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In October 2016, 22-year-old Cati Blauvelt went missing. Her family already had their suspicions on who could have caused her harm–her husband John, an ex-Army recruiter with anger issues who had lost his job, his identity... and blamed it all on her. In reality, John was partying with and supplying drugs and alcohol to minors. He had even allegedly pulled a gun on Cati during a domestic violence incident.
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Don't miss Scarpetta, a propulsive new crime thriller starring Academy Award-winner Nicole Kidman,
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Hello everyone and welcome back to True Crime with Kindle Ray. Thank you so much for joining me
today and if you're new to the show, then welcome. I am so happy to have you here. So you guys,
I know that probably all of you can picture someone in your own personal life that
tends to want to or just straight out does date or hang around people who are younger than them.
And we are seeing so much of this in society right now. I know you can definitely picture a celebrity
influence their public figure person in position of power who goes for younger people. It's
truly terrifying what has been coming to light, right? And the case that I am going to be talking
about today, I think is really important to talk about in light of all of that. And it involves one
of those predators or monsters, I should say. I'm going to be telling you guys about the murder
of Katie Blavell, which absolutely needs to be talked about more. She was a girl in her early
20s who only ever wanted to be happy. In fact, she was taking steps to get back to being her
happier self living a happier life when her life was senselessly and horrifically taken. This case
makes me so sad. It is so disturbing. I think my jaw was on the floor nearly 10 times looking into
this case because the details are unbelievable. I cannot believe how long it took to bring her
killer to justice. I want to start by telling you more about Katie who she was and what happened to
her. Now Katie, a K.A. Catherine Ann Boydher was born on August 8th, 1994. And she was raised in
Simpsonville, South Carolina by her mom Patricia Piver. Her mom, who goes by Patty, was blessed with
two other daughters as well. And she says that Katie, her middle child, just had a heart of gold.
She was caring. She was sweet. She was kind. And although she could be shy at first with people,
she didn't know. As soon as Katie got to know you, she was going to open right up. Patty also says
that she was really the free spirited type that she made friends with people easily. And one of
her biggest passions in life was animals. I know I always say this, but I think people who
love animals that much, where it is in her next level passion in their life territory.
I think that says so much about a person. That's just my opinion. All Katie ever really wanted to do
in life was live a pretty simple life. Fall in love, get married, start a family, you know,
be with as many animals as she could during her lifetime. And in 2014, when she was in her early
20s, she thought that she found the person that she was going to live that life with. That year,
Katie was 20 years old. And she was working at a very popular sandwich restaurant. I'm sure many
of you have heard of it's called firehouse subs. And just a few doors down from the shop, there was
an army recruiting building. And at lunchtime, a 26 year old guy named John Blavelt used to
frequently make his way in for a sandwich. And just like the other service members in this
community, John really seemed to have a good reputation. He was known to be charming and people
really enjoyed being around him. Katie included. And it sounds like he would come in to get a sandwich
mainly just to see her. And he really just took an interest in her. Eventually a relationship
started to bloom, you know, how it goes. Here's the kicker, though, the whole time Johnny boy
was married and had a child the entire time. Now he did tell her about this and he did tell her
that they were in the process of getting a divorce, you know, the classic. But knowing what I know,
I'd argue that the process was not quite as far along as he had her believing in the beginning.
Either way, though, the two of them start dating. And for the first few months,
everything was fine, I guess. Katie actually came from a military family herself. So she really
had a lot of admiration and respect for people who served. And that's why a lot of people think
that she was so drawn to him. But her family pretty much right off the bat seemed to not be so sure
that he was the one. Patty says that when her daughter first introduced John to them, he could not
have been less interested. He came across as standoff-ish and wouldn't even look her in the eye.
He just didn't seem to want to give them the time of day, which is obviously a huge red flag
when you are interested in someone's daughter. Any of their family members loved one. And you can't
even look them in the eye. You can't show any interest in them. I mean, that just shows bad
character right off the bat, in my opinion. Now, Patty says this was Katie's first serious
boyfriend. So she thought she was just excited about this kind of attention, but she just couldn't
shake the feeling that something was off. Apparently, John wouldn't use his real last name on his
Facebook page because he didn't want the army knowing about Katie. Now adultery, if you didn't know,
is a punishable crime in the military. So he seemed to be going out of his way to keep her
a secret because he was still married when they got together. Katie reassured their family that
he was getting divorced, but the secrecy of it all was off-putting to them to say the least.
