Cati Blauvelt: Death of a Soldier’s Wife

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Speaker 3 Simpsonville is a tight-knit community.

Speaker 3 It's got that small town southern charm.

Speaker 3 This is a place where you bake a cake and take it to your neighbor next door.

Speaker 5 It was a great place to be a police officer, and murders and serious assaults were a few and far between.

Speaker 6 My name is Patty Piver, and Katie Blauveldt is my daughter.

Speaker 6 Katie was 5'1. She was a teeny little thing.
She was just a free spirit.

Speaker 6 She made friends so easily. She loved animals.
That was her biggest thing. She loved animals.

Speaker 7 She touched a lot of people's lives.

Speaker 8 She did.

Speaker 4 John Blauveldt was working over there at the Armed Forces Center.

Speaker 4 He was a recruiter for the military.

Speaker 3 He was someone that was respected by the community.

Speaker 6 Somebody's in the military, you can rely on them. And I think she wanted that, somebody stable and dependable.

Speaker 4 John was a catch for Katie.

Speaker 3 She married him, was happy, wanted to have kids, and get their life started.

Speaker 9 They were moving into their new house, so everything was really cool.

Speaker 8 What did John and Katie seem like as a couple to you?

Speaker 9 At first, they were really great, honestly.

Speaker 3 They had a little honeymoon after they got married, and once they got back, things were no longer as good as they were.

Speaker 6 It seemed like ever since then, just everything went downhill.

Speaker 3 Their marriage had fallen apart.

Speaker 3 Hannah Thompson and John were hanging out a lot.

Speaker 4 He started dating Hannah Thompson, who I believe was 17.

Speaker 8 And was Hannah in love with him?

Speaker 9 100%.

Speaker 6 She loved John and she wanted to be with him and Katie was a problem for her.

Speaker 5 And if they got Katie out of the way, she could have John to herself.

Speaker 3 On October 24th of 2016, Katie Blavelt went missing.

Speaker 8 She disappeared.

Speaker 10 She disappeared.

Speaker 8 Off the face of the earth. Yes.

Speaker 6 And now nobody could get in touch with her. Her phone's cut off.
We don't know what's going on.

Speaker 5 Shortly after midnight, I got a phone call from our chief of police at the time, and he advised me that they had found a body at an abandoned house.

Speaker 5 Very dilapidated house.

Speaker 8 How had she died?

Speaker 5 She'd been stabbed in the neck.

Speaker 6 John did it. I know John did it.

Speaker 9 Oh, yeah, I immediately thought John.

Speaker 4 We did our first interview with him

Speaker 4 several days after her body was located.

Speaker 5 I'm just going to ask you point point blank. Did you kill Katie?

Speaker 11 No.

Speaker 11 Do you know who killed her? No.

Speaker 4 Shortly after that interview is when he fled the state.

Speaker 3 John disappears and he is on the run.

Speaker 8 John Blauvell goes on the run. Where's Hannah?

Speaker 4 With him.

Speaker 5 I contacted the United States Marshals. This is their bread and butter, what they do best.

Speaker 12 I'm a Deputy U.S. Marshal.
We go after fugitives, violent offenses.

Speaker 8 He's been trained on how to defend himself.

Speaker 8 He's been trained on how to kill. Does that make him a unique fugitive?

Speaker 12 It does. So we don't know where he's going to go.
We don't know what he could be doing next.

Speaker 8 And when you heard that he was on the run, what'd you think?

Speaker 9 I was like, oh my god, you're never going to find him.

Speaker 13 Peter Van Sand reports Katie Blauveldt: the death of a soldier's wife.

Speaker 8 In the soft South Carolina night in the city of Simpsonville, Katie Blauveldt was missing. It had been two fearful days for her mom, Patty Piver.

Speaker 6 I just was terrified that something was going to happen to her.

Speaker 8 Then, past midnight, October 26, 2016, investigators Cheryl Schofield and Keith Moorcraft were dispatched dispatched to the scene.

Speaker 8 Katie's mangled body had been found in an abandoned farmhouse, 22 years old. A knife blade left in her body.

Speaker 5 There was a rectangular concrete box kind of in the center of the basement. We found Katie's body inside of that box.

Speaker 4 Her body had basically been folded into this box. It was a picture of what you would see in a horror movie.

Speaker 8 Katie's mom was overwhelmed.

Speaker 6 I was totally empty inside.

Speaker 6 She did not deserve to be murdered.

