Chapter 1 - Pt 1: March 4th, 2001

It’s early March in Tennessee - the season when winter begins to fade and yellow daffodils push through the cold soil, ready to be picked by a child’s hand. It’s how Bethany Markowski should have spent that day - smiling, carefree, and surrounded by the promise of spring. But on March 4th, 2001, 11-year-old Bethany Leanne Markowski vanished without a trace.

What began as an ordinary Sunday became the day that changed everything...


View relevant photos for this episode here:
https://missinginhushtown.com/blog/chapter-1-pt1



Learn More:

Visit BethanyMarkowski.com to learn more about Bethany’s case

Explore episode notes, photos, and related case information at MissingInHushTown.com.




Missing in Hush Town Season 2 is executive produced in partnership by Fire Eyes Media LLC’s Jules Thorp and Jen Rivera and MomCast Productions’ Rachel Holloway and Heather Northcraft.  The script is written by Jules Thorp and edited by Heather Northcraft, project lead is Rachel Holloway, and master editing and audio production is done by Jen Rivera. Jules Thorp is your host. 

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/missing-in-hush-town--6404892/support.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's March weather in Tennessee, which means the transition from
cold and dreary to little popsa spring begins. Wild yellow
daffodils begin to peek through the ground everywhere you turn,
just waiting for young child's whimsical smile and giggle to
pull one from the ground and run back to their
mother flower and their hands, smile on their face and
innocence in their heart. That's how Bethany should have spent

(00:23):
March fourth, two thousand and one, But instead it's on
March fourth, two thousand and one. Not Bethany Leanne Markowski
will never be seen or heard from again. Born February first,

(01:10):
nineteen ninety to father Lawrence Joe and mother Johnny Carter,
eleven year old Caucasian, Bethany Markowski, full of life and
spunk with dark brown hair and blue eyes with a
greenish tint depending on the day, was to be headed
home on Sunday, March fourth, to her mother after her
second court ordered unsupervised visitation weekend with her father, Larry

(01:30):
Joe Markowski. Larry and Johnny were in the midst of
a contentious separation and just a few months prior, Johnny
and Bethany had fled from Larry and the home they
shared in gleaes And, Tennessee, to escape to a safe place,
her sister Laurie's home in Nashville, Tennessee. Johnny was relying
on her sister Laurie to help facilitate custody exchange drop
offs with Larry. Since Johnny had a cord order of

(01:53):
protection active and in place against Larry, he was not
allowed to be anywhere near her, and yet he was
still given unsupervised weekend visits with Bethany. This particular visit
is just the second court ordered sanctioned unsupervised weekend since
Johnny had escaped with Bethany, and it will be the

(02:14):
last for everyone. Just a few days prior, on Friday
evening March second, two thousand and one, Bethany's aunt Laurie
met with Larry, Bethany's father at the midway point between
Gleason and Nashville, an exit with the McDonald's in the
town called Waverley, and it's at that exchange on March second,
two thousand and one, which would begin a seventy two

(02:37):
hour nightmare and would ultimately become Johnny Carter's living nightmare
twenty five years in the making of searching for her
missing little girl. This is Missing in Hushtown Season two,
Bethany Markowski. Welcome to Bethany's Brigade. I'm your host, Jules.
This is Chapter one, Part one. Let's go through the

(03:00):
events of March fourth, two thousand and one chronologically, and
then throughout the duration of this podcast, we will take
you through each pivotal event which led to the devastating
truth a young girl has been missing for twenty five years.
March fourth begins with Bethany making a call to her
mother Johnny, from inside the home they used to share

(03:21):
with Larry Markowski and Gleeson, Tennessee. Now. Gleeson is a
small town just two point three square miles situated in
western Tennessee and Weekly County. According to the two thousand
and twenty United States Census, in the year two thousand,
there was a population of just one thousand, four hundred
and sixty three people. So we're talking about a town

(03:44):
where everybody knows everybody. We're talking about a hush town perhaps,
And so it's from that tiny town that Bethany calls Johnny.
The tiny town where Bethany knew as home, and in
the home where Bethany had a room once filled with
things she loved, but her mother wasn't there and she
was missing her. And it's because of this callogue that

(04:05):
we can now have an official timestamp and location of
Bethany and Larry. On March fourth, two thousand and one,
nine thirty eight am, Larry and Bethany are in their
home in Gleeson, Tennessee.

