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John Carter was sentenced to 36 months in prison after pleading guilty to involuntary manslaughter in the death of his fiancee, Katelyn Markham, who disappeared from her Fairfield, Ohio, townhouse in August 2011 and was found dead in Indiana in 2013.

Markham was 21 years old and days away from her 22nd birthday when she disappeared. An art student months from finishing her degree, she had been in a relationship with Carter for several years and they were engaged. Carter lived nearby with his mother. Markham was last seen at her townhouse on the night of August 13, 2011. A friend who visited said she was working on a laptop and seemed distant. He left about 10:45 p.m., leaving Markham and Carter there.

Text messages between Markham and Carter continued until 11:36 p.m. Her phone went dark about 12:06 a.m. on August 14 and was never found. Carter called 911 that day to report her missing, saying he had left her home late the night before and gone to his mother's house. On April 7, 2013, scrap metal hunters found her skeletal remains in woods at Big Cedar Creek near Cedar Grove, Indiana, about 30 miles from Fairfield. A medical examiner ruled her death a homicide but could not determine the cause. A forensic anthropologist found three or four sharp force wounds on her left wrist bone.

Fairfield police initially handled the case with FBI assistance before the Butler County prosecutor's office took the lead. Police interviewed Carter several times, beginning the day he reported Markham missing, and he denied involvement in every interview. Asked on August 14, 2011, about red scratch marks on his neck, he first blamed an electric razor and then said he was unsure how they got there. The friend who had visited the townhouse did not recall seeing scratches on Carter. Carter first denied deleting Markham's August 13 text messages, then said he accidentally deleted them while clearing space on his phone. Investigators found numerous deleted messages between them sent from 7:53 p.m. to 11:36 p.m.

Carter said he sent Markham a good morning text about 4 a.m. on August 14, but there is no record it was sent. He said he attended a friend's gathering, reached his mother's home about 2 a.m., watched an episode of White Collar and fell asleep about 4 a.m. His search history showed he looked up the show's synopsis the day he reported Markham missing, and teenagers reported seeing a car with its lights off at the home about 2 a.m. Carter took polygraph examinations on September 19, 2011, February 27, 2014, and January 28, 2021, and was found deceptive each time. The final examination included a question about whether he disposed of Markham's body on Big Cedar Road.

Markham's remains were wrapped in dark plastic construction and landscaping sheeting. A roll of that material was found in a shed at Carter's mother's home. Writings recovered there included the line, "Deep down, I love her. You want to kill her, but I love her. She must die."

A Butler County grand jury indicted Carter on March 13, 2023, on two murder counts, one alleging he purposely caused Markham's death on or about August 13 to 14, 2011, and another alleging he caused it as the proximate result of felonious assault. He was arrested that month and pleaded not guilty. On June 7, 2024, weeks before trial, he pleaded guilty to a reduced single count of involuntary manslaughter, a third-degree felony. His attorneys said he admitted accidentally causing her death while committing a misdemeanor assault. He was not convicted of murder.

Butler County Common Pleas Judge Daniel Haughey imposed the maximum 36-month sentence on July 18, 2024. Prosecutor Michael Gmoser said the case was circumstantial, while Markham's father said the plea was painful but preferable to the risk of trial. Carter entered state prison at the end of July 2024 and is held at North Central Correctional Institution in Marion, Ohio. He moved for early release in October 2025. A hearing was delayed in November 2025, and Haughey denied the motion on January 9, 2026, after Carter declined the prosecutor's request to explain the circumstances of Markham's death. He had served about 18 months and has never given an account of how she died.

The video is a police interview-room recording that runs about 69 minutes. It presents the interview itself and begins with a short narrated introduction naming the people involved.

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Part 2 of 2 of the recording described above.