May 4, 2025 • 44 mins
A whirlwind romance and marriage between a young Simpsonville woman and an Army Recruiter soon soured due to his penchant for hosting underaged students in their home. After a separation, the wife went missing only be discovered inexplicably murdered. That left one question: Where was her estranged husband?
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
For over three hundred and fifty years, the state of
South Carolina has been the setting for some of the
most horrendous crimes ever committed. Some have gained global notoriety,
some have been forgotten, and others have been swept under
the rug completely. Now, two South Carolina natives and true
(00:25):
crime enthusiasts have teamed up to examine these heinous acts
in detail, giving their perspective of the evil that has
resided in the Palmetto State. You're listening to Carolina Crimes.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
And welcome back to Carolina Crimes, episode two twenty. I'm
one of your hosts, Matt Hyres along.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
With Danielle Myers.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
O're thrilled that you joined us here this week. Thank
you so much. Last week, have you won a recent
one which is allays raw. A lot of emotions still
at play with that one out of Greenwood Davis McClendon murder,
(01:11):
and appreciate all the feedback that everybody was able to
give us about that one. Still fresh in a lot
of minds. We want to go ahead and cover that.
It was very highly requested from listeners of the show
that we do cover that one and again this week
we're kind of staying in the same well, the same
(01:32):
area of the state and the same era. I mean
this is this is very very recent as well, and
you're gonna bring us this one Danielle out of Simpsonville,
South Carolina, this week.
Speaker 3 (01:43):
That's right.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
But before we get started, and as always, we're gonna
go ahead and remind folks, if you'd like to check
out pictures from each episode, go ahead and join us
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(02:05):
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Mash that purple subscribe button and write a little something
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(02:25):
check us out over at Carolina Crimestore dot com. We
would greatly appreciate it. And without any further ado, we're
going to Simpsonville, South Carolina, and for those of you
that don't know quite where that is. Simpsonville, South Carolina,
is located in southeastern Greenville County. Greenville County, of course,
(02:48):
up in the northwest portion of the state of South
Carolina and Simpsonville. We have been here before and covered
their history pretty in depth, so we're gonna hit some
of the highlights this week. Simpsonville was named for a
local farmer blacksmith, an eventual postmaster in the area, Peter Simpson.
(03:09):
It was named that in the mid eighteen hundreds, but
quickly Simpsonville became, like most upstate towns, a textile town
at the turn of the century when the Woodside mill
was built. They've got an antique water water tower that's
still standing this day. And Simpsonville. They said it's considered
(03:31):
a portion of the Golden Strip, and I'd never heard
that before, but they said it consists of the towns
of Simpsonville, Malden, and Fountain End, all right there, kind
of close together. Now. Simpsonville is a home to around
twenty four thousand residents today and home to various industries
(03:52):
such as Comet, Milliken, and sealed Air. I think in
our last episode about Simpsonville, one of the one of
the victims work to come out. Yes, and some of
the more famous folks in residents of Simpsonville. We're gonna
start off with Danielle Brooks. She is an actress. She
(04:13):
played Tasty on Orange is the New Black. Also, Major
League pitcher Emilio Pagan is from Simpsonville, born in Simpsonville.
He pitches now for the Cincinnati Reds and he's a
member of the Puerto Rican national team. And in addition
to him, Tommy Jones, a professional bowler who was named
(04:37):
of the Pro Bowling Association's Hall of Fame in twenty twenty. Wow,
So some famous folks out of Simpsonville and Simpsonville. Going
back to Greenwood, they've got about the same amount of
residents and Simpsonville, that area is really growing, It really is.
Had some friends from rock Hill actually just moved down
(04:57):
to Simpsonville a couple of years ago, the Wingotts, And
it's growing by leaps and bounds over there. Oh. I bet, yes,
as much as Greenville, Greenville County is. So without any
further ado, like I said, let's go ahead and dive
into this one this week.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
Danielle, Well, like you said, this is similar in about
the time frame similar in kind of like the same area.
And it's also similar in that forty eight hours also
covered an episode on this okay, like the one that
you did last week.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
So we don't have a subscription shared subscription, but no.
Speaker 3 (05:35):
So it's funny that we end up sometimes having so
many similarities on stories when we don't even talk about them.
So yeah, we'll get right into it. So twenty year
old Catherine she went by Katie Boider, was a pretty
and loving young woman, and though she was petite, standing
at only five to one so about three inches shorter
(05:57):
than me, she had a larger in life personality, making
friends with everyone that she met, and her family described
her as a ray of sunshine. And she was also
a huge well known animal lover. A lot of pictures
of her with dogs, cats, is kind of like, you know,
(06:20):
I felt a little connection because I said, I'm the
kind of the same way any kind of animal I
passed by, I'm going to try to get its.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
Attention, y'all. Do I mean? I was sitting there, I
was like, yeah, it sounds a lot like you.
Speaker 4 (06:33):
Well.
Speaker 3 (06:33):
John Blavelt was a twenty six year old army recruiter
who was very well liked and very respected in the community.
He was someone who was viewed as upstanding and had
a love of serving his country. He had served in
the military, He had served overseas in Iraq, and also
(06:55):
had a full you know, patches on his uniform to
show of all his accomplished mints. So j yeah, yeah,
so he was just very well decorated. His career was
everything to him. With Katie working at a sub shop
next door to the recruiting office, it was just a
matter of time before the two ran into each other,
(07:17):
and when they did, they hit it off immediately. Even
though there was a six year difference, not that big
of a deal, and she seemed to feel that this
was the person for her. She felt very confident in
her decision as continuing to have him as a partner.
He's going to be able to take care of me.
He does really well for himself.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
Okay, So they made it official.
Speaker 3 (07:42):
Yeah. So the two of them began dating and things
were going really well, and in the summer of twenty fifteen,
John even managed to convince Katie to enlist in the army.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
Also oh okay, but he was a recruiter.
Speaker 3 (07:58):
Yeah, so okay.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
He recruited a girl ran in it.
Speaker 3 (08:01):
But just two months later, there was a health issue
that came up with Katie that allowed her it didn't
allow her to continue with her training, and it was
some issue with her spine and they're like, you're not
going to be able to continue your career nothing that
you've done, and she was medically discharged.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (08:20):
Well, a year into their relationship, Katie surprised her family
with an announcement. Her mom had said that they were
all hanging out at the house having a good time,
and all of a sudden, Katie just said, oh, by
the way, I got married today. We went down to
the courthouse.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
Quite a surprise.
Speaker 3 (08:43):
Yes, so she was. The mom was like, you did
what I.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
Guess it's like the definition of a loping Yeah.
Speaker 3 (08:51):
Wow, yeah, you just go off and do it. They
went to the courthouse. It kind of sounds like they
went on the way and then showed up to her
mom's house like.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
A Nike style just do it, do it like Judy Jimstone.
Speaker 3 (09:05):
So they though her family was in shock, they were
very happy for her. It was very clear that Katie
was very happy and the newlyweds went on their honeymoon
and when they got back, Katie ended up moving into
a four bedroom house that John owned in Fountain En, Okay.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
So a single guy owning a four bedroom house.
Speaker 3 (09:27):
And they showed they showed it one of the interviews
on forty eight hours. They were interviewing in the driveway.
And it's a decent, cute little house, got a small
little porch garage. I mean it was. It was a
good starter home, especially with her being so young.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
Yeah, I would say so.
Speaker 3 (09:47):
And Katie at this point had also gotten a job
at a local pet smart and it allowed her to
do what she loved to do. So she was very
excited about her new job, this new house, her marriage,
and hopefully being able to start a family at some
point because her family had said that she was very
adamant she wanted to be a mom at some point.
(10:11):
But it wasn't too long after Katie moved in that
the house became less of a home and more of
a hangout spot for local teenagers.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
Huh.
Speaker 3 (10:24):
Yeah. So John worked at an office, an army recruiting
office in a shopping center, but he also had a
booth set up at a local high school so that
he could recruit high schoolers whenever you're getting out, if
this is what you want to do. So he spent
(10:44):
time up there as well, and he was considered a
role model to a lot of these students. He got
along with them really well, spoke to them about anything,
and they just felt comfortable around him, so much so
that he took his jobs seriously enough to the point
where he felt that he needed to mentor them after
(11:04):
school hours by hanging out at parties with them. So
he liked to party with the teenagers that he was
a role model for.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
Yeah, that's a pretty terrible decision. Yeah, I mean you can.
