators spoke with these teenagers, they began to get a clearer picture of John and Katie's relationship. What they learned didn't quite match the simple and amicable separation story John had been telling during the.

Time that you were around when they were together, did you ever see any violence between the two of the many arguing.

Yes, yes, there was frequent. They were always fighting about something and then John would always be yelling and screaming at her, and then they would go in their room and locked the dole in this fight. And we wouldn't see any of it like visually, but there was a we could always hear it.

Investigators eventually discovered that before her death, Katie had filed a police report with a different department than the one handling her murder case. In that report, she stated that John had threatened to kill her and her entire family.

Katie filed a criminal domestic violence report with Fountain In Police in January, and in the report, she detailed a fight that she had had with her husband a month earlier, where he threatened her several times at home with a revolver, threatening to kill her if she would not open or unlock her phone. The report went on to say that John Blofeld grabbed his shotgun, both sets of keys, and left the house, saying he was going to kill everybody she knows.

Following this incident, Katie made up her mind to leave John. She went to the police and reported what had happened. Within days, officers were at the door to arrest him.

She's left one day, it was like a Tuesday, and then she came back Friday with the entire Fountain police barman, and it was a pretty big scene.

Were our thing.

When police arrived at John's door, he was drinking and getting high with high school students.

And then the night that it happened, when the cops showed up, he was I'm not sure what he was on, but he was running around the house waving guns saying that he wasn't gonna let the cops in and that he would rather like use the gun before he let them in.

So is this the night he got arrested? Yes, Okay.

Strangely, when officers arrested John, it wasn't for threatening Katie with a gun, even though she'd file the report saying he had. Instead, he was charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor for drinking and using drugs with teenagers. After the arrest, the Army was notified and John's recruiting duties were suspended pending investigation.

Because of the civil investigation, online recruiting newies have been suspended.

So I've literally been sitting here since about March.

During the day, just off his touchstone, playing on the phone.

John knew that the Army's investigation was mostly a formality. He knew what the outcome would be. He'd be found guilty and discharged, ending a ten year military career with a dishonorable record after a decade of service, He'd essentially destroyed everything he'd built. But instead of any self reflection, instead of admitting that giving alcohol and drugs to teenagers might have been a bad idea. John looked for someone

Do you think kind of went back for a little while. He looks like that he's losing his job. He just blames it all. And I don't know if this matters.

Or not, but I know he hasn't gone a fifty thousand dollars life insurance policy aren't here.

As John waited for the army to discharge him, his behavior didn't change. He continued drinking with the high school students, and according to several of them, he often talked about Katie's life insurance policy and his desire to see her dead.

I was over there one day with a bunch of friends and, like John, like he plotted out ways to like kill her, but it was joking.

Incredibly, John also offered a sixteen year old girl fifty thousand dollars to help him build a false alibi. He planned to have this teenager drive his car and take his phone to Charleston so it would appear he'd left town, when in reality he'd still be in Simpsonville killing Katie.

And he was like, do you want to go to Charleston, and I was like, he doesn't longer tells me?

Yeah, me to what?

And he's as long as he.

Was take my car on the phone. And I was like me, you and cy in and he was like no, no, just dude.

I realized a why and he was like, I can't really tell you and he was like no, I didn't want to tell me.

And I was like, well, why, I know, why do you? He like, hit my car, I'm going my credit card, that's what you wanted to do.

And he was drunk and he was like, I'm getting feel okay, he was gonna get I left the tanking his credit card in his phone to Charleston.

Well, he asked why and he said so it look like I was in ust. And he asked him what he was gonna do what she wasn't Charleston.

He said he was.

Gonna kill Katie and he would give her fifteen thousand dollars, which is the exact amount of life and transposing naturally.

After hearing these things about John, investigators confronted him with the act accusations. John denied it all.

Have you ever and probably jokingly, I would assume, made a statement.

To any of your friends about wanting.

To kill Katie.

Ever said you know, well if Katie dies, you know we'll get some money or want money to do anything with.

Have you ever gone up to any friends and said, hey, would you do me a favor and take my car, take my keys, my debit card, my phone, go away for the weekend to Charleston, say, and that'll make it look like I'm out of town so I can kill Katie.

