In 2010, John DeBlase was a 27-year-old man from Mobile County, Alabama. He had a relatively normal upbringing & graduated high school in 2003. He went on to work at various jobs & started a relationship with a woman named Corrine Heathcock. The couple welcomed their daughter Natalie into the world on November 24, 2005 & in June of 2006, they got married. Their son Chase was born on December 29, 2006 when Natalie was one. The marriage was tumultuous & involved intermittent periods of separation.
During one of their separations, John developed a close circle of friends who were interested in wrestling as a hobby, just as he was. While still apart, one of his friends moved in with John to help with the costs of living. When Corrine eventually moved back home, she began a relationship with the friend which led to the ultimate demise of their marriage. After Corrine & the children moved out, John moved in with his parents, Richard & Ann DeBlase. Corrine had the children until John filed for divorce in May 2009 & at that point, Natalie & Chase moved in with their father & their grandparents. The divorce was final the next month & John was awarded primary custody of Natalie & Chase. Corrine was deemed unable to care for the children, but at some point, she did have regular visitation with the kids.
Natalie & Chase were considered happy children by all accounts. There was no indication as of this point in time that they had been subjected to abuse. Corrine last had contact with the kids on November 17, 2009 & she had no concerns regarding their safety or care.
In October 2008, John met a woman named Heather Keaton through social media. She was enrolled as an undergraduate student at Springhill College in Mobile where she was attending on a scholarship. She was visually impaired & in 2009, she became ill & returned to stay with her family in Louisville, Kentucky. When she recovered, she moved back to Mobile & moved into the home of Richard & Ann DeBlase, along with John, Natalie & Chase. The living situation proved to be tense as Heather often argued with Ann about the proper way to care for the children & asserted herself as superior in regards to child rearing.
Heather’s outspoken, domineering nature came to a head & Richard informed Heather that she needed to leave their home. On December 23, 2009, Heather, John & the kids moved out of their home & in with Dana Mullins. The next month, in January 2010, they left Dana’s house & stayed with John’s friend who knew from wrestling, for the next several weeks. The family included John’s friend Robin Rios, his wife Heather Rios & their children. During their time with the Rios family, John & Heather often argued about Heather’s desire to move back to Louisville. She explained to Heather Rios that she had absolutely no desire to raise Natalie & Chase despite John’s desire to live together as a cohesive family of four. The arguments between John & Heather got so severe & frequent that, like John’s parents, the Rios’ soon asked them to leave. Heather Rios was so concerned that she reached out to Ann DeBlase to express her worry & doubts that Heather Keaton would properly care for the children.
In early 2010, John contacted his parents & asked if he could borrow their car in order to bring Natalie & Chase back to live with them. When Ann & Richard spoke with John the next day, he indicated that plans had changed & instead, the kids would stay with him & Heather.
In February, John, Heather, Natalie & Chase went back to the Rios’ home to celebrate the birthday of one of the Rios children. When they arrived, Robin & Heather Rios noticed a foul odor coming from Chase & John & Heather explained that he was suffering from diarrhea. At that point, Heather Rios made the decision to give him a bath. She also noticed that both Natalie & Chase seemed very hungry & ate a large volume of food while at their home. As the party was ending & they were parting ways, Heather Rios advised John & Heather Keaton to seek medical attention for Chase. After the birthday party, the Rios family never saw Natalie again.
In late January 2010, John, Heather, Natalie & Chase went to see a man named Roger Champion & his family at their trailer in north Mobile County. The family was relocating to north Alabama & agreed to allow John & his family to rent the trailer. The night before the Campion family left, John bought hamburgers for himself & Heather for dinner while Natalie & Chase were only allowed to share one small salad. The next day, Roger observed Chase & Natalie sharing an individual, snack-sized box of cereal. While John & Roger were loading the Champion’s furniture into a truck, they could hear the kids screaming & crying.
