The Wilson Post
LEBANON WEATHER

Searching for Bethany




Jonnie Carter's daughter went missing 17 years ago. She said they are no closer today to finding Bethany than they were when she disappeared in Jackson, Tenn., on March 4, 2001.Dallus Whitfield

Jonnie Carter’s daughter went missing 17 years ago. She said they are no closer today to finding Bethany than they were when she disappeared in Jackson, Tenn., on March 4, 2001.Dallus Whitfield

Editor’s Note: This article is the first of two parts. The second part of the story will be published in the March 14, 2018 edition of The Wilson Post.

What would you do if your child was here one day and vanished without a trace the next? How would your life go on?

Mom Jonnie Carter, a longtime employee with Lebanon-based Permobil, would tell you: Some days, it doesn’t.

But as a parent you never stop searching for your child.

March 4 marked 17 years since Carter’s daughter, Bethany Markowski, went missing.

It will mark 17 years that Carter has lived with unanswered questions, confusion and a metaphorical hole in her heart.

Carter sat down with The Wilson Post recently for an exclusive interview and recounted the days leading up to Bethany’s disappearance and shared her mission to ensure the safety of children in Tennessee through fingerprinting and awareness.

Going to Dad’s

In late January 2001, Carter filed for divorce from Bethany’s father Larry Markowski. They were separated, and it wasn’t amicable.

Carter had a restraining order against Markowski. She expressed he had been a controlling and physically abusive husband.

When she left Markowski, she didn’t have a cell phone, a car or a job. She and Bethany went to stay in Hermitage with her sister and brother-in-law, Lori and Larry Jackson, and their children.

Bethany, age 11, was enrolled as a student at DuPont Tyler Middle School.

The weekend she went missing was the second visit with her father.

“She was supposed to see him every other weekend. The first weekend she went, and everything went OK as far as I know,” Carter explained. “According to Bethany, she had talked to her father during the week – she would have phone calls with him on Tuesday and Thursday – and he told her he would take her to Gleason and pick up a friend, Christina, and go skating in Jackson, Tenn.”

Because of the restraining order keeping Markowski at a distance from Carter, Lori and Larry Jackson would drive Bethany to Waverly  – the halfway point between Nashville and Gleason – for drop-off and pick-up.

On the Thursday preceding the visit, Bethany told her mom she didn’t want to go.

“I kept saying you need to pack your clothes. She didn’t feel good. She kept saying, ‘I don’t want to go.’ I never will forget it,” Carter said as she began to cry. “I was getting upset with her. I told her, ‘We don’t have a choice. It is court-ordered. If I don’t make you go, then I will go to jail, and he’s going to come get you anyway. You have to go.’”

Bethany shared her concerns with other members of the Jackson household.

“That week Bethany kept saying, ‘What are you going to do if he doesn’t bring me back?’ We told her that if he didn’t bring her back we would come and get her. It was the law, and if he didn’t bring her home, he was breaking the law,” Carter said.

The last time Carter saw her daughter was on the morning of Friday, March 2, 2001.

From ‘skating’ to Little Rock

According to Carter, Bethany said her dad would be taking her skating in Jackson that weekend; however, on Saturday, something strange occurred.

“My niece was trying to get on AOL (at the house), and she couldn’t because Bethany was (signed) on,” Carter said. “I called her dad’s cell phone and asked to speak to Bethany. She said that they were at Harold Roberts’ home in Little Rock, Arkansas. She never went skating.”

Carter was familiar with Roberts. He was a close friend of Larry Markowski.

Although they had crossed the state line, Carter had been able to contact her daughter.

On Sunday, Markowski was supposed to transport Bethany to the Waverly exit for drop-off.

The two never showed up.

“My sister and her husband, Larry, went to Waverly. I called them at 5 o’clock when Larry Markowski was supposed to be there. She said we should give them a few minutes, that maybe they were stuck in traffic,” Carter remembered. “She tried to call him and his cell phone went straight to voicemail. We were watching the clock. We knew something wasn’t right.”

Around 5:45 p.m. contact was made with Larry Markowski. He said they had stopped at the mall in Jackson. He took a nap in the van while Bethany went into the mall.

The problem was he couldn’t locate her. He told the Jacksons he was looking for Bethany with mall security.

“My sister told me Larry Markowski said she went into the mall with her friend Hilary. Hilary had lived a couple townhouses down from us (when we were married),” Carter said.

Carter called her attorney and was able to make contact with his secretary, Darlene, who happened to be in Jackson, just around the corner from the mall.

She next called Hilary’s family.

“I said, ‘Have you seen Bethany?’ She told me she had seen Larry, and that he had dyed his hair black and was wearing sunglasses. Hilary had been at the mall a while that day. She saw Larry but never ran into Bethany,” she said.

There was no evidence of Bethany being at the mall on security cameras either.

“I’ve been very guarded about what I’ve told media,” Carter told the Post. “I never wanted to blow the case or get sued for slander.”

She’s worked recently on the Searching for Ghosts Podcast, which retells the stories of missing children.

“I am telling everything I know.”

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