Stockton Mortgage Corporation hosted Carl Carter Jr. in three SMC markets last week to discuss with realtors and real estate agents the issue of safety through the telling of his own personal tragedy, the kidnapping and murder of his mother, Beverly Carter.
Beverly was an Arkansas realtor who, in 2014 during a routine showing of a home, was kidnapped and murdered. Carl Carter Jr. now travels the country, raising awareness for work-environment safety and working to keep the memory of his mother alive.
“Every day we hear about senseless, violent crimes through the news, and it is easy to become complacent in our day-to-day routines. In this case, Beverly did everything right. I am thankful Carl is willing to speak out about what happened to his mother, raising the issue of realtor safety and using her memory to help others,” SMC President David Stockton said.
Hundreds of realtors and real estate agents came to the Elizabethtown, Louisville, and Southern Indiana events, where Carl Carter Jr., paints a loving portrait of his mother, a woman who after overcoming the adversity of having a child at sixteen-years-old, raised three sons and “hit the ground running” as a realtor, building a successful business as a top performer at the county and state levels.
Carl Carter Jr. speaks of his mother's warm personality and love for her grandkids at the Pritchard Community Center in Elizabethtown. Right: SMC President David Stockton, Mortgage Banker Brittany Logsdon, Carl Carter, Jr., and SMC Elizabethtown Branch Manager Judd Tabor.
“She was my best friend. We grew up together. We went to college together. She was a wife of almost 35 years and her favorite people were her grandkids,” said Carl. “She had a resilience about her, that even in her work, she never let anything get her down… She was just a beautiful, amazing person.”
Carter’s motivation for telling his story is simply put at the beginning of his presentation:
“I want you to know you’re important. I don’t want your children to be me – for two years later, to still be mourning that their mom is gone. I want you all to make it home tonight and every night after,” said Carter.
Carl Carter, Jr. speaks to a ballroom full of realtor and real estate agents at Crowne Plaza Louisville.
Carter details everything that happened on the day of his mother’s disappearance and the criminal intentions of a couple who sought to exploit a “rich” woman who worked alone, as revealed by investigators during the trial.
Before showing the house that would be her last, Beverly Carter made sure that both the husband and wife she was showing the house to would be present; she scheduled the showing during daylight hours; she told her co-workers and husband where she was going, what she was doing, and how long she would be; she kept a written log of who she was meeting which she locked in her car, along with her purse. She could not have anticipated that the husband would arrive alone with criminal intentions.
SMC President David Stockton welcomes guests and local dignitaries to Carl Carter Jr.’s presentation.
“Some of the things that made her a target were the things that made her so unique,” said Carter. According to Carter, the husband and wife who devised the scheme to kidnap his mother and hold her for ransom had discovered Beverly through her business marketing.
Carter explained that during the investigation of his mother’s murder, it was revealed that the couple had made an attempt on another person that failed, before settling on a real estate agent, a profession belonging to someone they believed they could isolate.
Carter also described how the husband and wife facilitated their crime against a careful and professional woman – using a phone number app to make contact, claiming to be out-of-state cash buyers in order to set up the showing of the house. The property they asked Beverly to show was only four doors down from Beverly’s preacher’s home, said Carter, and on the very lake she and Carl Carter Sr. lived.
Carter addressed a crowd of realtors and agents at KYE's in Jeffersonville, Indianna last week.
Four days after Beverly Carter went missing, her body was found buried in a shallow grave behind a concrete plant. She had been bound with duct tape to the point of suffocation.
The wife, for her role in his mother’s death, received 30 years in prison after pleading guilty to murder and kidnapping, says Carter, while the husband received two consecutive life sentences.
Carl Carter Jr. has since made it his mission to see that others don’t become victims, warning that what happened to his mother could happen to anybody.
“If you think these two people just came out of the wood works, you’re wrong. These people walk among us,” he said. His call to action comes in the form of six key points.
“Prepare and be aware. Know your surroundings and how to escape if you need to. Who knows where you are? My mother wrote down every person she met with, phone numbers, NMLS numbers, everything – it was a key piece of evidence at trial. Trust your gut – if something doesn’t feel right, then it probably isn’t. Find and cultivate your happiness. Get life insurance – my mother’s life insurance lapsed two weeks before her kidnapping, but thanks to a persistent agent who reached out to her in time to reinstate her policy, it meant the difference of my dad losing everything,” said Carl.
"And finally, love – spend time with those you love. Text your spouse, or your mom if you still have her, tell them you love them.”