Transcription
Out off of Southeast Main Street, there was a body that was found in the house. Okay, we're able to say that it is Kevin. Okay, I'm so sorry for your loss, sir.
This is 28-year-old John Plauvelt. Learning that his missing wife was discovered in an abandoned house, brutally murdered, surrounded by satanic markings. However, John had a disturbing secret he couldn't tell the interviewer that day.
Using his military experience, he carried out a near-perfect murder that kept detectives one step behind for years. And by the time investigators began to narrow in on him, Jon was already long gone, living in a new state, in a new house, running away with his 17-year-old girlfriend, and seemingly getting away for good.
"Mr. defies any kind of logic that I have experienced in my 62 years on this earth."
"We know more than you think we do. What if I told you that your cell phone did ping somewhere other than where you say you were?"
It's 2:15 p.m. on October 24th, 2016. 22-year-old Katie Blauvelt is captured on CCTV inside her workplace. Her shift is soon coming to an end. And she's planning to meet her mother at 3:00 p.m. that same day. She leaves, calls her mother, and takes a selfie, unaware it's the last photo she ever takes. Not long after, her phone pings a location for the last time, and Katie disappears without a trace.
5 hours passed by. It's now 7:00 p.m. and Katie never arrived for dinner with her mother. Worried, the mother and other family members try calling her multiple times, but her phone has no signal. At 7:48 p.m., Katie's mother reports her missing. Officers, friends, and family mobilize to look for her, and the search officially begins. But this left detectives with a critical 5-hour gap in the timeline, one they would spend months trying to piece together.
10 hours would go past without any clues about Katie's whereabouts. Then at 12:33 a.m., the police receive an unexpected call. One of Katie's friends is on the line, claiming he's just found her body dead inside an abandoned house deep in a nearby forest.
"Simpsonville 911. What's location of your emergency?"
"Um, I'm in that uh discovered church across from the in the woods."
"You're in disco. You're at discovered church across from where?"
"Um in the woods across from it. you're I was worried about my friend uh Katie and she she went missing. She's been missing for a while now. And uh we came in this house that we used to hang all hang out in. And uh um she she"
Quickly, medics and police rushed to the address of an abandoned house deep in the woods. Upon arriving at the scene, officers notice multiple graffiti markings, including apparent satanic symbols. Soon after, they identify the caller as Wayne Roer, a friend of Katie, who leads them into the basement of the abandoned house. There, officers find a large concrete box sealed with plywood. When they remove the cover, they're met with a horrifying sight. Katie's body lies inside with a knife pierced through her neck and 16 stab wounds across her body. The lack of struggle and the state of her clothing with her shirt pulled up and her lower clothes missing suggested a motivated killing.
All of these details point detectives straight to Wayne as their first potential suspect. But what they don't realize is that this is exactly what the killer wants them to think. Every detail of the scene has been arranged to send them chasing the wrong lead. Without realizing it, detectives have walked straight into the killer's setup.
As the night went on, forensics revealed chilling details. Katie's body had been dragged to the basement and her phone was found submerged in water to destroy it. Wayne is detained and brought in for questioning. At the moment, detectives believe they have their killer and they're ready to push for a confession.
"Wayne, I'm sorry to keep you waiting, brother."
"Hey, buddy."
"What's your name?"
"Franklin Wayne. I'm sorry. Franklin Wayne about Franklin or Wayne."
At this point, Wayne believes he's been brought in to be questioned as a witness after the heartbreaking discovery, unaware that detectives are already convinced about his involvement in the murder and any statement he makes might be used against him.
"I think you know why you're here, right?"
"Okay. Um, tell me uh tell me how how did you meet Katie? just from the time you met her, kind of what your relationship was and leave you up until, you know, 11:30 or so last night. Okay. Okay. I first met her. We were friends at first and then we dated for like a month or so and then that's when I moved to Liberty with my dad and we stayed in contact for a little bit and then once I left my dad and went to North Carolina, we lost contact."
Detectives begin the interview by learning that Wayne and Katie were once together. But quickly, Wayne reveals something that would immediately put suspicion onto his name.
"Maybe uh a year later that Katie got married to John Lville. And uh then one night uh she came and uh got with us with uh John. was the first time I've seen her since I I moved. And since then, um um John offered me to move in with them, a roommate, and $200 a month."
"And I I took it up. It was a good deal."
"So, you live with her and her husband?"
"Yeah."
"Kind of weird."
"It was."
"When was this? Do you remember when this was?"
"when I live with him. Um, it was before June this year."
As Wayne explains that he once dated Katie and later lived with her and her husband, detectives gain another reason to suspect him: jealousy. And just as everything appears to be moving in the perfect direction for the real killer and his carefully constructed plan, Wayne makes a claim that complicates the investigation and may just be enough to ruin the killer's plan.
"there everything like going okay, you know. Then they started having arguments because of me because uh she used to talk about me before and uh she told me that he was jealous of me and uh their argument started getting worse and um that was whenever he got drunk one night and uh he cussed her out and he had her in the bathroom. Uh they were just pretty much just screaming at each other and then from there she ended up uh moving back when with her mom I think."
"When did you and Katie when you were living with John and Katie? We all being intimate with each other."
"Um it was only once."
"And John was there or not there?"
"Yeah it was like a threesome thing. And"
"and how did that come about?"
