An Ohio man was sentenced to three years in jail for involuntary manslaughter in the death of his fiancée, who went missing more than 13 years ago.
According to the Associated Press, WKRC, the Cincinnati Enquirer, and several other local outlets, John Carter, 36, was sentenced to three years in prison in Butler County for the death of his fiancée Katelyn Markham, whom he first reported missing in 2011.
Carter was first charged with two charges of murder upon his arrest in March 2023 but pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter in June after accepting a plea agreement, just weeks before his murder trial began, according to the Enquirer.
The Enquirer also said that Markham’s family and friends sat in the front row of the courtroom, wearing butterfly pins in support of the 22-year-old art student. Carter declined to speak at the sentencing.
“Not a day goes by that I do not think of Katelyn,” her father Dave Markham stated during the proceedings, according to the newspaper. “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.”
The Associated Press stated that Markham, 22, was last seen on August 13, 2011, at her home in Fairfield, Ohio. She was just weeks away from graduating from the Art Institute of Ohio-Cincinnati and was set to move to Colorado with Carter before her death, according to the site.
Carter was the last person to see Markham alive before her death, and she contacted 911 to report her missing after she failed to show up for work, according to multiple publications. Several of her items, including her keys, handbag, and wallet, were missing from her apartment, but her phone and GPS position data were switched off.
Markham’s remains were discovered in April 2013 in a trash site in Cedar Grove, Indiana, about 30 miles west of her home, following a lengthy search in which Carter played an active role, according to reports. Markham’s death was deemed a homicide, however, the cause of death has never been identified. According to the Enquirer, a forensic anthropology assessment completed after her bones were discovered suggested that they had been transferred from their original location.
According to Butler County prosecutors, Carter killed his fiancée using “physical violence and by force.” According to the Associated Press, Carter has never revealed how or why he killed Markham.
According to PEOPLE, prosecutor Mike Gmoser spoke with one person who prepared a witness statement for Carter. That person claimed Carter only pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter to avoid a hefty sentence and maintain his innocence.
“It’s not over, and it’s not closure, but it’s the beginning of something new,” Dave Markham told the Enquirer.
“I still do not know the whole story,” he joked. “Even if [Carter] writes a confession in prison, he’s gonna have to be more convincing than he’s been the past 13 years.”