And again, his general attitude towards them all was really off-putting as well. He just acted
like he couldn't care less to be around them, had no interest in getting to know them,
or showing any appreciation for them for raising Katie. You know, just like the basic things that
you would do when you meet your loved ones family. And eventually, I think Katie was feeling those
vibes that got awkward. She knew that they weren't, you know, super into John. So Katie started
keeping their relationship to herself. And that was the case until they announced that they were
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your first order meritbeauty.com. Up until this point, Katie had been living with her mom
and patty, of course, understandably thought it was way too soon for her to be moving in with
John. But she was not in a position to stop her, of course. She was worried though because Katie
didn't usually talk to her about her relationship. She would talk to her sisters and then her sisters
would tell patty what was going on. And they weren't telling her good things. They were telling her
that John was an alcoholic. And also that as soon as they moved in together, they started getting
in these huge blow up fights. And they were so intense that there were nights where she would go
and stay with her sister to get away from him. Now Katie also had a niece, Cheyenne. And she was
only a few years younger than her and the two of them were really close. And she says that Katie
and John's fights were really toxic. Then Katie surprised everyone in her family in the summer of
2015 when she suddenly announced that she had enlisted in the army. Now she had talked about joining
the military before, but it was always the navy, but seeing as John was a recruiter for the army,
he clearly must have persuaded her in the other direction. Although I guess it didn't totally
matter in the end because Katie did end up getting medically discharged due to a previous
undiagnosed spine condition, which was actually a huge bummer for everyone. I mean, no one was
happy about this, even though they were confused by her joining the army. It sounded like it brought
her a lot of joy and they wanted her to be happy. Katie was writing them letters when she was in
basic training, talking about how much she enjoyed it. And they were hopeful that this, you know,
would be beneficial in her life long term. But yeah, having to give that up was really hard on her.
But then in December of that year, things took a major turn because on December 7th, 2015,
Katie texted her mom just out of the blue, basically saying, oh, by the way, John and I got married
today. And Patty at first actually thought she was maybe joking, but she wasn't. John and Katie had
gone to the courthouse and had gotten married without telling anyone, which, you know, it's fine.
That's the right to do that. But Patty, of course, was just really surprised. And Patty ended up
texting her and told her that getting married on Pearl Harbor Day was a bad omen. And maybe she
was right because the two of them, they went on their honeymoon. And that was as far as we know,
okay, it was fine. But as soon as their honeymoon was over, things got so bad that Katie soon realized
that she wanted out of this marriage. And by that point, she and John had moved out of an apartment
and into a four bedroom house together. And their issues only got worse when they did that. And it
started with the fact that John didn't want to live there just the two of them, which is what
you would think you would want. No, John didn't want that. He wanted Katie's niece, Cheyenne,
to move in with them, which I mentioned earlier that Katie and her niece Cheyenne are very close.
But it was John who wanted her to move in. Very, very creepy. And Katie actually had reservations
about it, but John ended up getting his way and Cheyenne moved in. And at first Cheyenne said that
it was fun living with them. But over time, the fun totally stopped because John and Katie were
fighting more and more often. And I think you'll understand why she was so mad. It turns out that
John would throw these parties with a lot of drugs and alcohol and talking drugs like acid,
shrooms, cocaine. But what really made this a problem is these weren't parties with his other,
you know, 20-something-year-old friends. These were parties that he would throw for high schoolers.
Yes, you heard that right. Don't forget he was 26 years old. John is literally that guy who
can't get people his own age to like him. So he has to throw parties and seem like the cool guy
to a bunch of high schoolers. And understandably, Katie is not okay with this. She's like,
what the fuck is going on here? Especially after two other high school girls
began crashing at the house as well, like staying there. And this was a girl named Ali,
and then another girl named Hannah. And no matter how many times Katie would say,
he needed to stop. They need to leave. You need to stop throwing these parties and supplying
for minors. What the hell are you doing? He wouldn't. And to make matters worse,
John and that Hannah girl I mentioned started seeing each other behind Katie's back. Mind you,
Hannah was 17 years old. He was 26. She was a child. He is a predator. He groomed her. He gave her
drugs. He took advantage of her all under the same roof that he was sharing with his new wife.
Now I just feel the need to say something before we even get to more about Hannah.