No, so, somebody who told us that they're making that up?

I believe so. Yeah.

After being confronted with the accusations, John pointed the finger at Katie's family, claiming they were spreading lies about him. In his version of events, he was the real victim and just as hurt as everyone else who loved Katie.

That's the same type of shit that from out her found now for the last fucking two weeks, and I'm getting kind of sick of it because I don't feel safe in my house anymore. Fucking dirt bag ass family, Well you gotta understand right now, they're going through a lot too, trying to understand. But I'm going through the same fucking shit.

I lost a friend. Maybe not the best life, but I lost the fucking friend.

There was another crucial element in this investigation, one that would eventually give investigators their best shot at justice for Katie. It's entered around a teenage girl named Hannah Thompsons.

A sort of hand I tell me about her, hear and John like a couple.

And John I've been.

Sorting together, I guess for like.

Seven eight months.

Seven months so pretty much since he and Katie stood up.

While John and Katie were still living together, John began sleeping with seventeen year old Hannah Thompson, and after Katie moved out, Hannah became John's living girlfriend. Once investigators learned about Hannah and her connection to John, they were of course eager to speak with her.

When was the last time you saw Katie, like a few months ago, what was her feelings shorts for?

I mean, I always like, I've always seen her as like a friend, because like you know, she always told me that she's like here for me if.

I are need day thing.

So it's a very saying you were good turns slither.

Once she was killed.

We had a good relationship, like we were a little kind of close.

John never make any mention of life insurance policy.

In her I don't know.

He never talked to me about it, has ever joked around about things to be better.

If she's dead, I should kill her he joked about that. Yes.

Within moments of speaking with Hannah, investigators were fairly certain of one thing. She was trying to cover for John. In other words, she was lying to protect him, which was an extremely dumb thing to do.

We've been working the space steady since she disappeared, so there's a lot of these things that we know the answers. I can tell you already you're lying to me. Okay, you do not want to get wrapped up and catch the murder charge. You're seventeen years old. You know your entire life, and you may love John, and you may think you two him to get married and walk down yellow brick Road.

Okay, but no man and.

No woman is worth going to prison.

Investigators gave Hannah the typical pep talk about honesty, consequences, and the importance of coming clean, but none of it seemed to sink in.

When you told me earlier that you and John aren't an item, that was a lot right.

No, they're not.

Really a leagal loss.

So who are you doing.

I'm not dating anybody.

But if you look at your.

Facebook, sass, you just posted on Sunday that we're currently in the most amazing relationship ever 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.

We're not dating.

I just have a good relationship with him.

Well, Hannah denied being in a romantic relationship with John. Investigators only turned up the pressure. They were clearly convinced that she knew a lot more than she was saying.

Well, after me and John started like getting together, Katy started not liking me.

And I'm going to say it right now, I'm like, she was not nice sometimes, but she did.

Not deserve that.

What she deserves right now is for us to figure out who did this. Oh I know, I know, And at this point nobody needs to cover for anybody. If you know something and you're trying to cover up for it, you're going to go down with the rest of them. You're going to go down with the person.

Who did this to her.

I don't know anything about you, do.

We will do you do? We know more than anything which is evident.

I don't.

Got it because you know who else can't talk right now?

It is Katie.

She's ever talk again.

Investigators kept pressing Hannah, but they went too far. The moment they showed her the photos of Katie's body, the interview fell apart.

What do you think about.

Somebody that would sad girl in the neck to the point where the knife went all the way through to the other side, and then stick her body like a piece of trash in the basement of an A band has to sit there for a day and a half before somebody finds her.

Let's go right here.

I want to look at her.

I don't want to do this anymore.

I don't want to do what.

I don't want to us find out who Kilbert.

I'll go w Is tell the truth.

It will be.

You gotta tell you something To tell the truth.

You don't have to try.

It just flows. It just comes out.

Please leave, Hannah. This is a friend of yours and I'm trying to do I don't listening. You listen to me for just a second.

