Born to Kill

0:00Hello everybody, Debra Roberts here to tell you what our 2020 True Crime Plus subscribers are listening to this week. All six episodes of The Screen Murder, a new podcast from 2020. They're available to subscribers now, ad-free. And as always, subscribers get access to hundreds of our 2020 episodes going back years. If that sounds like something that you are interested in, well subscribe to 2020 True Crime Plus on Apple Podcasts now. When Fall comes back around, there's a sense of a reset. And new pieces from Lululemon's Fall Drop are an inspiration to push your goals and elevate your routines. As your calendar fills, easy to layer styles meet the demands of your day. And as you challenge yourself to try even more, versatile sets transition with you. The Lululemon Fall lineup brings new levels of comfort and confidence, whether you're starting something fresh or starting something over.

1:00Check out the latest arrivals in store at on Lululemon.com now. The crime scene was won out of a horror movie. The house was an old abandoned house. Deep into the wood line, you couldn't even see it from the street. The walls had holes in it. Old stained mattresses laying on the floor. Empty beer cans, empty soda cans, just trash everywhere. The house itself had been abandoned for Lord knows how long. There was graffiti and stuff written on the walls. Satanic graffiti, real dark.

2:01The house could tell stories, I'm sure you have a lot to tell. I didn't even know what was there. I've been infountain in Simpsonville since 2002 and I never knew what was there. There was a lot of people that would go there and smoke and drink and things. I guess it was something a lot of high schoolers had done before us. A house in the woods that we could go hang out after school and not get in trouble is what we thought it was. Looking back now, it's terrifying to even think about it. This is a picture that Katie took. This is me and Katie. That's me right there and that's her right there. This was the day of our fifth grade graduation.

3:01So this is another one of her. You know what, just shows are small and there's a little bit of goofiness to it. We went to Hillcrest High School together. All these photos were taken right before our senior year started. Everybody had to wear, you know, just something appropriate. Katie Blavelt was a young girl living in Simpsonville, South Carolina. Simpsonville is one of the South Carolina small towns, very few businesses. Everybody kind of knows everyone. She liked one direction. I just remember her being really big about them. My ringtone for her was, you don't know, you're beautiful. You don't know, you don't know, you don't know your beautiful. When I hear that song, I still cheer up because that was her song. She didn't realize how beautiful she was. She just liked happy music, something with a good beat. She just always wanted to be bouncing, singing, going, doing, having fun, going on an adventure. Katie had gotten over some hurdles. She was on her way to a new life.

4:03Working at Pet Smart, got in a new car. The coastline for her, a 2011 Fort Fiesta, a nice little car, really cute. And so she was happy to finally have her own little car. She loved that thing. We worked at the Pet Smart in the Pet Hotel, which is a doggy daycare and boarding facility. She had the biggest heart I've ever known. I've never met anybody that she was unkind to, absolutely obsessed with animals. Loved Harry Potter. That's her turtle tattoo. Turtles were her thing. Katie was my mom's little sister, so she was my aunt. We're four years in one week apart. She was just always there for me when I needed her and she was my best friend. Always somebody who I could talk to. Not one person had a bad thing to say about Katie. Everybody said she was loving. She was fun. She had a good job. She was just doing things that a normal 22 year old would do.

5:09On October 24th, Katie goes to work. We have her time cards where she checks in at Pet Smart. She ended up clocking out just a few minutes after 2pm on the 24th. She was supposed to meet up with her niece Cheyenne later on in that day. Cheyenne called her after she'd gotten off work and a tutter to come by. We'll go grab somebody. We'll hang out. I called her and I said, do you want to come hang out with us after you're done with work and she said, yeah, I'll call you later. Cheyenne even said that the conversation was a little weird that Katie wasn't her normal self on the other end of the phone, but she didn't really know why. She was just very vague on the phone and I was like, what are you doing? And she was like, I don't really know. I didn't think much of it. Until later on, I looked back. I realized that she sounded uncomfortable, but at the time I didn't pick up on that. She doesn't show up. She doesn't call. She's not answering her phone. It's like she's disappeared.

6:11No mis calls, no messages. Katie wasn't there. She's not answering her phone. Just nothing. So then I just started up the chain, like call Mama. She's sure she's on this too. See if she's there. She asleep. Brandy calls me. She said, is Katie there? I'm like, no. She said, have you seen her talk to her? I'm like, no. I was like, she's not here. She said something's not right. Word gets out and Simpson veal, hey, Katie's missing. So everybody kind of knows, hey, they're sitting right, something's wrong. They're out there looking for her. Friends, family, co-workers. Everybody went out looking for her. Everybody. I said, if I don't hear anything by morning, I'm going straight to police station. So I did. And I went down to Simpsonville police station and reported her missing. And then that's when law enforcement gets involved and starts trying to track down where Katie is. So they said, just go home and wait. And that was the hardest thing to do. We just go home and wait. But we didn't. We got in groups and we were searching places, should hang out.

7:15I was the investigator who was on call. I got a phone call from the uniform patrol supervisor who was meeting with the family. He relayed the information about the case to me. I immediately felt like this was something we needed to jump on as quick as possible. Contacted her cell phone carrier and went ahead and requested what's called an exigent ping where they were able to give us either the current location of the phone if it's turned on or the last done location. Her phone was pinging way out of state. And they actually get some information back from the wireless provider that shows that she's up in West Virginia. Katie's GPS actually said she was in Bluefields West Virginia. I said, does this make any sense? Do you know anybody up there is very reason she'd be going in this path? They said absolutely not. Katie's been missing about 24 hours now. And her friends and family are asking, what is she doing there? Did she go on her own? Or did someone take her there? She found 132.30 in the morning, brain to call me.

8:17And said, mom, something's going on. I knew. I knew if it not meant it will happen. And I was just screaming. Simpsonville is a nice rural town. We're about 15 minutes outside downtown Greenville, South Carolina. We've got the typical ice cream station that you'll find aligned out the door every Friday night. Simpsonville is just a beautiful quiet place where everybody knows everybody and everybody gets along. High school football appears tremendous. It's just a peaceful place. And that's another thing I think that shocked this community when this happened. Katherine Blow vet was last seen leaving her job at the PetSmarta Woods, referred Monday

9:24around 2 o'clock. Last time anyone saw Katie was Monday night. It's now Tuesday. She's still missing. Her phone is still indicating that it's in West Virginia. And no one knows what's going on. From what I understand, they started tracking her phone and they had some kind of miscommunication. The cellphone company gave us the wrong cellphone information. We later found out that they had entered some incorrect information and provided the wrong information to us. And it really derailed the investigation for a while. They really lost about 12 hours of time looking for Katie trying to trace down why she could be up in West Virginia. Simpsonville 911, what's the patient of your emergency? I don't know that I discovered church at Boston. You know what? You're at discovered church across from where? In the woods across the me. Two Katie's friends, Wayne Roper and Ricky Hargrove, go looking for her.

10:26And the first place that they search is honestly so creepy it's the kind of place you expect to find a body. I was worried about my friend. She was missing. She's been missing for a while now. And looking in this house that was just behind all the hang out again. This batch received a phone call from two young men. They were friends of Katie's and one of them had just gotten off work at the local Walmart at midnight. Wayne Roper was a good friend of Katie's. New her for a really long time went to school with her. And they decided to go to this house because it was a place that they had all hung out in the past. They've been missing for I think 30 hours now. And we went into the woods where we used to hang out at. And there's a house there. And we were looking for there just in case she might be there staying or something. They did a search of the entire house and the last place they checked was the basement. There was a concrete box formed in the floor of the basement.