You can hang out. You can be a role model
at school. You don't have to be a role model
after hours unless someone happens upon you in public. You
don't need to be.
Speaker 3 (11:30):
Partying with intentionally, you know, going to house parties. You're
in your late twenties. Come on, no, John, begin having
teens over where there would be alcohol, weed, acid, and
even cocaine.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
So have them over it at their home.
Speaker 3 (11:49):
Yes, this is so, He would be like, guys, I
have a house. You know, you don't have to go
to these places, he sketchy places. Come to hang out
at my house. I've got coke and weed, nassi alcohol,
like y'all can just have at it. And he was
like a like a cool adult to hang out with.
But Katie's over here, like no, And he even had
(12:11):
a few teenagers like he invited some of them, like, oh,
you're having issues at home, you need a place to stay.
You can stay here temporarily. And a lot of these
decisions were made without consulting his new wife. So he's
already not starting out strong.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
No, this is this is pretty rough already. He's uh
quay crossed over the line inappropriate?
Speaker 3 (12:35):
Yeah, he he jumped two feet over the line a
long time ago. Yeah, well, for very good reason. Katie
became very frustrated with this situation and was like this,
this is not what I envisioned when I moved into
this house and when I got married. This isn't I
didn't think that my house was going to be like
a NonStop party, like I'm trying to go to work,
(12:55):
come home, chill, and God knows who's at my house
when I get home. And she told him like this
needs to stop. I'm not doing this anymore. If you
continue with this, this isn't gonna work out, and whether
he didn't believe that she would actually be done or
he just didn't care, but her request fell on deaf ears,
(13:18):
and just three months after getting married, Katie moved out
and ended up moving back in with her mom in Simpsonville.
One person that didn't seem to be too bothered by
this split and was probably actually a little excited about it,
was seventeen year old Hannah Thompson, who was one of
(13:39):
the teenagers that would hang out at the house. And
Hannah had made it very clear that she didn't really
care for Katie and she had developed feelings for John,
and Hannah did basically everything that John told her to do.
She was even described as being his little puppy dog,
you know, that little I look up to him. He's older,
(14:00):
he can do no wrong kind of thing, and he
seemed to really like this attention. And the two of
them were apparently were so close that as soon as
Katie moved out, Hannah moved in. And she's seventeen and
he's he's like probably twenty seven to twenty eight at
this point. And I put this wrong on a lot
(14:23):
of levels.
Speaker 2 (14:24):
Yeah, and she was she was probably a high school student.
Speaker 3 (14:28):
Still, and there could be. There's probably a chance. I'm
guessing she went to the high school that he would
recruit at from time to time, so he probably like
saw her as the whole a little wink and a smile.
And there were other teenagers that still went there that
even said that they thought it was weird that they
apparently had started well this kind of relationship. They were like,
uh no, we're not like we're here to party, but
(14:49):
we're not doing all that.
Speaker 2 (14:53):
Well.
Speaker 3 (14:53):
On February twenty sixth, the twenty sixteen, Hannah's father contacted
police and said that he hadn't seen his in two weeks.
So officers showed up at John's home, but John refused
to come to the door. There were groups of teens
hanging out inside because there was a party going on,
and he had told them that nobody's to go outside
(15:15):
and lock the doors. It ended up where guns had
to be drawn, commands had to be given before John
eventually opened up the door and was questioned. It was
very clear what was going on inside. You've got a
bunch of underage people. There's a bunch of illegal things
here that they do not need to be having. Probably
some of you don't need to be having Yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
And I mean he obviously knew what he was doing
was wrong because he didn't want to let the police
in or open the door. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (15:41):
Well, the next day, on the twenty seventh of February,
he was charged with contributing to the delinquency of a
minor and he was arrested. Okay, And this ended up
bringing a different view of John to from the community
that they than what they originally thought of him, as
he didn't seem so upstanding. They're like, wait, you've got
(16:04):
you've got like teenagers like partying over at your house
and stuff, and you're in the military. Well, the same
day that John was arrested for that, police spoke with Katie,
being his estranged wife, and she had told them, well,
you know, this is the second time he's gotten in
trouble because a month ago we had gotten into a
fight and before She's like, before I knew it. He
(16:28):
ended up pulling a gun on me. He held it
up to my head and threatened to kill me and
threatened to kill my family.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
Run girl.
Speaker 3 (16:37):
And he was arrested and charged with domestic violence a
restraining order or now I think they've changed it to
personal protection order. Maybe depending on what state you're in,
was issued stating that Katie and John were not allowed
to have any contact with each other, and John was
worried that this would cause him to get in trouble
(16:57):
with the Army, and it did. A few days after
the domestic violence arrest, the Department of the Army cut
John's pay and suspended him from recruiting. They even reassigned
him to a small back office and opened an investigation
that could possibly lead to him being dismissed. Altogether, John
(17:18):
went from basically being out on the front lines in
the community talking to everybody, to sitting behind a desk,
and this didn't sit well with him. His career defined him,
that was what he was about, and now he felt
like his life had been ruined and he blamed Katie
(17:39):
for all of it. Well after domestic violence incident, Katie
began moving on. She decided, yeah, I've moved out. We're
split up. I don't think this is gonna work. We're
not gonna get back together, and she began making plans
to go through with a divorce from John, and even
though there was a restraining order in place, Katie still
(18:00):
went over to John's house from time to time because
I can't follow her for this. The two of them
shared a dog, and she didn't want to have to
give up not being able to see their dog, so
she would go over there sometimes to visit, but that
was it. Many of the witnesses, mostly the teens that
John had been hanging out with, so that they had
(18:22):
heard John make numerous remarks about wanting to kill Katie,
how she had ruined his military career, and that all
he ever wanted in his life was not going to
be anymore. And I put We've covered a lot of
cases where we're seeing stuff in the news and heard
about it where people later said, oh, I heard someone
(18:43):
say this, and I never really believed anything was going
to happen. And a lot of times it's words that
are just spoken out of anger.
Speaker 2 (18:52):
Yeah, and if you plan Devil's advocate, if you get
to court, I mean, that's the definition of the word
hearsay yeah. I mean I heard him say this, or
somebody told me he said this.
Speaker 3 (19:04):
Yeah, Y wentin you objection, here's thay can't do that.
But unfortunately, in this case, it ended up being more
than just words. And when we come back from the
short break, we're going to continue this story.
Speaker 2 (19:21):
All right, folks, we'll be right back after this quick
word from our sponsors, and welcome back to Carolina Crimes,
(19:45):
episode two twenty out of Simpsonville, South Carolina. And this
story of the Lave's and just his inappropriate behavior with
young people, and especially in this position as an army recruiter.
It just it's not sitting right with me. It sounds
like it's not sitting right with a community in Simpsonville
(20:07):
and local high schools and several parents where the teenagers
were using their home as a party house. And that's
that's a recipe for disaster. That's beyond inappropriate.
Speaker 3 (20:22):
Oh, absolutely, yes. Well, by this point, you know, Katie
and John had already split up. She was looking to
get divorced from him, and he had already gotten a
domestic violence charged against him and then more recently a
contributing to the delinquency of a minor. So he's already
(20:44):
not doing very well and his job in the army
has been affected as well. Yeah, and he ended up
expressing his anger and disdain towards Katie and how he
didn't want her to be around anymore because she was
blamed for all of these things happening to him. Well.
(21:05):
The last time that anyone actually saw or spoke to
Katie was around two fifteen in the afternoon on Sunday,
October twenty third of twenty sixteen, when she was leaving
her job at PetSmart. The next morning, she hadn't come home,
and when her mom tried to reach her, all the
calls went straight to voicemail. Her mom also learned that
(21:29):
Katie had failed to meet up with friends after work
the night the day before like she had originally planned,
and that just was not like her to not like
to dip out on plans and not say anything to anyone.
Did not answer her phone, and her mom grew very concerned.
Mother's intuition something's not right, and she ended up calling
(21:50):
the Simpsonville Police Department and reported her missing, and she
even told them that she had suspicions about John Well.
The search again with friends and family trying to locate Katie,
and after midnight, two of Katie's friends decided they were
going to try another place that she might possibly be
(22:12):
that was well known in the area. It was an
old farmhouse that had been abandoned for over twenty years,
and looking at it it looks we'll put the pictures up.
