MAP: For those who need visuals, please click here for a map of all of the locations relevant to Bethany Markowski's disappearance
Near the end of January 2001
Jonnie Carter flees the Gleason, Tennessee home she shared with her controlling and abusive husband, Larry Markowski, and their then 10-year-old daughter, Bethany Markowski.
January 30, 2001
Jonnie Carter files for divorce and child support. Since she fled her husband, she has been hiding with Bethany in an apartment in Nashville. She knows she must enroll Bethany in school within 5 days (legally) but wanted to wait until the divorce papers had been filed.
January 31, 2001
Jonnie Carter and her sister, Lori Jackson, register Bethany in a Nashville, Tennessee school that morning. Unbeknownst to them, Larry Markowski has tracked them to Nashville, checking all schools in that district for his daughter. Within less than an hour of Bethany's successful registration in school, Larry finds her. It was the fifth school he had been at that morning. He attempts to forcibly remove Bethany, claiming he wants to give her money for her birthday. Quick-thinking teachers and school administrators are able to summon law enforcement, preventing Larry from leaving with Bethany.
Bethany's homeroom teacher, Jamie Sloan, provided this statement about the incident:
"On January 31, 2001, Larry Markowski came into my classroom without permission from the office. His daughter, Bethany, and I were in the room. I had been warned that he might come and try to take her. I asked if I could help him and he said he had come to talk to his daughter. I asked if he had permission from the office to be up here. He said he did. Bethany started crying and saying she couldn't go with him. It was obvious to me that she was frightened. I asked him to go downstairs and they could get this straightened out and then he could possibly see her. He would not leave. He then took her (Bethany) by the arm and started quickly taking her from the room, pushing me aside. I told him to stop, that I could not let him take her. I then ran after him into the hallway and screamed I needed help. Several teachers came into the hall and we were able to take Bethany from him. The police officers then came and escorted him downstairs. Bethany was taken back into my room."
February 1, 2001
Bethany Markoswki turns 11 years old
February 2001
Jonnie Carter is granted a temporary restraining order with a court date set for February 12, 2001
February 12, 2001
Despite the restraining order, and evidence of Larry's violent and abusive behavior, Larry is granted unsupervised visits with Bethany every second weekend beginning the weekend of February 17th. He will have Bethany from 5 pm on Friday and return her to Jonnie by 5 pm on Sunday. Since Larry is in Gleason and Bethany is in Nashville a meeting place halfway between the two cities is chosen - the Waverly exit (exit 143) on Interstate 40. The restraining order keeping Larry from Jonnie prevents Jonnie from being the one who delivers and collects Bethany from Larry, so her sister, Lori Jackson, is the one who brings Bethany to the meeting place on Fridays and picks her up on Sundays.
February 16, 17, 18, 2001
The first of Larry's unsupervised visits with Bethany
February 26, 2001
A title for a 1995 Chevy Astro van is acquired in the name of Larry Jo Markowski
Friday, March 2, 2001 - The Weekend of Bethany's Disappearance
This is only the second of Larry's court-ordered unsupervised visits with Bethany.
Bethany's older half-sister (Larry's daughter) understood that she, her boyfriend, and her father were going apartment hunting in Nashville that day to be closer to Bethany permanently. Jenny also understood they would be spending the weekend with Bethany and looked forward to seeing her little sister. Larry cancelled these plans last minute.
Bethany told her mother that her father was taking her skating with her friend, Christina. Larry did not take Bethany skating. After Bethany's disappearance, Christina informs law enforcement and Bethany's family that she was not aware there were any plans to go skating with Bethany.
Larry's friend, Harold Roberts, says he had invited Larry to his house for the weekend because a woman was interested in Larry and wanted to meet him. It is unclear when Larry decided he was taking Bethany to Harold's house in Little Rock, Arkansas.
Larry picks Bethany up at the Waverly exit (exit 143) from Lori Jackson at 5 pm. They drive straight to Harold Roberts' house in Little Rock, Arkansas (about a 4.5 - 5 hour drive). Jonnie and Lori had no idea Bethany and Larry were going to Little Rock, Arkansas.