Speaker 8 Katie's stepsister, Jennifer Piver.

Speaker 11 I just prayed and cried and

Speaker 14 just sick.

Speaker 11 Just sick.

Speaker 8 Moorcraft and another investigator went to tell John Blauveldt his wife's body had been found.

Speaker 5 We went to make the death notification.

Speaker 11 I'm so sorry if we lost.

Speaker 8 At first, Blavelt appeared distressed.

Speaker 8 But as the conversation progressed, his demeanor changed.

Speaker 5 Didn't ask normal questions such as, where did you find her? How did she die?

Speaker 8 He wasn't shocked by the news.

Speaker 5 He didn't seem to be at all.

Speaker 8 What did that suggest to you?

Speaker 5 That he knew how she had died. He knew where her body was.

Speaker 8 John Blavelt did have one question, but it wasn't about Katie.

Speaker 11 Am I being charged with the crime? Because he's recording me and I'm not comfortable with that. You're not being charged, okay, with the crime right now.

Speaker 8 Right away, you sensed this could be our guy.

Speaker 5 I was pretty confident at the time.

Speaker 8 But they couldn't arrest him on a feeling. First, Moorcraft and Schofield had evidence to gather and a case to build.

Speaker 8 But just as they got started, John Bloveldt took to the road, traveling with him Hannah Thompson, his new girlfriend, all of 17. How concerned were you about Hannah's safety?

Speaker 4 If he was willing to kill his own wife, there's no telling what kind of danger Hannah Thompson would have been in by fleeing with him.

Speaker 8 But John Blovelt hadn't always been considered threatening. Back in 2014, in this quiet city of some 20,000, he was a welcome part of the community.
the larger-than-life public face of the U.S. Army.

Speaker 8 A person of principle, someone willing to sacrifice for his country's.

Speaker 8 These are all admirable traits, right?

Speaker 11 Exactly.

Speaker 8 It was then that John met Katie, just yards from his recruiting office, at this sub shop where she worked. Katie turned 20.
John was 26. They started dating.

Speaker 6 And they just hit it off. She's lovable, caring, funny.
Who wouldn't fall in love with her?

Speaker 8 In the summer of 2015, recruiter John Blauveldt Blauveldt convinced Katie to enlist. But after just two months, a health issue prevented her from finishing her training.

Speaker 6 They found a problem with her spine. She got a medical discharge out of the Army.

Speaker 8 While Katie's military hopes were dashed, John told friends he had found his calling.

Speaker 5 He loved his military career. That's one thing we learned is that his career was everything to him.

Speaker 8 With his war stories about his deployments in Iraq, his sharp uniform decorated with service ribbons, John impressed local teenagers.

Speaker 9 Like, to me, like, he had all his ducks in a row.

Speaker 8 Almost like a role model, right?

Speaker 9 Almost like a role model. More than like, it was definitely like a role model.

Speaker 8 Allie Somerville, a close friend of Katie, says she often ate lunch with John at his recruiting booth in her school. She adds he also sometimes showed up.
at local hangouts.

Speaker 12 I thought he was cool.

Speaker 8 He was very interested in your life, what you were up to and things.

Speaker 9 Yeah, he made sure I was okay.

Speaker 8 but as he began dating katie

Speaker 8 her family was never half sure about john blauvelt i don't think i ever had a meaningful conversation with him did he seem interested in you and family no not at all

Speaker 8 then after about a year and seemingly out of the blue katie surprised her family with an alarming announcement.

Speaker 6 She says, oh, by the way, she said, me and y'all got married today.

Speaker 6 I'm in shock. She said, Oh, we've got married at courthouse.

Speaker 6 They went on the honeymoon, but within two months, that honeymoon was over.

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Speaker 8 Staff Sergeant John Bloveldt and his new bride were putting down roots in the community. Katie had taken a job at the local Pet Smart.

Speaker 6 Yeah, she's going to love that.

Speaker 8 And she did. And she was passionate about it.

Speaker 11 She was animals.

Speaker 8 This could be a career for her. As for John, he already owned this four-bedroom home in Fountain Inn, right next to Simpsonville, where investigator Cheryl Schofield worked.

Speaker 4 Once they got married, this is the house that they were supposed to move into and have a family.

Speaker 15 She wanted a family. She wanted to have kids.

Speaker 8 Katie moved in, and soon the house was crowded with kids, but not the kind Katie imagined.

Speaker 4 Unfortunately, the only kids that were here were the teenagers that John Blava invited.

