EARLY LIFE:
Bethany Markowski was born on February 1, 1990, to Johnie Jo Carter and Larry Markowski. The pair each had two children from previous relationships, meaning Bethany was their fifth and youngest child. By all accounts, she was a sweet, yet sassy girl who was known for her loving nature.
In January 2001, Larry and Johnie separated, as the former was abusive and controlling. He’d allegedly abused Bethany and her siblings, and two family members had accused him of sexually assaulting them. A classmate of Bethany’s claimed she’d alleged the same thing, saying she’d confided in them that her dad had touched her inappropriately.
Knowing she had to flee the situation, Johnie took Bethany while Larry was at work and moved in which her sister, Lori, her husband and their three children in Hermitage, Tennessee. Upset, Larry abducted Bethany from her new school, prompting Johnie to obtain a protection order against him.
As part of their custody agreement, Larry was allowed unsupervised weekend visits with Bethany. He was also allowed to call her on Tuesday and Thursday evenings, between 7:00 PM and 8:00 PM.
DISAPPEARANCE:
In early March 2001, Bethany spent several days with her father at his home in Gleason, Tennessee. On March 3, she called Johnie and told her she and Larry were planning to go ice skating the next day.
At 9:38 AM on March 4, Bethany called Johnie again, asking if she’d be picking her up later that day and letting her know that Larry knew she had a new boyfriend. Given the protection order, Johnie wasn’t able to pick up her daughter, but she assured Bethany that her aunt and uncle would be meeting her at 5:00 PM that evening in Waverly, Tennessee.
According to Larry’s friend, Harold, he and Bethany spent time at his residence in Little Rock, Arkansas, after which they hit the road to return to Tennessee. Sometime between 1:30 PM and 3:30 PM, they stopped at Old Hickory Mall in Jackson, with Larry telling the authorities that Bethany had wanted to visit Claire’s and go to the shopping centre’s game room. While she did this, he allegedly took a nap in the car.
Waking up approximately 30 minutes-to-one hour later, Larry found Bethany hadn’t returned and entered the mall to look for his daughter. When 5:00 PM came and went, Lori called him, and it took several attempts for him to answer the phone and inform her that her niece was missing.
At 5:15 PM, Larry informed mall security that he couldn’t find Bethany, prompting them to get involved in the search. By 6:00 PM, they’d contact the Jackson Police Department to report the 11-year-old missing.
INVESTIGATION:
Immediately, investigators looked at surveillance footage from Old Hickory Mall, but they were unable to find Bethany, meaning there’s no proof she actually entered the shopping centre on the day she went missing. The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) was brought in to aid in the investigation on March 6, 2001.
Larry has stated he wasn’t involved in his daughter’s disappearance, despite investigators questioning his version of events. When they spoke to Harold, they learned Larry had said he’d wanted to take Bethany to Mexico, allegations the latter denies. Larry pointed the finger at Johnie, but there’s no evidence she was involved. Both parents haven’t been ruled out, but Johnie did pass a lie detector test, while Larry did not. He’s also not been very cooperative with the investigation.
Several witnesses came forward to say they saw Bethany with an unidentified female in the weeks following her disappearance. The woman, who looked unkempt and dishevelled, was described as such:
- White
- Between 42 and 44 years of age
- 5’4″ to 5’5″
- 185 pounds
- Brown eyes with dark circles underneath
- Frizzy blonde hair that appeared clean, but had noticeable damage.
Given her state, it’s believed she may have been recovering from a hangover at the time the witnesses saw her.
According to authorities, the unidentified female may have attempted to enrol Bethany in a private school in Sweetwater, Tennessee, in April 2001, without any records. She’d allegedly claimed to be the 11-year-old’s aunt and had said her father would bring in the necessary documentation. However, school officials never saw her after this initial encounter.
While unconfirmed to be the same pair, witnesses claimed to have seen the woman and a girl resembling Bethany at a café in Cleveland, Tennessee. They were at the establishment across several days, with the former, who was noticeably irritable, using a payphone to call someone multiple times a day. Investigators have revealed Larry was supposed to deliver product to that same café, but his truck had broken down, meaning he arrived three days late.
The last reported sighting of the pair was at a bus depot, with the one they boarded bound for Moline, Illinois. Investigators searched the depot in Moline, but they were unable to find the woman, nor the young girl who was reportedly with her.
In 2016-17, Johnie received a call from the TBI about a girl found passed out on the front porch of a residence in Knoxville, Tennessee. When found by the home’s owner, she’d claimed to be Bethany Markowski. While she had similar identifying marks to the missing girl, DNA ultimately proved she wasn’t her.
Over the two decades Bethany has been missing, thousands of tips have been called into investigators. As of April 2024, one had been called in that’s currently being looked into by the FBI.
DETAILS:
Bethany Leanne Markowski allegedly went missing from Old Hickory Mall in Jackson, Madison County, Tennessee, on March 4, 2001, but she was last seen in Little Rock, Arkansas. She was 11 years old when she went missing.
At the time of her disappearance, Bethany had shoulder-length brown hair with bangs and either blue or green eyes. She stood between 4’8″ and 5’0″ and weighed around 95-100 pounds. She has a mole on her left breast and freckles on her cheeks and nose. She was still losing her baby teeth at the time she went missing, with her top and bottom molars absent.
On the day she was last seen, Bethany was wearing a green t-shirt, blue or black jeans, and black slip-on shoes.
CASE CONTACT INFORMATION:
Bethany’s case is currently classified as Endangered Missing.
Anyone with information regarding the case is asked to contact the Jackson Police Department at (731) 425-8400. Tips can also be called into the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation at +1 (800) 824-3463 or the Memphis Field Office of the FBI at (901) 747-4300.
Image Credit: Polly Klaas Foundation/International Missing Persons Wiki
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