Speaker 2 (04:19):
And then the next thing we know, on Sunday morning,
we get a call and we know it's from their
house because the caller ID had their phone number pop up,
and it was like at nine something in the morning.

Speaker 1 (04:32):
This is Laurie Jackson, Johnny's sister, Bethany's aunt, who was
doing the visitation exchange. We'll referred to her throughout the
podcast as Aunt Laurie.

Speaker 2 (04:42):
And then there was a whole conversation, you know about
daddy knows you have boyfriend, There's all that crazy stuff
that and him yelling in the background, and Johnny was like,
it's fine, she said, and she was like, I'll see
you at five at Waverley, right, Mama, And she that's
kind of interesting because Bethany knew she wasn't coming.

Speaker 1 (05:00):
Could it be Bethany trying to signal to Johnny that
she wanted her mom to be a pickup right at
five and not a moment later. Or was she just
being a young girl in the middle of a horrible
marital dissolution who didn't fully understand why her mother wasn't
going to be the one at the Waverley exit to
get her. Now we know you caught that one line,
Laurie said, you know the line about Larry accusing Johnny

(05:23):
of having a boyfriend. For US producers, this was a
conversation that we could not believe Larry was having with
his own daughter about her mother. We all agreed that
this was incredibly inappropriate, and we were all left to
wonder what was his goal here. Johnny and Larry are separated,
going through a divorce. She has an order of protection

(05:44):
against him. She's done with this marriage, as proven by
the court divorce filing paperwork. Could this just be a
man who was so in love with his wife that
his world was crumbling even thinking about moving on with
someone else. But why involve your daughter, Larry, your eleven

(06:05):
year old daughter, whom you only have seventy two hours
with we are going to put a pin in this
boyfriend talk, but we are coming to it later, because,
as you may have already guessed, it's important. The next
law enforcement corroborated event of March fourth is when Larry
and Bethany stop by Bethany's friend's home. A young girl
Bethany was close to whom she hadn't seen in a

(06:27):
while because her and Johnny had moved to Nashville. This
young girl, whom we will call Amy, confirmed with authorities
that yes, Bethany and Larry did come to her aunt's
home in Glease in Tennessee, where she was living at
the time, but they only stayed a little while. And
get this, Amy tells authorities that Bethany shows her a
cell phone, but not just any cell phone. Amy alleges

(06:48):
that Bethany said her father had purchased her a cell
phone of her own. I won't make you wait until
subsequent episodes before we dive into this a little bit
more so I will tell you this that cell phone
was never recovered. We have no idea if this is true,
if Amy was misremembering, or if Bethany perhaps told Amy
that Larry's phone was hers. What we do believe is

(07:11):
this Amy had no reason to lie. She loved Bethany
and wanted Bethany home. But the cell phone, it never
shows up on any calls, It never shows up on
any phone records. Could it have been a track phone?
You know those pay as you go untraced phones you
see at big box stores or gas stations or track stops.
Perhaps was this a phone given to a daughter by

(07:34):
a father who just wanted a way to communicate with
her while she was away with her mother. The team
and I sat on this piece of information for a while.
This is important. Phones are traceable, even the untraceable ones.
Could we find this phone and then find Bethany or
are we chasing a lead that was nothing more than
a simple misunderstanding. And since the only report of Bethany

(07:58):
having a new cell phone of her own case from Amy,
we have nowhere to go to follow this lead except
to just keep going forward. We'll chuck this piece of
information in the back of our minds and bring it
out later to see if it fits into the full
picture of this puzzle. As we continue on. Larry claims
that between the nine thirty eight phone call and the

(08:18):
next pinged location at twelve twelve that Bethany and he
won eight McDonald's two sat outside Johnny's ex employer's house
in Milan, Tennessee, and three began traveling toward Jackson. I know,
we just threw a bunch of cities at you, and
there will be some more timelines and locations as we
go on. So if you want a visual like we
do here, make sure to follow our Instagram at missing

