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Background

Heather Leavell-Keaton met John DeBlase in 2008. He was married with two kids, but it didn’t stop them from starting a relationship.

In 2009, John and his wife separated. He took the kids, Chase and Natalie, and moved in with his parents in Mobile, Alabama.

Heather joined him in March 2009, but John’s parents kicked her out in July after she kept mistreating his kids.

In one incident, John’s mother saw Heather tape the kid’s hands behind their backs.

In December 2009, John reconnected with Heather and moved with her wherever she went. During this time, Heather also became pregnant with his child.

It became clear to everyone who spent time around Heather that she hated John’s children. She referred to them as “demon spawns from hell” and “spawns from satan.

She was also concerned they would be jealous of the baby she was expecting, which she called the chosen one.

A friend of the couple later claimed to see Heather give the kids lettuce for dinner one night. He claimed she only gave them a single-serve box of cereal to share the following day.

Murders

Most people in Heather’s position would have left and found a man without kids, but she decided to eliminate John’s kids from the picture, and John was okay with it.

At one point, she started adding antifreeze to the kids’ meals. The children started getting sick and throwing up black stuff. After torturing their little insides for months, the couple got more aggressive.

On March 4th, 2010, they bound the feet of 4-year-old Natalie DeBlase and stuffed a sock in her mouth. She was forced into a suitcase and put into a closet for 14 hours, where she died.

Afterward, the couple dumped her in a wooded area near Citronelle, Alabama.

With Natalie gone, they decided they would keep 3-year-old Chase, so they stopped poisoning him. But when he started asking about his sister, they decided he was a liability, and he had to die.

They started poisoning him again. On June 20th, 2010, they bound his feet together and stuffed a sock in his mouth. He was then taped to a broomstick and put in a closet. They expected him to stand all night, but he ended up choking on the sock and dying.

The deranged couple put him in a garbage bag and tossed him in a wooded area in rural Mississippi.

Before dumping Chase, the couple stopped to get a new video game. They were excited about all the free time they would have with the kids gone.

By November 2010, the couple had their newborn baby and left Alabama. They moved to Louisville and stayed in an apartment owned by Heather’s mother, Hellena.

When Hellena asked about the kids, the couple told her they were staying with one of John’s relatives in Las Vegas.

Hellena believed them until she overheard an incriminating argument the couple was having. She confronted Heather, and Heather admitted the kids were dead.

Hellena asked her friends for advice, and they went to the cops. Officers believed Heather was being held against her will by John.

When they arrived to check on Heather, she didn’t look like she was being held captive, but she played the scared role and asked them to take her out and away from John.

At the police station, she tried to play the battered woman and put the blame for the children’s deaths on John.

She claimed she could not call for help for the kids because he would take her phone when he left the apartment. She also claimed he would restrain her whenever she tried to leave the home.

She revealed where both children’s remains were dumped, but claimed John handled the kids’ bodies, and she never got out of the vehicle as he dumped them.

Police took her to a battered women’s shelter while they continued investigating. They learned of several instances where Heather was seen abusing the children while John did nothing to stop her.

A couple of weeks after she spoke to police, Mobile, Alabama, police traveled to Louisville and arrested Heather on child abuse charges.

By then, John was in Florida, where he was also arrested on child abuse charges and later sent back to Mobile, Alabama.

He tried to lie and say the kids were kidnapped on Father’s Day 2020, but detectives told him Heather already confessed.

He told the truth, said he was blinded by love, and allowed Heather to treat the kids however she wanted.

On December 8th, 2010, investigators found some of Chase’s remains. On December 11th, 2010, they found some of Natalie’s remains.

Prosecutors charged the couple with capital murder.

At his trial, John was convicted of three counts of capital murder and sentenced to death.

At trial in 2015, Heather was convicted of capital murder for Chase’s death and reckless manslaughter for her involvement in Natalie’s death.

She is currently one of 5 women on death row in Alabama.