Within the mushy South Carolina evening, within the metropolis of Simpsonville, Cati Blauvelt was lacking. It had been two fearful days for her mother, Patti Piver.
Patti Piver: I simply was terrified that one thing was gonna occur to her.
Then, previous midnight on Oct. 26 2016, investigators Cheryl Schofield and Keith Morecraft had been dispatched to the scene. Cati’s mangled physique had been present in an deserted farmhouse. She was 22 years outdated. A knife blade left in her physique.
Investigator Keith Morecraft: There was an oblong concrete field form of within the middle of the basement. … We discovered Cati’s physique inside that field.
Capt. Cheryl Schofield: Her physique had mainly been folded into this field. It was an image of what you’d see in a horror film.
Jennifer Piver
Cati’s mother was overwhelmed.
Patti Piver: I used to be completely empty inside. … She didn’t need to be murdered.
Jennifer Piver is Cati’s stepsister.
Jennifer Piver: I simply prayed and cried and … Simply sick. Simply sick.
Morecraft and one other investigator went to inform John Blauvelt his spouse’s physique had been discovered.
Investigator Keith Morecraft: We went to make the loss of life notification.
INVESTIGATOR (loss of life notification go to): I am so sorry on your loss, sir.
At first, Blauvelt appeared distressed. However because the dialog progressed his demeanor modified.
Investigator Keith Morecraft: Did not ask regular questions … similar to … the place did you discover her? How did she die?
Peter Van Sant: He wasn’t shocked by the information?
Investigator Keith Morecraft: He did not appear to be in any respect.
Peter Van Sant: What did that counsel to you?
Investigator Keith Morecraft: That he knew how she died. He knew the place her physique was.
John Blauvelt did have one query. However it wasn’t about Cati.
JOHN BLAUVELT (loss of life notification go to): Am I being charged with against the law? As a result of he is recording me. And I am not snug with that.
INVESTIGATOR MORECRAFT: You are not being charged —
JOHN BLAUVELT: OK.
INVESTIGATOR MORECRAFT: — with against the law proper now.
Peter Van Sant: Straight away you sensed this may very well be our man.
Investigator Keith Morecraft: I used to be fairly assured on the time.
However they could not arrest him on a sense. First Morecraft and Schofield had proof to collect and a case to construct. However simply as they bought began, John Blauvelt took to the highway. Touring with him was Hannah Thompson, his new girlfriend, all of 17.
Peter Van Sant: How involved had been you about Hannah’s security?
Capt. Cheryl Schofield: If he was keen to kill his personal spouse, there is not any telling what sort of hazard Hannah Thompson would’ve been in by fleeing with him.
WHEN CATI MET JOHN BLAUVELT
However John Blauvelt hadn’t all the time been thought of threatening. Again in 2014, within the quiet metropolis of some 20,000, he was a welcome a part of the neighborhood — the bigger than life, public face of the U.S. Military.
Peter Van Sant: An individual of precept, somebody keen to sacrifice.
Patti Piver: Sure.
Peter Van Sant: For his nation.
Patti Piver: That is what I feel.
Peter Van Sant: These are all admirable traits, proper?
Patti Piver: Yeah precisely.
Jennifer Piver
It was then that John Blauvelt met Cati, simply yards from his recruiting workplace at a sub store the place she labored. Cati turned 20 and Blauvelt was 26. They began courting.
Capt. Cheryl Schofield: And so they simply hit it off.
Patti Piver: She’s lovable, caring, humorous. Who would not fall in love together with her?
In the summertime of 2015, recruiter Blauvelt satisfied Cati to enlist. However after simply two months, a well being subject prevented her from ending her coaching.
Patti Piver: They discovered an issue together with her backbone. … She bought a medical discharge out of the Military.
Whereas Cati’s navy hopes had been dashed, Blauvelt instructed mates he had discovered his calling.
Along with his conflict tales about his deployments in Iraq and his sharp uniform adorned with service ribbons, Blauvelt impressed native youngsters.
Aly Somerville: Like, to me, he had all his geese in a row.
Peter Van Sant: Virtually like a job mannequin, proper?
Aly Somerville: Virtually like a job mannequin. Extra like—it was undoubtedly like a job mannequin.
Aly Somerville, a detailed pal of Cati, says she typically ate lunch with John Blauvelt at his recruiting sales space in her college. She provides he additionally typically confirmed up at native hangouts.
Aly Somerville: I assumed he was cool.
Peter Van Sant: He was concerned with your life, what you had been as much as and issues?
Aly Somerville: Yeah, he made positive I used to be OK.
However as he started courting Cati, her household was by no means half positive about Blauvelt.
Patti Piver: I do not assume I ever had a significant dialog with him.
Peter Van Sant: Did he appear concerned with you and … the household?
Jennifer Piver: No. In no way.