"Um I was drunk and he was drunk and it was idea like after that like he just he changed."
If true, Wayne's claims about Jon's violent behavior could shift suspicion towards him. But despite Wayne's accusations, something still doesn't add up. His story, with its inconsistencies and gaps, keeps raising suspicions because prior to this interrogation, detectives learned that on the day of Katie's death, Wayne arrived late to work and he admits to walking near the abandoned house around the time Katie disappeared. More importantly, while at work, Wayne was aware that Katie might be inside that very house. Yet, despite that suspicion, he never alerted authorities. Instead, he waited until the end of the day, went there himself, and only then called the police. All of this places Wayne squarely in the crosshairs of investigators, and unknowingly pushes them further into the real killer's trap. Because in the next few minutes, the interview will take a terrifying turn as detectives unknowingly edge closer to forcing an innocent man into confession to a brutal murder that he never committed.
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With that said, let's get back to Wayne's interview where detectives are on the verge of pushing an innocent man into a murder confession.
"Why did Why did you call the police?"
"I didn't think of it at the time. I didn't."
"Do you know she was dead?"
"No. Why would you think the best idea is for you to walk into what turns out to be her final resting place where somebody murdered her and dumped her down there like a piece of trash? You know why you didn't look in the bathroom?"
"We glanced in there with the flashlight. Like if you're standing at the door of it, you can see in there."
"You can't see in the tub. I'm telling you, I was up there in the day cuz you wasn't in the tub, Mr. defies any kind of logic that I have experienced in my 62 years on this earth."
"You look like you're going to pass out. This is too much."
"I bet it is."
"Get it off of you then."
"I'm sure it is. All you got to do is lay it down. You lay the burden down. That's the only way you'll be forgiven. You got to say, 'I messed up. Help me.' That's what you got to say. and I'll do it, but I'm not going to do it on credit."
Detectives remained suspicious of Wayne, but with him sticking to his story and no hard evidence, they couldn't yet arrest him. Instead, they collected his DNA sample to compare it with the DNA found underneath Katie's fingernails. But that's when just a few hours after Wayne's interview, as police searched the area around the abandoned house, they stumbled upon Katie's car. Only a few miles from the crime scene, left abandoned in a nearby parking lot. It looked as if she had left in a hurry, but the reason her car ended up there would remain one of the biggest mysteries for the following months.
Up to this point, everything was going according to the killer's plan, one designed and carried out by Katie's own husband, John Blauvelt. But Wayne's comments about his jealousy pushed detectives to dig deeper. What they found was a restraining order filed months earlier after Jon had allegedly pulled a gun on Katie when she refused to give him her phone. For the first time, despite his efforts, officers were seriously beginning to suspect Jon.
So the next day on October 26th, detectives approach him at his office on the military base where he works. Their goal is simple: hear his side of the story, verify his alibi for the day Katie died, and see how he reacts under pressure. For most perpetrators, this would be the moment everything starts to fall apart. But Jon isn't like the rest. He would play it perfectly.
"All right. Well, there out off of Southeast Main Street. There was a body that was found in the house. Okay. An abandoned house. Um, and at this point, we're we're able to say that it is captain. Okay. I'm so sorry for your loss, sir. Um, at this time, we are investigating and we would investigate every death the same way. We start with homicide and work our way from there. Okay. What the restraining order deal? What's the deal with that?"
"This is a charge back that I got back in um February. Uh domestic violence first degree."
"Do do you know if she had any issues with anybody? Anybody that won't hurt her or anything like that?"
"No. And I just I know that she's been dating around and you know it's whatever cuz I was into but"
Notice how John intentionally directs detectives towards the fact that Katie is dating around. Him pointing this out isn't a coincidence. It's a strategy. By controlling the narrative this early, Jon is quietly planting a story that will protect him later.
"Did you work this Monday?"
"Mhm."
"What time did you get off Monday?"
"Uh, like 2:30ish, 2. I don't know."
"Did you stop anywhere on the way home?"
"No."
"Let me ask you this. Why were you looking for Katie?"
"For Shanti's destroyed right now, I'm just trying to help her out."
"Who do you know that would want to do harm to her?"
"Nobody. Do you know uh there's a guy that used to live with you? Uh redheaded fella."
"Redhead."
"Yeah."
"Wayne."
"Yeah."
"Mhm."
"What's his story?"
"Just regular dude. Good guy."
"France."
"Mhm. What do you do for the army?"
"Well, right now I just sit in this office. Small office right now. Um because of the civil investigation, all my recruiting duties have been suspended."
"Are you familiar with this abandoned house?"
"Yeah."
"Okay."
"That's the spot. What's this?"
"Hang out spot. Am I being charged with a crime? Cuz he's recording me and I'm not comfortable with that."
"No. If I am, I'd like to contact a lawyer"
"cuz this is uncomfortable."
"Okay."
"You're not you're you're not being charged, okay, with the crime right now."
As the interview ends, John does something counterintuitive. He defends Wayne, the man he's secretly framing. It's a manipulation tactic known as reverse empathy. By showing compassion, he makes himself appear harmless and trustworthy. Jon's first interrogation had gone almost perfectly, leaving detectives with little they could use against him. Still, they couldn't shake the feeling that something was off. With no evidence to hold him, he was let go and officers would turn to those closest to Jon and Katie, their friends and family, unaware that Jon had already influenced them.
