Authorities Capture Fugitive Accused Of Going On Run With Teen Girlfriend After Fatally Stabbing Wife In 2016

A man on the run for six years following the slaying of his estranged wife in South Carolina has been captured thousands of miles across the country in Oregon, authorities announced.

John Tufton Blauvelt, 33, was using the alias “Ben Klein” when the Pacific North West Violent Offender Task Force and other law enforcement agencies took him into custody on July 20 for the murder of his wife, Catherine “Cati” Boyter-Blauvelt almost six years ago, WSPA reported.

The suspect was being held at the Jackson County jail in Oregon and expected to be extradited to South Carolina.

Family reported 22-year-old Boyter-Blauvelt missing in October 2016, and her body was found a short time later in an abandoned home in Simpsonville.

After the homicide, the victim’s husband, Blauvelt, fled the state with his then-17-year-old girlfriend, Hannah Thompson. Nearly two months later, Blauvelt abandoned the teenager in Oregon and she reconnected with her family.

“She went to a family friend’s home in Eugene and called her parents, saying she wanted to come home,” the U.S. Marshals said of Thompson. “She and Blauvelt had been homeless while in Oregon.”

Arrest warrants police in South Carolina obtained in November 2016 state that Blauvelt, a former U.S. Army recruiter, allegedly used a knife to murder his wife.

“We knew he had a temper; we knew he had threatened her with a gun before,” Patricia Piver told WSPA of her son-in-law after his recent arrest. “He was the only suspect in our minds.”

Piver noted she was “still shaking” after learning the news. “It was the most amazing phone call I could’ve ever gotten.”

“I hope that the arrest of John Blauvelt brings Cati’s family some relief from the situation that they have had to endure the past few years,” Simpsonville Police Chief Mike Henshaw said. “I want to thank the U.S. Marshals Service and all the various agencies that assisted in making this arrest possible.”