According to Harold they stayed up ALL night talking and drinking coffee.
Saturday, March 3, 2001
It looks like Saturday night will be a repeat of Friday night. They have a cookout at the house with friends, gathering around the piano, singing and having a good time when all of a sudden Larry announces he is going home. Harold tries to talk some sense in to him, reminding Larry that he has had no sleep and it would not be safe to drive all the way to Gleason, especially with Bethany in the car. According to Harold, Larry tells him, "I'm going to take my van down to the Port of Mexico and leave it there and you can have it. You just come get it and it'll be yours."
Harold tells Larry he cannot do that. He reminds him that he is fighting for custody of Bethany and there is a good chance he may win. (Harold has since stated that at that time he said this, he did not know Larry was beating Jonnie).
8:30/9 pm Larry Markowski leaves with Bethany in his 1995 Chevy Astro Van. On his way to the vehicle he shouts loudly to Harold, "I'm going to call and tell you where to come and get the van." Friends and relatives at Harold's hear him as well.
Larry tells Harold he will call him when he gets to Gleason. Given that it is a 4-4.5 hour trip, Larry expects a call from Larry between 12:30 am - 1:30 am.
Sunday, March 4, 2001
1:30 am Harold Roberts receives the phone call from Larry, but he is not in Gleason. He tells Harold he is in Forrest City, Arkansas (only 1.5 hours away from Little Rock). However, Larry's cell phone pings off of Land Between the Lakes Recreational Area (a 1 hour and 50 minute drive, northeast of Larry's house in Gleason). It is a 5 hr and 14 minute drive from Little Rock Arkansas to Land Between the Lakes so if someone left Little Rock Arkansas around 8:30 pm and drove straight to Land Between the Lakes, that phone call would have been made around 1:30 am which is when Harold says he received the phone call.
9 am Larry and Bethany arrive in Gleason according to the Jackson Police missing poster (Gleason is only about 1 hr and 15 to 1 hour and 30 minutes drive back to Gleason.
9:38 am Bethany calls Jonnie from the phone in the house in Gleason (the number came up on Caller ID). Law enforcement have confirmed this call took place.
After 9:38 am phone call - Sometime after speaking to her mother on the phone, Larry and Bethany went to Bethany's friend, Christina's house (this is the friend Bethany thought she was going to go skating with on Friday night). They did not stay long. Christina verifies this took place.
Possibly between 9:38 am - 12:12 pm - We only have Larry's version of what happened after they visited Christina. Larry says they ate breakfast in McDonald's and then they sat in front of Jonnie's ex-employer's house for an hour in Milan, Tennessee and Larry told Bethany that was her mom's boyfriend's house. Larry says they then went to Jackson. I have not found any information in my research (no cell phone pings or law enforcement confirmation) that breakfast at McDonald's or the hour stop in Milan, Tennessee took place.
12:12 pm Jenny calls Larry's phone to speak with Bethany. Bethany tells Jenny they had just left the house in Gleason and got a few things and were heading to Jackson. She told Jenny that Larry was taking her to the mall to get a few things.
This call pinged near Natchez Trace State Park, likely near exit 116 on the I40.
There is no cell phone activity on Larry Markowski's cell phone after this phone call until 5:43 pm so his movements are unable to be traced during this time using cell phone pings.
2:30 pm a witness says Larry was at exit 208 (only 8 miles from where his cell phone last pinged at 12:12pm) at Parkers Cross Roads getting gas. The witness told Jonnie that Larry told him that he has just dropped his daughter off to her mother in Nashville. Witness made no mention of seeing Bethany in the van so if she was in the van, the witness could not see her.
abt 3 pm - Larry and Bethany should have arrived at the Old Hickory Mall in Jackson
It takes about 25 minutes to get to the mall in Jackson from Parkers Cross Roads which means Larry and Bethany would have arrived at the mall at around 3 pm. However, Larry told both Lori and Jonnie's lawyer secretary, Dianne, that Bethany had entered the mall with her friend, Hillary at 1:30 or 2 pm.