11:27It was covered with a piece of plywood. These two boys removed the plywood and found Katie's body. What's wrong with her, sir? She went a lot. She run away? Nobody on the sheet. We found her in the south, not alone. It went from a place where they used to socialize and have fun to attend. I believe it was a mess get a more crafty call to me to notify me that we had a murder and we had located Katie's body and that I needed to respond as an additional investigator to help out. Okay, hold on for me, sir. It's in a fillet. You have to leave them alone. I've got police on the way. All right. We'll stay for you if you can survive. All right, sir. I should have the officers pulling up now. Can you see him? Yes, sir. The abandoned house itself has got its own special brand of preview. Then you add in the fact that law enforcement is discovering this crime scene after midnight

12:33late night. There's floorboards missing. There's all this spray paint on the walls and then you see the camera pivot and turn to walk down into the basement. Then you just see Katie's body. She is naked from the waist down. She's got her shirt pulled up and she's got that board covered on top of her and you can just see a stab wound on her neck, her shirt soaked in blood. The actual handle of the knife wasn't present on the scene and the entire blade was inside of her neck. The six inch knife, 4.9 inches into her right neck, cut the carotid artery and the left jugular vein and she bled to death. She wasn't wearing any clothes from the waist down. Obviously, makes you concerned if there's some sort of sexual assault. The coroner's office tested to rule out a sexual assault. There was no signs of sexual assault. Police say that they find blood spatter in the undergrowth of the bushes near the house,

13:35which makes them think that Katie was likely killed outside and her body taken inside the farmhouse. They were dragging marks and blood, leaving from outside the house down to the basement and into this hole, if you will. You could tell she'd been there more than 12 hours or so due to some different things that we found on the body. Pathologists said there were some injuries on her hands and all that would be consistent with defensive type wounds. I think she fought. There was no signs of where herself home was. It was still turned off. We couldn't locate it anywhere in an initial search of the crime scene. So that was the thing we really wanted to get her hands on. I passed by the abandoned house and saw all the cops there. That night something just clicked in my brain and I was like, why else would they all be here? I knew. I knew Katie was dead. I got out and went and asked one of the policemen. I said, is it my daughter you found?

14:36Tell me. I just want to know. They said, we can't tell you anything. You need to go home and just wait for somebody to contact you. I remember screaming. I was just screaming. And I remember somebody picked me up and put me back in the car and took me home to my mom and dad. And I was just screaming. I was checking the news and I saw that there had been a body found and I kind of looked at my roommate and I was like, I'm not going to think anything until I hear something. I found an article just scrolling through Facebook and it said 22-year-old body found. And I was just hoping and praying. It wasn't her. Just please don't be her. The body of a 22-year-old Catherine Blivevill was found in the cellar of an abandoned home on Main Street, having about one o'clock this morning. Police say her family had reported her missing just hours earlier Tuesday afternoon. I picked up the phone and I didn't want to hear what he said. So I headed to my husband. And I remember watching my husband's face.

15:38That's what told me. There's nothing else to do. The cops are asking themselves, what are the chances that these two guys who found Katie's body found it in the first place that they looked? What made you go into that house specifically at midnight? Since this is obviously a death investigation. We kind of have to treat everybody like they may have something to do with it. Simpsonville did a really thorough job investigating this case. So they looked at everyone. That included Wayne Roper. That included his friend Richard Hargrove. That was there with him that day that found Katie. What we wanted to do this morning is talk to you about how you came about finding Katie. Just ask you some basic questions, okay?

16:39Well these two guys called and said that they had found Katie's body and an abandoned house between Simpsonville and Fountain Inn. So tell me what happened once you got to the abandoned house tonight. We went through all the rains. You know, Sean laid down and he spent it. We had the bottom of the flood of the steps. The concrete structure to the ride and looked like somebody had to shove the body in there. You know what, in there, I see a white jacket that dirt on. You know what, a lid around in there. It's you know, Wayne pointed out the body. I couldn't believe it at first. I looked in there and I remember I said, oh my god, I couldn't handle it. I started leaving right then.

17:44Who at 12.30 at night is going to go to this abandoned house by themselves without contacting the police first or by going with a group of friends. So it seemed a little bit strange to us. This was a pretty obscure place for someone to find the body. We couldn't figure the odds of these two guys decided they were going to go look for Katie. And they go check one place and find her under a bunch of trash in the basement of this abandoned house. Tell my head of the name, the Sean lady. Um, Katie? Yeah. She, I went to school there. I noticed it then and then we did date in this pretty much it. And we've been hanging out pretty so often. Is Katie ever made you mad or? No, sorry. Were you guys talking like you're trying to get together under the slayest time? No, sorry. We were just being friends.

18:46She was telling me everything that was like going on in life and everything. She checked his interview Katie's knee, Cheyenne Paxton. She tells police there's no way Wayne could have killed Katie. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Wayne? I didn't get any of them. I was 11 years old. And that's how I know I mean. I don't wait until I feel like the sick. We just, I feel that he asked it. I understand. But you got to look at it from our perspective. It's very suspicious that he's alive. I found my body especially where it was. Of course, we didn't know either of these two. We didn't know their relationship to Katie. So we got on pretty hard. Let me ask you a question. Count Blunt, did you have anything to do with Katie's death? Yes. No, that's totally not. I bailing you. I don't, I didn't know anything about her. She just came to my father's and came to us. Eventually we're going to find out who killed her. I promise you that.

19:48If you have any involvement or any knowledge of it, now's the time for you to come forward. I don't know. You know what I mean? Okay. All right. All right. What are you going to do? Swabli just got much heavier cheeks. Okay, Doc. You know why? I'm going to say something to you. Wayne and Ricky submit to DNA tests. They have their bodies, photograph. Are they carrying them? They turn over their cell phones. So it seems like Wayne and Ricky are in the clear. All right. We'll be in touch for you after you show your time. However, they get called back into the interrogation room because a neighboring police department from Fountain Inn that's working on the case wants to talk to them. Well, Ricky, I gotta tell you, man, it seems like every time you kind of go away with the story a little bit more as I did to it. Is that not, is it, is it, is it, is it, is it? Are they in your mind? I mean, you guys are asking me the questions on answering them. And we run that blood on plants around that house

20:49where our bodies found and it couldn't bite. And you, the winner. What do you think is going to happen to you? You're going to think that I'm doing it. Do you see how we would think that anyway? This, yeah, I think that it's weird that, like, I'm going to found her and dead. We just, we, we just were going to this. I just went down and we were going to go away with the corpses not like that. I'm not opposed to having anybody that's made a mistake, wait. 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. It's just hard for me to get my mind around how they go into this abandoned house with flashlights and find her buried under a bunch of stuff. I mean, just didn't pass this male test to me.