It looks like a haunted house kind of. It's overgrown,
you know, you can tell it was a white house,
real nice at some point, but it's just faded. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (22:31):
And I actually saw one of those yesterday, that off
side of the road coming back from York, and I
was like, man, that would have been a beautiful house
back in the day.
Speaker 3 (22:39):
Yes, and it looks like it would have been, but
unfortunately it wasn't like that anymore. And it sat at
the end of a dirt road surrounded by woods and
so you can't see it from the road. It was
a place known as a hangout for teens where they
would go and party. Buddy would know, and Katie and
(23:02):
John had been known to go there from time to
time as well. So her friends were like, maybe something's
going on here and we can try to find her.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
What were they doing there, just like, well they.
Speaker 3 (23:12):
Like to hang I mean, well, he liked to hang
out where teens partied, and that's where they would party.
They would go sometimes. It was probably more him than her,
but I guess she kind of just went along with him,
probably before they got married. As my guess, I don't.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
Know, maybe when she was a teen.
Speaker 3 (23:30):
Yeah. So after walking through the house, the two friends
went down into the basement and were met with a
horrifying scene. The friends ran out and called nine to
one one and told dispatchers that they had found their
friend Katie and they believed that she was dead. They
said that she was cold, pale, and unresponsive. When police arrived,
(23:54):
they found her in the basement in a concrete box.
This is what is described it. That's what they call
it in the news articles in the forty eight hours.
And my first thought was we have a cedar chest
at home, and I'm thinking, okay, like a chest, but
it's made out of concrete, Like, what is this? But
there's actually again, we'll put pictures up. There's pictures looking
(24:17):
at it. It's like you go down these concrete steps,
you've got the floor, but just under a window is
an open rectangular border about two or three feet high,
and there's nothing in the middle. So I don't know
what you used.
Speaker 2 (24:35):
To like a root seller, I guess if anybody has
an idea of what this could be.
Speaker 3 (24:41):
And like I said, again, we'll put pictures up, because
I was like, that's not at all what I thought
it was and it literally is just a rectangular outline
like something maybe used to be in it, and there
was nothing in the middle. And inside is where teenagers
would throw their beer cans and trash, and the this
is where Katie's body was found, folded up. She had
(25:06):
been stabbed in the neck and the knife was actually
still inside of her it had broken off.
Speaker 2 (25:12):
Oh my god.
Speaker 3 (25:13):
And they believed that she had actually been killed in
the gravel driveway and then drug faced down towards the
house and pushed through the basement window into this box,
which is right under the window. October twenty sixth, which
was the day that she was found. Later that morning,
(25:36):
police had to make an official death notification to her husband,
John because they are still married. Yeah, And when they
brought him in, detectives noticed that when they informed him
that Katie had been found and that she had been murdered,
they noticed that he didn't seem to appear shocked, surprised.
(25:59):
He didn't not typical questions like what happened? Where did
you find her? It was almost as if he already
knew the answers. Yeah, And they immediately were like, you know,
something's off about this guy.
Speaker 2 (26:14):
Yeah, A lot is.
Speaker 3 (26:16):
So a week later, they decided to bring John back
in to get more information, and it was clear that
he had a lot of anger towards Katie, telling him
them how she had flipped his life upside down, but
that he hadn't seen Katie in months. You know, her
and I were friends. Maybe she wasn't a great wife,
(26:38):
but I still lost a friend. And detectives said they
he appeared very arrogant, very cocky, very narcissistic, and they
just finally had to straight up ask him, did you
kill her? Did you have anything to do with this?
And he said absolutely not, and they didn't believe him.
(26:58):
But that's not enough. So the next person that they
wanted to speak to was John's seventeen year old girlfriend, Hannah,
who said she didn't know anything about the murder, and
they told her, you know, we believe that you're you
know more than what you're telling us, and she's like,
I don't know what else you want me to tell you.
(27:19):
I don't know anything. So they decided, well, maybe we'll
show her Katie's autopsy photos. See if that, yeah, rat
a little bit helps, And she did not have a
very good reaction to that. She got very upset. She
wouldn't look at him, and that's when she said, I
don't want to do this anymore. I'm done, and the
interview was over. Although detectives believed that John was responsible
(27:43):
for Katie's murder, they couldn't arrest him off of a hunch,
so they had to piece together enough information, including phone records,
which later showed that John had searched for topics such
as how to sharpen a knife, which I saw and
I wrote, huh, next time it because I'm thinking you
have military training.
Speaker 2 (28:05):
Yeah, but I don't know that really includes knife sharpening.
But that's kind of a I mean I have that's
pretty common sense.
Speaker 3 (28:15):
I have one that came with my in my butcher blog. Yeah,
and that's I mean, I do how to use it. Yeah,
So it's just I don't know. And they also found
on his phone that the day of Katie's murder, he
had sent a text to Hannah saying she's gone.
Speaker 2 (28:34):
Hm hmm, well that's yeah, that's not good.
Speaker 3 (28:39):
But before they could get a warrant enough, get enough
to serve a warrant, John left town and we're gonna
take this last break, and uh.
Speaker 2 (28:53):
Where he goes all right, Well, we'll be right back
after this quick word from our sponsors, and welcome back
(29:20):
to Carolina Crimes, episode two twenty out of Simpsonville, South Carolina.
And this seemingly senseless, well it was a senseless murder. Katie, uh,
I guess we'll still call her blove love a man
(29:40):
just found discarded and abandoned party house. She was so loving,
she said, loved life, friendly, love the animals, I mean.
And her husband just seems to her estranged husband seems
(30:00):
to just care less, which is certainly a red flag.
And his teenage girlfriend she showed all the signs of
being extremely upset when showed the autopsy photos, and.
Speaker 4 (30:15):
Which I feel anybody would, yeah, but certainly, And then
that coupled with right before we went on to break
you said he he skipped down.
Speaker 3 (30:28):
Shortly after the last interview, John took off and nobody
knew where he was. He was officially charged with Katie's
murder on November eighteenth, and Hannah was also gone, and
she had been reported missing by her parents on November
twenty first, and police believed that she was with John
(30:49):
and the two of them had dipped.
Speaker 2 (30:50):
Out together or did something worse happen.
Speaker 3 (30:55):
Well, this man had been professionally trained in defense and
survival skills, so this made him more of a unique
fugitive than what they normally deal with. So the United
States Marshalls were contacted to help assist law enforcement in
finding John and hopefully Hannah. They were able to obtain
(31:17):
surveillance footage of John and Hannah at a store, so
she was alive, and they even saw a still picture
of him at an ATM at one point, and his
Yukon had been spotted through license plate readers traveling across Alabama, Texas,
New Mexico, and California, but by the time police would respond,
(31:41):
he was already gone.
Speaker 2 (31:44):
Well.
Speaker 3 (31:44):
After a month in December, Hannah contacted her parents from Eugene, Oregon,
telling them that she wanted to come home, and once
she was back in South Carolina, detectives interviewed her again
and Hannah told them that, yes, she had been kind
of on the run with John this entire time, when
(32:05):
all of a sudden he just up and left her
in Eugene, Oregon, and she didn't know where he was,
didn't know where he was going.
Speaker 2 (32:13):
Well, at least she was safe.
Speaker 3 (32:14):
Yes, and you know, according to her like, this is
supposed to be some kind of fairy tale. We're gonna
be on the road, We're in love, and she quickly
realized that this was not the case. Being on the
run is not a glamorous lifestyle, and at one point
John had actually in the woods of Oregon or somewhere
(32:35):
in the Pacific Northwest, had gotten his yukon stuck to
the point where they couldn't get out, so he they
had to hike miles down this mountain to get back
to the civilization and ended up having this panhandle just
to get by. Yeah, so she was like, this ain't
(32:56):
for me. Yeah, this isn't the dream that I had.
And Hannah even said that during this road trip, John
confessed to her that he killed Katie and apparently he
I guess I don't know the details of if he
(33:17):
took her or what, but he did tell Hannah that
the last thing that she's that Katie said to him
was if you let me go, I won't call the police,
and unfortunately that didn't happen. Hannah did admit that she
dropped John off at PetSmart the day that Katie went missing,
but said she had no idea that he had any
(33:38):
plans of killing her. Police did learn, however, that Hannah
had helped him get rid of Katie's car afterwards. In
Katie's twenty eleven black Ford Fiesta had been found around
five point thirty pm on Wednesday, just three days after
she went missing on white Horse Road, just miles away
in Greenville County.