Bethany and Hilary were friends from when Bethany had previously lived in Jackson and Hillary happened to be at the mall that day but Hillary had no idea Bethany was at the mall and she definitely did not enter the mall or shop in the mall with Bethany
Larry was parked in the overflow parking lot near the JC Penney entrance of the mall
The problem with Larry stating he arrived at the mall at 1:30 or 2 or even 2:30 pm is that an eye witness saw Larry getting gas 25 minutes away from the mall at 2:30 pm. It is true that eye witnesses accounts are not to be taken as gospel. If the eye witness was mistaken and the encounter with Larry took place closer to 2 pm, that would give Larry grace that Bethany could have been entering the mall at 2:30 pm. But remember, Larry was telling Lori Jackson and Dianne, immediately after Bethany went missing, that Bethany went into the mall at 1:30 or 2. Even assuming that the eye witness encounter took place closer to 2 pm, Larry obviously still would not be at the mall at 1:30 or 2 pm. It is important to note as well that this eye witness did not just observe Larry, he had a conversation with him. And the conversation was with a man who said he had just dropped his daughter off to her mother in Nashville (this is where Jonnie and Bethany were living at the time of her disappearance). He also did not mention seeing Bethany which made sense, given that Larry said he had dropped his daughter off to her mother. If he has seen a young girl in Larry's van he likely would have mentioned this given that it would have been confusing.
Original newspaper reports stated the time Bethany entered the mall around 2 pm/2:30 pm. Notice how they also make no mention of entering the mall with a friend, in fact, by March 11, the reporting clearly states she entered the mall by herself. Despite first mentioning Hillary to both Lori Jackson, and Dianne, by the time Lori and her husband had arrived at the mall at around 7 pm, Chief Rick Staples of the Jackson Police Department tells Lori that Larry is now saying he never told either one of them that. Lori replies with, Well I didn't pull this story out of a hat, I don't even know who this little girl is, and Chief Staples says, "exactly."
The news paper clips below are from The Jackson Sun March 6, 7 and 11, 2001 (from left to right).
A Jackson Police Department Missing Poster (see below) says that Bethany was last seen by her father in the parking lot of the Old Hickory Mall at about 2:30pm, Sunday, March 5, 2001 (Sunday was the 4th of March). According to Mr. Markowski, he and Bethany came straight to Jackson from his home in Gleason, Tennessee between 1:30 and 2pm and they stopped at the mall parking lot to take a nap, following an overnight trip from Little Rock, Arkansas. Bethany wanted to go inside the mall and he let her. He woke up at about 3:45pm and looked for her but could not locate her. He contacted a Mall security officer at about 5:15pm and they searched until about 6pm, when they called the police. The copy of the poster I have has a portion circled so I cannot see exactly what it says but I can see it says he picked his daughter up from his estranged wife and then says they went to Little Rock, Arkansas. They returned to Gleason at about 9am on Sunday, March 5 (typo) , 2001 and then came to Jackson. Her mother, who has temporary custody, expected Bethany to be returned at 5pm on Sunday.
3:30 pm - 4:30 pm Larry tells Lori that he woke up from his nap at 4:30 pm and went in to look for Bethany in the mall. The Jackson Police missing poster above says 3:45 pm, some newspaper reports have him waking up at 3:30 pm, and the clip from The Jackson Sun March 11, 2001 reports he woke up at 4 pm.
5 pm - Larry is supposed to be at the Waverly exit with Bethany, meeting Lori Jackson, who will drive Bethany back to Jonnie in Nashville. It takes an hour to an hour and 10 minutes to drive from the Old Hickory Mall in Jackson to Nashville so to make it on time, Larry should have been leaving the parking lot no later than 3:50 pm.
At 5 pm on the dot Lori says her cell phone rang and it was Jonnie who asked if Larry was there (at the Waverley exit). Loris tells Jonnie that he was not yet there, but to give him 15 mins in case he is running late. As soon as she hung up with Jonnie, Lori starts calling Larry's cell phone but it keeps going straight to voicemail like it is turned off (remember that there is no registered cell activity between the call at 12:12 pm and 5:43 pm when Larry finally answers his cell).