(08:40):
in Hushtown to see maps and photos in our posts,
but also comprehensive photos and lists on our website missing
in hushtown dot com. We will have a blog post
for every chapter of this podcast which will have documents, maps,
and other resources for you to go check out more
information as well. Now let's go back to that morning
timeline we started at nine thirty eight in Gleason and

(09:01):
of course we have to talk about Larry sitting in
front of Johnny's ex employer's house in Milan, Tennessee with
Bethany in the car. Remember that pin. Well, here is
where that comes into play. The new boyfriend that Larry
had been inappropriately talking to his eleven year old daughter about, well,
allegedly it was Johnny's ex employer. Now This is taking

(09:25):
it even farther than just telling your daughter her mother
has a boyfriend. This is negligent of Bethany's mental well being.
What is he doing? We said that this information came
from Larry. We don't have any primary sources like police reports,
our news articles that Larry says this himself. But we
do have Johnny Carter and her sisters who recall the
Tennessee Bureau of Investigation relaying what Larry told them, And

(09:48):
it goes hand in hand with what Johnny heard from
Bethany herself on that phone call it nine thirty eight
that morning. Recall Bethany's saying that Larry told our mom
has a new boyfriend. Could it be that, since Johnny
denied and tried to squash it right then and there,
that Larry then decided to drive Bethany to the house
himself to make her a believer. And what then was

(10:09):
he expecting to find Johnny there because he didn't. If
this account is in fact true, could it be that
Larry is more concerned about Johnny than the well being
of his daughter. This brings us to the next corroborated
time stamp location, a place called natchis Tray State Park.
At some point time undetermined, Larry and Bethany drive to

(10:32):
Tray State Park, Tennessee, which is a beautiful state protected
area which offers camping, hiking, canoeing, and cabins basically anything
outdoors it offers it within its forty eight thousand acres.
It's important to note that Larry never told well anybody
as far as we could confirm that he ever stopped
at Natchis Trace. Unlike today, where cell phone towers are

(10:54):
everywhere and can track a phone's traveling locations, there were
just a few cell towers back in two thousand and one,
and the one that Larry's phone does ping off of
is likely near Exit one point sixteen on Interstate forty
per the location of the cell towers in two thousand
and one, and if it wasn't for Bethany's sister Jenny,

(11:15):
nobody would know that Larry and Bethany were at the
Natchez Trace State Park area that day. Larry never told
anybody this information, Bethany didn't mention it on the phone
with Jenny, but the cell phone tower pinged his phone there,
and so we have our next timestamp and confirmation of
life for Bethany LeAnn Markowski on March fourth, twenty and one,

(11:36):
at twelve twelve pm, a phone call between sisters, which
should sadly be nineteen year old Jenny's last time talking
with her little sister, Bethany. Here's Jenny when you talked
with her on the phone. She called you from Larry's
cell phone.

Speaker 3 (11:51):
Correct.

Speaker 4 (11:52):
I called her when I got off of work that
day to talk to her before he took her back,
because I didn't know when I would get to talk
to her again.

Speaker 1 (11:59):
Can you walk me through you recall that phone call?

Speaker 4 (12:01):
Well, back then, cell phone reception wasn't great. She just
told me that they were on the way to the
mall and Jackson and he was going to let her
spend some money she had. I told her I would
talk to her on the next visit, and that we
both told each other we love each other, And she
said she was going to put him back on the
phone because she couldn't hear very well.