Speaker 2 (33:59):
Yeah, I know exactly what that is. Oh.
Speaker 3 (34:00):
Yes, So Hannah wasn't charged with anything right away because
they wanted to use her to hopefully help find out
where John was. Hannah was still hesitant to give police
all the information because though he did an awful thing,
she admitted that she still did care about him. She
(34:21):
still loved him. And I feel like this is a
classic case of an older person taking advantage and manipulating
a younger person.
Speaker 2 (34:29):
Deaf certainly, and then.
Speaker 3 (34:32):
Just playing off of their you know, being naive and
not really knowing about the world. And I'm just so
much smarter and so more grown and no. Well, months
turned into years with no new leads on where John
might be, and police continue to interview Hannah over the years,
but she still maintained that the two did not speak anymore,
(34:57):
and in twenty nineteen, the story actually premiered on in
pursuit with John Walsh to hopefully gain some traction to
see if anybody knew where he was. Then, in twenty
twenty two, six years after Katie was murdered, Hannah finally
(35:17):
came clean to police and said that she had been
lying to them. She admitted that she had actually been
in contact with John the entire time, communicating through Facebook, Messenger,
and Snapchat, but they actually stopped talking in twenty nineteen.
Speaker 2 (35:33):
Wow, it seems like they would be able to trace that,
or we're able to kind of look at what Hannah
was doing digitally.
Speaker 3 (35:42):
I don't know, and I don't know if you'd have
to get warrant. You'd probably to get a warrant for that,
and if they had enough to be able to get
the warrant to prove that she was possibly lying other
than just their instincts of we don't believe you. Yeah,
she had had time to grow up and mature and
(36:05):
by no longer communicating with John having this distance, she
realized that what she had done was wrong, and she
told police he might still be an organ. He does
have a new girlfriend that he lives with. I don't
know specifically, the address or anything, but I believe that
he's probably still an Oregon. So they were able to
(36:26):
track the new girlfriend to Medford, Oregon and discovered a
phone number that John had used to text an unknown woman,
which ended up being a girlfriend. She was tracked down
and police were able to find an address for her,
where they begin to stake out the house. A shirtless
(36:47):
male was seen leaving the house and he appeared to
match the description of John, but because so much time
had passed, they really had to be sure that this
is who they were looking for. And John had some
unique tattoos that they had taken pictures of when they
initially interviewed him six years earlier, and one of them
was a pirate on his forearm. From a distance, they
(37:10):
could kind of make out that something was there. I'm
sure they've got their binoculars and they were able to
identify it and they made their move. The US marshals
and local law enforcement yelled commands at the man, who
they said appeared very surprised that they were there. I
have to believe after that much time, you start to
(37:32):
get a little comfortable in him being cocky. Yeah, there
was there, like he really believed that we were never
going to find him.
Speaker 2 (37:38):
I mean, you go back to the police interviews. It
seemed like he thought he was the smartest man in
the room and very arrogant. Yeah, yeah, I imagine he
would be surprised.
Speaker 3 (37:52):
Well, he was arrested without incident, but told them you
got the wrong guy. My name is Ben Klein. They
knew that was a lie, and they were able to
fingerprint him on the spot with a mobile device that
they had, and within five minutes it came back to
John Blavelte.
Speaker 2 (38:09):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (38:10):
The woman he was living with had absolutely no clue
who he really was. So they had an audio interview
with her and they were like what because she came home.
Speaker 2 (38:25):
After the fact, Yeah, what is going on?
Speaker 3 (38:27):
And they explained to her that he is being arrested
and she's like for what? And they go for a
murder out of South Carolina and she goes, are you
effing kidding me? She had no clue who he was.
She said, he's been here, he watches my animals, he
does odd jobs. We've been together for six years. He
lives with me. Like, I don't I can't even believe
(38:49):
this is happening. They said. She was clearly in love
with him and clearly had a different perception of who
he was, which is what he portrayed himself to be.
Wow Well, John was brought back to South Carolina to
stand trial, and three months later Hannah was charged with
five felonies, including obstruction of justice and accessory after the fact.
(39:13):
She pled not guilty and was released on bail and
as of now she is still awaiting trial.
Speaker 2 (39:18):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (39:20):
In September of twenty twenty four, eight years after Katie's murder,
John finally stood trial and Hannah testified against him. She
wasn't offered anything, but she decided to speak and do
the right thing. Yeah, And after four days of testimony
and just in five hours of deliberation, John was found
(39:42):
guilty of murder and he was sentenced on the spot
to life without parole and he is currently at McCormick
correction Correctional and in February of this year, his lawyers
filed an appeal, but as of now it hasn't gone anywhere.
Wow and her Katie's sisters and mom had a chance
(40:04):
to speak at his trial and finally they were glad
to finally be able to get justice. They were glad
when they got the phone call that he had been
found and that now he's going to be, you know,
paying for this crime, this unnecessary crime that he committed,
this life that he took in.
Speaker 2 (40:25):
A beautiful life. Yeah, beautiful person.
Speaker 3 (40:28):
And she was just and I look at her picture
and I'm like, I don't know. The first thing that
thought to me was she just has such kind eyes,
like I don't know, just that's something that popped into
my head. And just a sweet looking girl.
Speaker 2 (40:39):
And she wanted a good life, a normal life, and
which everybody does. And it turned out that the man
she married, it seemed he was not who he seemed
to be.
Speaker 3 (40:55):
And well, it almost seemed like he was the kind
of person that he portrayed himself very differently than the
actual person that he was.
Speaker 2 (41:06):
Yeah, and I would I would like to know a
lot about his background. I mean, what made him that way?
What made him seek the acceptance of high schoolers? I mean,
was he.
Speaker 3 (41:23):
Sty or a nerd.
Speaker 2 (41:26):
Or you know, join the armed forces? And then he was,
you know, thought he was something above. I mean, this
isn't to discredit anybody in the arm service. They certainly are,
but if this was kind of his outlet and his
way to be like, Okay, I made it. Now I'm
going to go back and I'm going to be the
party guy and I'm going to be accepted by high schoolers.
(41:50):
I'm just I'm spitballing here. But I wonder what created.
Speaker 3 (41:54):
This and what makes you need to seek acceptance from
You're like, I'm going to go to these high scho
and they're definitely going to give me the acceptance and
the attention and the respect. But what makes you think
that you can't get that from people your own age?
And also the validation should have been there with Katie
marrying him, you know, she they were together for a while,
(42:16):
she married him, she believed that he was good enough
to be her life partner, and he ended up failing her.
Speaker 2 (42:25):
I mean, he's not a bad looking guy. I've seeing
the pictures in this case.
Speaker 3 (42:28):
And.
Speaker 2 (42:30):
I don't I don't know, I don't know why he
was like that.
Speaker 3 (42:33):
That'd be a good case study.
Speaker 2 (42:34):
It would be, it would be but a wonderful job
on that. We appreciate that, and our heart goes out
to Katie's.
Speaker 3 (42:43):
That's and for and for something like that to happen
at all is awful, But for it to happen where
she's trying to get out. You know, she had already
was like done with that situation. She was moving on.
And I mean again, I see how our cases mirror
each other as weird. But it's just all because you, really,
(43:05):
I blame you for my downfall, when in reality, you
are responsible for your own downfall because of the poor
decisions that you're making.
Speaker 2 (43:12):
Man in the mirror always get you, That's right, it does. Well.
Thank you so much, Danielle. Thank you for joining us
for this week's episode, episode two twenty a Carolina Crimes.
Few reminders. If you're not already following us on social media,
check us out on Facebook at Carolina Crimes Podcast. You'll
see some pictures from this week's episode. As of every
episode back in the archives. We're available on Apple, iTunes,
(43:36):
Apple podcast, Spotify, iHeartRadio, anywhere your favorite podcasts are found.
Check us out there, throw us a five star review,
mash that purple subscribe button, and let us know what
you like about the show, your pet's names, anything like that.
We'd certainly appreciate it. Also, if you're looking to get
some Carolina Crimes swag for the spring summer, some of
(43:58):
these beach trips coming up, bearing down hard on Memorial Day.
It's already may, so check us out at Carolina crimestore
dot com. Get you some sweet Carolina Crimes paraphernalia to
wear out on the beach. We would appreciate it, and
we appreciate all you for spending some time with us
here on Carolina Crimes. See you next week.