5:15 pm - Larry Markowski alerts mall security and they, along with retail employees, search for Bethany
5:43 pm - From 5 pm until 5:43 pm, Lori constantly calls Larry, but his cell goes straight to voicemail. Finally at 5:43 pm Larry answers. Lori says, "Larry where are you? We are waiting for you. And why are you not answering your phone," and Larry says "I was charging it in my van." When Lori asks what is going on and where he is, Larry replies, "I'm at the mall. I can't find Bethany."
6 pm - It is Sunday so the Old Hickory Mall closes at 6 pm.
6:05 pm - Chief Rick Staples of Jackson police unit was notified and joined the search
7 pm - Lori Jackson and her husband, Larry, arrive at the mall parking lot. Once Lori spoke to Larry Markowski on the phone at 5:43 pm, they drove fom the Waverly exit straight to the Old Hickory Mall (which is about an hour and 10 minute drive)
11 pm - Jonnie arrives in Jackson from Nashville, and they all head to the police station where Larry Markowski is interviewed by police.
Unknown time (but said to have happened earlier in the day March 4, 2001)
A man buys a shovel, rope, and 2.5 gallon gas at a Walmart in Jackson, Tennessee sometime on March 4, 2001 (thought to be earlier in the day). A few days after Bethany went missing, law enforcement ask Jonnie to watch the security footage, which she watched over and over. Jonnie says the man in the footage buying the shovel, rope, and gas cans, was wearing an army jacket, similar to the one Larry Markowski owned. When law enforcement asked Larry about this jacket, he told them he had lost it. Jonnie says all of the mannerisms of the man on the tape were like Larry Markowski. Jonnie says it was the way he walked and the way he repositioned his hat and his mannerisms and the army jacket made her think it was Larry Markowski. There were only two things that made her think it wasn't Larry. One was that man on the tape reached in his back pocket to get his wallet and although Larry carried a wallet, he usually carried his money folded up in his right front pocket. The second thing was when the man raised up his left arm it looked like something metallic on his arm, like a metallic gold or silver wrist watch band, and Larry always wore a leather band.
On March 4, 2001, law enforcement found a shovel in the cemetery located directly behind the overflow parking of the Old Hickory Mall (where Larry Markowski claims he parked to have a nap). Law enforcement told Jonnie that the way the shovel had landed looked like someone had stood on the other side of the fence from the overflow parking lot and threw it over.
Jonnie explained that law enforcement shared with her that the shovel did have some dirt in it spindles, indicating that it had been used. They went on to further explain that the dirt that was found on the shovel, did not match the dirt of the cemetery where the shovel was found discarded.
March 12, 2001
Nine days into the search for Bethany Markowski, Jackson police contacted the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) and asked them to run some cell phone records for them. TBI asks why they require these and Jackson Police informs them that they have a missing child. TBI asks why Jackson Police did not call them.
Valerie Trout, TBI agent, told Jonnie that once the TBI got involved they found the van Larry Markowski had been driving the day Bethany went missing, and did a forensic spray on it. They knew they would find Bethany's DNA in there but there were a few things in the van that did have blood droplets on them and that was a pillow and a blanket. Before they searched the van they asked Larry if there is any reason they would find Bethany's blood in the van and he said yes that Bethany had sat on a thorn. By the time TBI got the van, Larry had removed the seats from it, had it detailed, and shampooed the carpet to the point that they were still damp.
Early April 2001
About 3-4 weeks after Bethany went missing, a woman allegedly attempted to enroll Bethany in a private Catholic school located between Chattanooga and Knoxville, Tennessee. She was unable to register the child as she did not have the correct papers (birth certificate, school records, etc). A year after Bethany's disappearance, Jonnie appeared on the Montel Williams Show and told Montel that the woman said, "I don't have it, I'm her aunt. Her father has custody of her and he can bring it back and do this. And then she left."
