Schoolgirl, 17, helps lover after having killed the woman and flees

While the life of army recruiter John Blauvelt fell apart, he blamed his wife, Cati Boyter, so he killed her and left her body in a concrete box in an abandoned farm basement

In 2014, John Blauvelt was a soldier in the US and worked as a military recruiter in a center in Simpsonville, South Carolina. He was known in the area. He wore his uniform and told stories about his efforts in countries such as Iraq. Teenagers looked up at him when he visited local schools and he got along well with the students.

Catherine ‘Cati’ Boyter, then 20, had a nice personality and easily made friends. She started to date Blauvelt and by the summer of 2015 he had convinced her to hire herself with the army. But after two months of training, health problems with regard to her spine meant that she had to be dismissed medically.

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Shortly thereafter, Cati shocked her family by announcing that she was married to Blauvelt in a local courthouse without telling anyone. She had moved to his house with four bedrooms and seemed to found a family. As an animal lover, Cati was happy to get a job in a pet shop, Petsmart, but the atmosphere at home was soon tense.

Blauvelt would invite teenagers he had met while recruiting or visiting local high schools to their house to party. There would be a minor drink, medicines and some teenagers would crash. A teenager he welcomed to the house was Hannah Thompson, 17, who seemed to have been beaten with Blauvelt.

After less than three months of marriage, Cati told her husband that she had had enough and returned to her mother, Patti Piver. She told Patti that she would get a divorce.

The Thompson family was delivered when she did not return home for weeks and asked for a welfare check. Officers went to Blauvelt’s house and found Thompson there on 26 February 2016. Blauvelt was arrested and charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor.

When Cati was interviewed as part of the case, she admitted that Blauvelt had drawn a gun a month earlier. He had threatened to kill her and hurt her family. The police accused Blauvelt of domestic violence and brought a house regulation so that he could not get close to Cati.

The army lowered Blauvelt’s wages and suspended him to recruit the duty to recruit. They gave him a desk track. Despite the restrictive order, Cati occasionally went to Blauvelt’s house because of her dog, Jupiter. He quickly told her that she had ruined his career.

Savage Attack

On October 23, 2016, Cati, then 22, saw the work at around 2.15 pm, but she was unable 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 farm where teenagers would drink. She was stabbed and her petite 5ft 1 body was crammed into a rectangular concrete box. Part of a knife was demolished in the attack and was still in her neck. It seemed that she was killed outside the house in the driveway and then dragged in. The lovers of Cati were robbery.

When Blauvelt was informed by the police, they noted that he did not ask all the usual questions – such as where her body was found or how she died. He didn’t even seem shocked. “She turned my life upside down,” he said, suggesting that he felt resentment towards her.

Blauvelt became a suspect. When he was questioned again, he said he had not seen Cati a few months before her death for a few months. He also said he had visited her body in the funeral center and brought Thompson. She was interrogated and denied to know something, but the police found that she was now the girlfriend of Blauvelt.

Before researchers were able to collect sufficient evidence, Blauvelt fled in his red GMC Yukon with Thompson. With his military training, the police feared that they would have trouble finding him.

Discovering justice

In November, Blauvelt was accused of murder during the flight. There were CCTV observations from him and Thompson shopping and at an ATM. They passed Texas and New Mexico, but they were always one step ahead.

After a month on the flight, Thompson contacted her family and said she wanted to go home. When she was later interviewed by the police, she admitted that Blauvelt had confessed that he had killed Cati in the farm.

“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 that she would not go to the police if he let her go. Thompson said she was put Blauvelt in the pet store on the day Cati disappeared and later that day, without knowing that Cati was dead, she had helped hiding her car.

“He told me that if I lied to the police, he would keep me safe,” she said.

She also said that Blauvelt had continued to tell her that he had done it for her so that they could be together – blaming her for his actions. Blauvelt remained on the run and months changed in years. Cati’s family was devastated that he would never be found and brought to court.

Six years after the death of Cati, in 2022, Thompson admitted that she had regularly had regular contact with Blauvelt via Facebook Messenger and Snapchat until 2019. He lived with another woman in Oregon for about six years. The police turned off the house and on July 20, 2022, when Blauvelt, who was then 33, came to the driveway, the police arrested him.

He insisted that he was small – the name he lived under – but his fingerprints and a distinctive pirate tattoo on his arm confirmed who he was. When the woman with whom he lived came home, she was unbelieving when she was told that he was being arrested for murder.

The police discovered that Blauvelt had kept a diary while he was fleeing. He had written in it, “I did it.” Thompson was accused of five crimes, including obstruction of justice and accessories afterwards. She would not argue guilty.

Key witness

During the Blauvelt process in September 2024, almost eight years after Cati was murdered, Thompson was an important witness and admitted to help Blauvelt. She took the position and said to the court: “He told me he was stuck her in the neck.” She also said he had thrown Cati’s phone into the water and had covered her blood on the floor with dirt.

The prosecutor said that Blauvelt wanted to be with Thompson, but he was also angry with Cati for her share in the ruin of his career and reputation on the army. His internet history showed that he had searched “how to sharpen a knife” and “what to do when my wife dies”.

The defense said there was no DNA certificate and that Thompson testified to get a clementia in her indictment. The prosecutor pointed out that she had not received a deal and had confronted in prison for 55 years.

Blauvelt was found guilty of murder. He was convicted of life without a conditional release. He is currently appealing to his conviction. Thompson is waiting for a test.