This is a friend of yours, or was a friend of verse, and somebody brutally marked Okay, Unfortunately you are right in the middle of all of this, and for to sit here and lie to us to.

Begin with, is not helping you at all.

Before long had abruptly stood up walked out of the room, and the investigators had no choice but to let or go. Around the same time, their interview with John ended as well, after he refused a light detector test and said he'd be contacting a lawyer.

I'm just gonna ask you to be a point blank. Did you cop Kate?

No?

Do you have it killed her?

No?

Would you be willing to take pographs? So we can go ahead and do that with you and eliminate you and.

Start looking about that first.

Okay, see what he says, because I don't know about that at all.

By this point, investigators had gathered a good amount of evidence against John. Several interviews with friends and acquaintances painted the disturbing picture of John repeatedly talking about killing Katie and hiding your body. One witness said that John even offered them money to help him create a false alibi. Investigators also knew John had a documented history of domestic violence towards Katie and that he was the sole beneficiary

Hannah Thompson's mother reported her missing yesterday to the fountain In Police department. The report states that the teen was last seen on October thirtieth. Hannah's mother told police that her daughter is believed to be with John Blofeld, the known homicide suspect. Investigators told Hannah's mom that Hannah's bank account has been left untouched since her last paycheck.

In November of twenty sixteen, When investigators went looking for John and Hannah again, both of them were gone, no note, no warning, no trace. They had simply vanished. Their phones were dead, their car missing, and every lead hit a dead end. Overnight, the prime suspect of his teenage girlfriend had disappeared into the wind, leaving behind a grieving family

Twenty eight year old John Blofeld is charged with murder in the death of his wife, Catherine, who went by Katie. Katie's body was found in an abandoned house in Simpsonville back on October twenty sixth. Investigators say she was killed with a knife two days earlier. Her husband was last seen on November fifteenth in New Mexico and remains on the run Simpsonville police. The investigators believe that he's with his seventeen year old girlfriend.

After John and Hannah fled, police spent weeks chasing scattered tips across state lines, but nothing brought them any closer to finding the couple or even knowing where they might be hiding. For Katie's mom and the rest of her family, this was a crushing setback because.

Losing your child, I mean, losing a member of the family's hard, but losing your child is just unbearable. And then in the beginning, we had hopes that we knew John did it. We just you know, hearts you knew John did it, but police have to go through their steps before they can serve once and get him. And waiting was hard.

But we thought, you know, we know where they got him to get him.

But then when he ran our hearts sunk.

Like now what.

Weeks turned into months and there were still no credible signs of John or Hannah. Then, just when it seemed like all hope was lost, Hannah Thompson walked into a police station and turned herself in.

Obviously, we brought you in here today because we wanted to talk to you about the trade of about everything that's been going on with you. That let me tell you that we are very glad that you're back and that you're safe, and that's nothing bad.

Happened to you.

After Hannah returned to Simpsonville, investigators wasted no time to find John. They needed to know what they'd been doing while they were gone.

Well, where did you go first?

When you guys first left from the Simpsonville Fountain area?

Where'd you guys go? We went to Startenberg first because John.

Had a friend that he worked with that said that we could park.

The car in his yard to sleep there, and so we did that for a few days, and then.

He drove like for two days straight, like not sleeping or anything like, through Georgia and then oh, then he drew.

He basically drove all the way to Texas, where we're going to sleep.

According to Hannah, she and John hit the road and never looked back. They drove through several states, living like fugitives, mostly sleeping in their car, always on the move, and always looking over their shoulder.

What was the game plan when you guys left? I don't think we really had one, Like I guess both of us just kind of panicked, and he decided that he wanted to leave, like the stay and.

He told me that we were going to leave, and I was like, Okay, what.

Was the reason for panicking? I think that was like around the time that like you and like the other investors had been like texting me and he wouldn't let me reply or anything.

Hannah told investigators that John had simply panicked. He knew it was only a matter of time before he was arrested, so he ran. As for Hannah, she claimed she'd only left with John because he'd convinced her that she had no other options.