When Roger went to investigate the situation, he was told by his wife that she saw Heather holding Natalie up by her hair while she beat her with a belt & then pushed Chase to the floor. Heather had gotten enraged because the kids had eaten part of a chocolate pie that was left on the kitchen counter. Roger confronted John & warned him not to let anything happen to the kids. John responded by explaining that Heather was in charge of disciplining the kids & it was merely a spanking. Roger’s wife was so upset by what she’d witnessed that she left the trailer. Roger knew Richard & Ann & reached out to voice his concern about the children’s safety under the care of Heather. He also called Creighton Hobbs who is a mutual friend of John’s & asked him to check on Natalie & Chase’s wellbeing after he relocated.
Hobbs had previously been at a barbeque at the Champion’s trailer with John, Heather & the kids & on that occasion, he saw Heather’s abusive treatment of Chase & Natalie. She was screaming & swearing at them as she roughly grabbed Natalie. She complained that the children were ‘just horrible’ & ‘like demon spawn from Hell.’ Hobbs felt that the treatment was out of line & very concerning. He told Heather not to treat the children that way & if she continued, he would notify the police. Meanwhile, John stood by & did nothing to stop Heather from abusing his own children. As an observer, it was Hobbs’ opinion that Heather was the domineering member of the relationship.
In February of 2010, with the advice from Roger, Hobbs went to the trailer to check on the well-being of the children. When he arrived, he found John on the floor in pain & Heather was upset. Heather claimed that John’s parents & his aunt & uncle had forced their way into the trailer, causing injury to John’s ribs in the process & then pushed Heather to the floor. As Hobbs stood by, Heather declared, referring to herself, ‘I hope this baby dies.’ This is when Hobbs learned that Heather was pregnant. Hobbs drove John & Heather to the emergency room for examination & later returned them to the trailer. While they were being examined, he took Natalie & Chase out to dinner. He noticed that the kids were extremely hungry. Soon after, John told Hobbs that they were moving from the trailer to Peach Place Apartments.
Ann DeBlase would later tell another version of events as to what happened that day. She said that she had not seen the children since December 23, 2009 & had been unable to give the kids their Christmas presents or Chase his birthday present. They weren’t even aware of where John & his family were living at the time, but after speaking with John’s friends, they learned they were living in the Champion’s trailer. In February, Richard & Ann, as well as Richard’s sister Rose Heathcox & her husband, went to the trailer to give the kids their gifts. When they knocked on the door, John opened it & appeared surprised to see them. He allowed them to come in, but did not seem happy with their impromptu drop-in. He allowed them to give the kids their presents which they opened.
Suddenly, Heather came in from the back of the trailer & became upset, shouting words to the effect of ‘what is that bitch doing here’ in reference to Ann. In order to avoid an escalation, Richard & Ann left the trailer & waited in the car for Rose & her husband. This was the last time they saw or spoke with their grandchildren. They denied their ever being a physical altercation or struggle as John & Heather had claimed.
In late February of 2010, John, Heather, Chase & Natalie moved into unit 41 of Peach Place Apartments. The manager of Peach Place, Nicole Conniff, often observed the kids outside the apartment, in the parking area, unattended, near a high traffic street despite the fact that they were only three & four-years-old. She as well as other apartment occupants were often concerned for their safety. Chase often appeared to be wearing a dirty, ‘sagging’ diaper.
On one occasion, Nicole entered the family’s unit with the pest control inspector after they had knocked multiple times with no response. Nicole utilized her master key to enter & found Natalie & Chase sitting on the floor, facing different walls in the living room of the small apartment. As they entered, Heather came running out of the bedroom, screaming & swearing as she accused the kids of letting people into the apartment. The children were visibly shaking as Nicole explained that she had used her master key to enter, but Heather remained upset.
Sometime later, John & Heather went to Nicole to complain about her entering the apartment, something that the rental agreement specifies is allowed by the manager for pest control inspections. John was described as using a threatening tone during the discussion.
On occasion, police units came to Peach Place for various reasons & oftentimes, John would ask Nicole why they were there. He asked so frequently which led Nicole to ask him if he had something to hide.