Detectives started with Crystal, Katie's best friend, and at the time also Jon's roommate. Jon knew exactly what to expect here. In his interrogation, he had already planted the idea that Katie was dating around. And Crystal, being one of Katie's close friends, also knew about her dating habits. His hope was that she would unknowingly reinforce this misdirection, steering suspicion towards anyone but him.
"All right. October 28th, 2016, 4:47 p.m. to know. Um, and like I said, all I ask is that you don't up here and he's not the only suspect. You know, there's other people we're talking to questioning. So, has he made any statements about, you know, if I go to jail for Katy's murder? He's just I mean he said that you know it sucks for him because he feels like he's he's going to get in trouble for it but you know he's like I didn't do this you know like I'm tired of people coming after me."
"See me and John actually really do get along. You know what I'm saying? I'm not going to lie about him at all. I'm going to tell you the straight up truth. If he's acting weird I'm going to tell you. But he wasn't. I was thinking last night about it. I really was. um just maybe a split second thought that it could have been John, but he's ever since Katie's gone missing, he's made sure that there was more than one person around him. At the time that Katie died at 8:00 at night, John would all three of us were sitting over here. I mean, from 5:00 when he came back home till me and my boyfriend left for work the next morning, he was there."
Notice how Crystal mentions that Jon got home at 5:00 p.m. and stayed there the entire evening until morning. It's a detail that would later turn out to be part of John's manipulation.
"So, if you had to take a guess who killed her, she said, 'I don't know because I heard a lot of things and I know she had a tender and I know that she was dating a lot of people from, you know, Cheyenne telling me that she took a lot of people down in the house. I didn't even know that house existed.'"
"What What were John's feelings or thoughts toward Katie to you?"
"I mean, I know that he loved her. I know that he still does. I mean, he's mad because of what Katie is accusing, you know, yelled the gun up to my head and stuff like that. And just by the way she was talking, I knew she was lying because that's what she did. Me and her used to get each other in trouble all the time in high school. That's what she would do. She would lie, you know. But we're done."
"Yeah. Just as Jon hoped, Crystal's account added fuel to the idea he had planted. By emphasizing Katie's dating life, she unknowingly fed into Jon's narrative, suggesting the threat may have come from someone she was seeing, maybe even Wayne."
Next came Catherine, Jon's ex-wife and the mother of his child. He had already made sure she wouldn't say too much. Fear and their shared child would be enough to keep her quiet.
"This is an investigator Hawkins. Hey, how are you? Nice to meet you."
"With you being married to him for seven years, has with the drink being grieving sober, has there been any violence between the two of you?"
"Okay. I mean, I'm not here to to go and arrest him for something that happened 10 years ago or anything like that, but I just don't want to go into anything that had to do with us because that doesn't have anything to do with what happened between him and Gabe."
"I mean, it's not that you're incriminating yourself."
"He's a good guy. I mean, I'm alive. Bad joke, but I would assume I wouldn't be if he was that crazy."
"Well, you never know. Only one time for somebody to snap him."
"But he's never snapping me for some reason."
"Plus, you two have a kid together. So,"
"yeah, there's that."
"Do it."
"All right. I'll give you a business card with my phone number on there."
"Okay."
"All right. Thank you very much for coming with me. Appreciate it."
Catherine's silence kept Jon safe for now. But the final interview with Katie's niece, Cheyenne, would not go according to Jon's plan. Unlike Crystal or Catherine, she wouldn't protect him. Instead, she would point suspicion directly at Jon and reveal a motive that would tie everything together. For the first time, his carefully built plan would start to fall apart.
"All right. Your name is Cheyenne Paxton. Is that correct?"
"Yes, sir."
"Okay. It is Thursday, October 27th at 8:52 a.m. Simpsonville Police Department. This has been reference to the homicide investigation Kaitlin Blackelt. Have you ever seen John get violent towards Katie?"
"Never seen him put his hands up. I've seen them already. you"
"would Katie have gone over to his house on her own"
"within the last 3 weeks. How long? Like I know."
"So if he says he hasn't seen her since July July. Yeah. No, he's seen her. I know that John is really angry for a lot of weeks."
"Tell me what he's about for. He feels like that it's her fault that all like, you know, their relationship went bad and everything kind of went bad for a little while and he feels like it's her fault that he's losing his job and that he got in any trouble and he's just he just blames it all on her, you know,"
"and um I don't know if this matters or not, but I know he has like $150,000 life insurance policy on her, too."
"All right. I appreciate you coming in. I know it's not easy,"
"especially when somebody close to you. But it's important we, you know, a lot of this information he gave us good information that we need. So"
Cheyenne's interview gave detectives their first real motive, pointing to John. But motive wasn't enough. They needed evidence.
"They have a few leads, but they have no defined person of interest just yet."
As the investigation dragged on, the detectives' frustration began to grow. Jon had covered himself so carefully that they couldn't even get a judge to approve a DNA warrant. Without it, they had nothing that could tie him directly to Katie's final moments. It's now been 4 days since Katie was killed, and detectives didn't have any solid evidence. They knew Jon was smart, but so were they. Out of options and patience, they began planning something different. They began forming a new, risky, and very unconventional plan. In just two days, they would set a trap for Jon. A trap at Katie's own funeral.