21:49Why did you kill her? Did you kill her? Yes sir. Do you need a shoot of dead, man? Who did not see her? Why else would you go straight down to where she was? I didn't get straight there. I'm not telling you. It's so. Hey. I told you everything that I can think of. And I'm like, I can tell him he didn't do it. I can promise you he didn't do it. I know he didn't do it. We were thorough enough that even though we were suspicious about that, you know, they were eliminated and they were actually, you know, telling the truth. These gentlemen had nothing to do with it. And if I could ever say anything to Wayne, miss two things. One, thank you for being the one that found her. But I am so sorry. It was you that found her. Because I can only imagine what he went through for that. And I hurt for him for being the one that actually found her. Police tell us they do have a few leads,

22:49but no defined persons of interest just yet. Wayne and Ricky have been cleared. So police turn their attention to other people in Katie's life. They do start with the people closest to her. Even though Katie may look young, the 22-year-old has already been married. But then investigators find out that she's recently separated from her husband and they decide they need to talk to him. At this point, we're able to say that it's a cat. So I could loss her. This show is sponsored by Who Killed Angel Harris, a podcast from ID. On June 25, 2011, 31-year-old Angel Harris was found murdered in Gainesville, Florida. More than 15 years later, her case remains unsolved. But on the new podcast Who Killed Angel Harris, a podcast from ID, host Sarah Kalen travels to Florida to uncover what happened to Angel.

23:49And who may be responsible? Retired Gainesville Police Detective Courtney Roberts joined Sarah to review evidence. That includes surveillance footage showing Angel with an unidentified man shortly before her death and then the same man walking away alone. Soon, the search for answers in one murder turns into an investigation of five unsolved homicides. Who Killed Angel Harris? Listen to Who Killed Angel Harris, wherever you get your podcasts. This show is supported by Chime. Here's a message your younger self would have liked to hear. There's a bank out there where you don't have to pay all those endless fees. It's called Chime. Chime is a breath of fresh air compared to all the other banks that charge you for everything. With Chime, there are no monthly fees, no overdraft fees, and no minimum balance fees. Instead of fees, you get rewards. You get 5% cash back on Chime card in a category of your choice, like gas or groceries. All while building credit through their regular everyday spending with no credit check.

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25:57Yeah, easy gun, wrong order. This is Josh Payton, he's a detective. I'm a scary session, I'm a detective corner. At the time of Katie's murder, she was actually living with her parents because she had separated from her husband, John Blavelt. What's your wife's full name? Catherine and Walgreens, you're correct. And are you familiar that she's missing? I don't know. He didn't file the missing person's report because they weren't living together at that point in time. It hadn't been very, very long at all. They get married in December. They are married a few months before they had separated. She said that it was over, she was done, she didn't want to be with him. Naturally, detectives have questions for John. But before they can get to that, they need to inform him that his wife has been murdered. John was considered next to Ken since he was still legally married to Katie. John Blavelt is an army, is currently serving as a recruiter.

26:58So myself, the deputy coroner and investigator from Fountain Inn went to his office and made the death notification. Out of the southeast Main Street, there was a body that was found in the house, a bed in the house. And at this point, we were able to say that it is kept. I'm so sorry if we lost her. We are, obviously, in the process of investigating this. Katie and John Blavelt started dating sometime late of 2014. She worked at a firehouse subs, which is a sub shop. And right next door was the Army Recruiting Station. And that's how it started. She just worked right next to him. And I remember her saying that he would come in and get drinks and talk to her. He was nice, very talkative. She kept him secret for a while. And the reason was, I think, is because he was separated from his wife,

28:00but he wasn't divorced yet. And she found out he had a daughter, but she would crawl up and Katie's laughing at a heartbeat. And Katie was very protective of her. She really loved her. We were laying on the trampoline in my mom's backyard. And we were just talking. And she told me, she said, I think that I'm falling in love with John. And I remember being a little shocked. I was like, I thought this was fun. Something you were playing with, but I didn't know it was that serious. I was at work one day and we were texting. And halfway through the text, she said, oh, by the way, me and John got married. I'm like, what? When? She said yesterday. That was fast. That was really fast. For a better or worse, it went to worse pretty quick. And then Katie moved out of the house. We were the worst couple. We argued. She moved out and we ate what I think. And then we talked on and off. Mostly she just wanted to see the dog.

29:00So we shoot more with her dog, but we couldn't really connect again. I wasn't really working. I know she still loved him. I do know that she talked to him. I do know she hung out with him. And Katie, we're definitely still around each other. They would both find excuses. Katie was like, there's still a way where we can fix everything. She wanted her marriage to work. It's like every time she would go back, she would just realize how wrong it was. But then she gets that rabbit getting to it. Who do you know that we want to do harm to her? I can't think of nobody that would actually want to do anything to her. Because she's just average pipe. Have you ever gotten some ad ad or that maybe you did something you didn't mean to do? No, absolutely not. I used to have a drink in front of us. I see it pretty bad. And we still have like the only matches and but she has some long zone.

30:02So we go back and forth all night, but I had drinking two months now. Just go and try to turn my back around. Have you familiar with this band in the house? Yeah. Okay. That's the spot. What's the still hangout spot? One was the last time you were there. Probably. I don't know. Like a week ago, nothing else. It's been months. What starts out as a death notification starts morphing into an interrogation and the more questions that the cops ask, the more uncomfortable John becomes. I might be in charge of the crime, but he's recording me. And I'm not comfortable with that. No, if I am, I might be in contact with her. Because this is uncomfortable. Okay. You're not, you're, you're not being charged. Okay.

31:02Our job is fine now. What happened? We were killed and bring them to justice. Keith Steve Moore tells us that Catherine Blowveh was last heard from that same afternoon while driving in her car. That car is now missing. Her car was not located at the crime scene. We didn't know where the vehicle was. So we entered it on an NCIC, basically, as a vehicle of interest in a murder case. We believe that the car would hold evidence that we could use in this case. But so far, we haven't been able to find it. Now, this is what that car looks like as a 2011 Black Ford Fiesta. If you have seen or heard anything about this case, the Simpson Vocalist Park wants you to call them. On the same day that cops are talking to John, there's a huge development in the case. A Grimble County deputy located the vehicle in the parking lot over on Whitehorse Road and called in the Venn number on the vehicle and came back as a match to the vehicle we were looking for.

32:04We are pulling into the strip mall where Katie's vehicle was dumped on the day that she was killed. Katie's car, key evidence about what happened in the last few hours of her life and now surveillance video is the killer caught on tape. From the time her body was found, it was later that day that the car was found. We got the 911 call a little after midnight and her car was located to his auto a little after 6.30, 7 o'clock. Law enforcement found that car quick. This is the parking lot where Katie's vehicle was stashed after she was killed, same day. We put out a bowload for her vehicle. So area law enforcement agencies were looking for it in relation to her murder.

33:05Grimble County deputies came up on the vehicle. Katie's car contains clues but we're not talking about DNA or fingerprints here. It has this tiny little insurance device that's called a snapshot that's an underneath the dashboard. It was equipped with a data collection unit that plugs into the OBD port and it measures their driving activity to get lower rates or higher rates in some cases. Snapshots from progressive, plug it in and you can save on car insurance. The insurance company says it uses this device to personalize rates so it can measure how good and safe a driver you are and Katie was trying to save some money. Now authorities are hoping that this little box is going to pay off for them. I think that was some pretty good evidence that we've found because not only did it show his aridic driving but it also showed the trajectory of Katie from when she left work to when she got to the abandoned house as well.

