Today I want to discuss the case of a young woman who was murdered as she was trying to leave an abusive partner and the toxic environment he had created in their home. Like Mary Ann Willis’s story, it also involves a partner with ties to the U.S. Army at the time of the crime.
Cati Boyter had just turned 20 when she met 26-year-old John Blauvelt, who had a recruiting office for the U.S. Army close to where Cati worked at a local sub sandwich shop in Simpsonville, South Carolina. Her mom described her as bubbly, friendly, outgoing, with a passionate for all animals. She was attending community college. She was also a very petite young woman, standing only five feet one inch tall. When Cati met John, he was married but told her he was in the process of a separation. He had a young daughter. Cati and John soon began dating, and Cati seemed very happy. In the summer of 2015, John encouraged her to enlist in the Army as a new recruit. But after doctors discovered she had scoliosis, she received a medical discharge out of the Army.
Cati’s family was skeptical about John. Her mother Patti Piver told 48 Hours that John never seemed that interested in getting to know their family. Then, after about a year of dating, Cati surprised everyone when she came home and told them she and John had gotten married at the local courthouse. They went on a honeymoon and returned home to settle into a four-bedroom home John already owned in nearby Fountain Inn. Cati got a job at a local PetSmart.
A House of Chaos
But soon, the house became a haven for a host of local students, most from nearby Hillcrest High School, where John worked as an Army recruiter. He had a habit of cozying up to the students, many of them female, and inviting them to the Blauvelt home where he provided marijuana, alcohol, cocaine, and sometimes acid. Cati quickly grew disillusioned with her marriage—she wanted to start a family, not live in a glorified party house 24/7. But her pleas to John fell on deaf ears. As the distance grew between the couple, he turned to 17-year-old Hannah Thompson, who had no qualms in badmouthing Cati to her friends.
After only three months of marriage, Cati saw the writing on the wall and moved out of the home she shared with John and back in with her mother. He immediately moved Hannah into his bedroom. On February 26, 2016, Hannah’s father reported to the police that he hadn’t seen her for two weeks, and they were dispatched to John’s home to inquire about Hannah’s whereabouts.
At first, John refused to go outside and talk to the police. He stayed inside the home with Hannah and several other minors. Police drew their weapons and ordered him to once again exit the house. Eventually, John opened the door and spoke with the police. On February 27, 2016, he was arrested and charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
When police interviewed Cati, she told them about an incident a month before his arrest where he pointed a gun at her head. He repeatedly threatened her life and the lives of her family members. The Fountain Inn Police Department then charged him with domestic violence. Both parties were issued restraining orders and told not to see one another. Amid his legal troubles, the U.S. Army cut John’s pay and suspended him from recruiting duties. He was livid and blamed Cati. She planned to file for divorce, but still went over to his house occasionally because her dog was living there.
Meanwhile, John was telling the high school students who frequented his home that he was going to kill Cati because she had ruined his life and military career. They thought he was only venting. On October 24, 2016, Cati went to her job at PetSmart but failed to return to her mother’s house. She wasn’t answering her cell phone. Her mother Patti feared the worst and reported her daughter missing to the police. She shared her fears that John Blauvelt had done something to Cati.
It was two of Cati’s friends who decided to check an old, abandoned farmhouse popular with local teenagers who wanted to party. The property had been vacant for more than 20 years and wasn’t easy to get to. A dirt path led to the house, which was surrounded by woods. Cati and John had frequented the house in the past. There, the friends discovered a horrific scene in the basement and knew their hunch had been correct. Cati was there, and she was dead.
On October 26, 2016, police were dispatched to an abandoned farmhouse in Simpsonville, South Carolina. Cati’s body folded into a rectangular concrete box, a knife blade still hanging out of her body. She had been stabbed in the neck, the blade going in at least six inches.
Investigators Capt. Cheryl Scofield and Keith Morecraft were at the crime scene and later said they believed Cati had been murdered in the driveway to the home, and then moved to the basement.
When they went to inform Cati’s husband, John Blauvelt, that she had been discovered deceased, he appeared distraught, at first. But as the conversation progressed, the investigators grew suspicious. He didn’t ask where his wife had been found, or how she had died. Instead, he asked if he was being charged with a crime. He later visited the funeral home where Cati’s body was and took 17-year-old Hannah Thompson with him.
Police questioned him again, and said he came off as arrogant and cocky, blaming Cati for everything that had gone wrong with his life and career. They also talked to Hannah, but she claimed not to know anything about the details of Cati’s murder. She grew upset when they tried to show her a photo of Cati taken during her autopsy.
John Blauvelt Goes on the Run
John didn’t try to conceal his guilt—fleeing town with Hannah Thompson. The Army classified him as a deserter shortly thereafter. On November 18, 2016, police charged John Blauvelt with Cati’s murder. U.S. Marshals were dispatched to assist in locating John. Investigators uncovered surveillance photos of Hannah and John shopping and they caught images of his red Yukon truck traveling through Texas and New Mexico. But after a month on the run, Hannah called her family from Eugene, Oregon, asking to return home to Simpsonville. She sat down with investigators upon her return. She told them John had left her in Oregon, and that the two had been living out of his vehicle. He didn’t give her a reason why or tell her where he was going. But while they were on the run, he did admit to Hannah that he had murdered Cati, and shared the grisly details of the murder.
John Walsh featured John and the details of Cati’s murder on the show “In Pursuit with John Walsh” in 2019. The Unsolved Mysteries podcast aired an episode about the case on October 13, 2021.
Hannah gave police conflicting details of her knowledge of the crime, but they chose not to charge her because they needed her testimony to solidify the case against John. Hannah admitted dropping John off by PetSmart the day Cati went missing, and later helping to move Cati’s car.