Speaker 8 John had invited Katie's niece to stay with them, and later, Hannah Thompson and Allie Somerville crashed there too.

Speaker 8 Allie says it became a party destination for kids from their high school, where John often worked as an Army recruiter.

Speaker 9 We were just smoking weed all day, every day.

Speaker 8 And how old were you then?

Speaker 9 16.

Speaker 8 And Allie claimed it wasn't just weed that was the draw. She said at times there was booze, acid, and cocaine.
This is with the U.S. Army recruiter, right? U.S.

Speaker 18 Army recruiter letting us party at his house.

Speaker 9 Like, this is awesome.

Speaker 8 Patty says it wasn't long before Katie grew frustrated. with all of the partying and told John it had to stop.
Her dream house house turned into a party house.

Speaker 11 Right.

Speaker 8 And that's the last thing your sister wanted, right?

Speaker 15 Absolutely.

Speaker 8 As Katie and Bloveld drifted, Hannah Thompson was there to fuel the fire.

Speaker 4 Hannah absolutely despised Katie.

Speaker 8 And what was the nature of Hannah's relationship with John as time went on?

Speaker 4 Hannah became John's puppy. Anytime that John would tell her to do something, she would do it.

Speaker 8 It was all too much for Katie. According to police records, records, after being married less than three months, Katie moved out.
Captain Schofield says John and Hannah wasted no time.

Speaker 4 She moved into John Blauveldt's bedroom in this house when Katie moved out.

Speaker 9 Whoa, that's creepy. Like you're in your late 20s and she's 17, dude.
Like you're not supposed to be doing stuff like this.

Speaker 8 Hannah's father went to the police and told them he hadn't seen his daughter for two weeks.

Speaker 8 That night, on February 26th, 2016, cops showed up at john blavelt's house when they arrive what happens um they try to make contact with john and john refused to come outside

Speaker 8 allie somerville was inside the house with john and some other minors when police arrived and john was like lock the door nobody go outside what were they saying like John Blavelt like come out of the house with the hands up.

Speaker 8 But you must have been a little terrified, were you not? Terrified. These are people with weapons.
Were weapons out?

Speaker 9 Oh, yeah, there were weapons on and everything.

Speaker 8 A veteran of the Iraq War,

Speaker 8 and they're having to pull their guns to get him out of the house. Yes.
It's kind of extraordinary, isn't it?

Speaker 4 Yes, very much so.

Speaker 8 John eventually opened the door and was questioned by police. On February 27th, 2016, he was arrested and charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor.

Speaker 8 His soldier's image replaced with a mugshot.

Speaker 6 He's the exact opposite of what everybody thought he was. Exact opposite.

Speaker 8 And soon, Bloveldt's troubles would get even worse. Police talked to Katie the day Bloveldt was arrested.
She told them about a more troubling incident she says happened a month earlier.

Speaker 5 There had been a domestic violence incident where John allegedly pointed a gun at Katie.

Speaker 8 Pulls out a gun, points it at her head.

Speaker 11 Yep. Says what?

Speaker 15 That he was going to kill her and also threaten the family.

Speaker 8 Threaten the family, what do you mean? To shoot.

Speaker 15 Threatened to kill the family.

Speaker 5 Fountain in Police Department investigated the matter and ended up charging him with domestic violence.

Speaker 8 A restraining order was issued preventing Bloveldt and Katie from seeing each other.

Speaker 15 He blamed her for ruining his life because there was obviously going to be a consequence from the military.

Speaker 8 That consequence came

Speaker 8 just a few days later when the Department of the Army cut John's pay and suspended him from the recruiting duty that defined him.

Speaker 6 You can't do this and be a military recruiter.

Speaker 8 The Army reassigned him to a small back office and began an investigation that might lead to his dismissal.

Speaker 9 He was like, I can't be out in the field like on the front lines. I'm not recruiting people for the Army.

Speaker 9 Now I'm sitting behind a desk. And that's what made him so mad.

Speaker 8 Katie quickly moved on from her short, disastrous marriage and told her mother she planned to divorce John. Your daughter moves out.
Does she move back with you?

Speaker 5 Yeah.

Speaker 8 But despite the restraining order, Katie and John still had some contact, including visits to the house she had shared with John.

Speaker 6 The only reason she would go back over there was because she had her dog over there, Jupiter. For some reason, I just was terrified that something was going to happen to her.