Then, after a couple of 12 months — and seemingly out of the blue — Cati stunned her household with an alarming announcement.
Patti Piver: She says, “Oh, by the best way,” she stated, “me and John bought married at present.” … And I am in shock. .. Then she stated, “Oh, we bought married on the courthouse.”
Patti Piver: They went on the honeymoon … However inside two months, that honeymoon was over.
A DREAM HOUSE-TURNED-PARTY HOUSE
Workers Sergeant John Blauvelt and his new bride had been placing down roots locally. Cati had taken a job on the native PetSmart.
Patti Piver: Yeah, she’s gonna love that (laughs) and she or he did. …
Peter Van Sant: And she or he was keen about animals.
Patti Piver: She was.
Peter Van Sant: This may very well be a profession for her.
Patti Piver: Sure.
As for John Blauvelt, he already owned a four-bedroom residence in Fountain Inn, proper subsequent to Simpsonville, the place Capt. Schofield labored.
Capt. Cheryl Schofield (with Van Sant exterior the Blauvelt’s residence): As soon as they bought married that is the home that they had been supposed to maneuver into and have a household.
Jennifer Piver: She wished a household. She wished to have youngsters.
Cati moved in. And shortly the home was crowded with youngsters. However not the sort Cati imagined.
Capt. Cheryl Schofield: Sadly the one youngsters that had been right here had been the youngsters that John Blauvelt invited.
John Blauvelt had invited Cati’s niece to stick with them, and later Hannah Thompson and Aly Somerville crashed there, too. Somerville says it grew to become a celebration vacation spot for youths from Hillcrest Excessive Faculty, the place Blauvelt typically labored as an Military recruiter.
Aly Somerville: We had been simply smoking weed all day, day by day.
Peter Van Sant: And the way outdated had been you then?
Aly Somerville: 16.
And Somerville claimed it wasn’t simply weed that was the draw. She stated, at occasions, there was booze, acid, and cocaine.
Peter Van Sant: That is with the U.S. Military recruiter, proper?
Aly Somerville: U.S. Military recruiter, sure. … Letting us social gathering at his home. … Like, that — that is superior.
Patti Piver says it wasn’t lengthy earlier than Cati grew pissed off with all the partying and instructed Blauvelt it needed to cease.
Peter Van Sant: Her dream home became a celebration home.
Jennifer Piver: Proper.
Peter Van Sant: And that is the very last thing your sister wished, proper?
Jennifer Piver: Completely.
As Cati and John Blauvelt drifted, Thompson was there to gas the fireplace.
Investigator Cheryl Schofield: Hannah completely despised Cati.
Peter Van Sant: And what was the character of Hannah’s relationship with John as time went on?
Capt. Cheryl Schofield: Hannah grew to become John’s pet. Any time that John would inform her to do one thing, she would do it.
It was all an excessive amount of for Cati. In line with police information, after being married lower than three months, Cati moved out. Schofield says Blauvelt and Thompson wasted no time.
Capt. Cheryl Schofield: She moved into John Blauvelt’s bed room on this home when Cati moved out.
Aly Somerville: Whoa, that is creepy. Such as you’re in your late 20s and she or he’s 17 dude. … Like, you are not imagined to be doing stuff like this.
Thompson’s father went to the police and instructed them he hadn’t seen his daughter for 2 weeks. That evening, on Feb. 26, 2016, cops confirmed up at Blauvelt’s home.
Peter Van Sant: Once they arrive what occurs?
Capt. Cheryl Schofield (with Van Sant exterior Blauvelt’s residence): They tried to make contact with John … and John refused to come back exterior.
Somerville was inside the home with Blauvelt and another minors when police arrived.
Aly Somerville: And John was like “Lock the door. No person go exterior.”
Peter Van Sant: What had been they saying?
Aly Somerville: Like, “John Blauvelt,” like, “come out of the home along with your fingers up.”
Peter Van Sant: You need to have been a little bit terrified. Have been you not?
Aly Somerville: Terrified. Yeah.
Peter Van Sant: These had been individuals with weapons. Have been weapons out?
Aly Somerville: Oh yeah. There have been weapons drawn and all the pieces.
Peter Van Sant: A veteran of the Iraq conflict they usually’re having to drag their weapons to get him out of the home?
Capt. Cheryl Schofield: Sure.
Peter Van Sant: It is form of extraordinary, is not it?
Capt. Cheryl Schofield: Sure, very a lot so.
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John Blauvelt finally opened the door and was questioned by police. On Feb. 27, 2016, he was arrested and charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor. His soldier’s picture was changed with a mug shot.
Patti Piver: He is the precise reverse of what all people thought he was. The precise reverse.
And shortly John Blauvelt’s troubles would get even worse. Police talked to Cati the day John was arrested. She instructed them a couple of extra troubling incident she says occurred a month earlier.
Investigator Keith Morecraft: There had been a home violence incident the place John allegedly pointed a gun at Cati.