In the days leading up to the funeral, detectives stayed ready. While they waited, Katie's family mourned and tried to make sense of what happened. 22-year-old Katie had spent the past year working at PetSmart, surrounded by animals she was saving and taking care of. She was easygoing and warm, quick to make friends and close with her family. But her peaceful life from just days earlier would make what was about to come only more unsettling.
As the day of the funeral came, detectives entered the funeral home early, working quietly before guests began to arrive. They positioned hidden cameras around the room and secretly wired the space for sound. Everything inside the funeral home looked normal, but in reality, detectives controlled every detail. They'd placed cups of water and other drinks where guests could easily reach them. The plan was simple: get Jon to drink from one of the cups, catch it on video, collect his DNA from the cup, and compare it to the DNA found on Katie's body.
On October 30th, the day of the funeral, detectives set their plan into motion. But what their cameras are about to capture goes far beyond anything they expect.
"She's not wipe her down. I think she still has plumb."
As Jon leaves the funeral home, detectives know their plan has worked. They quickly return to retrieve the cup he had drank from and the hidden camera they placed earlier. When they review the footage, three critical things stand out, all of which will become pivotal to the entire investigation. The first is exactly what they were hoping for. Jon drinks from one of the cups and leaves it behind, giving detectives the evidence they need to collect his DNA without a warrant and compare it to the samples found on Katie. The second detail is something they never expected. The footage captures Jon walking up to the casket, taking pictures of Katie's body while making unsettling comments. And the third, perhaps most unsettling of all, is that Jon isn't alone. Standing beside him is an unidentified young woman who quietly tells him to stop taking pictures, then giggles moments later. Her behavior immediately drew attention and detectives decided to collect her cup as well for DNA testing. And when they began digging into her identity, they discovered the woman was 17-year-old Hannah Thompson, a friend, and more recently Jon's new roommate. They also learned that she had once been close friends with Katie. Given her connection to Jon and Katie and her strange behavior at the funeral, detectives know Hannah isn't just another witness. She might be the key to solving the entire case. And they were dead on.
At this point, detectives have interviewed Wayne, John, and people from both Jon and Katie's circle. They also collected crucial evidence and leads and now believe that Hannah, the 17-year-old who lived with Jon, could be the key to uncovering the truth about Katie's murder.
The next day, on October 31st, a week after Katie's death, detectives approach Hannah and bring her in for interrogation. If anyone knows what really happened, it's her.
"When was the last time you uh you saw Katie?"
"Like a few months ago."
"Did uh what was your feelings towards her? I mean, I always like I've always seen her as like a friend cuz like I lived with her for a little bit, right?"
"So, is it fair to say you were you were on good terms with her when she was killed?"
"Mhm."
"Okay. Um, did you end up going to her visitation Saturday?"
"No, I didn't."
"Okay. So, you didn't get to say goodbye to her?"
"Mhm."
"Um, John, I think went there Sunday, right?"
"Mhm."
"Okay. You didn't get to go get to go with him?"
"I went with him. Yeah. I didn't go Saturday either though cuz um her family doesn't really like me"
"because of um her niece Cheyenne."
"Yeah."
"Yeah. We were like kind of like off and on friends and I think she might have said something about me that her family didn't really like me."
"Did uh so did you go in the room and pay your respects or"
"how did that go?"
"It was hard. It was really hard. Um"
"how long did you stay in the room with her casket?"
"Like 10 minutes. 10 to 15 minutes."
"What y'all talk about while you're in there?"
"We didn't talk at all."
"Nothing."
"We just each had our like moments, I guess."
"John never take his cell phone out and take a picture of her."
"No, he didn't."
"Sure."
"Mhm."
"Well, you can tell me. I just Some people do that."
"Yeah. No, he never took a picture of her."
Watch Hannah's behavior closely as the questions get more direct. Her eyes start darting between the detectives. She fidgets with her hands, picks at her nails. Her whole demeanor shifts. It's clear she's getting nervous. And the detectives can see it, too.
"So, while you were in that room, you two never talked at all."
"I kind of rubbed his back a little bit. You know, I told him that it was okay, but other than that, we didn't really talk."
"Was he crying?"
"Mhm."
"Were you crying?"
"Mhm."
"It's just hard like seeing somebody like that,"
"I bet. Okay. Um, Monday night at some point before you went out, you guys carried out a bag of trash to your car or to his car, right?"
"I don't remember."
"Okay. So, you don't recall carrying out a trash bag or him cleaning anything up?"
"Mm-m."
"Having to put stuff in the trash?"
"No, sir."
"Okay."
On Monday, the day Katie was killed, one of their roommates reported seeing John and Hannah carrying out several bags of trash. At the time, detectives didn't think much of it. It felt like a small, irrelevant detail with nothing to back it up. But now, with all this new information coming together, that statement suddenly stood out. It was another piece of the puzzle, something they could finally use to put more pressure on Hannah.
"Um, just so you understand, we've been working this case steady since she disappeared, right?"
"So, there's a lot of these things that we know the answers to."
"Mhm."
"I can tell you already you're lying to me. Okay, you do not want to get wrapped up in catching the murder charge. I got to tell you a little something. At the funeral home, we were there. Okay. There was a camera in the room. There was a reporter in the room. We heard everything you guys said. So, do you want to go back and rehash that?"
"I don't. It was not easy to see her like that. Is that why there was giggling and stuff?"