34:13It's powerful. It's just powerful. It's red groans from murder to where they left the car finally on white orbs road. It showed us a lot of information that we would have never gotten. It was able to pick up speeds, locations, duration of said locations, how long it took her to get from point A to point B, how long she was at that specific location. It showed us a trajectory of where she went from when she left Pet Smart to how she got to where her body was located. She wasn't able to speak again but thank goodness thank God that her progressive insurance snapshot kind of spoke for her after that. Police say the device even recorded the driving behavior of the killer as they made their getaway. The way her car was driven after we know she was dead, you can just see it's a completely different person driving that car. It's got really high rates of speed. It was breaking really quickly, speeding up, taking curves really fast and all that matches up with that device that was on the car.

35:13The device shows that Katie's car sat at the abandoned house for about an hour and a half and then drove about three and a half miles away. They found the car. That allow us to take so then being very good, law enforcement, they look for video. One of our captains located the business across the street, an auto repair shop and we found that they had video surveillance, the name to cross white horse road and covered the area where the vehicle was parked. The cameras were located back behind us at Joe's Auto Shop. He's got his video going, captures when both cars are coming in. In their surveillance video from Joe's Auto, we were able to see the victims vehicle being driven past Joe's into the parking lot that we're currently in. Shortly thereafter, a light color vehicle which we believe to be a Prius, pulled in right behind the victims vehicle and parked right next to the victims vehicle. The driver of Katie's vehicle exits the vehicle and goes to the back of the vehicle and ends up removing license plate from the vehicle.

36:18Then gets into the gold vehicle and they both leave the scene. You see that gold Prius, believing across the street on white horse road from Joe's Auto Savage, that's incredible evidence. So, who is that riding around in Katie's car after her murder? Investigators are talking to people in her life like the housemates who live with a restrained husband, John, at the house she once shared with him. John Bobbott was living here in October of 2016, along with a few roommates. So, Brandon Tucker and Crystal Gordett were roommates living with John. So, they were actually there at the house the day that Katie went missing. You'll remember, Crystal is Katie's childhood friend. Crystal and her boyfriend were sitting in the front room to the right of the front door. At that time, they saw a small black vehicle pulling the driveway. I was sitting right here and they were sitting at the end of the table and we saw her car coming from the back of the road.

37:23Right. It came in when the driveway was backed up and went down the railroad path. It was so fast. It was so fast and they pulled in. I guess all who all was home realized not today and drove off. Like it just happened that fast. You know what I was like? Wasn't that Katie's car and I was like, I think that was Katie's car. I didn't see who was driving the car and I was like, what am I going to block? What they were wearing was a black zip up jacket and the hood was on. I just saw the black jacket and I was like, I know that's not Katie. Could you check the walls? I don't know. They saw the car coming in and saw it leave. Just a short while later, John Blavett comes back in from the back wooded area. After the car left, it was probably 15 minutes. After that, he came up from the woods.

38:24I was like, where were you at? I was just going for a ride. He went and took a shower. Was he sweating? Yeah, I mean he was just getting back from the road and he was sweating. Don't forget, if you had a technique as a hooligan, listen. I feel like it has to be somebody that knows Katie as money that knows John because they pull in John's white and her car. And that's just what I keep going back to. Police have a lot of questions about John Blavett and he has a lot of questions about the police. They ask you, where was your cover? Please, and I tell him, he can tell me what you want. No, I didn't tell him. Or where his attack worked. I mean, he was just like, what were they asking you? Are you not all of a sudden stuff? Well, police do next is incredible. So Katie's body has a viewing. Law enforcement decides to set up a camera in the viewing area.

39:26Police put a hidden camera in the funeral home. Now that's John Blavett. But the question is, who's that with him? It was a labor casting. I couldn't believe that they would come together. As they talk to witnesses and they gather more evidence in the homicide of Katie Blavett, investigators start focusing in on her husband, Sergeant John Blavett, as suspect number one. And then in a move that you'd expect to see in a mob investigation, police put a hidden camera inside the funeral home for Katie's visitation. The footage is decently muffled. John shows up to the viewing of Katie's body.

40:26He gets a private viewing separate from the rest of the family. He brings Hannah Thompson, his 17-year-old girlfriend, to the viewing as well. He makes a remark that she still has blood on her. Like, they could have done a better job cleaning her up. You do not see an emotional man looking at his wife. He's kind of making fun of her. He's talking about how dirty she is. He showed up with Hannah. The last person he should have showed up with. Who brings another woman to your wife's funeral? Even if they're separated. You just don't do that. You just don't? Their relationship started before Katie even moved out. And then after Katie moved out, Hannah moved in to John's bedroom. At the time of Katie's murder, John, who's 28, is dating 17-year-old Hannah.

41:27She was my friend from high school. She just was around with us a lot. Coming to his house, be hanging out and smoking. And that's how John met her. All right, so I'm a Denver Second 2016. So we contacted him again. And he voluntarily came to the police department. I lost her friends. They were not the best wife, but I was a **** friend. We would've always been the worst married couple on the planet, but she was always going to be my friend. We've heard a little bit about this man in a house. You'd better be sure of it. He denied being in the cellar at one point, even though all of his roommates told us that they would hang out there. I've been in the house this Saturday. I used to be at hang out with my friends and stuff. And the only people that I know that know about it, they know Katie as well. You know, there's not many people. Have you guys ever been on the base? I have been on it before.

42:27John's been there, too. You ever been down the stairs on the base? No. Because the one side is all flooded out. And then you can only climb down. And then the other stairs is like missing the last step. And it's all like, oh, it's sketchy. You can feel it. I don't know if you've gone down there, but you can feel like you reached that wall on the back. You don't know how you're going to get back up. He even knows that there wobbly when you step on them and how do you know that if you've never been down there. And he also knows that another part of the basement that Katie's body wasn't even in was flooded. And it's not visible unless you actually go down there, go down the steps to see that it was flooded. Police then asked John, why would you bring Hannah to your wife's visitation? It's all in there by myself. I'm dealing with the by myself. I'm dragging her around because she's willing to be drug-around. So John was a recruiter at the local high school and he really just kind of became everyone's friend.

43:29He was the cool guy, the guy that would throw all the parties. It seemed like a great place to hang out and do things we weren't supposed to do. Instead of recruiting him for the army like he was supposed to, he was recruiting him to come party at his house. Katie was against it and she's like, I keep trying to get him to stop and tell him the kid to come in but they just lay let's them in and they keep coming. And there's an incident at the house about eight months before Katie is murdered. There's a party with underaged teens that are allegedly drinking and smoking and then the cops knock on the door. John wouldn't come to the door, basically, better Katie himself inside. And at that point it kind of became a standoff of sorts. We essentially just rushed the door and got him handcuffed and that was it. That same night Katie goes to the police. Katie went down to the Fountainham Police Department

44:29and reported the fact that at some point in time, John and her had gotten into an argument and he pointed a gun at her and threatened to kill her. They did arrest him for contributing to the link to see if a minor and a criminal domestic violence. They arrested him for both of those that night. It really impacted his career so he immediately gets written up and then goes from being an active recruiter to working at desk job. He blamed her for him losing everything like his whole downfall was all her fault. Katie's the person that rotted him out. Katie's the one that made up these allegations and went to law enforcement. Katie's the person that has ruined his military career. What was Hannah's response when you guys were at the viewing? Just kind of taking them back. I mean, that was what that was when I first used to. They were close. They were real close. Like once. You have their right to her.

