The 13-year Katelyn Markham murder saga, which ended with her boyfriend’s sentencing in July after a guilty plea, will be replayed Friday, Sept. 27, on Dateline NBC.
The network will devote two hours (9-11 p.m.) to Markham, a 21-year-old student at the Art Institute of Ohio in Cincinnati who disappeared from her Fairfield home in August 2011. Her skeletal remains were found in 2013 in a wooded area in Cedar Grove, Ind., about 20 miles west of Fairfield.
Her fiancée, John Carter, was arrested in March 2023 — nearly 10 years after her remains were found — and charged with two counts of murder. Shortly before his trial in June, Carter, 36, pleaded guilty to one count of involuntary manslaughter in Butler County Common Pleas Court after denying he had anything to do with her death for 13 years. He was sentenced on July 18 to three years in prison, the maximum allowed under the plea deal.
Former WCPO-TV reporter-anchor Andrea Canning reports the Dateline story, which features interviews with Dave and Ally Markham, Katelyn’s father and sister; investigator Paul Newton; and WLWT-TV reporter Karin Johnson.
In a promotional video for the program, Canning says that while “Fairfield police ramped up their search efforts, Katelyn’s fiancée was out there talking to everyone he could” after her disappearance. It includes news video of Carter saying, “Katelyn is the love of my life. We’ve been engaged for a year.”
NBC’s episode description says: “The season 33 premiere of Dateline investigates the case of a young Ohio woman who vanishes one summer night prompting her community to conduct a massive search. When she’s found dead, investigators question her friends and family to uncover her killer.”
At 7:30 p.m. Friday, WLWT-TV will pre-empt Access Hollywood to air a half-hour special about the Markham case, according to Johnson.
“We will bring you into the interrogation room. You will hear some of John Carter’s jail calls. Chief investigator for the Butler County prosecutor’s office and the prosecutor’s criminalist will walk you through their investigation. Plus, for the very first time, you will hear from the first Fairfield police officer to arrive at Katelyn’s townhome the night John called 911. She’s never spoken publicly about her observations and what she calls 'missteps' in the initial investigation until now,” Johnson wrote on Facebook Wednesday.
Markham’s death was ruled a homicide, but authorities could not determine how she was killed, according to the Associated Press. Her remains were found on property not far from a farm owned by the Carter family, according to the Journal-News, Butler County’s daily newspaper.
Carter and Markham were planning to move to Colorado later in 2011, after her graduation.
Butler County prosecutors said Carter caused Markham’s death “during an assault at her Fairfield home in August 2021,” Johnson reported on WLWT-TV in June.
Carter did not speak during the sentencing hearing conducted by Judge Daniel Haughey. Prosecutors said after his sentencing in July that Carter didn’t explain how or why he killed Markham, according to AP.
Dave Markham has been a strong advocate for his daughter’s case since she vanished. He did multiple TV and print interviews to keep pressure on investigators to solve her murder as the case moved to the Butler County Sheriff’s Office in 2015, and to the Butler County Prosecutor’s Office in 2020. He also attended Carter’s court hearings in June and July.
Carter was the prime suspect for Butler County Sheriff’s investigators all along, WLWT-TV's Johnson reported after his admission of guilt.
"(The) investigation eliminated 20 people of interest through either polygraphs or alibis that were persons of interest in this case. There was never a doubt … who was responsible for her disappearance and death," Butler County Sheriff Sgt. Rob Whitlock told Johnson in June.