During the first week of March 2010, the Rioses happened to run into John at Walmart & he told them that Chase was waiting in the van with Heather. When they went out to see him, they asked where Natalie was & were told that she was staying with friends. They were shocked by Chase’s appearance; he seemed to be in a stupor & he was extremely pale to the point that they described him as ‘emergency room sick.’ They insisted that John seek medical attention for Chase & he did call an area clinic & reported that his son had diarrhea. The staff advised him to give Chase Gatorade & monitor him. This was the last time the Rioses saw Chase.
When John was enrolled in a massage therapy class at Blue Cliff Career College In Mobile in August of 2009, he met a woman named Renee Pierce. She would often give him rides to class & was aware that he had children. John took a leave of absence from the school from January 14-March 2, 2010 & when he returned, Renee could immediately see that he seemed different. She described him as ‘weird’ & he appeared to be unclean. His appearance remained this way until he dropped out in July 2010.
Before John dropped out of Blue Cliff, Heather came along to a class with John on June 21, 2010. He bumped into Renee & she asked where the kids were & she was told they were with a friend. Heather came along several more times & when she spoke with Renee, she told her that she did not want to be a mother to Natalie & Chase & that someone needed to teach Natalie that she was not a little princess. During the conversation, she referred to them as the ‘spawn of Satan’ & referred to her own unborn child as ‘the chosen one.’ Heathe also expressed concern that Natalie & Chase would be jealous of her child when it was born.
On June 20, 2010, Hobbs called John & asked him what his plans were with Natalie & Chase for Father’s Day. He said that he had gifts for the kids that he wanted to bring by & John told him that he would call him when he got home, but he never did. When Hobbs tried calling John after Father’s Day, he would not answer the calls.
On July 23, 2010, John & Heather were evicted from Peach Place & they briefly went to stay with Heather’s grandma in Rome, Georgia & then moved to Louisville, Kentucky where Heather’s mom, Hellena Keaton lived with her fiance, Jim Emery. They were told that John’s children were living with relatives in Las Vegas. Hellena owned rental property in Louisville where John & Heather lived. Next door was Les Wilson & his wife; Les was a retired police officer & Jim Emery’s friend. & his wife. On August 25, 2010, Heather gave birth to a daughter.
On November 14, 2010, John was leaving his job at the airport when he was pulled over for running a stop sign. He had no vehicle registration & other traffic violations so he was jailed overnight & his van was impounded. The next day, Hellena overheard John & Heather fighting & Heather said, ‘so you’re going to be like that. You’re not with me because you love me, you’re with me because..’ and then heard John say, ‘I’ll tell.’ Hellena became alarmed & demanded to know what was going on & where the children were. Heather said that the children were no longer with them & that something happened to Natalie in the spring & something happened to Chase on Father’s Day.
Hellena told her fiance, Jim, who then called Les for advice. When Jim spoke with Les, he voiced suspicion that he believed that John’s children may have been murdered. Being a retired police officer, Les made some phone calls & spoke with Lt. Kevin Thomspon from the Louisville Metro Police Department & he arranged for officers to go to the DeBlase home for a welfare check to see if Heather was in danger. When they arrived, they saw that she was unharmed & there were no signs of a struggle. They felt her behavior was odd & she said she wanted to go with them & slowly gathered her belongings. In the meantime, John sat quietly, staring out the window. Soon after Heather left, Les saw John leaving the apartment, carrying a travel bag.
When Lt Thompson spoke with Heather at his office later that day, he found her responses to be very odd, rambling & confusing. She seemed to be portraying herself as a disabled victim of abuse by John & indicated that because of her blindness, she was unsure as to what happened to Natalie & Chase. She elaborated that Natalie had a toxic odor on her breath, lost control of bodily functions & vomited ‘black stuff.’
She said that on March 4, John left for school & Natalie was put in a tarp inside the closet. Heather said that she was worried so she called John who assured her that he would check on her when he got home. She said that when he got home, Natalie was unresponsive; she was dressed in red pajamas, put in the back of their van once it had gotten dark & driven to an area that Heather was not able to describe. She said that John went to a wooded area, opened the back of the van & she assumed he disposed of Natalie’s body.