Speaker 1 (12:22):
Producer Rachel and myself were talking one afternoon about Jackson
and how Bethany had told Jenny on the phone that
Larry was taking her to the Jackson Mall, thus making
Jenny a witness to Larry's plan of events for that day.
But let's look at the map. To go from Gleeson
to Natchis Trace is about forty six miles, roughly taking

(12:44):
about fifty two minutes, give or take ten minutes. But
then to go from Natchis Trace to the Jackson Mall
is an additional forty minutes. Larry Markowski was a long
haul truck driver by profession at that time, so this
wasn't actually very odd to me when I read this information,
and the fact that it would add an additional forty

(13:05):
minutes to his day. He has an eleven year old
girl and she liked them all, so it actually didn't
spike my suspicions. If say, he was to go from
Gleeson straight to Old Hickory mal and Jackson, it would
have been just an hour. We don't know why he
was a Natchist Trace area. We have no answers, not
in any reports which we cannot access as it's an

(13:25):
open case. Nor will Larry answer all of our questions either,
although he did respectfully decline an interview for this podcast
despite me telling him he would be asked about every
single thing we would be discussing in this podcast. And yes,
I did talk to him on the phone for about
forty five minutes, and it was a respectful exchange. He
verbalized to me that it didn't matter whether he came

(13:46):
on or not, that people won't believe him either way.
He still declined even when I said he could have
copies of our interviews raw and then edited, and it
would be a chance to address every hole in his story.
If he wasn't involved in Bethany's disappearance, then let's lay
all the cards on the table and settle this so
the focus can shift to the true direction, pending he

(14:06):
was not involved. I do, however, have statements from him
via his wife Valerie, and I will be reading those
for you with their permission in future episodes. I will
say that after my call with Larry, I immediately hopped
on a video chat with Rachel and we recorded it.
So here's part of our conversation.

Speaker 5 (14:26):
The big picture is he is thinking about coming onto interview.
He's thinking about allowing me to come interview him in person.
I did tell him, I said, you know, I want
to be very transparent, truthfully. I want to give him
the space to say and re refew anything he wants

(14:48):
to I think that's only ethical and fair. Yeah, And
I said, listen, if we're all searching this one theory
and if it's not true, he goes, you mean that
I did it. He goes, you can just say it.
I said, yeah, if you have nothing to do with this,
then everyone is wasting time because we don't know it
from you. And that's the truth. I said. All I
have right now is what everyone's saying about you and

(15:10):
for you. But I don't have you. And I tell
Johnny too, I give. I want to give Larry the space,
as hard as it may be. He has a chance
to give it all too, and she's known that too,
and she wants that too.

Speaker 3 (15:27):
It's hard, but like you're coming from a spot of
there's pieces of the puzzle missing, Johnny has gone above
and beyond in her attempts and what she is doing.
And when you see that, you have every single piece
of you that it says, I'm standing with her. What
she says is there, It is real, it is fact.

(15:48):
It is what I need to believe in because of
what she's doing. So when you have another parent who
doesn't put that effort, it's so easy to not feel
that way about him.

Speaker 5 (15:58):
And what a parent I'm missing child who had nothing
to do with it, get pissed off at law enforcement
so bad that they just give up? Or would they
attack law enforcement for defamation, for slander, for mishandling a case.
That's my question too, like, oh, you call me a child, minister,
I'm never going to talk to you ever again.

Speaker 3 (16:19):
I think that also depends, because I mean I could
see it where it happens, and he's like, all I'm
doing right now is digging my own grave. The more
I say, the more they pin it on me, so
I better shut up.

Speaker 1 (16:30):
For the last few decades, the public has been led
to go off of Larry mckowski's word of accounts for
everything except that nine thirty eight am call from Gleason.
In that twelve twelve phone call from Natchez Trace, Bethany's
sister Jenny didn't know it that day, but she was
giving Bethany a gift, an actual location of her last
confirmed coordinates, and don't forget she left Bethany with one

(16:54):
last I Love you, okay Bethany's brigade. Everything from this
point and beyond is according to Larry what he told Belize,
what he told friends and family and what he told reporters.
So Larry says he arrives at the Jackson Mall around
three o'clock that day, on March fourth, two thousand and one. Now,

(17:15):
we already know that it takes forty minutes to drive
from Natchez Trace Park to Old Hickory Mall and Jackson.
But if his last pink call was at twelve twelve,
then what are they doing in that chunk of time
that leaves a minimum of two hours unaccounted for? Correct?
But what if I told you this? An eyewitness tells