Speaker 8 As for Blovelt, Blovelt, the military career he cherished was in tatters. And according to Allie Somerville, he planned to get revenge.
Did he ever say anything about harming Katie?

Speaker 11 Yes.

Speaker 9 He did say multiple times that he was going to kill Katie. He said that she ruined his military career.
That's all he's ever wanted to do in life.

Speaker 8 You destroy my career. I'm going to destroy you.

Speaker 5 Yeah.

Speaker 8 Do you think he'd really go through with it?

Speaker 9 No, never.

Speaker 4 He was very vocal on the fact that he wanted Katie dead. He wanted Katie gone.

Speaker 8 Police say Katie Bloveldt was last seen alive on October 24th, 2016.

Speaker 8 at her job at PetSmart.

Speaker 8 But come morning in Simpsonville,

Speaker 8 no one had heard from her. Calls to her went to voicemail.
Her mother reported her missing.

Speaker 8 Did she tell the officers she spoke with that she was suspicious of John Bloveldt? She did.

Speaker 8 The desperate search and the painful waiting began.

Speaker 6 I didn't think she was alive anymore.

Speaker 15 It was terrifying.

Speaker 3 It's the worst feeling.

Speaker 15 You feel helpless.

Speaker 8 But after midnight, two of Katie's friends followed a hunch that sent them deep in the woods to the old abandoned farmhouse.

Speaker 4 Teenagers would go there and they would party, they would drink, they would smoke marijuana.

Speaker 8 Katie and John were known to have gone there too.

Speaker 8 The friends made their way to the basement. They were horrified by what they found.
One of them called 911.

Speaker 19 911, what's the location of your emergency?

Speaker 11 We found my friend Katie dead in.

Speaker 19 Okay. Okay.
Are you saying she's dead in the house?

Speaker 11 Yes, ma'am.

Speaker 12 Is she cold?

Speaker 11 She's very pale, and there was no response.

Speaker 8 Katie Blauveldt's body had been stuffed into that cold concrete box.

Speaker 7 You believe Katie was killed outside the house and brought in.

Speaker 8 Yes.

Speaker 4 And we believe that she was actually killed on the gravel driveway and then drug on her face through that window.

Speaker 8 And if she's screaming, there's no one to hear.

Speaker 4 You wouldn't hear it from that house where that house was located.

Speaker 8 And you live with that every day?

Speaker 5 Every day.

Speaker 8 Doesn't get easier, does it?

Speaker 6 No.

Speaker 8 It was October 26, 2016. Investigators made that official death notification visit to Blovelt.

Speaker 8 They got their first sense of the resentment he held towards Katie.

Speaker 7 She flipped my life upside down.

Speaker 8 Moorcraft and Schofield wanted more information from Bloveldt. And so, just a week later, they spoke with him.

Speaker 11 Anything you say can't be used against you in court.

Speaker 4 Didn't seem to really care that she was gone, let alone had been murdered.

Speaker 11 I lost a friend.

Speaker 11 Maybe not the best wife, but I lost a friend.

Speaker 8 He told them he visited Katie at the funeral home.

Speaker 11 Did you buy yourself? Yeah, well, I took Hannah with me.

Speaker 8 Blauvelt said he hadn't seen Katie in months. Their marriage had been a non-stop argument.

Speaker 11 What kind of stuff are y'all arguing about? Um, everything.

Speaker 11 Just normal, just normal stuff.

Speaker 5 He uh, he seemed very arrogant, cocky, narcissistic.

Speaker 8 Then the cop fired point blank that question.

Speaker 11 Did you kill Katie? No.

Speaker 11 Do you know who killed her? No.

Speaker 8 Sitting across talking to this man, what are you sensing in John Bloveldt?

Speaker 4 That he very much is the one who more than likely committed this murder.

Speaker 5 Like he was put off, like we were taking up his time. That he was smarter than we were, and that he was going to get away with this.

Speaker 8 Next up,

Speaker 8 Hannah Thompson.

Speaker 20 I don't know anything about her murder.

Speaker 11 You do. I don't.
You do.

Speaker 8 Investigators confront Hannah, sensing she must know something.

Speaker 21 Tell us exactly what happened to Katie.

Speaker 20 I really don't know.

Speaker 8 And while they suspected Hannah might know something,

Speaker 8 they did not know exactly what.

Speaker 11 I can tell you already you're lying to me. Okay?

Speaker 11 You do not want to get wrapped up in catching a murder charge.

Speaker 11 You're 17 years old. You have your entire life ahead of you.

