OH - Katelyn Markham, 22, Fairfield, 14 Aug 2011, found deceased in 2013 *arrest in 2023* #5

J. Ryan Green worked as a private investigator on the case. He said he interviewed Carter four or five times in person after Markham’s disappearance.

“John would tell you what John wanted you to know,” Green said. “And then, ‘I don't remember that.’ Or he would take you down a road ‘That? Well, I guess that could have happened. I just don't remember that.’”

According to court documents, Carter allegedly killed her between August 13 and August 14, 2011.

Green said Carter appeared rehearsed and forgot key details during all interviews.
 

So what is it going to take to solve Markham’s homicide case?

“A confession. Someone walking in and having a guilty conscience,” said Dave Markham, Katelyn’s father.
“Nobody is doing anything about it anymore. I don’t think Fairfield (police) ever really tried. Butler County (Sheriff’s Office) tried for awhile ...”



Everything I could find about Katlyn Markhams case is in the Case Archive:

My money is on Michael Strouse, as the killer.
Are you local to the case? The fiancée was always who I thought did this. The police did a horrible job.
 
FINALLY----I think we ALL knew it was the fiancé. So glad the cold case was opened!

 
I think if LE keeps questioning the same people over and over, some of the stories are going to change. Then alibis will start to crumble.

IDK.... maybe it will take someone in a little group of friends getting arrested on an unrelated charge. People will talk if there's the possibility of a plea deal on the table. Often, they start talking to cellmates, too.
THIS^^^ post was from 2014---and it was pretty accurate!
 

3/22/23

[..]

“I know you’re not supposed to report a missing person before 24 hours, but my fiancé is missing, and I can’t find her anywhere,” he said in the call made more than a decade ago.

He went on to say in the 2011 call to 911 they had been discussing a possible move to Colorado.

“We were planning on going in October, and then we pushed back the date to November,” he told the 911 operator. “We could have pushed the date back a year and it would not have mattered. I didn’t want to make her do anything she didn’t want to do, and she did not feel like she was being forced into anything.”

When asked what he meant by “forced,” Carter said, “just going to Colorado, the marriage, the whole thing. It was entirely up to her.”

[..]

Prosecutors are not revealing many details about what led to Carter’s arrest to protect the investigation.

Carter is the second person arrested in the investigation.

The Butler County Prosecutor’s Office confirmed the arrest of Jonathan Palmerton on Feb. 22 for one count of perjury for allegedly lying to investigators. A judge set his bond at $50,000 just days after he was arrested.

Sometime before Palmerton’s arrest, investigators executed two search warrants on separate properties, the prosecutor confirmed.

One property is where Palmerton lived in 2011, a house on Ann Court in Fairfield. The other property is where Carter previously lived.
 
FOREST PARK, Ohio (WXIX) - John Carter, the former fiancé of Katelyn Markham, was taken into custody Wednesday at Neusole Glassworks where he worked.

On Thursday, Carter’s former manager Nate Freeland talked with FOX19 NOW about the close bond he had with his former employee.

“John was great,” Nate Freeland, Carter’s former manager and friend. “John was awesome to be around. His humor was infectious. His work ethic was infectious.”

A former pupil in a glass-blowing class Carter taught had similar comments. The woman says Carter was “a nice guy” and “genuine.”

“How somebody who could do something so [menacing] could also be somebody so chipper and nice and be somebody you could genuinely want to hang out with or get a drink or something... It really is an eerie feeling I get thinking about it,” she said. “It’s just odd to think about anybody doing something like that and just going on for years and years and years undetected with, like, a normal life as if everything is hunky dory.”

 
Dave Markham said he always felt Carter was involved in Katelyn's death.

"This is a little bit more reassuring that my suspicions weren't totally off base," Dave Markham said. "That does make me a little angry that he lived for 12 years scot-free, thinking he got away with it, and a lot of us have missed Katelyn tremendously every day for 12 years, and it's not fair. It's not right. Hopefully, it's going to be made right," Dave Markham said.

Butler County prosecutors have not commented on a motive or how they believe Katelyn died.

Dave Markham said he's OK with not having all the answers just yet and will remain guarded as this plays out in court.

"I've always said in God's time I will know, and this might be God's time," Dave Markham said. "This needs to be a closing time for everybody."

 
HAMILTON — John Carter will remain in the Butler County Jail at least until Monday, when he will be arraigned on the charge of murder for allegedly slaying fiancé Katelyn Markham in 2011.

Butler County Common Pleas Judge Dan Haughey will arraign Carter at 10:30 a.m. that day, but the hearing will be conducted in the county’s “super courtroom” that is reserved for cases that might draw a large public and media interest.
According to court officials, Chris Pagan, a Middletown attorney, will represent Carter.

 

3/22/23

[..]

“I know you’re not supposed to report a missing person before 24 hours, but my fiancé is missing, and I can’t find her anywhere,” he said in the call made more than a decade ago.

He went on to say in the 2011 call to 911 they had been discussing a possible move to Colorado.

“We were planning on going in October, and then we pushed back the date to November,” he told the 911 operator. “We could have pushed the date back a year and it would not have mattered. I didn’t want to make her do anything she didn’t want to do, and she did not feel like she was being forced into anything.”

When asked what he meant by “forced,” Carter said, “just going to Colorado, the marriage, the whole thing. It was entirely up to her.”

[..]

Prosecutors are not revealing many details about what led to Carter’s arrest to protect the investigation.

Carter is the second person arrested in the investigation.

The Butler County Prosecutor’s Office confirmed the arrest of Jonathan Palmerton on Feb. 22 for one count of perjury for allegedly lying to investigators. A judge set his bond at $50,000 just days after he was arrested.

Sometime before Palmerton’s arrest, investigators executed two search warrants on separate properties, the prosecutor confirmed.

One property is where Palmerton lived in 2011, a house on Ann Court in Fairfield. The other property is where Carter previously lived.
I remember where I was when I heard the 911 call being played for the first time. I was sitting in the parking lot at Skyline Chili in Englewood Ohio, listening to the news on 700 WLW.

They played the entire 911 call, and from that moment on I have been waiting for him to be arrested.
 
Are you local to the case? The fiancée was always who I thought did this. The police did a horrible job.
I don’t necessarily think the police did a horrible job. My thoughts are that they suspected from the start that her fiancé was responsible, like many of us did. But they had to collect evidence and build a case that hold up.

I’m sure it all came together when John’s friend turned against him and provided the missing pieces of information.

JMO
 
is there a word for when you are simultaneously shocked and not at all surprised? I have been certain he should be arrested for this for nearly 12 years and yet i did not know if this day would ever come...
 
Even in this...He is like "I don't know who would do it"...then backtracked. Like do what? Also, the moving to Colorado...Been talking about it "for days"...Hmmmm. Does anyone have the link for the full 911 call?

 
I remember where I was when I heard the 911 call being played for the first time. I was sitting in the parking lot at Skyline Chili in Englewood Ohio, listening to the news on 700 WLW.

They played the entire 911 call, and from that moment on I have been waiting for him to be arrested.

Funny how that 911 call affected so many here: I recall thinking two things -- "been together 6 years" and then thinking how naive I was at age 22!

Today I just feel sad. :(
 

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