I know there's going to be a lot of thoughts about Hannah and especially as you go through this
episode and you hear how things unfolded. But I did want to say that aside from everything else
that's about to happen, what he did to her especially in the beginning was extremely wrong.
She was also a victim of his. No, I think you cannot like a person and feel that they're guilty
about other things for sure, but also admit that they were a victim at another time in another sense.
I know that's cryptic and you're probably really confused, but you'll see what I mean as we go
through. Let me know if you feel differently because I'm not condoning her future actions at all.
I just think she was very highly manipulated and taken advantage of from a really young age.
But anyway, Hannah started secretly seeing one another and with everything else that was going on,
Katie was obviously pissed off beyond belief and Hannah was supposedly following John around
the house like a puppy and that's literally how she's been described and Katie just reached
her breaking point with the whole shit show and moved out. In February of 2016, she moved
back in with her mom and meanwhile, John wasted no time moving Hannah in with him, which if you're
confused about where her family was in all of this, I wondered that too. I wasn't able to find out
too much information, but I did learn that about two weeks later after she had moved in,
her dad did end up calling the police and that ended up in a nightmare of a situation.
After that report was filed, several officers went over to John's house to speak with him in Hannah,
but John literally refused to open the door. And I guess the two of them and Cheyenne as well
were doing acid. And Cheyenne says that he wouldn't let them leave. And because the police didn't
have a warrant, they couldn't just go inside. And while long story short, they managed to track
down Katie and she informed them that John had been supplying these young girls with drugs and
alcohol. She even told them about a very scary incident when he threatened to kill her and her whole
family with his gun. And this is no surprise, but he also threatened to shoot himself too, which
all of that is terrifying. But the silver lining about her telling the police about this is they
were able to get a warrant. And with that, he comes out of the house and they were able to arrest him
and they charged him with contributing to the delinquency of a minor and domestic violence.
And there was also a restraining order put in place between him and Katie. And as a result,
John was going to face consequences from the military. His pay was cut and they suspended him from
recruiting, pending an investigation into the allegations. And one thing you got to understand
about John is being in the military was his entire personality. It was everything to him,
aside from being a predator and doing drugs with minors. But yeah, his whole identity, his
whole life was on the line and that made him big mad. Every day, our cats act like they are the
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And of course, who does John blame for all of this because you damn well know it's not going
to be himself even though it is all his fault. No, no, no, no, no. He blames Katie. Katie ruined
his life, stripped him from everything he had, took away his dream job, his identity, ruined his
life. And I know you were all feeling so shocked that a pedophile freak like John couldn't take
responsibility for his actions, right? That's just wow. And Katie on the other hand, she wanted to
move past it. She wants to move on with her life. Forget this guy ever existed. And for example,
she got an amazing job working at PetSmart where she could spend all day with animals which was
awesome for her. And she was back living with her mom and out of that toxic environment,
things were starting to, you know, sort of look up for her. Now, Patty says that Katie still
did go over to John's house on occasion because her dog lived there and she loved her dog,
but there is absolutely no relationship between them. And for her first time in a long time,
Katie's loved ones say that she was starting to feel happy again. She even enrolled in classes
at her local technical college and started taking steps towards filing for divorce. However,
any chance that she could have to rebuild her life and really start over was taken from her
on October 24th, 2016. That day was a work day for Katie. And when she was leaving PetSmart,
she got a call from Cheyenne asking if she wanted to hang out. And Cheyenne remembers that Katie
sounded strange on the phone, but she brushed it off and the two of them made plans for her to come
over and they would go grab dinner. Cheyenne even took a nap in the meantime, figuring that Katie
would come over and she would wake her up. They would go to dinner, but that never happened. She
never came over to the house and she never called or texted to explain why. Now, truthfully,
when Patty heard this, she wasn't immediately worried. She got a call from one of her daughters
that afternoon asking if Katie came home, but she figured she probably went to a friend's house
when she wasn't home the next morning though. That's when she started to panic, especially because
her calls started going straight to voicemail. So that day, she went and filed a missing person's
report and she made sure to specifically mention everything that had been going on with John.
And while the police did take this seriously right away, which is great, they were not the ones
who found her. When words spread to Katie's friends that she was missing, they started to look
for her on their own and they had sort of a hunch to her friends had a hunch of where she might be.