He just kept telling me that if I talked to anybody, that I was going to jail. When I went back home, I was going to jail. I left him, I was going to jail. Like he just kept saying that, like pretty much every day. He made me believe that, like he knew what was best for me, and he.

Like keeping me saved, like and I explained that. After several weeks on the run, the couple made it all the way to Oregon. That's where John's paranoia began to take over. It was unraveling more and more each day and panicking over the smallest things. Then one afternoon at McDonald's, his anxiety finally got the better of him.

He stopped doing in McDonald's. And he's gonna use like Wi Fi.

Because that's usually when we would go, like start with to McDonald's to get the whig fire.

And he like went to go finding tables, and I went to the bathroom, and then when I came out, he was like he like packed everything up like really fast and like go like right now. And I'm like asking him why, and he just wasn't like talking to me.

He was just like we just got to go.

And we got in the car and he like he just kind of like threw the lapstop like on my lap and like basically for it out of McDonald's. And I had asked him, like what's going on, Like what's wrong. He's like I can't talk right now, and he's like I'm trying to focus.

Don had seemingly snapped. It began driving like a madman, weaving through the winding roads of Eugene, Oregon, pushing deeper into the mountains as his paranoia took over me like you can drove up into.

The mountains and he like.

Freaking out, like just being really like heaptic and like in his own hand and you know, just panicking.

I kept asking him one he just kept telling me to be quiet and not talk to him and stuff like that, and then he just got the car like stuck in and like intrigues like in the mountains, and.

I was like why did you do that?

Like what are you doing with how are we going to get it back out? And he was like, well figure it out, and he said that we would hike. He had to hike more off the mountain.

Basically, John's paranoia had made a very bad situation even worse. The couple was already on the run for murder, and now John and managed to get their car stuck deep in the wilderness. There was no way to get it out without drawing attention, which meant they just lost their only means of transportation. Hanna said this was the moment it finally hit her. Something inside her seventeen year old

I feel like when he got the car, he was trying to kill new or both huge, just driving like into trees, like full of speed, just like so fast.

And we were hitting stuff that I really I got scared, like at that.

Point that like I was going to die.

That night, John and Hannah spent what would be their final night in the car. John talked about ending at all a double suicide, he said might be their only way out. The next morning, as they made their way off the mountain, he confessed something that was just as terrifying.

That night, I remember if I went to bed, he told me he was like, I'm thinking about letting.

The car run all night so that we both die in our sleep.

And then the next morning he had taken a gun.

With him, like when we left, and he the next morning he said he really thought about shooting me in my sleeping and shooting himself.

After weeks of living on the road and dealing with John's spiraling, unpredictable behavior, Hannah finally broke. She wanted out, she wanted to live, and she wanted to go home.

And I was just at that point, I was kind.

Of like.

Not really having it, and I was crying, and I was like I can't do this anymore, Like I need to go home, like.

And he and he just started crying and he was like saying, I don't worry to fix Andaly fixed it. He I'll find it somewhere. He started like yelling.

At me and calling me names and saying that if I left, he was gonna kill himself.

He like ran on me from me, like he ran away from me, just like screaming, and then he came.

Back and he was just like and was panicking against like he was like saying that he did all that stuff for me, like and all.

This stuff kill king, Like he was like, I did that for you, and like all that kind of stuff, like trying to make me feel like it was my fault.

Like.

And he kept telling me that like.

If I went home, like I wanted to get to see my parents, because I would just go straight to jail.

He was just trying to make me feel really guilty, and like he told me that like he was the only.

Person that I could ever trust in the world. He basically told me I didn't have anybody else with him.

And I told investigators that John had manipulated her into staying with him, convinced her she didn't have a choice. But then one day John was simply gone.

Then like one morning, like.

He had gotten up, he was like, I'll be right back, like I'm going to get into the bathroom. I was like, okay, I'd come half sleep. She just cried up in love and then I went back to sleep, and one had woken up. He used a moment back, and I was just like, I'm not just gonna like sit here.

Like and by then I was having to use the bap and choo, So I got up.

I went to.

Try and find the.

Library, and I said. She made her way to a nearby library, logged into a public computer, and sent a few messages through her social media. A friend responded, offering to come get her and take her home to Simpsonville. She accepted and said that from that moment on, John Blauvelt was gone from her life.