45:30And if police want to know more about Hannah, well, she accompanied John to his interrogation at the police station. He brought Hannah with him and that was a great opportunity for us to interview her as well. So who are you dating? I'm not dating anybody. But if you look at your face like that, it's you just posted on Sunday that you're currently in the most amazing relationship ever or something along those lines. So who was that relationship with on Sunday? It was, I mean, it was with John but we're not like in a relationship. We're not dating. I just have a good relationship with Hannah. Hannah may be a 17-year-old with braces but she holds her own against a tough interrogation. You may love John and you may think you too are going to get married and walk down yellow brick road. Okay. But no man and no woman is worse going to prison for long. Do you agree? Yes, I agree. Hannah stands by John. It doesn't say anything to police even when they show her Katie's autopsy photo.

46:31She goes, What's your friend? I don't want to do this anymore. Don't want to do what? Don't want to help us find out who you killed her? All you got to do is tell the truth. It will be so easy. Yeah, okay. I can't. I can't. And she literally got up out of the room and left. They just told me. I don't want to tell anyone. I'm sorry. I can't. She said at that point, we had nothing to charge her to hold her. So we had to let her leave. Hannah and John are free to go. You either have the evidence to make the arrest or you don't. If you don't, you have to let them go. I think that's one of their biggest regrets so they didn't arrest him on the day that they searched his car and took his DNA. But this investigation is just getting started. And police will soon catch a break. In an initial search of the crime scene, there was no signs of where her cellphone was. They went back to the hospital. The phone was. They went back to the house and they drain out the basement and they ultimately find Katie's phone there.

47:32Nowadays cell phones are a treasure trove of information. They're able to extract it and get some of the information out. There was a photo. That photo was actually taken at the crime scene. Police now have a chilling window and to Katie's last few minutes of life. Whenever fall comes back around, it always feels like a fresh start. This year, I've been layering in some styles from the new Louis Le Mans fall drop because the weather is shifting and I find I have to be ready for the entire day and not just one part of it. Louis Le Mans fall line has some really versatile, transitional pieces. So I can just wake up, throw on a matching set, add a jacket or a fleece, and head out, knowing that I'll feel comfortable enough to go wherever the day takes me. Check out the new fall arrivals in-store and online now at LouisLe Mans.com. Bonjour, Compadre. It's the... How do I negotiate so many great travel deals? My greatest gadget.

48:33The Priceline app. It's got hotel deals, flight deals, rental car deals, all of those deals in a bundle, deals, game day deals, concert trip deals, no one deals more deals than Priceline. Hold your horses. There's more. The app lets you filter hotels by neighborhood, vibe, star level, and amenities like pools and spas and beach fronts. Wait, I'm not done. Stop cutting the ice. I'm cutting the ice. What do you want? Pressure again? I want my life back. I'm October 23rd. The procedure is causing, traveling, physical changes. What's happening to me? Look fear. You have to learn to control it. In the face. I have no idea who you are anymore. Tell me who you want me to be. I'm a clay face. Only fear is October 23rd. We did all. The body of a 22-year-old Catherine Blivell was found. She was found in the cellar of this abandoned home,

49:34about one o'clock in the morning. At that point, we had a lot of evidence pointing towards John, but not enough. We had to find out that the body was found. She was found in the cellar of this abandoned home, about one o'clock in the morning. We had a lot of evidence pointing towards John, but not enough to physically rest him. Thank you, Crystal. Hello. How are you? I'm fine. Oh, God. I told him anything and everything that I could. Where he was, what's he been doing? And you know, I didn't have a whole lot of insight. He was just mad. John was just mainly pissed. You know, he was like, I know everybody's going to be looking at me. I know her family is going to point it straight towards me. The level of suspicion around John Blivell at that time was extremely high. The very next step is in a rest warrant, and I think John sniffed that out.

50:39Did you work that shirt? Yes. Seriously? Seriously? Who was that? Are we at the shirt? Let's get here. Let's get here. Hello? Hey, it's John. Hey, what's up? You're going to make a guy, yeah? Is it little? Is he mad in there? No, not really. Nothing's changed. Nobody's come to the house or anything like that. Okay. There's nothing out. There's nothing out. There's nothing out. He's behaving very terrified. Skiddish, watching his back, paranoid, anxious. Yeah, I think he felt like all the eyes were pointed at him. John, you know, who else has motive to kill her?

51:39Who else had the opportunity? Who else could have gotten her into a vehicle? And just days after that secret video of John at the funeral home is taken, he skips town. So he had a second vehicle, a GMC UConn, and that's the vehicle that he fled in. When he turned up missing, Hannah was missing also. She had completely wiped her cell phone and stuck it in the mailbox of her parents' house. He books, basically, tells Hannah, we're leaving. You're going with me. And he flees. Yeah, they just proved their guilt right there. I mean, why would you run if you're innocent? Kind of suspicious to me. I don't even say it's all the run. He just leaves. But he fully cooperated with him. He gave the keys over voluntarily. He opened his mouth for the buckle swab. He gave the phone over. Just the walls are closing in. I'll take my chances on the road.

52:41John Glowbelt, baby on the run with a 17-year-old girl. This was a huge story. There was a national manhunt. Everyone was looking for him. Did they think the 17-year-old girl is in danger? Absolutely. And they say the reason for that is because of what he has done in the past. I thought we were in for a long haul with his training and his knowledge and his motivation. He's got every reason to give it a hundred percent. You know, if you've got the motivation, this is a big country, big world. About a week and a half after John takes off, the Simpsonville police issue an arrest warrant for Katie's murder. John is now officially a fugitive on the run. There's a nationwide blowout for the two of them. His vehicle was entered into the national database as being wanted in connection with a murder. I contacted the local US Marshal's office. We are just there to assist them in the apprehension of John Glowbelt.

53:45But also, we were looking for Hannah Thompson, who at that point, what we believe as an endangered juvenile. We were afraid she was going to end up the same way that we were afraid that she was going to meet her demise at his hands. We had good reason to believe that John had left the state. We got a photo of Hannah and John what looked like they were buying camping supplies in a store in Alabama. And then we got a picture of John attempting to withdraw funds from an ATM. There was different license plate readers sightings of it doing basically south and west. There was always a daylight, basically a daylight dollar short. Even though the marshals were getting hits on where Hannah and John were, that was the problem. That's where they were.

54:45They had already moved on by the time the marshals were notified. The license plate reader picked up John's tag in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Before we could mobilize our guys out there, we didn't know where they were going. And that was pretty close to the Mexico border. So for a while, we were afraid that he had crossed the border. He does have training and then he was like one step ahead. And just when they think John and Hannah may have slipped out of the country, a major new development. Come on and have fun. The biggest thing that developed was Hannah coming back. She ended up doing an interview with me. What could he tell you about going to? The end of the story Did I just continue for a man who the police say is wanted for murder? Nearly five weeks after Hannah disappeared, she resurfaces not in Mexico, but in Oregon. She calls her family to say, I want to come home. So her father drives out west and brings her back to Simpsonville.