"There's not any googling."
"We've been doing this longer than you've been alive."
"You're not you're not you're not slicker than us. You know, you're not going to outsmart us. We we we've talked to people. This is a murderer. You understand that?"
"Yes, sir. What do you think about somebody that would stab a girl in the neck to the point where the knife went all the way through to the other side and then stick her body like a piece of trash in the basement of an abandoned house to sit there for a day and a half before somebody finds her?"
"Okay, she's right here."
"I don't want to look at her."
"It's your friend."
"I don't want to do this anymore."
"Don't want to do what? Don't want to help us find out who killed her."
"All you got to do is tell the truth. It will be so easy. alligator."
"Can I alligator?"
"Can I Can I tell you something? To tell the truth, you don't have to try. It just flows. It just comes out."
"We're also aware of what people have told us about you and Katie. They're telling us that you didn't like her one bit."
"Well, after me and John started like getting together, Katie started not liking me. If you know something and you're trying to cover up for it, you're going to go down with the rest of them. You're going to go down with the person who did this to her."
"I don't know anything about her murder."
"You do."
"I don't."
"You do."
"We really do. You do. We know more than you think we do."
"I I don't want to talk anymore right now."
Even after being confronted with the footage and being caught in multiple lies, Hannah refused to give up on any additional details she may withhold. But while none of this gave detectives the definitive proof they needed, Jon didn't know that. And that uncertainty was exactly what they were counting on. So detectives decide to bring him in again. This time more prepared and ready to push harder than before. They planned to corner him with everything they had, but they'd have to be careful. If they push too far without enough to arrest him, it could tip him off, causing him to disappear.
"We hadn't really had a chance to sit down. I know I talked to you that day that when we notified you about her death."
"Yeah."
"And things are kind of emotional and everything. So, Right. So, the viewing was Saturday, right?"
"Right. 2:00 to 4 on Saturday."
"And when did you when did you get there?"
"I went Sunday. 2:30 on Sunday."
"Okay. They So, they just had a private thing for you? M by yourself or?"
"Yeah. Well, I took Hannah with me."
"Did you?"
"Yeah."
"Was that hard?"
"Yeah, cuz I mean, first of all, there's nobody there but me and her, so we're just kind of standing there staring at like Katie's nasty, like, dirty, disgusting body. I've seen people dead. I've [ __ ] dealt with this [ __ ] before and now there's nobody else there. You know what I mean?"
"That night, somebody says you and Hannah were putting some trash from a bag, like a trash bag in the back of the Prius."
"Do you know remember doing that?"
"Oh yeah. Uh Marley had like the most explosive [ __ ] all on the floor and stunk up the whole house. I throw out like four towels."
This moment reveals Hannah's lie. She claimed she couldn't remember taking any trash out. Yet John's statement confirms otherwise. It's a small clue, but one that'll soon become part of a much bigger picture.
"So you guys got home around three roughly. Brandon and um"
"Crystal."
"Crystal were there. Um what happened after that after you've done that?"
"We went and met my uh friend Scott to get some money that he owes me."
"What's he owe you?"
"He owed me 500 for when he crashed my car."
"Where'd you meet with Scott?"
"That does actually."
"But he was in the army with you."
"Yeah."
"Yeah. We played together."
"We played together."
"Did you go anywhere before that?"
"No."
This is where John makes his first mistake, mentioning a name detectives have never heard before: Charles Scott, his friend from the military, someone who'd later prove to know far more about the night Katie died than anyone realized.
"I don't know how much you know about cell phones and stuff like that. Um, but as you go around, your cell phone's constantly searching for signals and stuff like that. Um, so with that said, is there anything going back to last Monday, is there anything that you've told me that your cell phone records would say otherwise?"
"I don't believe so."
"What if I told you that your cell phone did ping somewhere other than where you say you were?"
"Then I'd also say that her cell phone pinged in West Virginia."
"Yeah, that ended up being a AT&T mishap. They they plugged in the wrong phone number. Yeah. I don't know."
"Okay. Um, what if I told you that Charles Scott's phone number pinged in the same area that yours did and not around Zach's?"
"When?"
"Monday night."
"He's got a freedom of moving on him. We can call him. We can ask him."
"Okay. So, the night this Monday night that we're talking about around 6:15, uh, sometime around that time frame, can you think of any reason your phone would show that you were in that area of Augusta Road and White Horse Road?"
"No."
"Um, is there any reason you and Charles were talking a lot that evening?"
"Yeah, cuz he that's the night that he was here. That's the night he was available."
"I'm not looking to offend you, but it's questions that we we need to get answered and cleared up. Okay. Um, did Katie have any kind of life insurance policy"
"through the military? Yeah, she's automatically enrolled."
"Okay."
"Same as my daughter."
"Would you be willing to take polygraphs so we can go ahead and do that for you and eliminate you and start looking elsewhere?"
"I have to talk to my lawyer about that first."
"Okay."
"See what he says cuz I don't know about that at all."
As the interview ends, detectives have their first real connection between Jon and Charles. Both of their phones show activity near the area where Katie's body was found. It isn't enough to make an arrest, but it's enough to keep digging. And with a new name now tied to the night of the murder, John can sense it. Detectives are closing in.