By the time I had.

Gotten back on a computer, everybody like responded to me. And that's when like Angie came to hit me up like they had like a range, shit can pick me up?

Did you ever see Johnian?

During this interview, it became clear that Hannah had switched sides. She now recognized that John was dangerous and manipulative, and investigators appeared to believe her story. At least that's the impression that gave her.

Do you understand now what he was trying to do? Is ability trying to like man just think he would be alot so that I wouldn't tell anybody anything.

Nail like he was looking out for his best interest the whole time, and it really.

Had nothing to do with the visions, because like, I've never trusted somebody that much before.

With Hannah now seemingly on their side, investigators shifted focus. They pressed for details about Katie's murder. They wanted to know what Hannah knew, how she ben and anything John might have told her.

The last time you want to work with him was that that Monday. That was the last time you would to work with him.

So he was driving you in, passing her seat with joy, Yeah, and you want up to work with him at I.

Did you sit in the car?

Did he go walk around?

What did you do?

I sat in the car, and I remember him telling me he needed me to drop.

Him off on wood He throw and so I turned and you were in a parking lot and she got out of the car.

He started walking, and I didn't think to ask him what you been doing, like because at this point we've.

Been dating for kind of like a while, and it was just not something that I usually do, like ask him what he's doing, or like why did.

He seeing something?

Had?

I told investigators she had nothing to do with planning Katie's murder, and claimed shouldn't even know what John was up to. According to her, on the day of the murder, she simply gave John a ride to a remote parking lot and dropped him off without asking any questions. Investigators later concluded that John had likely lured Katie to the abandoned house where she was killed. Phone records showed that despite their separation and despite the restraining order, the two

What was his relationship with Katie?

Did he still communicate with her to your knowledge? Or every time they talked, she'd call from a private number and they would only use like texting apps to talk.

To each other because they hadn't her straining order, I guess, and so they were like kind of thing around talking to each other.

And I also claimed that John later described the murder to her. He told her that when he stabbed Katie, the knife broke off in her neck, and as she bled to death, Katie begged him to let her go.

At some point they were like on the trail leading up to the abandoned house. He told me that's where they went. He took her there.

He says that they were talking for a little bit.

He doesn't say like exactly the conversation they were talking, and then he just did it.

And he said that he stabbed her in her neck and that there was a lot of blood, and she told him that if she lets her go, she won't say.

Anything to anybody.

Investigators believe that after Katie bled to death, John dragged her body into the basement of the abandoned house and covered her with planks of wood. Then he went home, met back up with Hannah, and once again asked for her help.

So I went back home.

John was outside, like, I didn't even go inside the house. He was outside and he was like and he used to follow me in spout car somewhere, and I was like, okay, And he had this bag.

John loaded what investigators believed was a trash bag full of his bloody clothes in Hannah's car. Then he told her to follow him as he drove Katie's vehicle to an empty parking lot.

And I followed him and he.

Just throve like.

For a long time because he didn't get on the highway at all.

John parked Katie's car, removed the license plates, and climbed into Hannah's vehicle. The two then headed back home, but not before stopping at a couple of dumpsters, where John disposed of the place, the bag of bloody clothes, and anything else that might tie him to the crime.

When he threw the clothes away or at the bags away, did you know at that point in time what was in the bagh?

Okay?

Then what happened?

Did you go home?

Hannah claimed that as she drove John around that day, she had no idea she was essentially acting as his accomplice. She said she didn't even know Katie was dead until days later, after the body was found and after the story hit the media.

When I woke up in the morning, my mom had like sent me like the news story that like a body was found in the mint house, and I was just like I immediately got like home chilled, and.

I was like, oh my gosh, what is going on?

Like I used to do that all the time.

It was really scary.

And I immediately moved him up and I showed him.

Hannah said that once she learned about Katie's murder, the truth slowly began to sink in. At first, John denied having anything to do with it, but deep down she knew he was lying. Eventually, he admitted to what he'd done, though he rarely talked about the details, and whenever Hannah tried to ask him, he'd turned it back on her, making her feel guilty for even bringing it up.