Speaker 11 You may love John, and you may think you two are going to get married and walk down the yellow brick road.

Speaker 5 Okay?

Speaker 11 But no man and no woman is worth going to prison for.

Speaker 11 Do you agree? Yes, sir.

Speaker 4 If you know something and you're trying to cover up for it, you're gonna go down with the person who did this to her

Speaker 21 for knowing anything, whether it was beforehand or after the fact, you're gonna go down with them.

Speaker 8 Investigators showed Hannah an autopsy photo of Katie.

Speaker 11 Look at her. She's right here.
I don't want to look at her.

Speaker 13 That's your friend.

Speaker 20 I don't want to do this anymore.

Speaker 5 Don't want to do what?

Speaker 11 Don't want to help us find out who killed her?

Speaker 11 Can I please leave?

Speaker 21 Can I please leave? Hannah, this is a friend of yours.

Speaker 11 I'm trying to do it. I want to help, but she wasn't listening.

Speaker 8 With no help from Hannah, police hands were tied.

Speaker 5 We had to let him go.

Speaker 8 Potential hard evidence had to be processed. including Bloveldt's cell phone records and his DNA.

Speaker 4 It's very aggravating because we know we're sitting across from the person who killed his wife. And shortly after that interview is when he fled the state.

Speaker 5 He had taken this red GMC Yukon and he was gone. Heroes.

Speaker 8 John Blauveldt, trained in survival and combat, suddenly loose

Speaker 8 on the open road.

Speaker 6 I didn't think they were ever going to find him. He just disappeared off the face of the map.

Speaker 8 And so did Hannah Thompson. Police believed she was with Bloveldt.

Speaker 8 Prosecutor Kinley Abey would begin building the case with the chilling evidence she says he left behind.

Speaker 18 First, what I want to kind of show you is, you know, the knife that was found in Katie's neck. And so what you can see here is this x-ray that the actual knife blade broke off inside of Katie.

Speaker 11 What you're holding there is what I'm seeing on this.

Speaker 18 Exactly, matches exactly right there. That's what was found and lodged in her neck.
And that's how she died.

Speaker 8 Simpsonville police knew they needed help to find John Blauvelt.

Speaker 5 I contacted the United States Marshals.

Speaker 12 The investigation is: let's find him, let's find him, let's find him.

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Speaker 8 On November 18th, 2016,

Speaker 8 John Bloveldt, still on the run, was charged with Katie's murder.

Speaker 8 What kind of fugitive are you dealing with?

Speaker 11 A cocky one.

Speaker 12 John thought we weren't ever going to find him.

Speaker 8 U.S. Marshal Will Cook,

Speaker 8 based near Simpsonville, would become the point person in the hunt for Bloveldt, who had been skilled at evasion.

Speaker 12 He had training from the Army that the government provided him to avoid you guys.

Speaker 7 Avoid us.

Speaker 12 And he was good at it.

Speaker 8 Investigators remained uncertain about Hannah Thompson's involvement in the murder, if any.

Speaker 8 But they knew for sure she was traveling with Blauveldt.

Speaker 8 They uncovered photos of Blauveldt and Thompson shopping and Blauveldt at an ATM.

Speaker 8 His red Yukon truck passing through Texas and New Mexico heading west.

Speaker 8 Were you able to get hits on where this vehicle was from time to time?

Speaker 12 So there were a couple of license plate reader hits.

Speaker 8 But by the time police were able to respond, Blau Velt was gone.

Speaker 12 In a game like this,

Speaker 12 all the seconds count.

Speaker 8 Then, after a month, investigators caught a break. Hannah Thompson made contact with her family from Eugene, Oregon.
She wanted to come home to Simpsonville.

Speaker 8 Cheryl Schofield couldn't wait to talk to her. We are very glad that you're back and that you're safe and that nothing bad happened to you.

Speaker 8 Hannah's story was that John had left her in Eugene, just up and walked away.

Speaker 6 Did you ever see John again?

Speaker 8 And Hannah added, she had no idea where John was headed, but apparently she had enough of life on the run.

Speaker 12 She thought it was going to be a fairy tale. You know, they were going to live on the lamb and make things happen.
But after a few weeks of that, reality set in.

Speaker 8 Any romantic notion Hannah may have had was derailed when John got the Yukon stuck in the mud in the Pacific Northwest. Couldn't get out.

Speaker 12 Could not get out.

Speaker 12 He said that we hike.