For over three hundred and fifty years, the state of
South Carolina has been the setting for some of the
most horrendous crimes ever committed. Some have gained global notoriety,
some have been forgotten, and others have been swept under
the rug completely. Now, two South Carolina natives and true
(00:25):
crime enthusiasts have teamed up to examine these heinous acts
in detail, giving their perspective of the evil that has
resided in the Palmetto State. You're listening to Carolina Crimes.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
And welcome back to Carolina Crimes, episode two twenty. I'm
one of your hosts, Matt Hyres along.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
With Danielle Myers.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
O're thrilled that you joined us here this week. Thank
you so much. Last week, have you won a recent
one which is allays raw. A lot of emotions still
at play with that one out of Greenwood Davis McClendon murder,
(01:11):
and appreciate all the feedback that everybody was able to
give us about that one. Still fresh in a lot
of minds. We want to go ahead and cover that.
It was very highly requested from listeners of the show
that we do cover that one and again this week
we're kind of staying in the same well, the same
(01:32):
area of the state and the same era. I mean
this is this is very very recent as well, and
you're gonna bring us this one Danielle out of Simpsonville,
South Carolina, this week.
Speaker 3 (01:43):
That's right.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
But before we get started, and as always, we're gonna
go ahead and remind folks, if you'd like to check
out pictures from each episode, go ahead and join us
on social media on Facebook at Carolina Crimes Podcast. Also
over on Twitter at sc Crimes pod. If you're looking
to support the show and like what you hear, we
(02:05):
encourage you. If you're listening on Spotify, Apple iTunes, or
Apple Podcast, go ahead and leave a five star review,
Mash that purple subscribe button and write a little something
you like about the show, tell us your pets names,
what you're having for dinner, anything. It just helps that
algorithm go up. And if you're looking to support the
show and get some sweet Carolina Crimes paraphernalia for your back,
(02:25):
check us out over at Carolina Crimestore dot com. We
would greatly appreciate it. And without any further ado, we're
going to Simpsonville, South Carolina, and for those of you
that don't know quite where that is. Simpsonville, South Carolina,
is located in southeastern Greenville County. Greenville County, of course,
(02:48):
up in the northwest portion of the state of South
Carolina and Simpsonville. We have been here before and covered
their history pretty in depth, so we're gonna hit some
of the highlights this week. Simpsonville was named for a
local farmer blacksmith, an eventual postmaster in the area, Peter Simpson.
(03:09):
It was named that in the mid eighteen hundreds, but
quickly Simpsonville became, like most upstate towns, a textile town
at the turn of the century when the Woodside mill
was built. They've got an antique water water tower that's
still standing this day. And Simpsonville. They said it's considered
(03:31):
a portion of the Golden Strip, and I'd never heard
that before, but they said it consists of the towns
of Simpsonville, Malden, and Fountain End, all right there, kind
of close together. Now. Simpsonville is a home to around
twenty four thousand residents today and home to various industries
(03:52):
such as Comet, Milliken, and sealed Air. I think in
our last episode about Simpsonville, one of the one of
the victims work to come out. Yes, and some of
the more famous folks in residents of Simpsonville. We're gonna
start off with Danielle Brooks. She is an actress. She
(04:13):
played Tasty on Orange is the New Black. Also, Major
League pitcher Emilio Pagan is from Simpsonville, born in Simpsonville.
He pitches now for the Cincinnati Reds and he's a
member of the Puerto Rican national team. And in addition
to him, Tommy Jones, a professional bowler who was named
(04:37):
of the Pro Bowling Association's Hall of Fame in twenty twenty. Wow,
So some famous folks out of Simpsonville and Simpsonville. Going
back to Greenwood, they've got about the same amount of
residents and Simpsonville, that area is really growing, It really is.
Had some friends from rock Hill actually just moved down
(04:57):
to Simpsonville a couple of years ago, the Wingotts, And
it's growing by leaps and bounds over there. Oh. I bet, yes,
as much as Greenville, Greenville County is. So without any
further ado, like I said, let's go ahead and dive
into this one this week.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
Danielle, Well, like you said, this is similar in about
the time frame similar in kind of like the same area.
And it's also similar in that forty eight hours also
covered an episode on this okay, like the one that
you did last week.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
So we don't have a subscription shared subscription, but no.
Speaker 3 (05:35):
So it's funny that we end up sometimes having so
many similarities on stories when we don't even talk about them.
So yeah, we'll get right into it. So twenty year
old Catherine she went by Katie Boider, was a pretty
and loving young woman, and though she was petite, standing
at only five to one so about three inches shorter
(05:57):
than me, she had a larger in life personality, making
friends with everyone that she met, and her family described
her as a ray of sunshine. And she was also
a huge well known animal lover. A lot of pictures
of her with dogs, cats, is kind of like, you know,
(06:20):
I felt a little connection because I said, I'm the
kind of the same way any kind of animal I
passed by, I'm going to try to get its.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
Attention, y'all. Do I mean? I was sitting there, I
was like, yeah, it sounds a lot like you.
Speaker 4 (06:33):
Well.
Speaker 3 (06:33):
John Blavelt was a twenty six year old army recruiter
who was very well liked and very respected in the community.
He was someone who was viewed as upstanding and had
a love of serving his country. He had served in
the military, He had served overseas in Iraq, and also
(06:55):
had a full you know, patches on his uniform to
show of all his accomplished mints. So j yeah, yeah,
so he was just very well decorated. His career was
everything to him. With Katie working at a sub shop
next door to the recruiting office, it was just a
matter of time before the two ran into each other,
(07:17):
and when they did, they hit it off immediately. Even
though there was a six year difference, not that big
of a deal, and she seemed to feel that this
was the person for her. She felt very confident in
her decision as continuing to have him as a partner.
He's going to be able to take care of me.
He does really well for himself.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
Okay, So they made it official.
Speaker 3 (07:42):
Yeah. So the two of them began dating and things
were going really well, and in the summer of twenty fifteen,
John even managed to convince Katie to enlist in the army.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
Also oh okay, but he was a recruiter.
Speaker 3 (07:58):
Yeah, so okay.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
He recruited a girl ran in it.
Speaker 3 (08:01):
But just two months later, there was a health issue
that came up with Katie that allowed her it didn't
allow her to continue with her training, and it was
some issue with her spine and they're like, you're not
going to be able to continue your career nothing that
you've done, and she was medically discharged.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (08:20):
Well, a year into their relationship, Katie surprised her family
with an announcement. Her mom had said that they were
all hanging out at the house having a good time,
and all of a sudden, Katie just said, oh, by
the way, I got married today. We went down to
the courthouse.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
Quite a surprise.
Speaker 3 (08:43):
Yes, so she was. The mom was like, you did
what I.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
Guess it's like the definition of a loping Yeah.
Speaker 3 (08:51):
Wow, yeah, you just go off and do it. They
went to the courthouse. It kind of sounds like they
went on the way and then showed up to her
mom's house like.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
A Nike style just do it, do it like Judy Jimstone.
Speaker 3 (09:05):
So they though her family was in shock, they were
very happy for her. It was very clear that Katie
was very happy and the newlyweds went on their honeymoon
and when they got back, Katie ended up moving into
a four bedroom house that John owned in Fountain En, Okay.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
So a single guy owning a four bedroom house.
Speaker 3 (09:27):
And they showed they showed it one of the interviews
on forty eight hours. They were interviewing in the driveway.
And it's a decent, cute little house, got a small
little porch garage. I mean it was. It was a
good starter home, especially with her being so young.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
Yeah, I would say so.
Speaker 3 (09:47):
And Katie at this point had also gotten a job
at a local pet smart and it allowed her to
do what she loved to do. So she was very
excited about her new job, this new house, her marriage,
and hopefully being able to start a family at some
point because her family had said that she was very
adamant she wanted to be a mom at some point.
(10:11):
But it wasn't too long after Katie moved in that
the house became less of a home and more of
a hangout spot for local teenagers.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
Huh.
Speaker 3 (10:24):
Yeah. So John worked at an office, an army recruiting
office in a shopping center, but he also had a
booth set up at a local high school so that
he could recruit high schoolers whenever you're getting out, if
this is what you want to do. So he spent
(10:44):
time up there as well, and he was considered a
role model to a lot of these students. He got
along with them really well, spoke to them about anything,
and they just felt comfortable around him, so much so
that he took his jobs seriously enough to the point
where he felt that he needed to mentor them after
(11:04):
school hours by hanging out at parties with them. So
he liked to party with the teenagers that he was
a role model for.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
Yeah, that's a pretty terrible decision. Yeah, I mean you can.