55:47The biggest thing that developed was Hannah coming back. She ended up doing an interview with me. I wanted him to have a beer. But I was your birthday. He was a big young. You can't go 18. The interview was five hours long. And I tried to get every detail out of her. She was like, I'm going to have a beer. I'm going to have a beer. I'm going to have a beer. You can't get every detail out of her. She's a potential witness. She's a potential defendant. We had no idea at that point in time what her involvement was if any. So we really kind of treated her softly in the beginning. We wanted to get information. We wanted to locate and find John. Why did you go when you asked for sweat? I got into Columbia on a bus stops sandwich. And you stopped there. John had bought with a bunch of stuff. to stop letting it attend and then like

56:48a bunch of clothes, a bunch of gift cards, like $400, $500 gift cards, the gift cards, the money. We couldn't really let the code to Arizona and then we left it in the car and it left softly Phoenix. Then after that, he just drove you know what it was, like really on the hot end, moving it away again. I think she realized that life on the lamb is not as glamorous as some of the movies make it. With no income coming in, those funds would dry up pretty quickly. They'd get closer. They'd be like, don't hold the money that would bother. If we were like, hand him over. Just day to day living just to try and stay under the radar. It stopped ending up going and then he didn't use like wire-threading.

57:50He had connected to the Wi-Fi while she went to the bathroom and we believe it was at this point that John had looked himself up on the internet and found out that he was now wanted for Katie's murder. He was like, if you drove up, anything to the mountain, then he was like freaking out. And then he just got the car stuck in the like in the trees, like in the mountain. And I was like, why did you get that? Like, what are you doing? Like, how are we going to get it back off? Hannah was able to help locate an area in which they got the Yukon stuck during them fleeing. He's right at the border of Washington and Oregon and I'm in a national park literally wedged in between two trees. And then I heard that the growl and it was like, I looked over and there was like a bear. It's like, she went and it was like right next to you. And I started like freaking out. Hannah's had enough. No money, no car, stuck in the mountain with bears.

58:51Hannah reaches out to family and Oregon and says, I want to go back home to Simpsonville. Like crying, you know, like, I don't want to get this. Like, I want to go home. That first time she went there, she came with John and bought about. I think she was under the extreme influence of him then. But she didn't come clean the first time, didn't tell the truth. I'm sorry, I'm going to get you. When she comes back now, starts telling more, implicating him more, helping us figure out how he met Katie and that sort of thing. Hannah had told me that she was talking to John about Katie's killing. I didn't tell him to be like, every day good. Like, it was my fault. It's like, you did it from the beginning. It's like, what do you think you did for me? Something you killed here for me. I'm just scared, but they don't want anybody to think that way. I would do without somebody to put them in my back to everybody.

59:51And I would move here. And that was kind of the gotcha moment that was nailing the coffin we were waiting for. What did he tell you about killing Katie? He told me that the life throw. He told me that the life thing he said was out. He said it was out before that. If he left any building, if he wanted to call a police, he never called a dollar or anything. He didn't have to let me do the pocket. I think she's forcing it to be alive. I think they were one argument away from her being hurt. He told you where they were on one of them. He told her what anything about that. He said that he put her there. And then he put me in the water.

1:00:54Either the fan in the water, but water was he replying to. It doesn't look like it was funny. So at the time there was no signs of where her cell phone was. We couldn't locate it anywhere in an initial search of the crime scene. So that was the thing we really wanted to get her hands on. And we had suspicion that there were still some communication between Hannah and John. Hannah knows. Hannah knows where he's at. We took a gamble. She will lead us to him. If you know where he is, we need to find out. That was the time to tell me. Whenever fall comes back around, it always feels like a fresh start. This year I've been layering in some styles from the new Lou Le Mans fall drop, because the weather is shifting and I find I have to be ready to watch just one part of it. Lou Le Mans fall line has some really versatile transitional pieces so I can just wake up, throw on a matching set,

1:01:54add a jacket or a fleece, and head out, knowing that I'll feel comfortable enough to go wherever the day takes me. Check out the new fall arrivals in store and online now at louleamon.com. Price line negotiator. It's me, the price line negotiator. We don't need the jingle twice. Stop it. Stop vacation inflation and how price line negotiates amazing deals on hotels, flights and rental cars. Things like we decided. Yeah, but I didn't mention that you can save up to 60% off hotels in the price line app. Time to read the deadline. Fine, no one deals more deals then. Price line. Please stop. Two Shay. Price line. What do you want? I want my life back. A October 23rd. The procedure is causing, traveling, physical changes. What's happening to me? Look fear. You have to learn to control it. In the face. I have no idea who you are anymore.

1:02:55Tell me who you want me to be. Cluey face. Only fear is October 23rd. We did all. Hannah had come back. Is there a house right there in that chair for me? She told me that John had told her that he had taken Katie's cell phone and thrown it in a flooded area in the abandoned house. We were able to go back and locate a separate basement area, so not the same area that Katie was located in. It was flooded about two or three feet of water. They find the phone and it is submerged in water. They call the forensic technicians and say, hey, we have this phone. What should we do with it in order to try to be able to extract it? They tell them to put it in rice for a while. Put it in a bag of rice and hope for the best. We had to give it a shot. We let it dry out. The best we could. Eventually, they were able to get data out of it.

1:03:58There was a photo of what appeared to be a selfie taken by Katie. You can see there's woods in the background, which is consistent with the woods of the abandoned house. She still is on her pet smart shirt. We had a time stamp. Around 417, on October 24th, she was at the abandoned house. So we know that's the time frame when she was killed. She was smiling. She was happy. Not knowing what was going to happen. I don't think she knew she was in any danger. But this critical new evidence doesn't get police any closer to finding John Blaveld, who's still on the lamb, with police unable to find him for years. The case is still unsolved. Then Katie's family is backing for answers. It's bad enough knowing your daughter was murdered and will never be back again. But to know her murder is free, running around and doing who knows what.

1:05:03Hannah returns. She's not charged with anything. A self and others, we believe there was still a chance they would be in contact. I threw a fit about Hannah. Every chance I got Hannah knows, Hannah knows where he's at. We took a gamble. She will lead us to him. Authorities are certain that Hannah is the key to finding John. And the US Marshals interview her multiple times over the years. I looked and spent hours and hours and hours. Many hours looking at every individual that was interviewed in that case. Over and over and over. There's a seven seconds piece that I showed Hannah that actually broke the case. This is one of the interviews that the Simpsonville PD did for John Blaveld. Yeah, well, it's a hundred. I'm dragging her around because she's willing to be drug-around. John doesn't say, oh, Hannah was my girlfriend that I loved her and I trusted her. Instead, he says, because I could drag her around in that moment, John reveals his true self to Hannah. Because she's willing to be drug-around.

1:06:04That's it. When I played that for her, that was the key right there. I knew that 100% I told we're going to catch this guy. We call Simpsonville and I said, I will have her in your office tomorrow at 9 AM. She is going to tell you everything. How you been? Yeah. Yeah. It's been a long time. How long? How old are you now? It's been what, six years? And 22. All right. Well, I heard you wanted to talk to me. Or is yours? I want you to tell me everything. We had suspicion that there were still some communication between Hannah and John. And she did end up admitting to the fact that she spoke with John all the way up through January or February of 2019, which is a little over two years since when they actually fled. And how are you guys communicating through the book? To very begin communicating on Facebook and Messenger. And then after that, we were talking on Snapchat.