It was just so crazy because like I didn't know what to think, and he had told me, like the poo' even want to talk to you, like you to lie in the road.

You're gonna go to jail, like you know, you get to see him, mom, Like like the way that I felt, it felt like I did it. You knew, Like why didn't he fell about it?

He killed her?

She never like came out and said I killed her, but like.

But he knew when you're good that he did it.

Yeah, did you Jim?

Hey, John's joking, he said, he's just he would just brushing off like he like you.

Want to talk about that right now? Like kind of you show them the one to know for asking it.

Considering Hannah's relationship with John, that she was sleeping with him, running with him, and protecting him. It would be easy to doubt her story, but honestly I don't. John completely played her for his own benefit, and I do believe that he turned her into an accomplice without her even realizing it. Doesn't even by the way the investigators treated Hannah, I don't think they doubted her story either.

I'm not saying that you knew what he was about to do, Annah, Okay, And.

Quite honestly, I don't think that you had a hand in it at all.

Anybody who thinks that like I would do there.

Here's what I think.

Okay.

One, I know he took advantage of you.

He trusted you.

And he lured you in, promised you whatever, told you whatever, and then made you do stuff that in the long.

Run was good to save him and his return to Simpsonville was a good thing for several reasons. For one, she was safe and no longer on the run with a killer, and it also gave investigators another potential witness that could testify against John when his case went to try But that would only matter if they could actually find him and catch him.

We're still nothing for John while he's out there.

There's no telling him what.

He's going to do.

Did he ever talk about going in my Togo or Canada or flying anywhere?

Loo first where she talked about going to Mexico.

Unfortunately, when it came to John's whereabouts, Hannah didn't have much to offer. As far as anyone knew, John might not have even been in the country anymore, and the investigation into Katie Blauvelt's murder remained open and unresolved for years.

This week marks three years since twenty two year old Katie Blauvelt was.

Brutally murdered in Simpsonville.

Police say her estranged husband, John is a suspect in her murder, but Simpsonville Police say he's been on the run since they found her body in a cellar of an abandoned home.

Now.

He was last seen on the West Coast back in twenty sixteen and not been seen since.

By twenty twenty one, investigators had renewed their efforts to find John. Part of that effort meant bringing Hannah Thompson, now twenty two years old, back into the interview room.

John is not a good.

Person, obviously, and we were trying desperately to find him, Okay, but we're still looking for and he needs to be responsible for what he's done.

Okay.

During this follow up interview, hadn't made a disturbing admission. She told investigators that she'd remained in regular contact with John for years after returning to Simpsonville in twenty sixteen.

And how are you guys communicating?

But to began communicating on Facebook Messenger, and then after that we were talking on Snapchat. Like at first we were talking every single day, multiple time, like for hours a day. I was the one that stopped communication with him, and I had just decided to do it.

I didn't tell him like I'm not going to talk to you anymore, I don't think, And so I think the conversation was pretty like no substance to really just maybe like hey, how are you? Where was he?

Then?

I know that he was living with somebody who you girl that he said that they were dating. She had her own house.

I think I think it was an apartment. But he also did like meet her parents and like they had gone to her.

Parents' house stuff like that too.

So what's the girls?

I don't know where was that at?

I don't really know. Whenever I would ask him like where he was, he would not tell me. He'd say like, I'm not telling you that, or.

I can't tell you that.

Unfortunately, by the time Hannah made this admission, it had been nearly a year since she'd last heard from John. Even so, the information helped investigators narrow their search. In twenty twenty two, about six years after Katie's murder, John Blavelt was finally.

Found tonight, an Upstain man on the run since twenty sixteen who investigators say killed his estranged wife, is now in custody. The victims family just confirmed to us John Blovelt was arrested in Jackson County, Oregon. Online record show he's been booked into that local detention center today.

After his arrest, John made several jail house calls to friends and family. The recordings gave investigators a glimpse into his state of mind, as well as the events that led him to go on the run.

Oh you're not even in prison yet.

No, I still got to go to trial and everything. I'm going to be in his jail for two to three years.

