Cati Blauvelt: Death of a Soldier’s Wife
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How was the community of Simpsonville described?
Simpsonville is a tight-knit community. It's got that small-town Southern charm. This is a place where you bake a cake and take it to your neighbor next door.
It was a great place to be a police officer, and murderers and serious assaults were few and far between.
Who was Katie Blauvelt and what was her background?
My name is Patty Piver, and Katie Blauvelt is my daughter. Katie was 5'1". She was a teeny little thing. She was just a free spirit. She made friends so easily. She loved animals. That was her biggest thing. She loved animals.
She touched a lot of people's lives.
She did.
John Blauvelt was working over there at the Armed Forces Center.
He was a recruiter for the military. He was someone that was respected by the community.
Somebody who's in the military, you can rely on them. And I think she wanted that, somebody stable and dependable.
John was a catch for Katie. She married him, was happy, wanted to have kids and get their life started.
They were moving into their new house, so everything was really cool.
What did John and Katie seem like as a couple to you?
At first, they were really great, honestly.
They had a little honeymoon after they got married, and once they got back, things were no longer as good as they were. It seemed like ever since then, just everything went downhill. Their marriage had fallen apart. Hannah Thompson and John were hanging out a lot.
He started dating Hannah Thompson, who I believe was 17.
100%.
She loved John, and she wanted to be with him. And Katie was a problem for her.
And if they got Katie out of the way, she could have John to herself.
What were the circumstances around Katie's disappearance?
On October 24th of 2016, Katie Blauvelt went missing. She disappeared. She disappeared. Off the face of the earth.
Yes. And now nobody could get in touch with her. Her phone's cut off. We don't know what's going on.
Shortly after midnight, I got a phone call from our chief of police at the time, and he advised me that they'd found a body at an abandoned house. Very dilapidated house. How had she died? She'd been stabbed in the neck.
John did it. I know John did it. Oh, yeah. I immediately thought John.
We did our first interview with him several days after her body was located.
How did John Blauvelt become a suspect?
I'm just going to ask you point blank. Did you kill Katie? No. Do you know who killed her? No.
Shortly after that interview is when he fled the state.
John disappears and he is on the run. John Blauvelt goes on the run. Where's Hannah?
With him.
I contacted the United States Marshals. This is their bread and butter, what they do best. I'm a Deputy U.S. Marshal.
We go after fugitives, violent offenses.
He's been trained on how to defend himself. He's been trained on how to kill. Does that make him a unique fugitive? It does. So we don't know where he's going to go. We don't know what he could be doing next. When you heard that he was on the run, what'd you think?
I was like, oh my God, you're never going to find him.
Peter Van Sant reports, Katie Blauvelt, the death of a soldier's wife.
What led to John Blauvelt going on the run?
In the soft South Carolina night in the city of Simpsonville, Katie Blauvelt was missing. It had been two fearful days for her mom, Patty Piver.
I just was terrified that something was going to happen to her.
Then, past midnight, October 26, 2016, investigators Cheryl Schofield and Keith Moorcraft were dispatched to the scene. Katie's mangled body had been found in an abandoned farmhouse, 22 years old, a knife blade left in her body.
There was a rectangular concrete box kind of in the center of the basement. We found Katie's body inside of that box.
Her body had basically been folded into this box. It was a picture of what you would see in a horror movie.
Katie's mom was overwhelmed.
I was totally empty inside. She did not deserve to be murdered.
Katie's stepsister, Jennifer Piver.
I just prayed and cried and just sick, just sick.
Moorcraft and another investigator went to tell John Blauvelt his wife's body had been found. We went to make the death notification.
I'm so sorry if we lost that.
At first, Blauvelt appeared distressed. But as the conversation progressed, his demeanor changed.
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Chapters
7 chapters
1
How was the community of Simpsonville described?
0:07–0:25
2
Who was Katie Blauvelt and what was her background?
0:25–2:15
3
What were the circumstances around Katie's disappearance?
2:15–2:58
4
How did John Blauvelt become a suspect?
2:58–4:06
5
What led to John Blauvelt going on the run?
4:06–10:09
6
How was Katie Blauvelt's body discovered?
10:09–12:32
7
What were the reactions from Katie's family and friends?
12:32–41:55