Peter Van Sant: Pulls out a gun, factors it at her —
Jennifer Piver: Proper.
Peter Van Sant: — head …
Jennifer Piver: Yep.
Peter Van Sant: Says what?
Jennifer Piver: That he was gonna kill her. … And in addition threatened the household.
Peter Van Sant: Threatened the household. What do you imply?
Jennifer Piver: Threatened to kill the household.
Investigator Keith Morecraft: The Fountain Inn Police Division investigated the matter and ended up charging him with home violence.
A restraining order was issued stopping John Blauvelt and Cati from seeing one another.
Jennifer Piver: He blamed her for ruining his life. As a result of there was clearly gonna be a consequence from the navy.
That consequence got here only a few days later, when the Division of the Military reduce John Blauvelt’s pay and suspended him from the recruiting responsibility that outlined him.
Patti Piver: You may’t do that and be a navy recruiter.
The Military reassigned him to a small again workplace and commenced an investigation that may result in his dismissal.
Aly Somerville: He was like, “I can not be out within the subject” … “like on the entrance strains” … “I am not recruiting individuals for the Military. Now I am sitting behind a desk” and that is what made him so mad.
Cati rapidly moved on from her brief, disastrous marriage and instructed her mom she deliberate to divorce John Blauvelt.
Peter Van Sant: Your daughter strikes out. Did she transfer again with you?
Patti Piver: Yeah.
Jennifer Piver
However However regardless of the restraining order, Cati and John Blauvelt nonetheless had some contact, together with visits to the home she had shared with John.
Patti Piver: The one purpose she would return over there was as a result of she had her canine over there, Jupiter.
Patti Piver: For some purpose I simply was terrified that one thing was gonna occur to her.
As for John Blauvelt, the navy profession he cherished was in tatters. And in response to Somerville, he deliberate to get revenge.
Peter Van Sant: Did he ever say something about harming Cati?
Aly Somerville: Sure. He did say a number of occasions that he was going to kill Cati. …He stated that she ruined his navy profession, that is all he is ever wished to do in life. …
Peter Van Sant: You destroy my profession — I’ll destroy you?
Aly Somerville: Yeah. …
Peter Van Sant: Did you assume he’d actually undergo with it?
Aly Somerville: No. By no means.
Capt. Cheryl Schofield: He was very vocal on the truth that he wished Cati lifeless. He wished Cati gone.
A HUSBAND’S ANGER AND PLAN FOR REVENGE?
Police say Cati Blauvelt was final seen alive on Oct. 24, 2016, at her job at PetSmart. However come morning in Simpsonville, nobody had heard from her. Calls to her went to voicemail. Her mom reported her lacking.
Peter Van Sant: Did she inform the officer she spoke with that she was suspicious of John Blauvelt?
Investigator Keith Morecraft: She did.
The determined search and the painful ready started.
Patti Piver: I did not assume she was alive anymore.
Jennifer Piver: It is terrifying. It is the worst feeling. You’re feeling helpless.
Jennifer Piver
After midnight, two of Cati’s mates adopted a hunch that despatched them deep within the woods to an outdated, deserted farmhouse.
Capt. Cheryl Schofield: Youngsters would go there. And they might social gathering, they’d drink, they’d smoke marijuana.
Cati and John Blauvelt had been recognized to have gone there, too.
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The buddies made their technique to the basement. They had been horrified by what they discovered. One in all them referred to as 911.
911 OPERATOR: 911, What is the location of your emergency?
FRIEND: …We discovered my pal Cati … lifeless in —
911 OPERATOR: OK.
FRIEND: — the home.
911 OPERATOR: OK. … Are you saying she’s lifeless in the home?
FRIEND: Sure, ma’am.
911 OPERATOR: Is she chilly?
FRIEND: She’s very pale. And there was no response.
Cati Blauvelt’s physique had been stuffed into a chilly, concrete field.
Peter Van Sant: You imagine she — Cati was killed exterior the home and introduced in?
Capt. Cheryl Schofield: Sure … And we imagine that she was truly killed on the gravel driveway. After which drug on her face by way of that window.
Peter Van Sant: And if she’s screaming there is not any one to listen to.
Capt. Cheryl Schofield: You would not hear it … from that home the place that home was positioned.
Peter Van Sant: And you reside with that day by day.
Patti Piver: On daily basis.
Peter Van Sant: It would not get any simpler, does it?
Patti Piver: No.
It was Oct. 26, 2016. Investigators made that official “loss of life notification go to” to Blauvelt. They bought their first sense of the resentment he held in the direction of Cati.
JOHN BLAUVELT (loss of life notification go to): She flipped my life the other way up.
Morecraft and Schofield wished extra info from Blauvelt. And so, only a week later, they spoke with him.
Capt. Cheryl Schofield: Did not appear to essentially care that she was gone. Not to mention had been murdered.
