- John Carter was sentenced to three years in prison for his role in the August 2011 disappearance of Ohio art student Caitlin Markham.
- Carter was charged with two counts of murder when he was arrested in March 2023. He pleaded guilty last month to manslaughter as part of a plea agreement.
- Butler County prosecutors said Carter used “physical violence and force” to kill Markham. Prosecutors said Thursday they have not yet explained how or why Carter killed Markham.
The fiancé of an Ohio art student who went missing nearly 13 years ago was sentenced Thursday to three years in prison.
John Carter, 36, was charged with two counts of murder at the time of his arrest in March 2023. He pleaded guilty last month to manslaughter as part of a plea deal.
The charges stem from the disappearance of Caitlin Markham, who was last seen at her Fairfield, Ohio, home in August 2011. At the time, Markham was weeks away from graduating from the Art Institute of Ohio-Cincinnati, Ohio, and Carter said she planned to move to Colorado later that year.
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Skeletal remains confirmed to be those of Markham were discovered in a wooded area in Cedar Grove, Indiana, about 20 miles west of her Fairfield home, in 2013. Authorities have ruled her death a homicide but have not determined the manner of death.
John Allen Carter, pictured here, was the fiancé of an Ohio art student who went missing nearly 13 years ago. Carter was sentenced to three years in prison on July 18, 2024. (Butler County Jail, via The Associated Press, File)
Butler County prosecutors said Carter used “physical violence and force” to kill Markham. Prosecutors said Thursday they have not yet explained how or why Carter killed Markham.
Dave Markham, Caitlin Markham’s father, read a letter in court before Carter was sentenced.
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“Not a day goes by that I don’t think about Kaitlyn,” he said, pleading with Judge Daniel Hoagy to sentence Carter to the maximum sentence allowed by law. “May he suffer the pain that so many of us have endured these last 13 years.”
Carter did not speak at the sentencing hearing, and his lawyers urged Haugie to consider the law rather than emotional comments and asked for probation or a minimum prison sentence.
But Judge Hoagy imposed the maximum sentence allowed in the plea agreement, saying Carter “has not demonstrated sincere remorse for this crime” and that he had not immediately tried to help Markham after her death or acknowledge what had happened to her.
