Evil boyfriend wouldn't accept relationship was over - then turned cannibal

When Tammy Jo Blanton started dating Joseph Oberhansley in 2014, she knew he had a criminal past but didn’t know all the details. Joseph had been vague about the time he’d spent in prison in Utah.

There had been drug and driving offences and plenty of run-ins with the police, but Tammy, 46, had been willing to give him a chance. If she’d known exactly what Joseph had done, she might have felt differently about allowing him into her life.

After just a few weeks of dating, Tammy saw a different side to her boyfriend. Joseph became controlling and volatile and she grew afraid of him.

After four months, she ended their relationship, but Joseph wouldn’t accept it was over between them. He’d pester her at her home in Jeffersonville, Indiana and refused to leave her alone.

She allegedly confided in a friend that Joseph had forced her to have sex – she’d gone along with it as she was afraid of him. Tammy’s friend told her it was rape and was worried about her safety.

She stayed with friends for a few nights to avoid Joseph, but then decided to take back control. She returned home, got her dad to change the locks and told her friends that she had the police on speed-dial.

Tammy thought she could break free from Joseph, but she didn’t know exactly who she was dealing with.

When Joseph had arrived in Jeffersonville two years earlier, he was on parole after spending 12 years in a Utah prison for manslaughter. In 1998, he had gone to his mum’s home where his ex-girlfriend, Sabrina Elder, 17, was visiting.

Sabrina had recently had Joseph’s baby. He’d been angry to find her there after questioning whether the baby was his. High on drugs, Joseph opened fire and shot Sabrina dead.

When Joseph’s mother, Brenda Self, had gone to protect Sabrina and the baby, he’d fired a bullet into his mum’s back and had also aimed a shot at his sister but missed. Joseph then placed the gun under his chin and pulled the trigger.

Sabrina was dead, but Brenda, the baby and Joseph survived – somehow the bullet lodged in his brain but didn’t kill him.

Joseph’s mum forgave him and was on his defence team at the trial. His lawyers argued that his drug use and the recent death of his dad and brother had caused “extreme stress” and he was convicted of manslaughter.

Now Joseph’s anger was aimed towards Tammy. In the early hours of 11 September 2014, she called 911 to say that her ex was trying to break into her home.

When officers arrived, Tammy asked them to make Joseph go. They watched him leave the property and resolved the issue without any arrests.

A chilling crime scene

But the next morning, Tammy didn’t turn up at the healthcare technology company where she worked. Knowing her troubles, colleagues contacted the police who went to her home.

When they arrived, they found Joseph looking nervous. He had cuts on his knuckles and a bloody knife in his pocket.

Inside the house, they found evidence that someone had kicked down the door and a disturbing amount of blood throughout the property. It was up walls and on light switches.

Officers found Tammy’s partly dismembered body in the bath, under a tent. She had been stabbed 25 times.

An electric jigsaw power tool and knives had been used to open her chest and remove parts of her heart and lungs. Her skull had also been cut into and part of her brain removed.

Further investigation revealed that parts of Tammy’s organs were found on a dinner plate next to a frying pan, bloody knives and a pair of tongs that had blood on them.

Joseph was arrested and taken for questioning. Just what horror had happened to Tammy?

When questioned, Joseph admitted to killing Tammy and eating parts of her because “she was already dead”, but then he quickly changed his story, claiming he was confused from being knocked unconscious by Tammy’s killers.

He said that he had gone to Tammy’s house to collect some belongings and had found two men who’d broken in. The assailants had allegedly knocked him out and when he regained consciousness Tammy was dead.

Joseph couldn’t explain why the two men had brutally murdered Tammy and had resorted to cannibalism – while seemingly leaving him with minor injuries. He was charged with murder, burglary and rape.

The case quickly hit the headlines, but it would take years to come to trial. It was delayed over legal issues and Joseph’s mental health assessments. At first he was declared incompetent to stand trial and underwent treatment before finally being ruled fit for trial in 2018.

In 2019, Joseph rejected his lawyer’s insanity defence, claiming it would be admitting guilt to the jurors. “I don’t suffer from any mental illness,” he told the court. The prosecution agreed to take the death penalty off the table, if insanity wasn’t used as a defence.

Coerced into a confession

As the trial began, a witness discussed Joseph’s prior criminal history in front of the jury, who were not supposed to know about his past convictions and the judge declared a mistrial. Joseph was returned to a mental facility to be ruled competent again.

The second trial began in September this year – six years after Tammy’s horrific murder. Jurors were drawn from a county 400km away because of the extensive media coverage the case had received.

The prosecution warned the jurors they would see photos of the crime scene that would be “worse than anything you would see in a horror movie”.

The prosecution said Joseph’s story of intruders was a lie. He had been the only one in the house that night and had murdered Tammy and committed acts of cannibalism. “She suffered so many indignities that night,” said prosecutor Jeremy Mull.

“She was terrified, she was stabbed, she was dismembered, she was eaten and she was raped.” All at the hands of Joseph. The defence warned the jury not to be distracted from the facts of the case by “emotional evidence”.

Joseph took the stand and testified the same account he’d given about coming across “two black men” who had broken into Tammy’s home. He said he had been coerced into his initial confession after the attack when he was vulnerable.

Jailed for life

But the prosecution said it was Joseph who had butchered his ex with an electric saw and had consumed her heart, lungs and brain. “He needed to be in control and when she said he wasn’t any more, he murdered her,” they said.

The jury found Joseph, 39, guilty of Tammy’s murder. He was also found guilty of burglary but acquitted of rape. His past crimes were revealed to the public.

At the sentencing, Joseph’s defence continued to claim he suffered from a mental illness and reminded the court he had a bullet lodged in his brain.

But while one expert said Joseph had exhibited bizarre behaviour that improved with medication, two others said their evaluations showed no sign of insanity.

Tammy’s mum told Joseph he’d taken her daughter’s life and didn’t care. “You’re pure evil and you’re just lucky to be able to live out your life breathing,” she said.

Joseph hit back, saying he was a “highly religious man” and that he loved Tammy. He said he wasn’t responsible for her death. “Tammy Jo couldn’t fix you,” another family member said. “You’re a monster. Rot in hell.”

Joseph was sentenced to life in prison without the chance of parole. As he was taken out of court, he continued to insist he was innocent of the “false charges”. 


Joseph attacked Tammy in the home she had tried to defend, brutally murdered her and turned cannibal to desecrate her even further.

For Tammy, there was no escaping Joseph – but he will spend the rest of his life in prison for her gruesome murder.