The Girlfriend Knew More Than She Let On
Though they stayed in regular contact with Hannah, police grew no closer to finding out where John Blauvelt was hiding. Until six years after the murder, when the young woman finally admitted she had been in regular contact with John the entire time he’d been on the run. They communicated via Facebook Messenger and then Snapchat. The conversations eventually ended in 2019, with John admitted he was living with another woman in Oregon. U.S. Marshals staked out the home of the woman John was living with. On July 20, 2022, when John exited the home, shirtless, the Marshals made their move. At first, John tried to tell them he was Ben Klein, and they had the wrong man. But they recognized tattoos on him that were unique to John. He had a pirate and banner with a rose and sunset on his right arm, a yin yang symbol on his left forearm, the name “Madison” on his left wrist, and a parrot on the right side of his chest. Madison was a daughter he shared with his estranged wife. Along with these identifying tattoos, the Marshals took mobile fingerprints on the scene, confirming his identity.
His girlfriend was blindsided by the news and told the Marshals she had no idea John was a wanted man out of South Carolina. She’d been working to support the two while he mostly stayed home and cared for her pets.
John Blauvelt was extradited back to South Carolina to await trial. Police arrested Hannah Thompson and charged her with five felonies, including obstruction of justice and accessory after the fact. She pleaded not guilty and was released on bail.
The Trial Begins
When John’s trial started, it became clear the prosecution’s case relied mostly on circumstantial evidence and the testimony of Hannah Thompson and others. John had kept a journal during his time on the run and in one entry he wrote in bold letters, “I did it,” although he didn’t specify what “it” was. John’s defense team forced Hannah to admit her story about what John told her and when had changed over the years. They pointed out that she had lied to police, her friends, her family. They said there was a lack of DNA evidence at the scene of the murder.
The trial began in September 2024 and lasted four days. In their opening statement, John Meadors, a prosecutor for the South Carolina Attorney General’s Office, read a page out of John Blauvelt’s journal. He wrote the entry in December 2016, and it was addressed to his daughter, who he shared with his estranged wife.
“Someday I hope you understand why I did it. The girl was evil to me. She treated me like dirt. She took everything from me, including you. I am sorry that I had to do it, to do that but there was no other way for me. There was no other way for me. Sorry bud I love you.”
One of the high school students who had hung out at Cati and John’s home said he convinced her and others that Cati was trying to stop them from hanging out together. He asked her if she wanted to go to Charleston, South Carolina, so he could “kill” his wife. He kept a “to-do” list on his refrigerator and one of the items on it was “Get rid of Cati.”
John had heard Cati was seeing someone else and enlisted Hannah to spy on Cati at the home where she was staying. He also had Hannah help him figure out what kind of car she was driving, as she had purchased a different vehicle after their separation.
What Really Happened to Cati?
On the morning of October 24, 2016, Hannah drove John to work in his gold Prius. When he got off work, she drove him to the PetSmart where Cati worked. Cati Blauvelt had last used her cell phone on October 24, 2016 at 4:17 p.m. to take a selfie from inside her car. After that, it appears she traveled to that abandoned house with John. Cati fought off the attack by John, and defensive wounds on her hands showed this during the autopsy. She pleaded for her life, but he murdered her with a steak knife anyway. He then took Cati’s car and drove away from the scene.
At 5:03 p.m., John called Hannah Thompson. He sent her an instant message at 5:04 p.m. asking her to “Check out your Snapchat.” The contents of that message were then deleted from his phone.
In the weeks before Cati was murdered, John’s Google searches included the questions “how to sharpen a knife,” When can police tap your phone, and What do I do when my wife dies?” John Blauvelt declined to take the stand in his own defense.
After deliberating for five hours, the jury returned a verdict of guilty. Thirty-three-year-old John Blauvet was sentenced to life in prison without parole.
In an article that ran in The Greenville News on July 24, 2022, Cati’s mom Patricia said the last message family members got from Cati was a Facebook message with a purple flower saying “Send this to the people you love most and if they love you, they’ll send it back.” Her mother also confirmed her daughter had been the victim of domestic violence, and she knew how difficult it was to leave that type of relationship with the amount of manipulation perpetrators use on their victims.
Cati’s sister, Brandi Blackwell, said Cati had come by her house in the days before she went missing to find clothes she could wear to work. Her sister noticed she was looking much healthier since she’d made the decision to leave John.
In August of this year, Hannah Thompson pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice and concealing a felony and received three years of probation. Cati’s mom, Patti Piver, was not pleased with the sentencing. She told FOX Carolina in part, “For her, this is just a slap on the wrist for what she did, but it’s like a punch in the gut to my family.”
Show Sources:
https://www.courttv.com/news/sc-v-john-tufton-blauvelt-military-wife-murder-trial
https://www.wyff4.com/article/blauvelt-juryl-greenville-sc-wife-murder-verdict/62303225
The Greenville News
October 27, 2016
Body found in vacant house
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https://www.newspapers.com/image/237864088
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https://www.newspapers.com/image/237864092
The Greenville News
November 26, 2016
Police: Murder suspect may be traveling with local girl
https://www.newspapers.com/image/247594949
The Greenville News
July 24, 2022
Suspect nabbed in wife’s 2016 death
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https://www.newspapers.com/image/878827191
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https://www.newspapers.com/image/878827174
The Greenville News
September 16, 2024
Ex-Army recruiter’s trial set to start
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https://www.newspapers.com/image/1120780001
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https://www.newspapers.com/image/1120780041
https://medium.com/crimebeat/the-horrible-murder-of-cati-blauvelt-806f1c64cd7d
