‘A weight lifted off,’ mother of murdered SC woman says about arrest of son-in-law

The mother of a young woman stabbed to death almost six years ago said she felt “jittery” when she saw her daughter’s accused killer in bond court.

Cati Blauvelt’s mother Patricia Piver told reporters after the hearing she had seen photos of John Blauvelt from his arrest but it became real to her when she saw him in person.

“It gives you another boost of energy,” she said, and later added, “It was like a weight lifted off my shoulders.”

Blauvelt was arrested last month in Medford, Oregon. He is charged with murder and possession of a weapon in the death of his estranged wife, who was found stabbed in the basement of an abandoned house in Simpsonville in October 2016.

He fled the Upstate shortly afterward. He had been interviewed twice by Simpsonville Police investigating Cati Blauvelt’s death.

Blauvelt was denied bond and is being held in the Greenville County Detention Center.

The case will be handled by the state Attorney General’s office due to a conflict within the 13th Circuit Solicitor’s Office, said Robert Kittle, a spokesman for the Attorney General.

He said an employee of the Greenville Solicitor’s Office is related to someone involved in the case.

Blauvelt was an Army recruiter at the time of his wife’s death and after he fled he was considered a deserter.