Missing Realtor, Beverly Carter, Found Dead: Suspect in Custody

It all started last Thursday when Arkansas real estate agent, Beverly Carter, went missing. Beverly went to show a home near Little Rock, but never returned home. By 8pm that night her husband, Carl Carter, became suspicious when Beverly had not returned. So, Carl went to the home she was showing and found her car in the driveway with her purse inside, but no sign of his wife. Nothing was missing from her purse, and the door of the home was left open. Carl received texts from Beverly’s phone that night that did not sound like they came from her.

Carl called to check on his wife, but she didn’t answer. Instead she sent him a text, “I’m fine, I’m out with the girls having drinks.” However, Carl and one of Beverly’s friends said “Beverly doesn’t even drink.” Jane Carfagno, a close friend of Beverly said that Beverly didn’t know who the client might be, but said another friend drove by the home and saw a gray truck in the driveway along with Carter’s car before she went missing. The friend gave the police that info.

Arron Lewis, 33, was captured by the Little Rock Police Department and was transferred to the Pulaski County Investigations Division for questioning. Lewis, who was on parole, was in a traffic accident Sunday, and police arrived to find his automobile on top of a concrete culvert, according to an accident report from the sheriff's office. Lewis told police that a vehicle, which he couldn’t describe, had run him off the road. But a witness told police that he was behind Lewis before the accident, and “Lewis was traveling at a high rate of speed prior to the crash,” the report says. Another witness told police that “the Lewis vehicle was going 'so fast' prior to the curve and she further stated that she observed the Lewis vehicle 'fishtail' around the curve, going into the ditch,” according to the report.

Paramedics took Lewis to Baptist Health Medical Center in Little Rock. A deputy followed the ambulance to the hospital to issue Lewis a citation for careless driving as well as not wearing his seat belt, because there was evidence Lewis hit the windshield during the crash, the report says. At that time, Lewis was a person of interest in the Carter investigation, but he was not under arrest, Lt. Carl Minden said.

The warrant charging him with kidnapping was issued later Sunday. Police haven’t said how they linked Lewis to Carter or how they tracked him down, but they say Lewis left the hospital Sunday without notifying police while he was a person of interest in her disappearance. Meanwhile, Beverly Carter’s lifeless body was found in a shallow grave near Cabot, about 20 miles northeast of central Little Rock, the Pulaski County Sheriff's Office said early yesterday.

Lewis pled not guilty to the charges yesterday only because his lawyer told him to. He said he wanted to plead guilty because he just wanted "this to be over with." Authorities think Lewis was a stranger to Carter before her abduction. They believe they have the right man in custody and are not currently seeking any other suspects. As Lewis was being led away by police in shackles and dark prison scrubs, a CNN affiliate reporter asked, “Why Beverly?”

“Because she was just a woman who worked alone, a rich broker,” Lewis responds. Asked whether he has anything to say to Carter’s family, he twice says, “Sorry.”