She went on to say that on June 20th, Father’s Day, Chase had the same symptoms as his sister & also became unresponsive. According to Heather, just as he did with Natalie, John placed Chase’s body in the back of the van & drove to an undisclosed location. Lt. Thompson felt that Heather was not being truthful & was not nearly as naive as she was claiming to be. He felt that when it suited her, she was very calculated.
Lt Thompson contacted law enforcement in Mobile to relay the information of the missing & likely deceased children. When Lt. Thompson confiscated Heather’s cellphone, he heard voicemails that John had left, he was crying & saying that he was sorry that things had turned out the way that they had. When they searched John’s impounded van, they recovered pictures of Natalie & Chase, stuffed animals, a duffel bag & a container of antifreeze. A second search utilized cadaver dogs which alerted to the scent of a dead body on the items in the back interior of the van.
Sgt Angela Prine, who was assigned to the case in Mobile, contacted John’s friends & family, including Corrine, the children’s mother, who indicated that she had not seen or been in contact with Natalie or Chase in over a year. Sgt. Prine traveled to Louiville & obtained an arrest warrant for Heather on charges of child abuse; her cell phone was traced & she was soon arrested.
When Sgt. Prine interviewed Heather on November 30, 2010, she once again gave rambling, self-serving & confusing statements & denied knowing how the children had died. She attributed her lack of knowing to the fact that she was blind as well as ill during her pregnancy. When they confronted her about the reports of her abusing the children while in Mobile, she aggressively responded that John’s friends were only trying to conspire against her. She was then arrested for child abuse & extradited back to Mobile.
In the meantime, John had left Louisville & traveled to Pace, Florida to stay with his friend Randall. Randall saw a news report on December 2, 2010 that indicated that police were in search of John in regards to his missing children. Randall confronted John who denied killing his children; he then gathered his belongings & left Randall’s house on foot. Randall contacted the local police & John was soon apprehended.
Lt. Boykin & Sgt Prine from Mobile were notified & traveled to Florida with a warrant for his arrest on charges of abuse of a corpse. After his first interview on December 3, he was transported to Mobile & enroute, he directed them to an area off Beverly Jeffries Highway near Citronelle in north Mobile County. He informed them that this was the general area where he had disposed of Natalie’s body. They then proceeded to Highway 57 north of Vancleave, Mississippi where John believed he had disposed of Chase’s body.
After the first interview, John made up an incredible story about the children being kidnapped on Father’s Day in broad daylight by two armed men who were wearing masks. He quickly changed his story & admitted that Natalie had died months earlier. He then went on to tell a more accurate version of events based on later interviews & discovered evidence. He said that before he left for school on March 4, Heather had bound Natalie’s arms & legs with duct tape & while she was unable to move her limbs, she was placed into a suitcase. He said that when he left, the suitcase was open, he had eye contact with his daughter & she was alive. He elaborated that this was how Heather disciplined Natalie so that she would change her attitude. Natalie had been referred to as the princess of the family & this was something Heather did not like.
John said that he was gone from their Peach Place apartment for twelve to fourteen hours on the day of Natalie’s murder & when he got home, he found a suitcase inside the closet & it had been zipped closed. When he opened the case, he found Natalie inside, she was cold & stiff & her jaw was locked open as if something had been previously stuffed inside her mouth. She was then dressed in her red pajamas & placed inside the van where they disposed of her body in a wooded area. When police questioned why he hadn’t called 911 to report what Heather had done, he said that he loved her & didn’t want to lose her, their unborn child or Chase.
John went on to say that on the evening of June 19th, he saw Heather duct tape Chase to a broom handle in order to discipline him over potty training. He was placed in the corner of the bedroom, unable to move his arms or legs & wedged against the wall by a dresser. A tarp was placed under his feet. John said he took a sleeping pill to help him sleep in the room where Chase was forced to stand. The next morning, when he woke, he found Chase still taped to the broom & a sock was wedged in his mouth & tape was around his face. He said that Chase was dead so he placed his body in a garbage bag & took it to Mississippi where his body was discarded in the woods.