Speaker 19 Mid hike was more off the mountain, basically.

Speaker 12 Miles and miles.

Speaker 8 The couple was reduced to panhandling for change.

Speaker 8 And they used that for food?

Speaker 12 Sustainment.

Speaker 8 Hannah says while on the road, Blauveldt confessed, sharing the awful details of the killing.

Speaker 9 He told me that

Speaker 9 the last thing she said was that if he let her go, that she wouldn't call the police.

Speaker 9 Where were they, Hannah?

Speaker 8 An adult can psychologically take advantage of a child. Do you believe in a way that's what was going on between John and Hannah?

Speaker 5 Absolutely.

Speaker 24 And he was just crying and screaming and like, he was like saying that he did all that stuff for me, like... did all that stuff like kill katie like he was like

Speaker 24 i did that for you, and like all that kind of stuff, like trying to make me feel like it was my fault.

Speaker 8 Hannah told conflicting stories about her involvement, eventually saying she dropped Blaveld off by PetSmart the day Katie disappeared, and then left.

Speaker 8 Hannah says she did not know he planned to kill Katie, but later that day, he asked her to help hide Katie's car. She also admitted she had lied in her first interview just days after Katie's murder.

Speaker 8 She told me that if I lied to the police, that he would keep me safe.

Speaker 8 Investigators did not charge Hannah right away because they needed her.

Speaker 5 We had a long-term goal of A, finding John, B, prosecuting him. And she was the key to a lot of that.
We're still hunting for John. Okay.

Speaker 8 They hoped she might lead them to Bloveldt.

Speaker 8 Has John contacted you by Facebook at all since you separated? Or has contacted you by any means at all?

Speaker 21 Please don't keep it a secret

Speaker 14 from us.

Speaker 14 Okay?

Speaker 8 But if Hannah knew where John was, she wasn't ready to tell them. I still

Speaker 8 care about him.

Speaker 8 Even though he did something like really bad.

Speaker 8 And part of me does, but

Speaker 8 part of me just keeps thinking about how he used to be.

Speaker 8 Bloveldt was still out there.

Speaker 8 Months turned into years. Lives changed.

Speaker 12 He's beating us. And we don't like to lose.

Speaker 8 It's driving you crazy.

Speaker 12 It's driving us crazy.

Speaker 8 Was it frustrating that you retired with this case still out there?

Speaker 5 It was very frustrating. And it was the only case that I still had that was open.

Speaker 8 Those who knew Bloveldt thought justice for Katie might never come.

Speaker 9 John is the type of person that if somebody was going to get away with it, it would be John.

Speaker 6 I never really thought that they would get him.

Speaker 8 The cops in Simpsonville interviewed Hannah repeatedly over the years. Then in 2022, six years after Katie's murder, Hannah finally revealed a secret.

Speaker 8 She had been in regular contact with Blovelt for years.

Speaker 20 We have been talking the whole time.

Speaker 20 Like at first we were talking every single day multiple times like for hours a day did anybody know you were still talking to them

Speaker 20 hannah told investigators how they communicated at the very beginning we were communicating on facebook and messenger and then after that we were talking on snapchat

Speaker 8 she said their conversations ended in 2019.

Speaker 8 Authorities believe Hannah had matured with time and distance away from John. She told them she realized what she had done was wrong and gradually offered more leads.

Speaker 8 John might still be in Oregon, and she added, John told her he had been living with another woman for years.

Speaker 21 Because honestly, she's in danger, too.

Speaker 12 Based on some of the information that Hannah gave us, zoned us in on John's new girlfriend and Medford, Oregon.

Speaker 8 Medford, a small city in the northwest. Investigators jumped on the lead and discovered a phone number that John had used to text a mystery woman.
And this sounds tantalizing, isn't it?

Speaker 12 Very tantalizing.

Speaker 8 Marshal Chris Tamayo is Will Cook's colleague in the Northwest. His team got an address that corresponded with the mystery woman's house.
He took us to the scene.

Speaker 12 They started to stake out the house, stake out the house, and they followed a subject out, a male, that appeared to match our description.

Speaker 8 But six years after John allegedly murdered Katie, how could investigators be certain they had their man?

Speaker 12 John has some unique tattoos.

Speaker 8 Can you show me?

Speaker 12 So this is a still shot from one of John's initial interviews with Simpsonville police.

Speaker 8 The tattoo of a pirate.

Speaker 8 It was a quiet morning in Medford.

Speaker 25 As As I'm starting to pull through this neighborhood, my heart is racing.