At this point, the main circle of suspects included Wayne, John, Hannah, and now more recently, Charles Scott, John's friend from the army. But as detectives slowly pressed forward, Jon was growing uneasy. For the first time, he was starting to realize his master plan might not hold.
That's when on November 4th, 11 days after Katie was killed, detectives received a call that would send the case in a whole new direction. Crystal, who was John's roommate and had been interviewed earlier, came forward with information that changed everything.
"Hi, Crystal."
"Hello."
"How are you?"
"I'm good."
"Oh, okay. What's been going on since Oh, I don't know. You got a phone call on Wednesday at 3:30. He called and he said um he said, 'Are y'all at home?' And we said, 'No.' And he said, 'Okay, all right. Bye.' And then just hung up. Well, me and Brenn got home about 6:15, 6:30. And we seen that uh in our room, we have, like I said, the Halloween lights just going across the ceiling. The attic is right where that light is at. And we had the lights I had the lights going across the attic. Well, when we come back, they were just torn down. We haven't even touched them. They were just ripped out from the attic. And once we figured out he was gone, we went searching through the house, making sure all the windows were locked and covered. And cuz I've never been in a house alone like that except for my apartment. But he just he just he was gone, you know, and we couldn't call him cuz the cops have his phone. I said, Brandon, I said, 'We need to go back outside and call the Clintonville detective warlock.' And I told him what was happening. And he was like, you know, I was like, you know, if you want to come and search the house right now, I give you full permission. He said, 'Well, I can't do that without a warrant.' And he was like, and I was like, 'Well, I mean, there's no way that somebody can come out here and like search the house or anything like that.' And he said, 'No.' He said, 'Your best bet is to go stay the night somewhere else.' He was like, 'Cuz you're possibly living with a murderer.'"
John was gone. His disappearance also meant he abandoned his military service, officially classifying him as a deserter. However, as investigators would soon learn, he wasn't alone. He had fled with none other than the 17-year-old girl, Hannah Thompson. And as officers across the state searched every highway, every motel, every possible route out of South Carolina with no sign of either of them, it became clear this wasn't just an investigation anymore. This was a manhunt.
In the days that followed, leads were few. The pair had vanished completely off the grid. A 28-year-old former army sergeant and a 17-year-old teenager gone without a trace. Then on November 19th, 26 days after Katie's death, a small breakthrough happened. John's red Yukon was captured on CCTV near Los Cuses, New Mexico, about 1,600 miles from Simpsonville, South Carolina, where he disappeared. And just two days later on November 21st, that same Yukon was found abandoned in the mountains of Yumatila County in Oregon, over 1,400 miles away from Las Cruces. Inside the vehicle, investigators found Jon's laptop, clothes, and camping gear scattered around, suggesting that after the crash, Jon and Hannah grabbed what they could and ran into the woods. The discovery confirmed what detectives had already feared. John and Hannah were constantly on the move, crossing state lines and staying just far enough ahead of law enforcement to vanish again.
Later that same day, authorities issued arrest warrants for both Jon and Hannah, officially turning the case into a nationwide manhunt. By this point, Jon and Hannah had already been on the run for over 2 weeks before any warrants were ever issued, putting them far ahead of law enforcement and nearly impossible to track. But once the warrants went active, detectives finally gained full access to their phones, chat logs, and internet history. And that's when their worst suspicions were confirmed.
"I just woke up and I already feel sad again. I feel like you're still talking to Katie."
"I promise you I'm not talking to Katie."
"I will leave you if you talk to her. I swear."
"I know I'm not and I won't. She's gone. I'm done with her. I promise. I'm going through with that thing though soon."
"I'm going to be staying with you."
"Good."
The messages between the two suggest that John had been planning the murder for months prior to it actually happening. And upon searching his internet history, they found searches like "how to make a two-way radio" or "how to sharpen a knife," leaving little to no doubt about his involvement. But with John and Hannah still missing, detectives had little choice but to wait, hoping for the next break that could pull them back on the trail.
And that's when on November 25th, 21 days after Jon and Hannah's disappearance, and over a month after Katie's death, detectives got a call from a South Carolina prison. But the caller wasn't just anyone. The call came from the cellmate of Charles Scott, Jon's army friend, who was already in custody for an unrelated charge. Charles's phone had pinged near the abandoned house on the day Katie died, and his cellmate was about to provide a lead that could give detectives the breakthrough they desperately needed with details only the killer could have known.
"Just as we're talking today, is that Charles Town you're talking about? Hey, that's the one I'm talking about. He's okay. He killed a girl. Helped kill a girl with one of his blade named John. Something like that. You know, my dad put her in a drug house or an abandoned house in a basement in a box that take two people's home. He was the one that coerced her to the spot where John come up behind her and got her, grabbed her. They met at a different location. When John got her, they put the knife toward John stabbed her. I don't know how many times John stabbed. He didn't say he said he knows he stabbed her twice and John made him stab her twice. He actually said he scared him when he scared stabbed her at first, but then after he stabbed her, it made him feel a little better."
William's statements are shocking. His account of what happened closely mirrors the possible events of the night Katie died. And what he says next only grows more disturbing.