It turns out there was this old abandoned house located deep in the woods where kids would sometimes
go to party. It was somewhere where Katie and John had been before, so they figured they would
check it out. And when they got there, they realized their hunch was right. But by that point,
it was too late because just after midnight on October 26th, they called 911 to report that they
had found Katie's body, who they soon discovered had died from a stab wound to her neck. And it was
just brutal, you guys. There's no other way to say it. The autopsy actually revealed that the blade
of the knife was still inside her, which makes me sick. And based on the blood evidence,
plus a cadaver dog who had found a button from her jeans, investigators believed that Katie was
killed outside of the house, but then her killer dragged her body inside to conceal her. And as for
Katie's loved ones, they found out about all of this in the middle of the night. And that call was
just more than devastating. Patty actually had a feeling that she had been killed from the very
beginning, but she never wanted that feeling to be true. And she also had a feeling that she knew
who did it. That person was, of course, John. And it didn't take long for investigators to agree.
Really, as soon as they brought him in for questioning and had a little bit of time with this guy,
could see the way that he was speaking and acting, they realized that his demeanor was off that he
was probably their guy. At first, he seemed a little upset by her murder, but pretty quickly,
his expression appeared more annoyed by the whole situation than anything else.
The state issues were sharing with her. Has anything ever happened before if you guys
were at any big issues like that in the past? We were the worst couple. We argued.
I think it was bad timing, honestly, because she was going through some shit.
Now it's going through some shit. She's left one day. It was like a Tuesday and then she came
back Friday with all the, the entire fountain, the police bar and then there's a pretty big scene.
Well, I think it was the last time we actually saw her. I would say probably July,
because she moved out in April, I think. He even cracked a joke. John's a funny guy about how his
duties in the army were temporarily demoted because of those charges. What do you do for the army?
Right now, it's small, it's right now. Because of the civil investigation, all my recurring duties have
and of course, investigators are thinking, how is this guy joking in a time like this?
They're seeing right through him and literally throughout the entire rest of his interview,
the whole thing. He didn't ask a single question about how she died or if they knew who did it,
something that anyone normal who had nothing to do with it would ask, right? The only question
that John seemed to want an answer to was about himself, of course. It was if he was being charged
with anything related to her death. And his expression throughout all of this just tells me everything
I need to know about how he felt. I'm sure you feel the same way. But despite what is so obvious
to everyone, there was no physical evidence to arrest him. So they had no choice but to let him go
at that point. Investigators did bring him back about a week later, hoping that they could get
maybe something more out of him, but unfortunately it was a whole lot of the same bullshit,
but this time he spoke even meaner about Katie.
And thanks are kind of emotional and everything. So we're still working the case, obviously,
and trying to figure out who killed her. We've talked to a bunch of people. We wanted to give you
some time to grieve and give it to you mentally before we branch in here. But we would like to ask
you some questions that maybe you can give us an answer or what we're looking for. So with that
minor, you want to talk to us today? Yeah. Okay. So I know obviously about the incident that happened
between you guys, allegedly in January, then she had found a report till a fed worker. What made her
file report a month later? Not something that was kind of a personality. Just getting back at you
for something she pissed her. That was her personality. When she got mad about something,
she would act extremely childish until she got away. And if she didn't get away, she was escalating
so she got away. What kind of stuff are you talking about? Um, everything. Just normal stuff,
people stuff. And then being a recruiter, I talked to a lot of different people. So I had two
phones and I talked to a lot of females and she didn't like that. But that was my job as a recruiter.
I had to talk to everybody. Yeah. And she wouldn't like that. So then we argue about that.
And then one time I just didn't ask her to come back and she came back like four days later with
her mom and they cleared out like all of her stuff up from the house. And he not surprisingly made
himself out to be the good guy. And when he was asked if he had anything to do with her murder,
John denied having any involvement. In fact, he said he was the terrified one because her family
was quote, trying to spin it to make it seem like he was guilty. They're trying to spin this
story against me and it's got me terrified. It's got me scared to shit.
Do you have any idea who killed her? No, absolutely not. This should have ridiculous and
as scary as. But I can't even be scared for Katie right now because I know Katie wouldn't
want me in this situation. She knows what scared us hell. And towards the end of the interview,
they told him they had a warrant to search his car as well as another to obtain a sample of his
DNA. And they actually read him the probable cause that led to these warrants.