A composite sketch was made of the woman who tried to enroll the little girl in the school. It is widely believed the composite sketch came from the sightings of a woman and a little girl fitting Bethany's description seen at a bus station 3 weeks after the school enrollment attempt, but this is incorrect. Please see below for the composite sketch of the woman seen attempting to enroll the young girl in school, identifying herself as the girl's aunt.
about April 25, 2001
Mutiple sightings on multiple days in Cleveland, Tennessee, involving a young woman with a young girl who purchased a bus ticket to Moline, Illinois are reported. The woman and girl were spotted 3 days in a row in a café 20 miles north of Chattanooga, then on the 3rd day, took a cab to a bus station.
Jonnie remembers what she was told as this: This dishevelled woman carrying a black garbage bag and a little girl showed up at a café in Cleveland, Tennessee, and they sat in the back and they just drank water and the woman used a payphone and then they would leave. Jonnie recalls that on the third day, the woman seemed visibly upset. The woman wanted to know how to call a cab or what the number was for a cab. The waitress found the woman the number and the woman called the cab, who then came to pick the woman and the little girl up. The waitress decided something did not feel right about the whole thing and called law enforcement. When law enforcement showed the waitress pictures in hopes of identifying the little girl, the waitress chose Bethany's picture and identified her as the little girl she had seen with the woman.
Law enforcement then found the cab driver who also identified Bethany as the little girl. The cab driver also told law enforcement that the woman was in the backseat crying and upset and the little girl was looking out the window, biting her nails, twirling her hair. Jonnie had told the public that Bethany bit her fingernails but she had not publicly shared that while biting her fingernails, Bethany also twirled her hair.
Law enforcement then questioned the man who sold the ticket to the woman and girl and he also identified Bethany as the little girl. Jonnie says she actually talked to him on the phone and he said he just thought the woman was an overprotective mom. At one point the little girl wanted a drink out of the drink machine, which was very close, but the woman went with her anyway. He thought it notable but did not think anything was wrong.
The bus was to arrive after the station was closed so they locked the bus station up and the woman and little girl had to wait outside. A woman and her son (Jonnie talked to this woman too) were also sitting outside waiting for a bus (but that one came earlier than the one the woman and little girl were waiting for) and the woman asked the little girl where she was going. The little girl just looked at the woman she was with and the woman said Disneyland or Disneyworld or something like that. The woman and the son got on their bus, leaving only the woman and the little girl with the bus ticket to Moline at the station. No one was left to confirm if the woman and the little girl got on the bus to Moline. Law enforcement actually waited in Moline for the bus to arrive, but the woman and girl never got off that bus in Moline. If they did get in the bus they got off somewhere else or a different time or never got on in the first place. Jonnie says she thinks she was told law enforcement proved the tickets were never used but she cannot remember for certain.
While the people positively identified Bethany, they were not sure if the woman in the restaurant resembled the sketch of the woman who tried to enroll her in school, Jack Van Hooser of the TBI told The Jackson Sun.
Remember how the woman who tried to enroll the young girl in school in early April said that she was the girl's aunt and that the girl's father would bring her back?
Robert Markowski, Larry's brother, was married to Carol Markowski. Carol Markowski was questioned by law enforcement due to her resemblance to the sketch. She had also lived in Cleveland, Tennessee and was known to police. In more than one police report, Carol listed her address as homeless. Her height was also consistent with the height of the composite sketch woman. The main difference in the the description was the woman had dark eyes where Carol has hazel eyes. Here is a side by side of Carol Markowski (from a mug shot taken several years after the April 2001 sighting and composite sketch)
Jonnie says she truly believes it was Bethany at that bus station. Larry Markowski was a truck driver and Jonnie found out that Larry Markowski was due in Cleveland, Tennessee with a delivery. He did not show up on the first day the woman and girl appeared in the café but turns out his truck had broken down. He did make a delivery in Cleveland, Tennesse on the third day - the day the woman and girl bought tickets to Moline, Illinois but did not appear to use them.
