'It's not closure': Katelyn Markham's fiancé, John Carter, sentenced to maximum prison term

When Katelyn Markham disappeared nearly 13 years ago, she was close to earning an art school degree and had plans to move to Colorado with her fiance, John Carter.

Carter, 36, was sentenced Thursday afternoon in Butler County Common Pleas Court to three years in prison for Markham’s 2011 disappearance and death − the maximum prison term possible.

Markham's family and supporters, wearing butterfly pins on their shirts, filled one side of Judge Daniel Haughey's courtroom during an emotional hearing.

Markham's family, who sat in the front row, described the anguish they've experienced since her killing and rebuked Carter for assuring her loved ones that she would be found despite his involvement in her death.

"Not a day goes by that I do not think of Katelyn," said Dave Markham, her father. "I do not feel three years is justice, not for Katelyn; not for her sister; not for me, her friends or the entire community that has ached and grieved alongside us."

Carter declined to make a statement in court. His attorneys argued for probation or a minimal prison sentence, asking the judge to consider the law and not emotional statements.

Carter pleaded guilty in June to involuntary manslaughter, admitting for the first time that he caused Markham's death. Prosecutors said Carter killed her by "physical violence and by force." His guilty plea came just weeks before the scheduled start of his murder trial.

Butler County Prosecutor Michael Gmoser said Carter's plea was "a clear and spoken admission," however, Carter still hasn't explained how or why he killed Markham.

"The court believes that Mr. Carter has shown no genuine remorse for this offense," Haughey said, noting that Carter did not try to help Markham, nor did he acknowledge what happened to her in the immediate aftermath.

Carter was indicted in March 2023 after investigators spent over a decade sifting through evidence to answer one question: Who killed Katelyn Markham?

Fiance’s 911 call launches 11-year mystery

In August 2011, Fairfield police responded to 21-year-old Katelyn Markham’s Dorshire Drive townhome after Carter, then 23, called 911 to report her missing.

He told Fairfield police he last saw his fiancée the night of Aug. 13, 2011, when he left her townhouse, court records show, adding the couple exchanged texts after Carter said he left.

When Carter didn’t hear from Markham the next day, he let himself into her townhome but found no sign of her, according to his statements to police. Her purse, wallet and keys were left behind but her phone was missing. Markham's car was parked outside and her dog wasn't locked up.

What followed Markham’s disappearance was a monthslong search to locate her or uncover any signs leading to her whereabouts.

Friends, relatives, local authorities and even a national mounted search group from Texas conducted dozens of searches for Markham. They combed local parks, waterways and areas in Butler and Hamilton counties but found no trace of her.

It took almost two years before Markham’s loved ones got their answer. Her skeletal remains were found in April 2013 by a couple gathering aluminum cans near a creek off Big Cedar Road in Cedar Grove, Indiana.

A forensic anthropology report indicated that the location where Markham's remains were discovered is different from where they were first left.

Years of investigations lead to few answers

Even after Markham’s remains were discovered, years passed with no arrests.

While her death was ruled a homicide, a cause of death was never established due to the “severe decomposition" of her remains. Cutting wounds caused by "sharp force trauma" were present on her left wrist, prosecutors said.

The homicide investigation eventually changed hands from the Fairfield Police Department to the Butler County Sheriff’s Office after Markham’s family successfully lobbied in 2015 for the case to be re-examined.

After months of investigation, however, the sheriff’s office announced they had a "strong singular person of interest” but not enough evidence to pursue charges.

In January 2020, the Butler County Prosecutor’s Office launched its own investigation at the direction of Gmoser.

How ‘circumstantial evidence’ solved more-than-decade-old cold case

The case against Carter involved “the most extensive and challenging collection of circumstantial evidence” the prosecutor’s office has seen, Gmoser previously said, adding it lacked the physical evidence viewers of crime dramas might expect, like DNA or fingerprints.

From the beginning, investigators felt something about Carter’s story was off.

During early interviews, police noted the presence of scratch marks on Carter’s neck, which he first attributed to his electric razor, though he later told police he couldn’t recall how he got the scratches.

Investigators also thought it was strange that Carter was quick to refer to Markham in the past tense in private conversations and media interviews in the days after his fiancée went missing.

Carter voluntarily submitted to polygraph examinations in 2011, 2014 and 2021, which each showed he gave “deceptive responses” while denying his involvement in Markham’s disappearance and death, investigators said in court documents.

While Carter and Markham planned to leave the state, several witnesses told investigators the couple’s relationship was strained in the days and months before Markham’s killing. Months before Markham’s death, she disclosed to one person that she was unhappy with her engagement to Carter and felt “trapped in the relationship,” investigators said.

Phone records showed Markham’s cellphone “went dark” just after midnight on the night of her disappearance, meaning it was turned off, the battery died or the SIM card was removed. The device was never recovered.

Investigators said Carter’s phone was likewise inactive for 15 hours from early morning to mid-afternoon on Aug. 14, 2011. He also deleted texts between him and Markham from the night of her disappearance, saying he did so “accidentally.”

Investigators said Carter was also familiar with the area where Markham’s body was discovered because it was along the routes to his dad’s properties in Ross Township and Laurel, Indiana.

During a 2023 search of Carter’s family home in Fairfield, police found notes about Markham’s homicide investigation, drawings of an “angel” in the woods and poetry about death and killing, investigators said.

Police also found a roll of landscaping material in the home’s shed. Investigators zeroed in on similar material used to dispose of Markham’s body, which Carter likely obtained from his mom’s house less than a mile from his fiancee’s townhouse.

'It's not closure'

Carter, who spent just two weeks in jail after his indictment and has been on GPS monitoring for more than a year, was led away in handcuffs at the end of Thursday's hearing.

Even after Carter's guilty plea last month, the family was haunted by his presence in the community. Dave Markham said his younger daughter, Ally, went to shop at a local Home Depot and saw Cater there with his family.

"John pled guilty but was still free," he said.

The family is now seeking to revise Ohio's statute of limitations for crimes like abuse of a corpse, which ran out in Carter's case in part because Katelyn Markham's body was concealed. Investigators indicated in court documents that someone helped Carter dispose of her corpse, however, that person has not been charged.

"John took so much away from this world when he ended Katelyn's life that night," Ally Markham, 28, said in a written statement read by the family's attorney.

While Carter's sentencing came as a relief to Markham’s family, they're still left with few answers.

"It's not over and no, it's not closure, but it's a start of something else to come," Dave Markham said.

"I still do not know the whole story," he said. "Even if (Carter) writes a confession in prison, he's gonna have to be more convincing than he's been the past 13 years."

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Fiancé sentenced 13 years after Katelyn Markham went missing