INVESTIGATOR MORECRAFT (Nov. 2, 2016 interrogation): Something you say can be utilized in opposition to you in courtroom
JOHN BLAUVELT: I misplaced a pal. Possibly not the most effective spouse, however I misplaced a f******* pal.
He instructed them he visited Cati on the funeral residence.
INVESTIGATOR MORECRAFT (Nov. 2, 2016 interrogation): Did you go by your self?
JOHN BLAUVELT: Yeah. Properly, I took Hannah with me.
Blauvelt stated he hadn’t seen Cati in months. Their marriage had been a nonstop argument.
INVESTIGATOR MORECRAFT (Nov. 2, 2016 interrogation): What sort of stuff had been y’all arguing about?
JOHN BLAUVELT: Um. Every thing. (Laughs)
INVESTIGATOR MORECRAFT: Simply regular?
JOHN BLAUVELT: Simply regular stuff.
Investigator Keith Morecraft: He appeared very boastful, cocky, narcissistic.
Then the cop fired that point-blank query.
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INVESTIGATOR MORECRAFT: Did you kill Cati?
JOHN BLAUVELT: No.
INVESTIGATOR MORECRAFT: OK. Are you aware who killed her?
JOHN BLAUVELT: No.
Peter Van Sant: Sitting throughout, speaking to this man, what are you sensing in John Blauvelt?
Capt. Cheryl Schofield: That he very a lot is the one who greater than possible … dedicated this homicide.
Investigator Keith Morecraft: Like he was postpone. Like we had been taking over his time. … That he was smarter than we had been, and that he was gonna get away with this.
Subsequent up: Hannah Thompson.
HANNAH THOMPSON (interrogation): I do not know something about her homicide.
INVESTIGATOR: You do.
HANNAH THOMPSON: I do not.
INVESTIGATOR: You do.
Investigators confront Thompson, sensing she should know one thing.
CAPT. SCHOFIELD (interrogation): Inform us precisely what occurred to Cati.
HANNAH THOMPSON: I actually do not know.
And whereas they suspected Thompson may know one thing, they didn’t know precisely what.
INVESTIGATOR MORECRAFT (interrogation): I can let you know already you are mendacity to me. OK? You don’t wanna get wrapped up in catching a homicide cost.
HANNAH THOMPSON: Proper.
INVESTIGATOR MORECRAFT: You are 17 years outdated. You may have your whole life forward of you.
HANNAH: Mm-hmm.
INVESTIGATOR MORECRAFT: Chances are you’ll love John … and you could assume you two are going to get married and … stroll down the yellow brick highway, OK? However no man and no lady is value going to jail for.
HANNAH THOMPSON: Mm-hmm.
INVESTIGATOR MORECRAFT: Do you agree?
HANNAH THOMPSON: Sure, sir.
CAPT. SCHOFIELD: If you already know one thing, and also you’re making an attempt to cowl up for it … you are gonna go down with the one who did this to her. For — for realizing something, whether or not it was beforehand or after the actual fact — you are gonna go down with them.
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Investigators confirmed Thompson an post-mortem picture of Cati.
INVESTIGATOR: Have a look at her. She’s proper right here.
HANNAH THOMPSON: I do not wanna take a look at her.
INVESTIGATOR: That is your pal.
HANNAH THOMPSON: I do not wanna do that anymore.
INVESTIGATOR MORECRAFT: Do not wanna do what? Do not wanna assist us discover out who killed her?
HANNAH THOMPSON (crying): Can I please depart? Can I please depart?
CAPT. SCHOFIELD: Hannah, this can be a pal of yours that we’re making an attempt to do —
HANNAH THOMPSON: I do know. And I wanna assist, however I can not.
With no assist from Thompson, police fingers had been tied.
Investigator Keith Morecraft: We needed to let him go.
Potential exhausting proof needed to be processed, together with John Blauvelt’s cellphone information and his DNA.
Capt. Cheryl Schofield: It’s extremely aggravating. … as a result of we all know we’re sitting throughout from the one who killed his spouse. … And shortly after that interview is when he fled the state.
Investigator Keith Morecraft: He had taken his crimson GMC Yukon.
Peter Van Sant: And he was gone.
Investigator Keith Morecraft: He was.
John Blauvelt, skilled in survival and fight, was all of a sudden free on the open highway.
Patti Piver: I did not assume they had been ever gonna discover him. He simply disappeared off the face of the map.
And so did Thompson. Police believed she was with Blauvelt.
Prosecutor Kinli Abee would start constructing the case with the chilling proof she says he left behind.
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Kinli Abee: First, what I need to form of present is, you already know, the knife that was present in Cati’s neck … And so what you’ll be able to see right here is that this X-ray, that the precise knife blade broke off inside Cati.
Peter Van Sant: What you are holding there —
Kinli Abee: Yep.