"He said, 'Well, this is the second time. The first time he told me about, you know, how he coerced her because his spot and now they was going to talk about something about John trying to help John come off marijuana and John's on drugs real bad. After they John grabbed her, they put him in John's Tahoe, red Tahoe, took her to the scene. So where does it say where they actually killed her at? In the back of the Tahoe on the tarp. I told him, be honest with me. I said, 'Have they took your DNA?' He said, 'No.' Well, that's a good thing. I tell you, your DNA is crossing. He says, 'Hey, my DNA is not going to be there.'"
"All right. If you don't have anything else, uh, Mark, we're going to go ahead and conclude the interview at 11:02 a.m."
Mark's statements put serious allegations on Charles. It wouldn't be anything special, as false accusations like this happen when inmates try to get a deal with officers or get their sentence lowered. But in this instance, too many details added up, details only the killer or someone heavily involved could have known. One of those was his claim that Charles had lured Katie to a location near the abandoned house. For detectives, this suddenly made sense of why her car had been discovered just a few miles away, abandoned, without a struggle. Charles also allegedly told his bunkmate that he and Jon wrapped Katie in a tarp to move her into the basement. This matched forensics, which had already indicated she'd been moved after death. Now, detectives have a chilling theory of how that happened. It was now a very big chance for the detectives to possibly catch one of Katie's killers. A chance they couldn't afford to waste. So, without hesitation, they brought Charles in, hoping for the biggest breakthrough in the case yet. But detectives knew getting Charles to talk wouldn't be easy. They didn't have enough evidence to pin him down, and they needed something, anything, that could make him slip. So, they decided to take an insane risk. They came up with a plan to push him over the edge. They would bluff, pretending that Jon had already been arrested and was ready to testify against him. If Charles believed it, the pressure might finally make him talk. But if he didn't, detectives would lose their best chance to get the truth.
"All right, Charles, what do you think the polygraph says?"
"Let's Let's get away from the polygraph. Okay. And you've been saying that ever since I read the launch changing. Okay. Cuz it's not looking good for you. Okay."
"I have absolutely nothing to do with that girl you got. We take a poly."
"Let me tell you that John was arrested in in New Jersey."
"Okay."
"Okay. And he sang like a bird to those investigators."
"I don't hear you."
"Well, you should."
"I was not there. Um investigator mainly told you that John was arrested earlier."
"Okay. And he's talking. What do you think he's saying?"
"I don't know what he's saying. I don't know. But I know I never seen that girl day in my life."
"We were both there, Charles."
"No, we were not."
As soon as the questioning starts, Charles demands a polygraph. And detectives know exactly what that means. Polygraphs aren't reliable, can be manipulated, and their results can't be used in court. It's an easy way out: simple yes or no questions instead of real confrontation. And before long, his avoidance turns into an act of ignorance.
"I never seen that."
"You knew that they were married and you knew that John had problem."
"No, I did not know."
"You told me. You told me at the founding police department that John has talked about how she was [ __ ] his career up."
"That was a lie. Everybody singing like a bird. I I never had no weapon. You will not find no fingerprint or no weapon that I touch. Number one. Why is that?"
"Cuz I wasn't there. I didn't touch no weapon. I never said he said I'll never find fingerprints on a weapon that you touched."
"Yeah."
"Have you ever Have you ever told anybody that you're involved in this murder?"
"Do I look stupid? Do I look like I would just go inside of a [ __ ] jail to some guy I don't know and say,"
"Hey man, I murdered some girl."
"You know what it looks like? It looks like you were remorseful for your actions. Let me ask you this. Um, where's the phone that you had that he communicated with Katie on?"
"Who? Who's Katie?"
"The girl that died?"
"Yeah."
"I never communicated with her."
"Where? Where's the phone?"
"What phone?"
"The phone that was used to communicate with the girl the day that she was murdered."
"Only phone that I had was the one you confiscated and the one in this house."
Even after the detectives bluff and revealed the testimony his previous cellmate made about Charles involvement in the crime, he denied everything. Still, detectives couldn't ignore the phone data placing him near the house or the chilling details from his bunkmate. With no confession, all they could do was wait. Charles's DNA was now added to the samples already being tested against the evidence found beneath Katie's fingernails. And when those results came back, they would finally reveal who was truly involved.
Over 2 weeks have now passed since the last lead on the case. With false leads and missing crucial timelines, it was becoming more and more possible that the real killers of Katie would never be found. Until the detectives got a call from Hannah's parents with information that could soon result in solving the whole case. Hannah had resurfaced stating she had been abandoned by John and would soon come back to her hometown so law enforcement would be there waiting for her.
It was now the day when Hannah was supposed to come back to her home. Law enforcement secured all entries to the city as well as all possible places she could go to. And finally, at 9:00 a.m., she would be spotted near her family home. From there, she would be instantly detained and taken to the police department for interrogation. For the detectives, it was now or never. That was their biggest chance of finding out what had really happened and who is truly responsible for Katie's death.
"What was the game plan when you died?"
"What? I don't think we really had one. Like I guess both of us just kind of panicked and confused Friday that he wanted to leave like the state and we like drove up into the mountains and he like he just got the car like stuck in the like in trees like in the mountains. So I was like like what are we going to do? He said that we would hike. I kind of like stopped and I was crying and I was like, I can't do this anymore. I was like, I need to go home. Like he started like yelling at me and calling names and saying that if I left like he was going to kill. Then like one morning like he had gotten up and left and I I was just like I'm not just going to like sit here like so I got up and I went to like um down the street to like a hotel. Started crying and then I sent a message to my mom and dad. Um,"
Anna continued describing their time on the run, doing her best to avoid talking about the day of the murder. It went on for nearly 2 hours, and by then, the pressure had clearly worn her down. That's when the detective would start asking her the difficult questions, causing Hannah to break, revealing everything she knows.