1:07:06So what was his Facebook page? It was a very unique thing. Hannah was still very much in love with John and thought that once the heat, so to speak, went away, that they'd be able to start their life together. I was going to move to Colorado. We were going to live there. And then I didn't like when I got to Texas. I didn't even try just thinking about everything. I was scared. And I kept that calm. I think enough time had lapsed between the spell that John had on her, that she was no longer trying to keep him hidden. If you know where he is, we need to find out. Now's the time to tell me. I don't know where he is. I heard him mention Ashlyn. And Blackford. I don't know if he's sure that I feel like he was in Oregon.

1:08:08My name is Chris Tamayo, Deputy US Marshal. And I was assigned to the Colqu case unit for this case. There were deputies and officers in South Carolina that discovered that through interviews with Hannah, she was still in communications with him. I just know the number that he is using the communicates me. Did you already get that to Marshal? Yes, you did. We ended up getting records that had conversations between them via text. And once we saw this 541 area code, we immediately honed in on 541. That's an Oregon area code. We ran that phone number through a normal law enforcement database and it came back to us Stephanie. I know that he was a bit worried about somebody who a number of that he said that they were dating. When we further checked into Stephanie, it came back to this address that's right here by me. They saw him in the yard. He had changed. He'd had a full beard, no longer the short haircut, army haircut, but had his shirt off.

1:09:10Chris Tamayo, the Marshal's office said he had a unique tattoo. It was of a parent. I did that drive by. We saw the tattoo and I communicated that to them. I said, you know, we can take him outside. We can take him right now. It's him. Are you good with that? He had no shirt on. They could see his waistband. He didn't have his gun. What do you want us to do? Go get him. So John's far in the back there. We turned up the driveway. The team got in front of the vehicle. Gave John commands. Police, US Marshal's warrant. Get down on the ground. And John dropped right in the back there. The team's got him in cuffs. I looked down at John's face. I said, look at me. I take a photo. We got a 10-15. The fugitive is apprehended. They found John Blaubelle. I said, you got him. Kid me. What was John doing for all those years? How was he able to survive as a wanted man? Police are hoping that the woman he was living with might be able to explain.

1:10:14Oh, he's living with him. He's saying the earth. The first pictures that came out where I've hit him on the ground getting arrested. I said, what's your name? That's what he said. Ben Klein. He's like, okay, we're going to play that game. I just went behind him and started rolling his fingerprints. I said, John, tough to blow belts. I wanted out of South Carolina for homicide. I remember turning around to him. And then just kind of, I was like, I'm going to go back to the car. I was like, I'm going to go back to the car. I was like, I'm going to go back to the car. I was like, I'm going to go back to the car. I remember turning around to him. And then just kind of, no smile anymore. Dead pans and looks down. And I was like, yeah, you're going to jail. Stephanie, the woman he had been living with for five years, had no idea when she came home from work as a postal carrier that her house would be surrounded by US marshals. At the time, there were pets. We wanted to make sure the house was secure before we just took off.

1:11:15And we knew that Stephanie had been with him so long. She was questioned and interviewed by the US marshals. She was completely beside herself. She had absolutely no knowledge of who this man really was. To her, he was bed and climb. Now you said his name is John White? John Tufton Blvell. So he's being arrested on charges at a South Carolina for murder. Are you serious? Yeah. That moment that she found out, it's so raw, her cries are so deep and cutting like you can feel her pain. He murdered his wife. And then went on the run and came here to work. We're building the other way. The other way. The earth. I mean, because that's how long we've been looking for him. We're building the earth. Who she thought she knew is not the person that she knew. Never seen any ideas or identification.

1:12:17No, he always said that he was just like off the gridter didn't like anything. So I just chalked it up to him being like a hippie. I believed her. I knew she wasn't involved with this because she truly broke down. He found someone that would allow him to live here, take care of him, and he didn't have to do anything else. He would do random odd jobs and then like just random craigslist things. And he was basically here watching my cats and my dog all the time. While Stephanie is being interviewed by one US marshal, another one walks in and says, hey, do you know where this bag is that John's talking about that he wants us to get for him? Is that something you would allow us to take a look at? The wrap. I think it's green. It's a green hiking bag. It's filled with the brink. We're going through the backpack looking for anything that may just show how he was on the run. Fake IDs, stolen IDs, checkbooks, something that just indicates that he was living another life.

1:13:24So once we went through it, it was the journal, some fake IDs that he had. At this point, US marshals know they have something here, but they don't know how important that journal will become. He had kept that journal what appeared to be during the actual fling. It was during the trip with Hannah. He's writing about everything on his run. You know, where they're staying, what they're doing, where they're eating. He's drawing pictures of the ocean. There's a letter to his daughter in there. He talks about how sorry he is that he had to do what he had to do, but that girl was evil. And then he's writing this thing and there's certain letters capitalized at the end. And so letters that are capitalized at the bottom of this journal entry. If you put together all the capitalized letters, it just says, I did it. I did it. But you don't see that much. Just doesn't happen. Well, a belt is being held in a jail in Oregon, but he will be extra-dited back to South Carolina to face his charges.

1:14:27A day or two later, we had flown back with him and got him back here. He really didn't show much of any emotion. After nearly six years on the run, John Blaville, it's appeared in Corrin Greenville. He pleads not guilty. A judge denied bond. He's charged with murder and possession of a weapon during a violent crime. And eventually, those 2016 charges of domestic violence and contributing to the delinquency of a minor were dropped. And not long after John's arrest, Hannah Thompson was also arrested. Hannah Thompson is now charged with obstruction of justice and accessory after the fact. The State Attorney General's office says Thompson is looking at potentially a 55-year prison sentence. She ended up getting arrested. I think she had five different Lawrence between Simpsonville and Greenville County. She had an ankle monitor and house arrest that she was on prior to trial.

1:15:28This is a prepaid collect call from John Blaville, an incarcerated individual at Greenville County Detention Center. While John is sitting in jail awaiting trial, he starts calling all his friends and his family who he hasn't spoken to in years. Where you been, Mom? I've been all over the country, man. And it's so bizarre he's filling them in on what it was like being on the run. I was like working on pop farms and stuff like that. And I met a girl and I know they were there. She just called it down like that. She thought I was all in her name. And then one morning, the US marshals came out of that front, and then to my vegetable garden. And the US marshals were pulled up in the driveway. But that night, I got the best sleep that I've had six years. So I guess there's a positive, too. I do imagine that there is some sort of relief that comes with that because it's got to be a little bit free. That I'm not having to look over my shoulders anymore. I'm not having to pretend to be somebody else. I got a lawyer with a sparrant. We're going to trial.