Speaker 8 The marshals made their move.

Speaker 25 That's the house right there.

Speaker 8 Now, did you see any activity?

Speaker 25 We did see him come out.

Speaker 12 He's just coming out, shirtless.

Speaker 8 But was it for sure John Blauvelt?

Speaker 8 A pirate told the tale.

Speaker 5 I could see his pirate tattoo.

Speaker 12 Right, it's about to happen.

Speaker 11 It is.

Speaker 8 On July 20th, 2022, some six years after Katie's death,

Speaker 8 Chris Tamayo joined marshals and other law enforcement for the takedown of the man they believed killed her.

Speaker 12 John's about three quarters of away down the driveway

Speaker 12 and the guys start going right at him, giving him commands. Police, show us your hands, get down on the ground.

Speaker 8 And what does he do?

Speaker 12 His eyes got wide, pure shock,

Speaker 12 and he drops down to the ground fast.

Speaker 8 John Glauvelt under arrest. He's getting handcuffed.

Speaker 2 Handcuffs.

Speaker 8 But the suspect told the marshals they had the wrong man.

Speaker 12 He said, I'm Ben Klein. He said, no, you're not.
And he's stuck with Ben Klein.

Speaker 8 Ben Klein?

Speaker 12 We have a device that allows us to mobile print someone in the field.

Speaker 8 Fingerprint.

Speaker 12 Fingerprints.

Speaker 8 It took less than five minutes for Ben to become John.

Speaker 12 Your fingerprints show that you are John Blavelle. You are wanted out of South Carolina.

Speaker 8 He knew it was over.

Speaker 12 He knew it was over.

Speaker 8 When the marshals went inside the house, they realized the raid could have taken a fatal turn.

Speaker 12 There was a firearm, a handgun sitting right on the nightstand.

Speaker 8 And what did that tell you?

Speaker 12 That was an indication to us that he probably would have given a fight.

Speaker 8 All of it was apparently news to the woman Bloveldt was living with when she returned to the house later that day.

Speaker 12 Pure shock.

Speaker 2 She was visibly shaking, crying, scared.

Speaker 8 Tamayo recorded audio with her at the scene.

Speaker 12 So he's being arrested on charges out of South Carolina. For what? For murder.

Speaker 1 Are you serious? Yeah. I can't believe it.

Speaker 1 This is like a fing nightmare. I'm sorry.

Speaker 8 Lavelt's girlfriend told the marshals she had no idea who he really was.

Speaker 8 We've been together for like six years.

Speaker 1 He would do random odd jobs. He was basically here watching my cats and my dog all the time.

Speaker 12 She loved him. She loved him.

Speaker 8 The news hit Simpsonville like thunder.

Speaker 6 I was over the moon just freaking. It was just, that was such a great day.

Speaker 4 And I was completely elated.

Speaker 8 John Bloveldt would go cross-country again, this time handcuffed, brought back to a South Carolina jail to await trial.

Speaker 8 Just three months later, Hannah Thompson would be charged with five felonies, including obstruction of justice and accessory after the fact.

Speaker 8 She would plead not guilty and be released on bail.

Speaker 8 Prosecutor Kinley Abe, who began putting the case against Blauveldt together a few months after Katie was killed, would team with John Meadows, preparing the case for trial, starting with that blade investigators found in Katie's neck.

Speaker 13 Doesn't get any worse than that, and that's what she died from.

Speaker 18 And you can actually see through the collar of the shirt where that knife blade entered. And you can see it right there.
Yeah, right into her neck.

Speaker 8 They focused on that abandoned farmhouse where kids once partied, where they found Katie.

Speaker 18 They would throw their bottles, their empty beer cans, and that's exactly where he discarded Katie's body.

Speaker 8 So do you think John was making a statement by placing her body

Speaker 8 in this bin that normally you put trash?

Speaker 10 Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 8 Prosecutors say Blo Velt blamed Katie for the abrupt end of his military career.

Speaker 18 It's all Katie's fault.

Speaker 8 He's not responsible for what he did. He's blaming his wife.

Speaker 18 Yes.

Speaker 8 And there were John Blauveldt's own words. While on the run, he kept a journal that the marshals found.
Like a diary, correct? Correct. And it held a damning entry.

Speaker 12 So at the end, it says boldly,

Speaker 8 I did it.

Speaker 8 And for you, that's what?

Speaker 12 That's evidence and proof that he murdered Katie.