Peter Van Sant: — is what I am seeing on this X-ray.
Kinli Abee: Precisely. Matches precisely proper there. That is what was discovered and lodged in her neck. And that is how she died.
Simpsonville police knew they wanted assist to search out John Blauvelt.
Investigator Keith Morecraft: I contacted the US Marshals.
Marshal Will Cook dinner: The investigation is let’s discover him, let’s discover him, let’s discover him.
THE SEARCH FOR A FUGITIVE
On Nov. 18, 2016, John Blauvelt — nonetheless on the run — was charged with Cati Blauvelt’s homicide.
Peter Van Sant: What sort of fugitive are you coping with?
Marshal Will Cook dinner: A cocky one. … John thought … we had been by no means going to search out him.
U.S. Marshal Will Cook dinner, primarily based close to Simpsonville, would develop into the purpose particular person within the hunt for John Blauvelt, who had been expert at evasion.
Marshal Will Cook dinner: He had coaching from the Military that … the federal government offered him to —
Peter Van Sant: — keep away from you guys.
Marshal Will Cook dinner: Keep away from us. And he was good at it.
U.S. Marshals
Investigators remained unsure about Thompson’s involvement within the homicide — if any. However they knew for positive she was touring with Blauvelt. They uncovered images of Blauvelt and Thompson purchasing and Blauvelt at an ATM. His crimson Yukon truck passing by way of Texas and New Mexico, heading west.
Peter Van Sant: Have been you in a position to get hits on the place this car was once in a while?
Cook dinner: So there have been a few license plate reader hits.
However by the point police had been in a position to reply, Blauvelt was gone.
Marshal Will Cook dinner: And in a recreation like this, all of the seconds depend.
Then, after a month, investigators caught a break. Thompson made contact together with her household from Eugene, Oregon. She wished to come back residence to Simpsonville. Schofield could not wait to speak to her.
INVESTIGATOR SCHOFIELD (Dec. 20, 2016 interrogation): We’re very glad that you just’re again, and that you just’re protected, and that nothing unhealthy occurred to you.
HANNAH THOMPSON: Mm-hmm.
Thompson’s story was that Blauvelt had left her in Eugene. Simply up and walked away.
INVESTIGATOR SCHOFIELD (Dec. 20, 2016 interrogation): Did you ever see John once more?
HANNAH THOMPSON: Mm mm. [shaking her head no]
And, Thompson added, she had no thought the place Blauvelt was headed. However apparently, she had sufficient of life on the run.
Marshal Will Cook dinner: She thought it was going to be a fairy story. You recognize, they had been going to dwell on the lam and make issues occur. However after a number of weeks of that, actuality set in.
Any romantic notion Thompson could have had was derailed when Blauvelt bought the Yukon caught within the mud within the Pacific Northwest.
Peter Van Sant: Could not get out?
Marshal Will Cook dinner: Couldn’t get out.
HANNAH THOMPSON (Dec. 20, 2016 interrogation): He stated that we’d hike. We needed to hike, like, stroll off the mountain mainly.
Marshal Will Cook dinner: Miles and miles.
The couple was decreased to panhandling for change.
Peter Van Sant: And so they used that for meals?
Marshal Will Cook dinner: Sustainment.
Thompson says whereas on the highway, Blauvelt confessed — sharing the terrible particulars of the killing.
HANNAH THOMPSON (Dec. 20, 2016 interrogation): He instructed me that the knife broke. … I can not imagine that he would do one thing like that. … (crying)
INVESTIGATOR SCHOFIELD: What — what else did he let you know about it? I do know it is — it is exhausting.
HANNAH THOMPSON: He instructed me that the very last thing she — she stated was … that if he let her go, that she would not name the police.
INVESTIGATOR SCHOFIELD: The place had been they, Hannah?
HANNAH THOMPSON: The deserted home.
Peter Van Sant: An grownup can psychologically reap the benefits of a baby. Do you imagine in a means that is what was occurring between John and Hannah?
Investigator Keith Morecraft: Completely, yeah.
HANNAH THOMPSON (Dec. 20, 2016 interrogation): And he was simply crying and screaming and like … he was like, saying that he did all that stuff for me, like —
INVESTIGATOR SCHOFIELD: Did all what stuff?
HANNAH THOMPSON: Like kill Cati. Like — he was like, “I did that for you” and like, all that form of stuff, like making an attempt to make me really feel prefer it was my fault.
Thompson instructed conflicting tales about her involvement, finally saying she dropped John Blauvelt off by PetSmart the day Cati disappeared after which left. Thompson says she didn’t know he deliberate to kill Cati. However later that day, he requested her to assist cover Cati’s automotive. She additionally admitted she had lied in her first interview simply days after Cati’s homicide.
HANNAH THOMPSON (Dec. 20, 2016 interrogation): He instructed me that if I lied to the police, that he would preserve me protected.