1:16:28Nearly eight years after Katie's murder, John is finally headed to trial. He's probably thinks he's going to get off because he just... that lucky. And the star witness for the prosecution is his old girlfriend, Hannah. All these years later, and John's trial is about to begin, and he is facing the possibility of life in prison for the murder of Katie Blavelt. The trial is underway in Greenville County, for an upstate man accused of murdering his estranged wife. Six inches, 2,724 miles, and 2,086 days. Those were significant numbers in the six inches that blade went into her body. The number of days that John Blavelt was on the run,

1:17:28and then the distance from Simpsonville to Medford, Oregon. It's hard looking at him because he's like smug. He's probably thinks he's going to get off. I was trying to look at his eyes, because like right here, it doesn't change. I stake on that for winners. Thank you, Your Honor. The state calls Keith Moore, cracked. Katie's cell phone had been dumped in a separate side of the basement. They saved your name for the record? Cheryl's scotfield? I was confident we had a great prosecution team, and I was confident with what evidence we had. I think it's good to witness us. Staying there is our highly-summerville. Allys Sommerville was one of John's roommates, and also a close friend that he confided in. Please be seated. Allys Sommerville had a really good insight into John Blavelt. She was around him a lot. John probably shared a lot of information with her. He said that he was born to kill. He didn't have that people. That he loved to kill. That's what he was born to do.

1:18:29John Blavelt told you he was born to kill. Yes, sir. Good and bad people. Good and bad people. That's what his purpose was here on this earth. The most important witness was Hannah Thompson. Hannah Thompson was the only person that got us from A to Z in the entire case. The day of the murder, he had told Hannah, today's the day I'm going to kill Katie. Then told her, I need you to drive me near Katie's job. And I'm going to stand outside of her vehicle until Katie gets off of work. That was when John had gotten in the car with Katie. Hannah testifies that she brings John's phone back to the house to make it look like he's there. He had staged Katie's car in a gravel wooded kind of like drive-through. That was somewhat behind John's house at the time. What were you told to do then with Phoenix West? To follow him while he drove Katie's car and our stray Macden Prius.

1:19:29Do you remember where you ended up? We pulled into a parking lot on White Lurch Road. That God for Joe's autos. He's got his video going, captures that when both cars are coming in. Who pulled in first? John. Who's car was he driving? Katie's car. Who pulled in second? Me. John's guitar and keyscores and he gets into the car and I'm driving. And then you see that gold Prius just leaving. Never too long before Katie. That's incredible evidence. That was tied together by Hannah Thompson. By the time we got to trial Hannah had a full version of events of John giving a full confession to her about how he did it. That was version number 11 of events. I don't know anything about her murder. And that had been going on for several years.

1:20:29In those eight years you've had now 11 opportunities to come up for this court and solve the truth. Yes. And today's that day? Yes. You've lied to your friend and your family? Yes. And you can't lie. Yes. I don't know how you parse out. What part of her statement is the truth? Her story was constantly changing and so she alone by herself in a vacuum is not credible enough to try an entire case. But we were able to corroborate every single little step of her story. It's just a journal that John kept. She was one of the reasons why the diary was actually present in the trial. She wrote in that diary. She was able to identify that John's handwriting was in the diary. And the keynote page 39 is that John and Bob are done. Yes. Somehow, have you understand why I did it? That we're all as evil to me.

1:21:30Sorry that I had to do that. But there was no other way for me. I don't know that I would categorize anything in there as a confession. John is talking to his writing and letter to his daughter. He's not confessing and he's not apologizing for killing Katie. He's apologizing for running and not being there for his daughter and missing out on her growing up years. So everyone is wondering, is John going to take the stand in his own defense? He's just, I will not describe it. After three days of testimony? I'm going to be on a race for a lot of clues and all of us lawyers about ready-miles and stuff. Thank you, Your Honor. May it please the court. You don't have to take Hannah Thompson's word for it. You don't have to take investigator more craft, investigator scofield, or even my word for it because you can take his words for it. I did it. We're here because of tunnel vision. It became obvious that he was going to be the only person that law enforcement investigated. Then fear got the best of him and he decided to take his chances on the road.

1:22:33Was John a perfect husband? Absolutely not. Absolutely not. But does being a terrible husband make you guilty of murder? No. After just hours of deliberations, the verdict is in. Breaking news right now out of Greenville County, the jury just reaching a verdict. The jury deliberated for about five hours today, the verdict did come back. I was just watching the judge because I am hard of hearing. Paulman, I understand that you agreed to be correct. Yes, Your Honor. I wanted to see his lips when he said what he said. As to the charge of murder, we the jury announced when finally defended John Teak about love-out. Guilped him. I'd even grabbed my husband and I said, Guilped him? Just to make sure I heard it right, you know. And I couldn't believe it. I just started crying like crazy and couldn't stop. Because that's when I guess all the emotion and the stress I've been going through, it just finally broke through.

1:23:33He besinanced to life in prison for the murder. In South Carolina, since 96, life means life. It's a pound box life as we call it. It means you don't get out unless you're in a pound box. No freedoms. Hopefully no happiness. If we can't get the pain and suffering, he calls my sister. At least he doesn't get anything else either. A second suspect was John Blowbell's teenage girlfriend. She is now 25 and charged with obstruction of justice and accessory after the fact. Hannah Thompson was looking at trial at 50 years in prison. John's been convicted of murder, so what about Hannah Thompson? Blowbell's girlfriend, Hannah Thompson, who was 17 at the time of the crime, faces lesser charges in this case.

1:24:34Hannah Thompson was looking at 50 years in prison. By the time we get to sentencing, though, three of the five charges against Hannah have been dropped. So now she's facing a potential of 20 years in prison. She pled guilty to obstruction of justice and misprison of a felony. The judge that presided over her plea got to see the value of her information that she provided, and ultimately sentenced her to a probationary sentence instead of active time. She's scarred for life because of this, and she knew she's manipulated. She participated, she should have done some time. This hard to accept and I can't recognize that, but you have to decide what's important for the conviction of the person that actually did the killing. John Blowbell will never get out of jail, and a lot of that was due to the testimony of Hannah Thompson tying it together. As much justice as we got with John, we got the total opposite of Hannah.

1:25:34And so she's living for his aburgent to come and go and do what she wants now. And that's just wrong to me. She knew what he was doing, she knew his plans, she helped him make sure he had a alibi, a slap on a wrist and a pat on the back. That's what she got. After Katie's death, her mother patty brought flowers to the place where she was murdered, that abandoned farmhouse. Then we went down to where they found Katie. Our laid roses down there. He put her there because he was taking out the trash. My daughter's not trash. She was a beautiful soul who did not deserve this. When she had kids, when she had had someone who truly loved her, what was she have been doing in this moment?

1:26:38We've got necklaces that have a little piece of her, so she just take her everywhere we go. After she passed, I got her signature on my wrist from a birthday card and the word parabode. It comes from a book series we liked and it meant two warriors who were supposed to fight through life together. Katie had my name saved as that in her phone when she died. Nobody's ever heard this letter. She wrote this when she was 17. Dearest Crystal, just remember I love you. Promise me you'll always remember me, how I can never be mean to someone without feeling guilty, how I always have to say thank you or I'll feel bad. Remember me as I sang with you on the bus, not caring who hears or if we were in tune.

1:27:41Oh the good times we have, I really hope we have more but if we don't remember the ones we did have. Always and forever, Katie. She was the sister I never got to have. I would give anything just to have her back. Her name, Catherine, I made pure innocent and that's what she was. She was pure and she was innocent. Along with her family, Katie continues to be remembered by her colleagues at that pet smart where she worked. In fact, they've installed a memorial to her that even includes a picture of her favorite animal, a sea turtle. As for Katie's killer, her estranged husband John Blavelt, he's appealing his conviction. That's our program for tonight. Thanks so much for watching. I'm Deborah Roberts. And I'm David Neur from all of us here at 2020 in ABC News. Good night.

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