"Let's go back to that Monday, okay? Because we now have conversations from you and him on Wednesday about he's going to meet up with going to drink some beers with her at this abandoned house."
"Um he says he tries to meet up with her. It doesn't work, but then lo and behold, she's found at that abandoned house that he was supposed to go meet up with her at."
"Um meanwhile, he randomly asks you to drop her off on Woodruff Road or drop him off on Woodruff Road."
"and doesn't tell you why or anything."
"Okay. So, can you please tell me what the game plan was? Well, what did he tell you he was going to go and do?"
"He was just He told me that he was just going to go talk to her at work."
"You drove him over there."
"He kept telling me like every day that like it was my fault and that he did it for me and like what did he say he did for you? He said that when we were in Oregon at the casino, he like yelled it real loud. Said then you killed her for me. Hannah, was there a plan before this to get rid of Katie?"
"Not from you. But did John ever talk to you about getting rid of Katie?"
"Honestly,"
"what did he tell you about killing Katie?"
"He just said that like it was really really funny. He told me that the knife broke. He just said that broke the knife. The last thing she she said was ow. And she said that before that that if he let her go that she wouldn't call the police."
"Where were they handling? Um and you don't know exactly where he could he did you have anything to do with G."
"And the reason why I ask you this is because we're still looking for John."
"right? Okay. And as much as you think John cared about you from an outsider's perspective and not knowing you, not being your mom, he doesn't."
Unfortunately, Hannah's statements proved far less helpful in finding Jon than the detectives initially hoped for. Although she stated that Jon confessed to killing Katie and provided some new insights, she didn't know much about Charles's involvement. And while she could be arrested, detectives decided she might prove more useful free. After all, they now had her back in the city and under close watch, which seemed like a small success. What they didn't realize, however, was that this was all part of Jon's plan, planting Hannah back in the city to infiltrate the case and feed him exactly what detectives knew, keeping him one step ahead for years to come.
Almost 3 months had passed since Katie's body was found in the basement of the abandoned house, and the killer was still out there. But on that particular day, the long-awaited DNA results finally came back. And the results of DNA found under Katie's fingernails pointed to no one else but John himself. With the DNA matching to John, Wayne was cleared. But detectives still believed Hannah or Charles might have helped, or at least knew far more than they admitted. Detectives already knew that Jon was only using cash and most likely a fake ID. So, all they could do at the moment was wait for Jon to make a critical mistake that would allow them to catch him. But Jon was careful. Very careful.
It had been over 7 months since Katie's murder and 6 months since Jon went on the run. When on May 21st, 2017, investigators received tips and possible sightings of Jon in Washington, over 2,700 m from South Carolina, where Katie was found dead and over 300 m away from where his red Yukon was found abandoned. Acting on these leads, they canvased local businesses and retrieved CCTV footage from a parking lot in Washington where Jon was captured on camera. Unfortunately, despite getting close, Jon managed to slip away, vanishing off under the radar once again.
For the next year, the investigation hit a standstill. It wasn't until September 6th, 2018, almost 2 years since Katie's death, when Hannah finally revealed that Jon had given her his journal and tools to hide. A crucial piece of evidence that would shift the case in a new direction. The journal became a pivotal piece of evidence, revealing Jon's state of mind and his premeditated intentions. It confirms that Jon's actions were driven by a deep desire to be with Hannah and his willingness to kill Katie to make that happen.
During her interview, Hannah admitted she had been Jon's girlfriend and that she had been in constant contact with him before Katie's death. She also confessed that she had hidden Jon's journal, which contained disturbing entries about his obsessive thoughts and plans to escape with Hannah. This was the last significant breakthrough in the case for years. With no new leads, the investigation stalled. Detectives spent the next few years chasing down small tips and piecing together fragments of information, but nothing substantial came of it. The case gradually faded from public attention.
Then in 2022, 6 years after Katie's death, everything is about to change. After over 6 years of dead ends, US marshals and local law enforcement tracked Jon down in Oregon. He had erased his past, now living under the alias Ben Klene. Under his new identity, he had started a fresh life, marrying a new woman and leaving his past behind. The arrest felt surreal. Jon, who had spent so long evading capture, was now cornered. After years of hiding in plain sight, the truth had finally caught up with him, and the case was nearing its resolution.
However, the mystery of how Katie was lured to the abandoned house remains unsolved to this day. Her phone was recovered damaged, limiting investigators ability to access message content and app-based communications. And while rumors suggested Charles Scott might have had contact with her, this was never confirmed. With no physical or forensic evidence tying him to the crime. He was ultimately ruled out as a suspect and never sentenced.
In 2022, during an interview after Jon's arrest, Hannah revealed for the first time that she and Jon had been in regular contact throughout the years he was on the run, continuing to text and communicate, even after she had returned to South Carolina. This new revelation shed light on her role in helping Jon evade capture.
Finally, on September 20th, 2024, John Blauvelt was convicted of Katie's murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole. Hannah Thompson was charged with obstruction of justice and accessory after the fact, receiving a sentence of 10 years.