Investigators didn’t cost Thompson instantly as a result of they wanted her.
Investigator Keith Morecraft: We had a long-term objective of, A, discovering John, B, prosecuting him. And she or he was the important thing to loads of that.
CAPT. SCHOFIELD (Dec. 20, 2016 interrogation): We’re nonetheless attempting to find John.
HANNAH THOMPSON: Proper.
CAPT. SCHOFIELD: OK?
HANNAH THOMPSON: Mm-hmm.
They hoped she may make them Blauvelt.
INVESTIGATOR MORECRAFT (Dec. 20, 2016 interrogation): Has John contacted you by Fb in any respect because you separated? Or since contacted you by any means in any respect?
HANNAH THOMPSON: No.
CAPT. SCHOFIELD: However please do not preserve it a secret —
HANNAH THOMPSON: Mm-hmm.
INVESTIGATOR SCHOFIELD: — from — from us.
HANNAH THOMPSON: OK.
INVESTIGATOR SCHOFIELD: OK?
HANNAH THOMPSON: Mm-hmm.
But when Thompson knew the place John Blauvelt was, she wasn’t prepared to inform them.
HANNAH THOMPSON (Dec. 20, 2016 interrogation): I nonetheless actually care about him, though he did one thing, like, actually unhealthy. Like I really feel like I ought to hate him. Part of me does, however part of me simply retains fascinated by how he was once.
Blauvelt was nonetheless on the market. Months became years and lives modified.
Marshal Will Cook dinner: He is beating us. And we do not wish to lose.
Peter Van Sant: It is driving you loopy.
Marshal Will Cook dinner: It is driving us loopy.
Peter Van Sant: Was it irritating that you just retired with this case nonetheless on the market?
Investigator Keith Morecraft: It was very irritating. … And it was the one case that I nonetheless had that was open.
Those that knew John Blauvelt thought justice for Cati may by no means come.
Ali Somerville: John is the kind of individual that if anyone was gonna get away with it, it could be John.
Patti Piver: I by no means actually thought that they’d get him.
The police in Simpsonville interviewed Thompson repeatedly through the years. Then in 2022 – six years after Cati’s homicide — Thompson lastly revealed a secret. She had been in common contact with Blauvelt for years.
HANNAH THOMPSON (June 2022 interrogation): We had been speaking — the entire time. … Like, at first we had been speaking each single day, a number of occasions, like, for hours a day. …
CAPT. SCHOFIELD: Did anyone know you had been nonetheless speaking to him?
HANNAH THOMPSON: Nope.
Thompson instructed investigators how they communicated.
HANNAH THOMPSON (June 2022 interrogation): On the very starting we had been speaking on Fb Messenger. After which after that we had been speaking on Snapchat.
She stated their conversations resulted in 2019.
Authorities imagine Thompson had matured, with time and distance away from Blauvelt. She instructed them she realized what she had finished was fallacious, and steadily provided extra leads. Blauvelt may nonetheless be in Oregon. And she or he added Blauvelt instructed her he had been residing with one other lady for years.
CAPT. SCHOFIELD (June 2022 interrogation): ‘Trigger actually, she’s at risk, too.
HANNAH THOMPSON: I do know.
Marshal Will Cook dinner: Based mostly on among the info that Hannah gave us … zoned us in on … John’s new girlfriend in Medford, Oregon.
Medford is small metropolis within the northwest. Investigators jumped on the lead and found a cellphone quantity that Blauvelt had used to textual content a thriller lady.
Peter Van Sant: And this sounds tantalizing, is not it.
Marshal Chris Tamayo: Very tantalizing.
Marshal Chris Tamayo is Cook dinner’s colleague within the Northwest. His workforce bought an tackle that corresponded with the thriller lady’s home. He took “48 Hours” to the scene.
Peter Van Sant: They began to stake out the home?
Marshal Chris Tamayo: Stake out the home … And …they adopted a topic out — a male that appeared to match our description.
However six years after Blauvelt allegedly murdered Cati, how might investigators be sure that they had their man?
Marshal Will Cook dinner: John has some distinctive tattoos.
Peter Van Sant: Are you able to present me?
Marshal Will Cook dinner: This can be a nonetheless shot — from certainly one of John’s preliminary interviews with Simpsonville Police.
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The tattoo of a pirate.
It was a quiet morning in Medford.
Marshal Chris Tamayo: As I am beginning to pull by way of this neighborhood my coronary heart is racing.
The Marshals made their transfer.
Marshal Chris Tamayo: That is the home proper there.
Peter Van Sant: And did you see any exercise?
Marshal Chris Tamayo: We — did see him come out.
Marshal Chris Tamayo: He is popping out shirtless.
However was it for positive John Blauvelt? A pirate instructed the story.
