Beverly went missing on Thursday the 25th of September, 2014.
It’s been exactly a year to the day after Beverly called her husband Carl to say she intended to show a home on Old River Road in Scott, a small town east of Little Rock at around 5:30pm to a potential cash buyer.
After three and half hours of no contact, her husband went to the home and found his wife’s Cadillac with her purse and wallet inside, the front door of the house was wide open, but she was nowhere to be found. He then reported her disappearance to police.
Social media lit up for days
This was really the first time that social media had participated on a national scale, with the disappearance of one of our own. Realtors across the country watched and waited with bated breath over that weekend hoping that she would be found safe and well.
The timelines after Beverly went missing:
Thursday 25th Beverly does not return from a showing. Husband Carl later finds Beverly’s car at the house, but she is missing. Late into that evening, he receives uncharacteristic texts from his wife’s phone.
On Friday 26th Pulaski County deputies shared with the media that crews were out searching for Beverly.
On Saturday 27th more than 250 volunteers, many of them Realtors, helped in the search for Carter. A Facebook page was created surrounding the effort to find Beverly.
The hashtag #FindBeverly began to circulate on Twitter.
Sunday the 28th Deputies released information on a man named Arron Michael Lewis, 33, who was suspected in Carter’s disappearance. Crews and volunteers continued to search for Carter.
Monday 29th Arron Lewis, an active parole since August 2013, was apprehended by Little Rock Police. Crews continue to search for Carter.
Tuesday the 30th Sheriff’s Office reports Lewis admitting to kidnapping Carter, but would not say where she was. Police used telephone records of both Lewis and Carter to trace a location off of Highway 5 in Pulaski County about 20 miles from the home she was showing.
A search led investigators to Carter’s body, which was bound by duct tape in a shallow grave, on a construction site where Lewis once worked.
Lewis was formally charged with capital murder, kidnapping and being a felon in possession of a firearm.
The hashtag, #RememberBeverly, began to trend on social media sites.
How it’s still playing out:
On October 30th Crystal Lowery 41, Lewis’s estranged wife was arrested and charged with one count of Capital Murder and Kidnapping.
July 7th 2015 Crystal Lowery pleaded guilty to first degree murder. She was sentenced to 30 years in prison and will testify at the trial of her estranged husband Arron Lewis.
Sept 25th 2015 a year later Aaron Lewis has yet to stand trial, which is currently scheduled for January 2016.
Unfortunately there is no swift justice here, and no closure for the family yet either.
Back when he was originally arrested
When asked by a reporter during the perp walk back why he did it, Arron Lewis, a repeat felon, coldly answered:
“She was just a woman that worked alone — a rich broker.”
But Beverly was way more than that
…she was a successful confident woman, married to husband Carl for 35 years. She was mother of three sons and a grandmother several times over, with another on the way.
But there were also years of hardship, and their own tragedy when one of her sons was killed in a car wreck. But things had improved and the extended family enjoyed beach vacations together and boating on the nearby lake.
To learn more about Beverly and her life, this tribute was written with the help of the family.
That fateful day
With over a decade of experience, Beverly recorded the names and phone numbers in an appointment book. She always told someone the address of a home and when she would be there to show it.
On Sept. 25th she wrote down the name and number of a “potential cash buyer” who wanted to see a large home at 14202 Old River Drive in Scott.
She didn’t know the name, number were fake
If it’s one thing we should all learn from this tragedy is that no one should ever meet strange prospects at the property and that we need to verify their identity beforehand.
Unfortunately, there must still be some real estate agents not following this advice, as we have continued to read about attacks on real estate agents almost every month since.
We have called for a National Safety Standard, similar to the one that is already in place in the apartment rental and travel industries – here is the blueprint. We should all stand together and make it so…
RIP Beverly Carter
PS: Despite a reward of $150,000, Sidney Cranston Jr. a real estate agent from Kingman AZ, has been missing since June 16th 2015. Call the Kingman Police Department at (928) 753-1911 if you have any information.