April 30, 2001
The 1995 Chevy Astro van no longer registered to Larry Jo Markowski
May 18, 2001
Car Facts report lists the 1995 Chevy Astro van as a dealer vehicle sold at auction in Jacksonville, Florida
June 22, 2001
1995 Chevy Astro van is sent to Puerto Rico (out of 40 vehicles that Larry Markowski has owned, this is the only one that has ever left the country)
October 29, 2003
1995 Chevy Astro van shows up as registered again (to a new owner)
August 25, 2016
TBI agent Kathy Ferguson calls Jonnie and says, "Don't want to alarm you but we got a call from East Tennessee and they have a girl in custody." Jonnie said that Ferguson sent her pictures and the girl had a mole on her boob on her left side like Bethany. This was from the Knoxville area. Bethany allegedly went missing from Jackson in the western part of Tennessee.
The story of the girl who claims to be Bethany goes like this:
A man and woman had come home in the wee hours of the morning out somewhere in the country and this girl was laying on their front porch, wet, dirty and no shoes. They asked her if she needed help and she said yes, but when the couple called the police and the girl took off. Police found her and brought her to the hospital. She repeatedly tells them she does not know who she is or how she got here. After a couple of days she says that her name is Sarah Nicole Jackson. Jackson is Jonnie's sister's last name and Nicole is her daughter's name. Police ran that name and eliminated Sarah Nicole Jackson as her identity. The girl gave police another name with the surname of Jackson (Bethany allegedly disappeared from Jackson, Tennessee). When they asked her again who she was she says Bethany. They asked, Bethany who and that is when she said, "I'm Bethany Markowski." When they ran the name Bethany Markowski, they discovered Bethany Markowski was listed as missing. The brough an age progressed photo to the girl who identified that as being her. They then presented her with a picture of Jonnie and Bethany together and the girl said that that was a picture of her and her mom. When asked her birthdate, the girl gave Bethany's birthdate of February 1, 1990. Bethany's fingerprints were never put in a data base. Jonnie says that if she had put Bethany's fingerprints in a database, she would have never gotten that call as the girl would have been ruled out as not being Bethany right then and there. This is why she advocates for parents to fingerprint their children.
Instead they had to wait on DNA test results. They ran the DNA three times and the girl was not Bethany. Jonnie wondered why would someone would say they were Bethany? And how would she know Bethany's name? Markowski is not a common name. How did she know her birthday? Why did she keep throwing out the Jackson name? The family wonders if this girl was caught in sex trafficking? If so, did she know Bethany somehow?
It is interesting to note that the school enrollment attempt, the cafe/bus station sightings (both taking place in April 2001), and the girl who claimed to be Bethany Markowski in 2016 all took place in Eastern Tennessee (in Cleveland, Knoxville and halfway between Chattanooga and Knoxville)
March 4, 2021
On the NCMEC website, Jonnie Carter wrote a letter to her daughter on the 20th anniversary of her disappearance. She describes her experience in the first days of Bethany's disappearance:
I remember your Aunt Lori, your Uncle Larry, Dianne Wyatt (Meagan’s mom) and myself sitting in the police station and they brought me your overnight bag, the first thing I pulled out was your coat. It was so cold and misting rain that night, and you were out there without your coat. I fell apart.
Your Aunt Lori and I stayed in Jackson for a week, we posted flyers all over the town. I was scared to leave, scared to death to leave, just in case you were found, I had to be there.
It was hard to leave even after we found out that you had never even been at the mall, you were not on any of the surveillance tapes from any of the stores.
Law enforcement has not ruled out Larry as a suspect in Bethany's disappearance.
At the time of her disappearance, Bethany was 4’8’’ and weighed 95 lbs. with brown hair and blue eyes.
If you have any information on Bethany’s case, please contact:
Tennessee Bureau of Investigations at 1-800-TBI-FIND or 1-800-824-3463. You can also email TipsToTBI@tn.gov.
RESOURCES:
Bethany Markowski website - pictures of Bethany are uploaded daily; another helpful feature of the site is the Frequently Asked Questions page
Season 2 of Searching for Ghosts covers Bethany's disappearance in depth:
Silvers on the Scene takes you to important locations related to Bethany's disappearance:
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