FUGITIVE JOHN BLAUVELT CAPTURED
On July 20, 2022, some six years after Cati Blauvelt’s loss of life, Chris Tamayo joined Marshals and different legislation enforcement for the takedown of the person they believed killed her.
Marshal Chris Tamayo (with Van Sant exterior home in Medford, Oregon): John’s about three quarters away down the driveway, and the blokes begin going proper at him, giving him instructions: “Police present us your fingers. Get down on the bottom!”
Peter Van Sant: And what does he do?
Marshal Chris Tamayo: His eyes bought broad, pure shock. And he drops all the way down to the bottom quick.
John Blauvelt was handcuffed and below arrest.
U.S. Marshals
However the suspect instructed the Marshals that they had the fallacious man.
Marshal Chris Tamayo: He stated, “I am Ben Klein.” … I stated, no you are not. … And he caught with Ben Klein.
Ben Klein? Had the Marshals make a mistake?
Marshal Chris Tamayo: We’ve a tool that permits us to cell print somebody within the subject.
Peter Van Sant: Fingerprint.
Marshal Chris Tamayo: Fingerprints.
It took lower than 5 minutes for Ben to develop into John.
Marshal Chris Tamayo: “Your fingerprints present that you’re John Blauvelt. … you are wished out of South Carolina.”
Peter Van Sant: He knew it was over?
Marshal Chris Tamayo: He knew it was over.
When the Marshals went inside the home, they realized the raid might have taken a deadly flip.
Marshal Chris Tamayo: There was a firearm, a handgun sitting proper on the nightstand.
Peter Van Sant: What did that let you know?
Marshal Chris Tamayo: That was a sign to us that … he in all probability would’ve given a combat.
All of it was apparently information to the lady Blauvelt was residing with, when she returned to the home later that day.
Marshal Chris Tamayo: Pure shock. She was visibly shaking, crying, scared.
Tamayo recorded audio together with her on the scene:
MARSHAL TAMAYO: So he is being arrested … on prices out of South Carolina.
GIRLFRIEND: For what?
MARSHAL TAMAYO: For homicide.
GIRLFRIEND: Are you severe? (crying)
MARSHAL TAMAYO: Yeah …
GIRLFRIEND: I can not imagine any of this. This is sort of a f******* nightmare. I am sorry.
Blauvelt’s girlfriend instructed the Marshals she had no thought who he actually was.
GIRLFRIEND: We been collectively for like six years … He would do random odd jobs …
GIRLFRIEND: He was mainly right here watching my cats and my … my canine on a regular basis.
Peter Van Sant: She liked him.
Marshal Chris Tamayo: She liked him.
The information hit Simpsonville like thunder.
Patti Piver: I used to be over the moon, simply freaking — that was such a terrific day.
Capt. Cheryl Schofield: And I used to be fully elated.
Greenville County Division of Corrections
John Blauvelt would go cross-country once more. This time, handcuffed and introduced again to a South Carolina jail to await trial. Simply three months later, Hannah Thompson could be charged with 5 felonies together with obstruction of justice and accent after-the-fact. She would plead not responsible and be launched on bail.
Prosecutor Kinli Abee, who started placing the case in opposition to Blauvelt collectively a number of months after Cati was killed, would workforce with John Meadors, getting ready the case for trial beginning with that blade investigators present in Cati’s neck.
John Meadors: Does not get any worse than that and that is what she died from.
Kinli Abee (Holding the blue shirt Cati was sporting): You may truly see by way of the collar of the shirt the place that knife blade entered. And you’ll see it proper there.
Peter Van Sant: Proper there?
Kinli Abee: Yeah. Proper into her neck
They centered on that deserted farmhouse the place youngsters as soon as partied, the place they discovered Cati.
Kinli Abee: They might throw their bottles, their empty beer cans … And that is precisely the place he discarded Cati’s physique.
Peter Van Sant: So do you assume John was making an announcement by putting her physique —
Kinlee Abee: Completely.
Peter Van Sant: — on this bin that usually you set trash.
Kinli Abee: Yeah, completely.
Prosecutors say Blauvelt blamed Cati for the abrupt finish of his navy profession.
Kinli Abee: It is all Cati’s fault.
Peter Van Sant: He is not liable for what he did. He is blaming his spouse?
Kinli Abee: Sure.
And there have been John Blauvelt’s personal phrases. Whereas on the run, he stored a journal—that the Marshals discovered.
Peter Van Sant: Like a diary, right?
Marshal Chris Tamayo: Appropriate.
U.S. Marshals
And it held a damning entry.
Marshal Chris Tamayo: So on the finish … it says boldly, “I did it.”
Peter Van Sant: And for you that is what?
Marshal Chris Tamayo: That is proof and proof that he murdered Cati.
THE TRIAL OF JOHN BLAUVELT
In September 2024, eight years after Cati’s loss of life, John Blauvelt went on trial for homicide.
Patti Piver described the kid she adored.
