John Blodgett Pleads Guilty, Sentenced to Life for 2025 Gas Station Murder

John Parker Blodgett, 54, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and robbery with a dangerous weapon and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole following a court appearance on Feb. 13, 2026. The conviction resolves the July 14, 2025, killing of 55-year-old Jodi Anderson at the Shell gas station on Sweeten Creek Road in the Arden-Asheville area of Buncombe County.

Deputies with the Buncombe County Sheriff’s Office were dispatched just before 7 a.m. on July 14, 2025, to the Shell station located at 4012 Sweeten Creek Road after a caller reported an incident. Law enforcement located and charged John Blodgett in connection with the killing; authorities later arrested him that same morning at the Walmart on Airport Road.

Prosecutors filed counts of first-degree murder and robbery with a dangerous weapon against Blodgett, and the case advanced to a verdict by plea rather than trial. During the Feb. 13, 2026, court appearance, Blodgett entered guilty pleas to both charges and the judge imposed a life sentence without the possibility of parole, ending the criminal case through immediate sentencing.

The victim, identified as Jodi Anderson, 55, was killed at the Shell station on Sweeten Creek Road on July 14, 2025. That location at 4012 Sweeten Creek Road sits along a busy