You can hang out. You can be a role model
at school. You don't have to be a role model
after hours unless someone happens upon you in public. You
don't need to be.
Speaker 3 (11:30):
Partying with intentionally, you know, going to house parties. You're
in your late twenties. Come on, no, John, begin having
teens over where there would be alcohol, weed, acid, and
even cocaine.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
So have them over it at their home.
Speaker 3 (11:49):
Yes, this is so, He would be like, guys, I
have a house. You know, you don't have to go
to these places, he sketchy places. Come to hang out
at my house. I've got coke and weed, nassi alcohol,
like y'all can just have at it. And he was
like a like a cool adult to hang out with.
But Katie's over here, like no, And he even had
(12:11):
a few teenagers like he invited some of them, like, oh,
you're having issues at home, you need a place to stay.
You can stay here temporarily. And a lot of these
decisions were made without consulting his new wife. So he's
already not starting out strong.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
No, this is this is pretty rough already. He's uh
quay crossed over the line inappropriate?
Speaker 3 (12:35):
Yeah, he he jumped two feet over the line a
long time ago. Yeah, well, for very good reason. Katie
became very frustrated with this situation and was like this,
this is not what I envisioned when I moved into
this house and when I got married. This isn't I
didn't think that my house was going to be like
a NonStop party, like I'm trying to go to work,
(12:55):
come home, chill, and God knows who's at my house
when I get home. And she told him like this
needs to stop. I'm not doing this anymore. If you
continue with this, this isn't gonna work out, and whether
he didn't believe that she would actually be done or
he just didn't care, but her request fell on deaf ears,
(13:18):
and just three months after getting married, Katie moved out
and ended up moving back in with her mom in Simpsonville.
One person that didn't seem to be too bothered by
this split and was probably actually a little excited about it,
was seventeen year old Hannah Thompson, who was one of
(13:39):
the teenagers that would hang out at the house. And
Hannah had made it very clear that she didn't really
care for Katie and she had developed feelings for John,
and Hannah did basically everything that John told her to do.
She was even described as being his little puppy dog,
you know, that little I look up to him. He's older,
(14:00):
he can do no wrong kind of thing, and he
seemed to really like this attention. And the two of
them were apparently were so close that as soon as
Katie moved out, Hannah moved in. And she's seventeen and
he's he's like probably twenty seven to twenty eight at
this point. And I put this wrong on a lot
(14:23):
of levels.
Speaker 2 (14:24):
Yeah, and she was she was probably a high school student.
Speaker 3 (14:28):
Still, and there could be. There's probably a chance. I'm
guessing she went to the high school that he would
recruit at from time to time, so he probably like
saw her as the whole a little wink and a smile.
And there were other teenagers that still went there that
even said that they thought it was weird that they
apparently had started well this kind of relationship. They were like,
uh no, we're not like we're here to party, but
(14:49):
we're not doing all that.
Speaker 2 (14:53):
Well.
Speaker 3 (14:53):
On February twenty sixth, the twenty sixteen, Hannah's father contacted
police and said that he hadn't seen his in two weeks.
So officers showed up at John's home, but John refused
to come to the door. There were groups of teens
hanging out inside because there was a party going on,
and he had told them that nobody's to go outside
(15:15):
and lock the doors. It ended up where guns had
to be drawn, commands had to be given before John
eventually opened up the door and was questioned. It was
very clear what was going on inside. You've got a
bunch of underage people. There's a bunch of illegal things
here that they do not need to be having. Probably
some of you don't need to be having Yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
And I mean he obviously knew what he was doing
was wrong because he didn't want to let the police
in or open the door. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (15:41):
Well, the next day, on the twenty seventh of February,
he was charged with contributing to the delinquency of a
minor and he was arrested. Okay, And this ended up
bringing a different view of John to from the community
that they than what they originally thought of him, as
he didn't seem so upstanding. They're like, wait, you've got
(16:04):
you've got like teenagers like partying over at your house
and stuff, and you're in the military. Well, the same
day that John was arrested for that, police spoke with Katie,
being his estranged wife, and she had told them, well,
you know, this is the second time he's gotten in
trouble because a month ago we had gotten into a
fight and before She's like, before I knew it. He
(16:28):
ended up pulling a gun on me. He held it
up to my head and threatened to kill me and
threatened to kill my family.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
Run girl.
Speaker 3 (16:37):
And he was arrested and charged with domestic violence a
restraining order or now I think they've changed it to
personal protection order. Maybe depending on what state you're in,
was issued stating that Katie and John were not allowed
to have any contact with each other, and John was
worried that this would cause him to get in trouble
(16:57):
with the Army, and it did. A few days after
the domestic violence arrest, the Department of the Army cut
John's pay and suspended him from recruiting. They even reassigned
him to a small back office and opened an investigation
that could possibly lead to him being dismissed. Altogether, John
(17:18):
went from basically being out on the front lines in
the community talking to everybody, to sitting behind a desk,
and this didn't sit well with him. His career defined him,
that was what he was about, and now he felt
like his life had been ruined and he blamed Katie
(17:39):
for all of it. Well after domestic violence incident, Katie
began moving on. She decided, yeah, I've moved out. We're
split up. I don't think this is gonna work. We're
not gonna get back together, and she began making plans
to go through with a divorce from John, and even
though there was a restraining order in place, Katie still
(18:00):
went over to John's house from time to time because
I can't follow her for this. The two of them
shared a dog, and she didn't want to have to
give up not being able to see their dog, so
she would go over there sometimes to visit, but that
was it. Many of the witnesses, mostly the teens that
John had been hanging out with, so that they had
(18:22):
heard John make numerous remarks about wanting to kill Katie,
how she had ruined his military career, and that all
he ever wanted in his life was not going to
be anymore. And I put We've covered a lot of
cases where we're seeing stuff in the news and heard
about it where people later said, oh, I heard someone
(18:43):
say this, and I never really believed anything was going
to happen. And a lot of times it's words that
are just spoken out of anger.
Speaker 2 (18:52):
Yeah, and if you plan Devil's advocate, if you get
to court, I mean, that's the definition of the word
hearsay yeah. I mean I heard him say this, or
somebody told me he said this.
Speaker 3 (19:04):
Yeah, Y wentin you objection, here's thay can't do that.
But unfortunately, in this case, it ended up being more
than just words. And when we come back from the
short break, we're going to continue this story.
Speaker 2 (19:21):
All right, folks, we'll be right back after this quick
word from our sponsors, and welcome back to Carolina Crimes,
(19:45):
episode two twenty out of Simpsonville, South Carolina. And this
story of the Lave's and just his inappropriate behavior with
young people, and especially in this position as an army recruiter.
It just it's not sitting right with me. It sounds
like it's not sitting right with a community in Simpsonville
(20:07):
and local high schools and several parents where the teenagers
were using their home as a party house. And that's
that's a recipe for disaster. That's beyond inappropriate.
Speaker 3 (20:22):
Oh, absolutely, yes. Well, by this point, you know, Katie
and John had already split up. She was looking to
get divorced from him, and he had already gotten a
domestic violence charged against him and then more recently a
contributing to the delinquency of a minor. So he's already
(20:44):
not doing very well and his job in the army
has been affected as well. Yeah, and he ended up
expressing his anger and disdain towards Katie and how he
didn't want her to be around anymore because she was
blamed for all of these things happening to him. Well.
(21:05):
The last time that anyone actually saw or spoke to
Katie was around two fifteen in the afternoon on Sunday,
October twenty third of twenty sixteen, when she was leaving
her job at PetSmart. The next morning, she hadn't come home,
and when her mom tried to reach her, all the
calls went straight to voicemail. Her mom also learned that
(21:29):
Katie had failed to meet up with friends after work
the night the day before like she had originally planned,
and that just was not like her to not like
to dip out on plans and not say anything to anyone.
Did not answer her phone, and her mom grew very concerned.
Mother's intuition something's not right, and she ended up calling
(21:50):
the Simpsonville Police Department and reported her missing, and she
even told them that she had suspicions about John Well.
The search again with friends and family trying to locate Katie,
and after midnight, two of Katie's friends decided they were
going to try another place that she might possibly be
(22:12):
that was well known in the area. It was an
old farmhouse that had been abandoned for over twenty years,
and looking at it it looks we'll put the pictures up.
