Naman Shrestha
In October 2016, when a 22-year-old married woman named Cati Blauvelt was found dead in the basement of an abandoned farmhouse in Simpsonville, South Carolina, a state of panic and shock erupted across the entire community. Meanwhile, grief took over Cati’s loved ones. It turned out that her husband, John Blauvelt, was the prime suspect in the case, and he had fled the state with his then-girlfriend, 17-year-old Hannah Thompson. Weeks later, her involvement in the crime came to light, which is covered in the episode titled ‘Cati Blauvelt: Death of a Soldier’s Wife’ of CBS’ ’48 Hours.’
Hannah Thompson Got Close to John Blauvelt Before Cati Blauvelt’s Murder
Hannah Elizabeth Thompson was a 17-year-old resident of Simpsonville, South Carolina, when she began hanging out with a married military recruiter named John Blauvelt, who worked at the Armed Forces Career Center. The house he shared with his wife, Cati Blauvelt, was a party destination for minors as he allegedly invited several teenagers to do drugs and drink alcohol. Hannah Thompson was one of the teenagers who regularly crashed at his house. According to another teenager, who was a regular visitor, claimed that Hannah fell in love with John and began hating Cati. As tensions between the married couple intensified, Cati moved out of the house. Not long after, Hannah then reportedly moved in with John, allegedly without informing her family.
When her father hadn’t seen her for two weeks, he alerted the authorities. On the night of February 26, 2016, police officers showed up at the Blauvelt residence and arrested him. A few hours later, he was charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor. That same day, he was also charged with domestic violence as Cati told the police that he had pointed a gun at her the previous month. A few months later, on October 24, 2016, Hannah reportedly dropped John off near Cati’s workplace, PetSmart. After he stabbed Cati to death and disposed of her remains in an abandoned farmhouse, Hannah admittedly helped him get rid of Cati’s vehicle in a parking lot on White Horse Road. A few days later, she was questioned about Cati’s killing as the detectives had discovered her remains.
Hannah Thompson Provided Information on John Blauvelt’s Whereabouts Years Later
During her interview, Hannah denied any involvement in the crime. As the authorities zeroed in on John, he fled the state with Hannah. About a month later, she contacted her family from Eugene, Oregon, and expressed her desire to return to Simpsonville, South Carolina. Upon her return, she was questioned by the authorities again and was asked about John’s whereabouts. She told them that he had suddenly disappeared one morning and left her in Eugene. She claimed that John had confessed to the crime while they were on the road. The teenager also admitted to dropping him off at Cati’s workplace, but denied knowledge of his murderous plan.
In the following years, Hannah Thompson was interviewed repeatedly by the authorities in case she had some new intel on John’s whereabouts. Meanwhile, she allegedly maintained contact with John through Facebook Messenger and Snapchat until 2019. In 2022, Hannah decided to come clean to the investigators and told them that he had been living with another woman in Medford, Oregon, for years. The information provided by her led to the arrest of John Blauvelt on July 20, 2022. Three months later, on October 12, she was also charged with five felonies, including obstruction of justice and accessory after the fact.
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Hannah Thompson is on Probation in South Carolina Today
After her arrest, Hannah Thompson pleaded not guilty and was released on bail. In September 2024, during John Blauvelt’s murder trial, Hannah served as a key witness for the prosecution as she testified against him. Her testimony proved crucial to the case, and he was ultimately found guilty and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Nearly a year later, on August 20, 2025, Hannah pleaded guilty to one count of obstruction of justice and one count of misprision of a felony.
In exchange, she was sentenced to three years of probation. After the sentencing hearing, Cati’s mother, Patricia River, told Fox Carolina that she wanted a harsher sentence for Hannah. She said, “What all Hannah did and how terrible it was, and it sometimes just seems it didn’t matter what I said; they had their minds made up to start with… For her, this is just a slap on the wrist for what she did, but it’s like a punch in the gut to the family.” As of today, Hannah is serving her probation in South Carolina.
