Soldier killed wife and went on the run with teen lover

As army recruiter John Blauvelt's life fell apart, he blamed his wife, Cati Boyter

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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.

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 that 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.