Patti Piver (in courtroom): She was sunshine. I imply all people liked her.
Aly Somerville stared on the man she as soon as referred to as a job mannequin.
Aly Somerville: He appeared like a stone-cold killer to me.
The prosecution’s key witness was Hannah Thompson. She would admit to serving to Blauvelt the day Cati died.
PROSECUTOR MEADORS (in courtroom): You liked John Blauvelt, did not you?
HANNAH THOMPSON: Sure.
PROSECUTOR MEADORS: You helped him … cover Cati’s automotive after he killed her, did not you?
HANNAH THOMPSON: Sure.
PROSECUTOR MEADORS: You did not know he’d killed her at that time?
HANNAH THOMPSON: No.
PROSECUTOR MEADORS: However you probably did assist him?
HANNAH THOMPSON: Sure
And prosecutors performed grainy video that Thompson says exhibits John Blauvelt getting out of Cati’s automotive and into his. Thompson was on the wheel of his Prius.
JOHN PROSECUTOR MEADORS (in courtroom): However that was you on that video?
HANNAH THOMPSON: Sure.
PROSECUTOR MEADORS: In these automobiles?
HANNAH THOMPSON: Within the Prius, sure.
WSPA/Pool
As soon as on the run she says he instructed her the main points of the homicide.
HANNAH THOMPSON (in courtroom): He had instructed me that he killed her …
HANNAH THOMPSON: He instructed me that … he stabbed her … within the neck …
HANNAH THOMPSON: He stated that he threw her cellphone into water … that was on the bottom, within the deserted home.
HANNAH THOMPSON: And he stated that … he needed to cowl up the—her blood with grime.
However Blauvelt’s protection workforce, Paul Neely and Ana Walker, made Thompson admit that her story modified through the years.
DEFENSE ATTORNEY WALKER (in courtroom): You have lied to your folks and your loved ones?
HANNAH THOMPSON: Sure …
DEFENSE ATTORNEY WALKER: And also you stored mendacity.
HANNAH THOMPSON: Sure.
Then the protection zeroed in on the dearth of DNA proof on the scene.
Peter Van Sant: Was there any DNA that tied John Blauvelt to this homicide?
Paul Neely: No.
Ana Walker: There was no DNA matched to John Blauvelt.
And what about John Blauvelt’s journal, during which he wrote “I did it…”? His legal professionals instructed “48 Hours” a lot of it was a fantasy.
Ana Walker: Numerous this journal is stuffed with these fictional tales of observations. It is stuffed with poems, drawings, every kind of issues.
As for Hannah Thompson —
KINLI ABEE (in courtroom): You heard she has 5 pending prices for the knowledge she in the end offered to legislation enforcement.
The prosecution pointed to the significance of her testimony.
KINLI ABEE (in courtroom): She is going through 55 years in jail upon conviction for these crimes and she or he bought up right here with no deal. The State did not provide her a single factor, no settlement to dismiss her prices, no cooperation settlement, no nudge nudge, wink wink — none of it. She bought up right here and testified. And she or he instructed you as a result of she thought it was the correct factor to do.
Capt. Cheryl Schofield: She did a terrific job, going up there and telling the reality and giving the important thing particulars of what John had instructed her, what he had finished to Cati …
The trial lasted 4 days. The jury was out some 5 hours.
COURT CLERK (studying verdict): As to the cost of homicide, we the jury unanimously discover the defendant, John T. Blauvelt, responsible.
Reporter Taylor Farmer lined the case for WSPA.
Taylor Farmer: And it was very emotional within the courtroom, form of quiet however you might inform Cati’s household was very emotional.
Patti Piver: As quickly because the jurors bought out, I simply began crying.
John Blauvelt was sentenced to life in jail with out parole.
Patti Piver: He is a monster. … She was helpless.
And what did the household take into consideration Hannah Thompson, who allegedly lined for Blauvelt for therefore lengthy?
Jennifer Piver: I might assume she was a silly 17-year-old till at trial once I heard how lengthy she’d been in contact with him. … You aren’t keen, at the moment, to show him in. … I’ve exhausting emotions about that. … it is unfathomable.
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Peter Van Sant: What would you say to your sister at present when you might.
Jennifer Piver (crying): That I am sorry. … That I really like her. And that I feel she was courageous.
Hannah Thompson’s trial date continues to be pending.
John Blauvelt is interesting his conviction.
When you have been a sufferer of home violence, name the Nationwide Home Violence Hotline at 800-799-7233 or textual content START to 88788.
Produced by James Stolz. Kat Teurfs is the sector producer. Ryan Smith, Charlotte Fuller, Michelle Sigona are the event producers. Michael Vele, Greg McLaughlin and Marcus Balsam are the editors. Peter Schweitzer is the senior producer. Nancy Kramer is the manager story editor. Judy Tygard is the manager producer.