The AFN is currently investigating the murder of Katherine Ann Blombel, which occurred on her about
1024 2016. The victim's body is located in the basement of an abandoned residence at 817 South
East Main Street. And I'll talk to you to determine the victim's manner of death to be a homicide.
The AFN and other investigators have conductive multiple interviews with friends family and
acquaintances of the victim and her estranged husband, John Tufton Blombel. These interviews have
yielded multiple statements from which the interviewees stated John Blombel has made comments
about his desire to kill the victim and his plan to hide her body in the house located at 817.
The AFN also has recorded statements from witnesses who say John Blombel had approached them and offered
them monetary compensation for assisting him in murdering the victim and offering him an
alibi by using his cell phone debit cards and vehicle. And another city to make it appear is if
you're not in the area at the time of the victim's death. The AFN has also compiled police reports
from the founding and police department that showed John Blombel was arrested in February 2016
for domestic violence first degree, where he was alleged to have pointed to get out the victim
and threatened her life. John Blombel had a pending criminal charge that if he was found guilty,
would most likely result in his discharge from the US Army where he's employed full time.
Blombel has made statements to multiple persons by the existence of a life insurance policy.
He holds on the victim for between $100,000 and $150,000 in which he is a beneficiary.
The AFN has obtained report statements from witnesses that state the victim's vehicle was
driven to the residence of John Blombel in South Carolina in 1024 or 16 at 4.56 p.m.
This is the day the victim disappeared was the last thing alive. The witnesses described the driver
as someone other than the victim's state. The driver was wearing a black jacket with a hood pulled up.
The witnesses stated 15 minutes after the victim's vehicle pulled out from the residence. John Blombel came
up from the back yard sweating profusely and was wearing a black hoodie jacket similar to the one
of the person driving the victim's vehicle. Blombel did not have a shirt underneath the jacket and
claimed to have been running. The victim's vehicle was later located at the
Jordan-Gramble South Carolina in a strict shopping center. Video surveillance from the area
shows the vehicle being dropped off on 1024 or 2016 at approximately 166-15 p.m.
The second vehicle pulls up for the victim's vehicle and it matches the description of John Blombel's
2007 road to a police. The second vehicle drives off after approximately five minutes with the
driver of the victim's vehicle. Self-run records from John Blombel's phone number obtained from 18T
places phone in the area at the time the victim's vehicle was dropped off.
It is the Athens belief based upon the aforementioned evidence that the 2007 Toyota
Police belonging to John Blombel contains evidence related to the death of the Catherine Blombel.
So not only had John talked about wanting to kill Katie, but he offered something money in
exchange for their help in doing so as well as their help in providing an alibi. Plus the fact
that someone matching his description was driving her car to his house on the day that she was
last seen come on and then the fact that his phone placed him at the exact location where her car
was later found abandoned coincidence. Fuck now.
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already figured this out, but who is that suspected second driver? The one who picked John up after
the car was abandoned, it was Hannah Thompson. That's right, you guys. They theorized that Hannah
hated Katie and that she would have gone along with John's plan to murder her so that she could have
him all to herself. Therefore, she was brought in for questioning as well. And like John,
she denied any involvement.
Tell us exactly what happened to Katie. I really don't know. I don't know anything about her
murder. You do. I don't. You do. Can I please leave? Can I please leave? Hannah, this is a friend of yours
that I tried. And because there was no evidence to hold her, which is such a damn shame,
she was allowed to leave. And both her and John were able to go about their normal fucking lives
until more concrete evidence was found and no one was held accountable for Katie's murder.
And by the time that investigators got that evidence, it was too late. On November 18, 2016,
an arrest warrant was finally signed, but when they went to locate him, they found that John and
Hannah were on the run. They had left about a week prior, so they had a one week head start
on evading the police. And you have to keep in mind here that John is not your average citizen.
He has been trained for this. He's got military training. He's pretty equipped to not be detected.
So at that point, the local authorities ended up calling in the assistance of the US
marshals to try and track them down. And even though there was suspicion about Hannah's
possible involvement, law enforcement of course was still worried about her safety.