John said that before both of the children’s deaths, he had noticed a strong odor on their breaths & saw that they were vomiting ‘black stuff.’ He said that he never sought medical attention for the children or contacted law enforcement. After his arrest, John wrote a number of letters which were authenticated by an FBI handwriting expert. The letters had been written between December 8, 2010 & January 2, 2011 & several referred to an ultimatum from Heather in January 2010 that John had to choose between her & his children. He said that because he was ‘blinded by love’, he chose Heather. Because of this decision, he allowed Heather to treat Natalie & Chase however she wanted. They were beaten with a belt, forced to stand in the corner for extended periods of time & given poison in their sippy cups in order to break their spirits.
As to how he found Natalie in the suitcase changed in his letters; in one, he said she was bound & dead & others said she was alive when he found her. When he asked her why she wouldn’t obey Heather, he held her in the air & choked her to death to stop the torture. He wrote the same about Chase in some letters. Investigators received these letters in September 2011 from an inmate where John was housed.
On December 8th, after previously unsuccessful searches for the children’s bodies, a search member found scattered remains in the woods, not far from the road in Mississippi. Multiple pieces of gray duct tape were found close to where the skull was located, a white sock attached to the tape, pieces of a garbage bag, training pants for a child & a diaper. Blond hairs were attached to the tape & when the tape was placed back together, it would have formed the dimensions of a child’s head & would have covered a child’s entire face with only the nose exposed. Where the sock was attached would have been at the location of the mouth. These proved to be the skeletal remains of Chase after DNA from a tooth was used. Review of Chase’s orbital bones showed signs of anemia & malnutrition due to the porous nature of the bone.
Natalie’s remains were found three days later on December 11th. Remnants of red clothing were located nearby & her remains were also identified by DNA from a tooth. Examination of what bones were found indicated growth disruption which could be caused from nutritional deficiencies, poisoning, psychological stress or high fever. Because of the condition of the remains, a cause of death could not be determined for either child.
In 2011, after Natalie & Chase’s remains were exhumed due to a court order for testing of ethylene glycol, an active ingredient in antifreeze, though no traces of the chemical were found. There were multiple reasons for this: The method of testing wasn’t sensitive enough, the chemical was never ingested, it was washed away by the elements or it could have been metabolized, leaving no traces in the body.
John claimed that he was not guilty of capital murder as he had no part in their abuse or murders & at most, he was guilty of reckless manslaughter. He added that he was a good father before he met Heather & she was the domineering one in the relationship & also mentally unstable.
John was diagnosed with schizotypal personality disorder with dependent features & antisocial personality disorder. A person suffering from this disorder has difficulty forming relationships & issues with their own identity; they are typically plagued by social anxiety & become who others want them to be for fear of being abandoned. John had a low IQ & low intellectual functioning as well as ADD.
Both John & Heather were charged with capital murder & sentenced to death. John’s trial lasted twelve & a half days & with a jury by a ten to two vote recommending he be sentenced to death by lethal injection. The jury was forced to sit through the disturbing testimony of the suffering the children experienced before their murders. John told Mobile County Circuit Judge Rick Stout, “I am not going to beg for mercy, I am not going to ask for mercy. I am going to ask for my life. I love my kids. I did not kill my kids.”
In October 2020, Heather’s sentence was overturned when her defense alleged that she didn’t have the chance to speak to the court before her sentencing in 2015. She was given a resentencing & the judge sentenced her to death by lethal injection. She was the first woman to be placed on death row in Mobile County & one of five women on death row in Alabama.
4-year-old Natalie was known as “The Princess” of the family while 3-year-old Chase was “The Dare Devil.” Natalie adored Christmas & called Christmas lights “gum drops” while Chase was a curious young boy who tended to gravitate toward females & was known as “Ladies Man.”
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