It looks like a haunted house kind of. It's overgrown,
you know, you can tell it was a white house,
real nice at some point, but it's just faded. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (22:31):
And I actually saw one of those yesterday, that off
side of the road coming back from York, and I
was like, man, that would have been a beautiful house
back in the day.
Speaker 3 (22:39):
Yes, and it looks like it would have been, but
unfortunately it wasn't like that anymore. And it sat at
the end of a dirt road surrounded by woods and
so you can't see it from the road. It was
a place known as a hangout for teens where they
would go and party. Buddy would know, and Katie and
(23:02):
John had been known to go there from time to
time as well. So her friends were like, maybe something's
going on here and we can try to find her.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
What were they doing there, just like, well they.
Speaker 3 (23:12):
Like to hang I mean, well, he liked to hang
out where teens partied, and that's where they would party.
They would go sometimes. It was probably more him than her,
but I guess she kind of just went along with him,
probably before they got married. As my guess, I don't.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
Know, maybe when she was a teen.
Speaker 3 (23:30):
Yeah. So after walking through the house, the two friends
went down into the basement and were met with a
horrifying scene. The friends ran out and called nine to
one one and told dispatchers that they had found their
friend Katie and they believed that she was dead. They
said that she was cold, pale, and unresponsive. When police arrived,
(23:54):
they found her in the basement in a concrete box.
This is what is described it. That's what they call
it in the news articles in the forty eight hours.
And my first thought was we have a cedar chest
at home, and I'm thinking, okay, like a chest, but
it's made out of concrete, Like, what is this? But
there's actually again, we'll put pictures up. There's pictures looking
(24:17):
at it. It's like you go down these concrete steps,
you've got the floor, but just under a window is
an open rectangular border about two or three feet high,
and there's nothing in the middle. So I don't know
what you used.
Speaker 2 (24:35):
To like a root seller, I guess if anybody has
an idea of what this could be.
Speaker 3 (24:41):
And like I said, again, we'll put pictures up, because
I was like, that's not at all what I thought
it was and it literally is just a rectangular outline
like something maybe used to be in it, and there
was nothing in the middle. And inside is where teenagers
would throw their beer cans and trash, and the this
is where Katie's body was found, folded up. She had
(25:06):
been stabbed in the neck and the knife was actually
still inside of her it had broken off.
Speaker 2 (25:12):
Oh my god.
Speaker 3 (25:13):
And they believed that she had actually been killed in
the gravel driveway and then drug faced down towards the
house and pushed through the basement window into this box,
which is right under the window. October twenty sixth, which
was the day that she was found. Later that morning,
(25:36):
police had to make an official death notification to her husband,
John because they are still married. Yeah, And when they
brought him in, detectives noticed that when they informed him
that Katie had been found and that she had been murdered,
they noticed that he didn't seem to appear shocked, surprised.
(25:59):
He didn't not typical questions like what happened? Where did
you find her? It was almost as if he already
knew the answers. Yeah, And they immediately were like, you know,
something's off about this guy.
Speaker 2 (26:14):
Yeah, A lot is.
Speaker 3 (26:16):
So a week later, they decided to bring John back
in to get more information, and it was clear that
he had a lot of anger towards Katie, telling him
them how she had flipped his life upside down, but
that he hadn't seen Katie in months. You know, her
and I were friends. Maybe she wasn't a great wife,
(26:38):
but I still lost a friend. And detectives said they
he appeared very arrogant, very cocky, very narcissistic, and they
just finally had to straight up ask him, did you
kill her? Did you have anything to do with this?
And he said absolutely not, and they didn't believe him.
(26:58):
But that's not enough. So the next person that they
wanted to speak to was John's seventeen year old girlfriend, Hannah,
who said she didn't know anything about the murder, and
they told her, you know, we believe that you're you
know more than what you're telling us, and she's like,
I don't know what else you want me to tell you.
(27:19):
I don't know anything. So they decided, well, maybe we'll
show her Katie's autopsy photos. See if that, yeah, rat
a little bit helps, And she did not have a
very good reaction to that. She got very upset. She
wouldn't look at him, and that's when she said, I
don't want to do this anymore. I'm done, and the
interview was over. Although detectives believed that John was responsible
(27:43):
for Katie's murder, they couldn't arrest him off of a hunch,
so they had to piece together enough information, including phone records,
which later showed that John had searched for topics such
as how to sharpen a knife, which I saw and
I wrote, huh, next time it because I'm thinking you
have military training.
Speaker 2 (28:05):
Yeah, but I don't know that really includes knife sharpening.
But that's kind of a I mean I have that's
pretty common sense.
Speaker 3 (28:15):
I have one that came with my in my butcher blog. Yeah,
and that's I mean, I do how to use it. Yeah,
So it's just I don't know. And they also found
on his phone that the day of Katie's murder, he
had sent a text to Hannah saying she's gone.
Speaker 2 (28:34):
Hm hmm, well that's yeah, that's not good.
Speaker 3 (28:39):
But before they could get a warrant enough, get enough
to serve a warrant, John left town and we're gonna
take this last break, and uh.
Speaker 2 (28:53):
Where he goes all right, Well, we'll be right back
after this quick word from our sponsors, and welcome back
(29:20):
to Carolina Crimes, episode two twenty out of Simpsonville, South Carolina.
And this seemingly senseless, well it was a senseless murder. Katie, uh,
I guess we'll still call her blove love a man
(29:40):
just found discarded and abandoned party house. She was so loving,
she said, loved life, friendly, love the animals, I mean.
And her husband just seems to her estranged husband seems
(30:00):
to just care less, which is certainly a red flag.
And his teenage girlfriend she showed all the signs of
being extremely upset when showed the autopsy photos, and.
Speaker 4 (30:15):
Which I feel anybody would, yeah, but certainly, And then
that coupled with right before we went on to break
you said he he skipped down.
Speaker 3 (30:28):
Shortly after the last interview, John took off and nobody
knew where he was. He was officially charged with Katie's
murder on November eighteenth, and Hannah was also gone, and
she had been reported missing by her parents on November
twenty first, and police believed that she was with John
(30:49):
and the two of them had dipped.
Speaker 2 (30:50):
Out together or did something worse happen.
Speaker 3 (30:55):
Well, this man had been professionally trained in defense and
survival skills, so this made him more of a unique
fugitive than what they normally deal with. So the United
States Marshalls were contacted to help assist law enforcement in
finding John and hopefully Hannah. They were able to obtain
(31:17):
surveillance footage of John and Hannah at a store, so
she was alive, and they even saw a still picture
of him at an ATM at one point, and his
Yukon had been spotted through license plate readers traveling across Alabama, Texas,
New Mexico, and California, but by the time police would respond,
(31:41):
he was already gone.
Speaker 2 (31:44):
Well.
Speaker 3 (31:44):
After a month in December, Hannah contacted her parents from Eugene, Oregon,
telling them that she wanted to come home, and once
she was back in South Carolina, detectives interviewed her again
and Hannah told them that, yes, she had been kind
of on the run with John this entire time, when
(32:05):
all of a sudden he just up and left her
in Eugene, Oregon, and she didn't know where he was,
didn't know where he was going.
Speaker 2 (32:13):
Well, at least she was safe.
Speaker 3 (32:14):
Yes, and you know, according to her like, this is
supposed to be some kind of fairy tale. We're gonna
be on the road, We're in love, and she quickly
realized that this was not the case. Being on the
run is not a glamorous lifestyle, and at one point
John had actually in the woods of Oregon or somewhere
(32:35):
in the Pacific Northwest, had gotten his yukon stuck to
the point where they couldn't get out, so he they
had to hike miles down this mountain to get back
to the civilization and ended up having this panhandle just
to get by. Yeah, so she was like, this ain't
(32:56):
for me. Yeah, this isn't the dream that I had.
And Hannah even said that during this road trip, John
confessed to her that he killed Katie and apparently he
I guess I don't know the details of if he
(33:17):
took her or what, but he did tell Hannah that
the last thing that she's that Katie said to him
was if you let me go, I won't call the police,
and unfortunately that didn't happen. Hannah did admit that she
dropped John off at PetSmart the day that Katie went missing,
but said she had no idea that he had any
(33:38):
plans of killing her. Police did learn, however, that Hannah
had helped him get rid of Katie's car afterwards. In
Katie's twenty eleven black Ford Fiesta had been found around
five point thirty pm on Wednesday, just three days after
she went missing on white Horse Road, just miles away
in Greenville County.