If John was capable of murdering his wife, then there was no telling what he might do to his
girlfriend who could most likely link him to that crime. And the search for the two of them
was not easy by any means. During that first few weeks, ATM cameras, license plate readers,
and grocery store security footage captured John and Hannah headed west. But by the time authorities
arrived, they had already been gone. And the first real break they got wasn't even because of
something they did. On December 12 of that year, Hannah ended up reaching out to a family member
saying that she was a new gene organ and that she wanted to come home. It turns out that after
being on the run together for about a month, John just up and abandoned her one day. So she was
brought back in for questioning on December 20 and that's when she explained everything. Hannah
told them how they had traveled across the country, but that John got his car stuck in the mud
in the Pacific Northwest. And from that point on, they were pretty much homeless. She talked about
how they had to beg for money just to get by. And that during this time, John admitted to her
that he murdered Katie. And he told her that he did it all for her. And she said that he made
her feel like it was her fault.
So Hannah's story is that she didn't know about the murder until after the fact. And I'm sure a lot
of you question that story and I definitely do as well. But what's tough is we never really find
out if that's true. And like many of you, I'm sure my thoughts with that are, why would you go
on the run with someone if you didn't know what they did? Why did you think you were on the run?
Right? Like it just, it's not adding up. Also, if that really is the case, why didn't you go to
the cops the minute that he told you? Again, you never know what threat she was dealing with.
And I do sympathize with that to some degree. But I don't know, I've got a lot of questions
when it comes to Hannah. It seems like she thought this was going to be some sort of
like dark romantic gesture to run away with him, help him evade police. And I don't know. That's
just my thoughts. But she actually said that she lied because John promised to keep her safe.
But the dude literally ditched her. So that's obviously why she was now coming forward. And she even
admitted that she was the one who helped him move Katie's car. And what I also find really
interesting is that she was still protecting him. And people, it gets worse because Hannah's
wore that the two of them weren't in contact. And that she had no idea where John was.
But that just wasn't true. Investigators just couldn't prove it. And because they still needed
her help, she was all they had. They let her go. And it wasn't until my god years later in 2022
when Hannah finally admitted that they had been in contact that entire time, which just
blows my mind. And I don't fully understand how they didn't figure that out. I don't know
if she had a change of heart or what happened. Maybe he said something to her. But eventually,
Hannah just decided to help point everyone in the right direction. She admitted that for the
first few years, the two of them were in contact every single day via Facebook Messenger.
And then after that, they started talking on Snapchat. And I have to say I don't
fully understand how they didn't figure that out.
Seems pretty stupid to be doing that all over social media. But yeah, she claims that that
contact ended in 2019. And ultimately, she was able to provide the US Marshals with information
that did lead to his arrest. And that's when they learned that John had been operating under
the alias Ben Klein for the last six years and that he was living in Medford, Oregon with another woman.
And finally, on July 20th, 2022, they got his ass. There was a stakeout outside of the house
that he was living in. And as soon as he stepped outside, they made the arrest, tackled him to the
ground. And they say he looked genuinely stunned when they found him and that he even tried to
deny he was John, which I think is really funny that he was saying, no, I'm Ben Klein. I have no
idea what's going on. Meanwhile, it was his tattoos, his ugly ass tattoos, I have to say too,
that were a dead giveaway that it was him. Plus, and this is really cool. If you didn't know about
this, there's actually fingerprint technology now that they can use to identify someone in just
a couple of minutes. And they did that right outside his house while he was sitting there and
were able to confirm his identity and say, no, bitch, you are not Ben Klein. And to be clear,
they don't think that the woman he was living with had any idea who he really was. They think
she was really under the impression he was Ben Klein and that she certainly didn't know that he
was wanted for murder. There is audio, I think gets copyrighted and I can't insert it. But
she sounds, oh, it's like really, really sad. When I listen to it, I actually had a tear
come to my eye because I just felt so bad for her finding out that she had been living with this
monster, this predator for so long. But anyway, as for Katie's family, the news couldn't have come
as any more of a relief as you can imagine. They were genuinely worried that he was never going
to be found that Katie would never get the justice that she deserved. But justice was now well
on its way. And it wasn't just John that was being prosecuted. Hannah was finally arrested and
charged with five felonies related to Katie's death, including concealment of a felony,
obstruction of justice, and accessory after the fact, all of which she initially pleaded not guilty
to. And I thought this was interesting, but she ended up testifying against John during his trial,
however, she wasn't given any kind of plea agreement for that. Sounds like she did it because
she just wanted to see him be held accountable, even if it did nothing to help her own case.