Speaker 8 In September 2024, eight years after Katie's death, John Blauveldt went on trial for murder. Patty Piver described the child she adored.

Speaker 11 She was so much mum.

Speaker 11 I mean, everybody loved her.

Speaker 8 Allie Somerville stared at the man she once called a role model.

Speaker 9 He looked like a stone-cold killer to me.

Speaker 8 The prosecution's key witness was Hannah Thompson. She would admit to helping Bloveldt the day Katie died.

Speaker 5 You love John Bloveldt, didn't you?

Speaker 11 Yes. You helped him hide Katie's car after he killed her.

Speaker 14 Yes.

Speaker 11 You didn't know he killed her then?

Speaker 11 No.

Speaker 9 But you did help him. Yes.

Speaker 8 And prosecutors played this grainy video. Hannah says it shows John Bloveldt getting out of Katie's car and into his.

Speaker 8 Hannah Hannah was at the wheel of his Prius.

Speaker 14 Yes.

Speaker 11 In those cars?

Speaker 14 In the Prius, yes.

Speaker 8 Once on the run, she says he told her the details of the murder.

Speaker 14 He had told me that he killed her.

Speaker 11 He told me that he stabbed her

Speaker 11 in the neck.

Speaker 14 He said

Speaker 14 that he threw her phone into water that was on the ground in the abandoned abandoned house.

Speaker 11 And

Speaker 14 he said that he had to cover up her blood with dirt.

Speaker 8 But Law Veldt's defense team, Paul Neely and Anna Walker, made Hannah admit that her story changed over the years.

Speaker 26 You've lied to your friends and your family.

Speaker 14 Yes.

Speaker 26 And you kept lying.

Speaker 14 Yes.

Speaker 8 Then the defense zeroed in on the lack of DNA evidence at the scene. Was there any DNA that tied John Blofeld to this murder?

Speaker 12 No.

Speaker 6 There was no DNA match to John Blauveldt.

Speaker 8 And what about John Blaufeldt's journal, in which he wrote, I did it. His lawyers told 48 hours much of it was a fantasy.

Speaker 10 A lot of this journal is filled with these fictional stories of observations.

Speaker 10 It's filled with poems, drawings, all kinds of things.

Speaker 8 As for Hannah Thompson.

Speaker 18 You heard she has five pending charges for the information she ultimately provided to law enforcement.

Speaker 8 The prosecution pointed to the importance of her testimony.

Speaker 18 She is facing 55

Speaker 18 years

Speaker 18 in jail upon conviction for those crimes. And she got up here with no deal.
State didn't offer her a single thing.

Speaker 18 No agreement to dismiss her charges, no cooperation agreement, no nudge, nudge, wink, wink, none of it.

Speaker 18 She got up here and testified, and she told you because she thought it was the right thing to do.

Speaker 4 She did a great job going up there and telling the truth and giving the key details of what John had told her, what he had done to Katie.

Speaker 8 The trial lasted four days. The jury was out for some five hours.

Speaker 26 As to the charge of murder, we, the jury, unanimously find the defendant, John Keith LaVelt, guilty.

Speaker 27 John Blauveldt has been found guilty for the murder of his estranged wife, Katie Boyder-Blauveldt.

Speaker 8 Taylor Farmer covered the case for WSPA.

Speaker 3 It was very emotional in the courtroom, kind of quiet, but you could tell Katie's family was very emotional.

Speaker 6 As soon as the jurors got out, I just started crying.

Speaker 8 John Blauveldt was sentenced to life in prison without parole.

Speaker 6 He's a monster.

Speaker 28 She was helpless.

Speaker 8 And what did the family think about Hannah Thompson, who allegedly covered for Bloveldt for so long?

Speaker 15 I would think she was a stupid 17-year-old.

Speaker 15 Until at trial, when I heard how long she had been in touch with him,

Speaker 15 you are not willing at that time to turn him in.

Speaker 15 I have hard feelings about that. It's unfathomable.

Speaker 8 What would you say to your sister today if you could?

Speaker 11 That I'm sorry. That I love her.
And that I think she was brave.

Speaker 13 Hannah Thompson's trial date is still pending. John Blauveldt is appealing his conviction.

Speaker 13 If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic violence, the National Domestic Violence Hotline can be reached at 1-800-799-7233 or text START to 88-788.

Speaker 16 Join me Tuesday for post-mortem from 48 Hours, where we'll dive even deeper into today's episode and answer your questions about the case.

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