As army recruiter John Blauvelt’s life fell apart, he blamed his wife, Cati Boyter so he murdered her and left her body crammed into a concrete box in an abandoned farmhouse basement
In 2014, John Blauvelt was a US Army soldier and working as a military recruiter at a centre in Simpsonville, South Carolina. He was well known in the area. He wore his uniform and told stories about his deployments in countries such as Iraq. Teenagers looked up to him when he visited local schools and he got on well with the students.
Catherine ‘Cati’ Boyter, then 20, had a fun personality and made friends easily. She started dating Blauvelt and by the summer of 2015, he had convinced her to enlist in the army. But after two months of training, health issues related to her spine meant she had to be medically discharged.
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Soon afterwards, Cati shocked her family by announcing she had married Blauvelt at a local courthouse without telling anyone. She had moved into his four-bedroom house and seemed keen to start a family. As an animal lover, Cati was thrilled to get a job in a pet store, PetSmart, but the atmosphere at home quickly became tense.
Blauvelt would invite teenagers, who he had met while recruiting or visiting local high schools, over to their house to party. There would be underage drinking, drugs and some teens would crash there. One teenager he welcomed into the house was Hannah Thompson, 17, who seemed to be smitten with Blauvelt.
After less than three months of marriage, Cati told her husband she’d had enough and moved back in with her mother, Patti Piver. She told Patti she was going to get a divorce.
Thompson’s family grew concerned when she didn’t return home for weeks and requested a welfare check. Officers went to Blauvelt’s home and found Thompson there on 26 February 2016. Blauvelt was arrested and charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
When Cati was questioned as part of the case, she admitted that Blauvelt had pulled a gun on her a month earlier. He’d threatened to kill her and hurt her family. The police charged Blauvelt with domestic violence and put a restraining ordering in place so he couldn’t go near Cati.
The army cut Blauvelt’s pay and suspended him from recruiting duty. They gave him a desk job. Despite the restraining order, Cati did go to Blauvelt’s house occasionally because of her dog, Jupiter. He was quick to tell her that she had ruined his career.
Savage attack
On 23 October 2016, Cati, then 22, was seen leaving work at around 2.15pm, but she failed to meet her friends as planned and her phone kept going to voicemail. Patti reported her missing.
The next day, Cati’s body was found in the basement of an abandoned farmhouse where teens would go drinking. She had been stabbed and her petite 5ft 1in body had been crammed into a rectangular concrete box. Part of a knife had broken off in the attack and was still in her neck. It appeared she had been killed outside the house on the driveway then dragged inside. Cati’s loved ones were bereft.
When Blauvelt was informed by the police, they noted that he didn’t ask all the usual questions – like where her body was found or how she died. He didn’t even seem shocked. “She flipped my life upside down,” he said, suggesting he felt resentment towards her.
Blauvelt became a suspect. When he was questioned again, he said he hadn’t seen Cati for a few months before her death. He also said he had visited her body in the funeral home and had taken Thompson with him. She was questioned and denied knowing anything, but the police determined that she was now Blauvelt’s girlfriend.
Before investigators could gather enough evidence, Blauvelt fled in his red GMC Yukon with Thompson. With his military training, the police feared they would struggle to find him.
Evading justice
In the November, Blauvelt was charged with murder while on the run. There were CCTV sightings of him and Thompson shopping and at an ATM. They were passing through Texas and New Mexico, but they were always one step ahead.
After a month on the run, Thompson contacted her family and said she wanted to go home. When later questioned by the police, she admitted Blauvelt had confessed he’d killed Cati at the farmhouse.
“He told me that the knife broke… I can’t believe he would do something like that,” she said.
Thompson revealed that before Cati died, she told Blauvelt she wouldn’t go to the police if he let her go. Thompson said she dropped Blauvelt off at the pet store the day Cati vanished and later that day, without knowing Cati was dead, she had helped hide her car.
“He told me that if I lied to the police, he would keep me safe,” she said.
She also said Blauvelt had kept telling her he’d done it for her so they could be together – blaming her for his actions. Blauvelt remained on the run and months turned into years. Cati’s family were devastated that he might never be found and brought to justice.
Six years after Cati’s death, in 2022, Thompson admitted she had been in regular contact with Blauvelt until 2019 via Facebook Messenger and Snapchat. He’d been living with another woman in Oregon for around six years. The police staked out the house and on 20 July 2022, when Blauvelt, who was then 33, came out on to the driveway, the police arrested him.
He insisted he was Ben Klein – the name he’d been living under – but his fingerprints and a distinctive pirate tattoo on his arm confirmed who he was. When the woman he was living with came home, she was in disbelief when she was told he was being arrested for murder.
The police found that Blauvelt had been keeping a journal while on the run. Within it he’d written, “I did it.” Thompson was charged with five felonies, including obstruction of justice and accessory after-the-fact. She would plead not guilty.
Key witness
At Blauvelt’s trial in September 2024, almost eight years after Cati was killed, Thompson was a key witness and admitted helping Blauvelt. She took the stand and told the court, “He told me that he stabbed her in the neck.” She also said he’d thrown Cati’s phone in the water and covered up her blood on the ground with dirt.
The prosecution said Blauvelt had wanted to be with Thompson, but he was also angry with Cati for her part in the demise of his army career and reputation. His internet history showed he had searched “how to sharpen a knife” and “what to do if my wife dies”.
The defence said there was no DNA evidence and that Thompson was testifying to get leniency in her charges. The prosecution pointed out she had been offered no deal and faced 55 years in prison.
Blauvelt was found guilty of murder. He was sentenced to life without parole. He is currently appealing his conviction. Thompson is awaiting trial.