And say what you want about Hannah, I definitely, you know, have my thoughts, which I have expressed,
but that testimony certainly went a long way and she didn't have to do that. So I guess,
thanks for that. She talked all about how John confessed to her and the horrific details of what
happened that night at the abandoned house, as well as the details about evading the police and how
she played a part in moving Katie's car. And the motive, if it wasn't obvious, was that Katie's
allegation of domestic violence threatened John's fragile little ego and in his eyes ruined his
life. He couldn't handle losing his status and because of that, she had to go. And Patty also
believes that he was angry with her because she had filed for spousal support. So some of John's
paycheck was being routed to her. And I do agree, I think that was probably part of it as well.
And there was one big bombshell that came out during the trial. Remember how I said that John had
a daughter with his first wife. I think I just said a child, but yes, he had a daughter with
this first wife. Well, while he was on the run, he had this journal that he, I don't know,
was keeping for himself or maybe the whole thing was going to his daughter, but either way he had
wrote a letter to his daughter in the journal where he admitted to doing it and he wrote in part.
Someday, I hope you understand why I did it. That 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. Do that,
but there was no other way for me. Sorry, bud. I love you. Plus, he had also googled things like how to
sharpen a knife and what to do with my wife dies. So there was just no getting around the truth here,
right? Even if there was no physical DNA linking him to the murder, which of course was the
defense's whole argument, but everything else pointed to the fact that John killed Katie. Period.
And the jury agreed and they did so after five hours of deliberation. He was eventually sentenced
to life in prison without parole, my favorite sentence. And this just was a moment of pure relief
for Katie's friends and family who after it was all over said they finally feel like they can
celebrate her life now that their efforts aren't focused on justice. And as for Hannah, she ended up
pleading guilty pretty recently in 2025 and this surprised me, but she only got three years of
probation. Patty says this feels like a slap on the wrist. And I couldn't agree more. For a while,
her sister Brandy thought that Hannah was just a dumb kid who made a stupid mistake by aligning
herself with John. But once she found out that she was actively keeping his location hidden all
of those years, her opinion definitely changed. I'd imagine all of their opinions did. And in my
opinion, as I've stated earlier, I do have a little bit of sympathy for Hannah, especially
more from when she originally met John. And when she was a minor, I think she was taken advantage of,
but I think at some point she could have made better decisions. She could have made the right
decisions. And she needs to be held accountable. I think anyone associated with Katie's murder
deserves to be punished with jail time. No matter how big or small of a role they played in it,
especially the fact that she delayed her getting justice for so long. I mean, there's just no excuse
for that in my book. And I don't believe everything she says, I personally believe there's still a lot
of lies that have been uncovered when it comes to Hannah. And here's something that you may not have
seen coming. There was actually a third person involved in all of this, at least kind of. His name
is mentioned in almost no coverage on this case, which is crazy. But I read that a guy named Charles
Sydney Scott was initially arrested and charged in connection with Katie's murder. It was later
discovered that he didn't have as prominent of a role as investigators thought. So he got off with
a plea deal on time served. And I wish I knew more about this. I don't fully understand what
happened here. The information is seriously lacking, which is frustrating. So I have no idea what role
he could have played, but I thought I'd mention it anyway. This whole case just really took me by
surprise. It pisses me off so much that John was able to get away with this for six years. That
just shocked the hell of me. I can't believe that. And it makes me so bad thinking that those are
six years that he got to be free when he shouldn't have had another free day for the day that she was
murdered. But I do think it's a nice reminder that just because justice sometimes takes a lot of
time, sometimes more than other cases, it doesn't mean that it's not coming and you can never give up.
I'm so grateful that her family finally has that peace of mind knowing that her killer will never
see another day out of prison. He will spend the rest of his sad pathetic life
having to rot in prison and hopefully thinks about what he did and feels guilty
and haunted every single day of his miserable life. I'm sure you won't be shocked to hear this,
but he is appealing his conviction, but I think hell would freeze over faster than he would ever
be released. So have fun with that, Johnny.
That is going to be it for me today, guys. Thank you for joining me for another episode. And
make sure you follow the show on Spotify and Apple podcasts. It really does help me out.
If you want to watch the video version of this show, you can find it on my YouTube channel,
which will be linked, or you can just search Kendal Ray. I will be back with another episode soon,
but until then, stay safe out there.
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True Crime with Kendall Rae

True Crime with Kendall Rae

True Crime with Kendall Rae