Oh no, I think you are in prison.

Oh okay, that's why I need a lawyer. I got. I signed up for public defender. But you know they're like fresh out of college. They don't give a shit what happens. They just need to do their car. So but I could get a real attorney, but we'll see, I'm going to be in this jail for years. You know, they're not going to give me a pond because they know I'll run, because I just ran for six years.

Was.

I've been anxious, you know, I've had that anxiety depression the whole time. But I'm actually feeling really good now, I'm at peace.

During these calls, John said more than once that he was relieved to be caught, happy even that he no longer had to live his life constantly looking over his shoulder.

I was on the run for six years, man, I was, and I was used to the pace. Every night. I would pace in the living room until like three thirty four o'clock in the morning, fully dressed like ready to run, you know what I mean. It was like when I seen the Marshals like pull into the driveway, like ten dudes, guns out and I just swear, dude, I smiled. I was like, I was like, I can't believe it's over.

What's most disturbing about these calls is what John didn't say. Not once did he mention Katie, her family or show a single hint of remorse. Like a textbook narcissist, every word was about himself and the supposed peace he'd finally found.

Even after the.

Fact, Why do you say that she never cried about her.

I feel like.

I'm not get at me I crying about it.

In later phone calls, John shared more about the six years he'd spent on the run. He described how he'd managed to weasel his way into another woman's life, lying about his name, his past, and who he really was.

Then I met that girl, been real good. I maintain her budget on diet, turned her life around. We bought a house together in September. I said three years to say.

Look poor.

We bought a house all in her name. And then I got arrested. The US marshals tracked me down and I called her like a week later from jail, and she was like, fuck you, you ruin my life. I'm like, okay, you didn't know about anything. I guess no, hell no, I didn't. I had a fake name. I was going by Ben. I like that name too. We had a good time. We had a good life. Man. We had a house, We had a dog, do three cats. I didn't work for two years. I worked for the first

Once again, this narcis seemed either blissfully unaware or simply incapable of understanding that by dating this woman, living with her for years, and hiding his past, he'd made her a victim as well. So he's being arrested on charges out of South Carolina for murder?

Are you serious? Year? He would do random on jobs. He was basically here watching my.

Cat, so my dog all the time.

When John's girlfriend learned the truth, she was devastated, And who wouldn't be imagine living with someone for nearly six years, loving them, trusting them, only to find out they were wanted in another state for murder, that the name and the backstory they'd given you were complete lies. The man she thought she knew had been living a double life. But this woman wasn't the only one to face the fallout with John Bars. It was finally time for Hannah Thompson to face justice as well.

There is also a second suspect in Katie's death. Hannah Thompson was John Blauvelt's teenage girlfriend who fled the state with him. She is now twenty five in charge with obstruction of justice and accessory after the fact.

Despite the charges against her, Hannah agreed to testify against John at his trial without any promise of leniency from prosecutors. Unlike John, Hannah's remorse seemed genuine, and as the star witness for the state, she helped ensure that John Blauvelt received the prison sentence that he deserved.

On Friday, a jury found John Tufton Blavelt guilty of murdering his estranged wife in twenty sixteen. Blavelt, the former US Army recruiter out of Greenville, now a convicted killer, was sentenced by the judge to life without the possibility of parole.

As for Hannah, she pleaded guilty to her charges and received probation for helping John flee after the murder. Her reduced sentence reflected both her cooperation with investigators and the fact she was only seventeen when she ran away with them. There's no question that Hannah was also a victim in this case. John clearly manipulated her, but one thing about

One of the things I had was something about her laugh and her big eyes and her smile, and she just had a true heart. And her name is Katie, but her name is Catherine, and it meant innocent.

And pure, and that's what she was.

And we lost that the murder of Katie Blovelt wasn't a crime of passion or a moment of rage. It was the calculated act of a man who understood appearances, how to weaponize them, and how to hide behind them. As a soldier, a recruiter, and a husband, John Blovelt knew exactly how to make people believe he was something worth trusting. But beneath that uniform an easy smile, was a manipulator who saw others as tools to use, to control,

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