Speaker 2 (33:59):
Yeah, I know exactly what that is. Oh.
Speaker 3 (34:00):
Yes, So Hannah wasn't charged with anything right away because
they wanted to use her to hopefully help find out
where John was. Hannah was still hesitant to give police
all the information because though he did an awful thing,
she admitted that she still did care about him. She
(34:21):
still loved him. And I feel like this is a
classic case of an older person taking advantage and manipulating
a younger person.
Speaker 2 (34:29):
Deaf certainly, and then.
Speaker 3 (34:32):
Just playing off of their you know, being naive and
not really knowing about the world. And I'm just so
much smarter and so more grown and no. Well, months
turned into years with no new leads on where John
might be, and police continue to interview Hannah over the years,
but she still maintained that the two did not speak anymore,
(34:57):
and in twenty nineteen, the story actually premiered on in
pursuit with John Walsh to hopefully gain some traction to
see if anybody knew where he was. Then, in twenty
twenty two, six years after Katie was murdered, Hannah finally
(35:17):
came clean to police and said that she had been
lying to them. She admitted that she had actually been
in contact with John the entire time, communicating through Facebook, Messenger,
and Snapchat, but they actually stopped talking in twenty nineteen.
Speaker 2 (35:33):
Wow, it seems like they would be able to trace that,
or we're able to kind of look at what Hannah
was doing digitally.
Speaker 3 (35:42):
I don't know, and I don't know if you'd have
to get warrant. You'd probably to get a warrant for that,
and if they had enough to be able to get
the warrant to prove that she was possibly lying other
than just their instincts of we don't believe you. Yeah,
she had had time to grow up and mature and
(36:05):
by no longer communicating with John having this distance, she
realized that what she had done was wrong, and she
told police he might still be an organ. He does
have a new girlfriend that he lives with. I don't
know specifically, the address or anything, but I believe that
he's probably still an Oregon. So they were able to
(36:26):
track the new girlfriend to Medford, Oregon and discovered a
phone number that John had used to text an unknown woman,
which ended up being a girlfriend. She was tracked down
and police were able to find an address for her,
where they begin to stake out the house. A shirtless
(36:47):
male was seen leaving the house and he appeared to
match the description of John, but because so much time
had passed, they really had to be sure that this
is who they were looking for. And John had some
unique tattoos that they had taken pictures of when they
initially interviewed him six years earlier, and one of them
was a pirate on his forearm. From a distance, they
(37:10):
could kind of make out that something was there. I'm
sure they've got their binoculars and they were able to
identify it and they made their move. The US marshals
and local law enforcement yelled commands at the man, who
they said appeared very surprised that they were there. I
have to believe after that much time, you start to
(37:32):
get a little comfortable in him being cocky. Yeah, there
was there, like he really believed that we were never
going to find him.
Speaker 2 (37:38):
I mean, you go back to the police interviews. It
seemed like he thought he was the smartest man in
the room and very arrogant. Yeah, yeah, I imagine he
would be surprised.
Speaker 3 (37:52):
Well, he was arrested without incident, but told them you
got the wrong guy. My name is Ben Klein. They
knew that was a lie, and they were able to
fingerprint him on the spot with a mobile device that
they had, and within five minutes it came back to
John Blavelte.
Speaker 2 (38:09):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (38:10):
The woman he was living with had absolutely no clue
who he really was. So they had an audio interview
with her and they were like what because she came home.
Speaker 2 (38:25):
After the fact, Yeah, what is going on?
Speaker 3 (38:27):
And they explained to her that he is being arrested
and she's like for what? And they go for a
murder out of South Carolina and she goes, are you
effing kidding me? She had no clue who he was.
She said, he's been here, he watches my animals, he
does odd jobs. We've been together for six years. He
lives with me. Like, I don't I can't even believe
(38:49):
this is happening. They said. She was clearly in love
with him and clearly had a different perception of who
he was, which is what he portrayed himself to be.
Wow Well, John was brought back to South Carolina to
stand trial, and three months later Hannah was charged with
five felonies, including obstruction of justice and accessory after the fact.
(39:13):
She pled not guilty and was released on bail and
as of now she is still awaiting trial.
Speaker 2 (39:18):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (39:20):
In September of twenty twenty four, eight years after Katie's murder,
John finally stood trial and Hannah testified against him. She
wasn't offered anything, but she decided to speak and do
the right thing. Yeah, And after four days of testimony
and just in five hours of deliberation, John was found
(39:42):
guilty of murder and he was sentenced on the spot
to life without parole and he is currently at McCormick
correction Correctional and in February of this year, his lawyers
filed an appeal, but as of now it hasn't gone anywhere.
Wow and her Katie's sisters and mom had a chance
(40:04):
to speak at his trial and finally they were glad
to finally be able to get justice. They were glad
when they got the phone call that he had been
found and that now he's going to be, you know,
paying for this crime, this unnecessary crime that he committed,
this life that he took in.
Speaker 2 (40:25):
A beautiful life. Yeah, beautiful person.
Speaker 3 (40:28):
And she was just and I look at her picture
and I'm like, I don't know. The first thing that
thought to me was she just has such kind eyes,
like I don't know, just that's something that popped into
my head. And just a sweet looking girl.
Speaker 2 (40:39):
And she wanted a good life, a normal life, and
which everybody does. And it turned out that the man
she married, it seemed he was not who he seemed
to be.
Speaker 3 (40:55):
And well, it almost seemed like he was the kind
of person that he portrayed himself very differently than the
actual person that he was.
Speaker 2 (41:06):
Yeah, and I would I would like to know a
lot about his background. I mean, what made him that way?
What made him seek the acceptance of high schoolers? I mean,
was he.
Speaker 3 (41:23):
Sty or a nerd.
Speaker 2 (41:26):
Or you know, join the armed forces? And then he was,
you know, thought he was something above. I mean, this
isn't to discredit anybody in the arm service. They certainly are,
but if this was kind of his outlet and his
way to be like, Okay, I made it. Now I'm
going to go back and I'm going to be the
party guy and I'm going to be accepted by high schoolers.
(41:50):
I'm just I'm spitballing here. But I wonder what created.
Speaker 3 (41:54):
This and what makes you need to seek acceptance from
You're like, I'm going to go to these high scho
and they're definitely going to give me the acceptance and
the attention and the respect. But what makes you think
that you can't get that from people your own age?
And also the validation should have been there with Katie
marrying him, you know, she they were together for a while,
(42:16):
she married him, she believed that he was good enough
to be her life partner, and he ended up failing her.
Speaker 2 (42:25):
I mean, he's not a bad looking guy. I've seeing
the pictures in this case.
Speaker 3 (42:28):
And.
Speaker 2 (42:30):
I don't I don't know, I don't know why he
was like that.
Speaker 3 (42:33):
That'd be a good case study.
Speaker 2 (42:34):
It would be, it would be but a wonderful job
on that. We appreciate that, and our heart goes out
to Katie's.
Speaker 3 (42:43):
That's and for and for something like that to happen
at all is awful, But for it to happen where
she's trying to get out. You know, she had already
was like done with that situation. She was moving on.
And I mean again, I see how our cases mirror
each other as weird. But it's just all because you, really,
(43:05):
I blame you for my downfall, when in reality, you
are responsible for your own downfall because of the poor
decisions that you're making.
Speaker 2 (43:12):
Man in the mirror always get you, That's right, it does. Well.
Thank you so much, Danielle. Thank you for joining us
for this week's episode, episode two twenty a Carolina Crimes.
Few reminders. If you're not already following us on social media,
check us out on Facebook at Carolina Crimes Podcast. You'll
see some pictures from this week's episode. As of every
episode back in the archives. We're available on Apple, iTunes,
(43:36):
Apple podcast, Spotify, iHeartRadio, anywhere your favorite podcasts are found.
Check us out there, throw us a five star review,
mash that purple subscribe button, and let us know what
you like about the show, your pet's names, anything like that.
We'd certainly appreciate it. Also, if you're looking to get
some Carolina Crimes swag for the spring summer, some of
(43:58):
these beach trips coming up, bearing down hard on Memorial Day.
It's already may, so check us out at Carolina crimestore
dot com. Get you some sweet Carolina Crimes paraphernalia to
wear out on the beach. We would appreciate it, and
we appreciate all you for spending some time with us
here on Carolina Crimes. See you next week.
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