(17:36):
the TBI agent assigned to the case at that time,
Special Agent Trout, that they talked with Larry at a
stop in a small town called Parker's Crossroads at about
two thirty pm that day. And it gets weirder. This
source also claims that they did not see Bethany with Larry.
In fact, Larry allegedly tells this source that he had
just dropped Bethany off with her mother in Nashville. Johnny

(18:00):
had only been in Nashville for two months up to
this point, you guys, So are we off base to
assume this source actually knew Larry, Maybe even New Johnny
or knew him enough to know that his wife had
left him. One piece of the witness's account solidifies that
this is a true account in my mind. And is
this The source calls Larry by his truck driver handle name,

(18:22):
which is common amongst truck drivers to have a handle
when they call each other over the CC radio, and
the name was this Pushrod. To further add to our
belief that this sighting was legitimate, as this to drive
from Exit one away our Parker's Crossroads to the old
Hickory Maull and Jackson it would take approximately thirty minutes,

(18:43):
putting Larry at the mall at three pm, which is
exactly when Larry said he arrived. It was related to
Johnny through the TBI that the source was deemed unreliable,
but I may have disagreed with that information pending those
details which we just can't seem to shake. Barring any
other corroborations about Larry's whereabouts between twelve twelve and five

(19:05):
forty five, no cell tower pings, could we at least
check his transaction history. While Larry was known to pay
for mostly everything with cash and not use the bank cards,
if he was in Parker's Crossroads, at two point thirty.
Wouldn't this give credibility to that source? Okay, was he
buying snacks? What kinds were there? Drinks? What kind of drinks?
All these answers to these questions could help indicate if

(19:28):
a child was truly with him at that moment. Was
Bethany actually with him at the moment? However, there are
no records of Larry on camera at Parker's Crossroads, nor
records of him getting gas. If he did, he likely
paid cash, as he was known to do so. So
what did the cashier say when asked if Larry was there?
We won't know because they were not asked, or maybe

(19:50):
they were asked and it was not relayed to the family. Remember,
this is considered an open investigation, so we are not
privy to every detail. But we do have a lot
of questions, especially since it's confirmed to us through our
research and interview process that this sighting at Parker's Crossroads
has not been corroborated. Throughout our research efforts, I formed

(20:11):
an unlikely cordial texting relationship with Larry's current wife, Miss Valerie.
I had sent her a message on Facebook Messenger introducing
myself in the purpose for this podcast, and I've asked
her questions off and on throughout this process, and to
her credit, she's tried to answer them all. She gave
me written permission to share our messages minus a few
about individuals who are not involved directly in this case,

(20:33):
and I'm going to honor that request. Now. This was
our recent exchange, Jules. I'm working on the podcast, and
I have a question. There was the alleged sighting of
Larry at Parker's Crossroads around two pm on March fourth.
Did Larry ever say that he was there or not? Valerie,
Larry said that he went into Parker's Crossroads to hang

(20:54):
up flyers after Beth and he went missing. Said he
hung them from there to Knoxville, Jules, but not on
March fourth. I think the records we have show his
cell phone pinged at twelve near Natchis Trace, and then
the phone is off until five forty five. That's the
biggest hole we can't explain or figure out, to be honest.
And there was the alleged sighting of him in Parker's

(21:15):
Crossroads that day around two There are these gaps that
nobody can explain. I have so many specific questions that
he could help answer. If he has changed his mind
to chat on the phone, I can give them to
him ahead of time and ask only those ones. A
week goes by and I still receive no further reply.
But my inference from that exchange is that no, Larry

(21:38):
does not confirm that he was at Parker's Crossroads on
March fourth, two thousand and one. Now back to the timeline,
we have the cell phone records, corroborated time stamp at
and around natchis Trace State Park. Then we have the
uncorroborated witness at Parker's Crossroads, a stop that would also
make sense as he continues his journey over to Jackson.

(22:01):
But here's the thing. The Natches Trace ping at twelve
twelve and the likely Parker's Crossroad siding at two thirty
would only be about eight miles apart, which means there's
still a large chunk of time unaccounted for. Where did
they go and what did they do from twelve twelve
to two thirty? And if the witness did not see

(22:22):
Bethany with Larry, where was she and why would Larry
seemingly lie about having dropped Bethany off with her mother
in Nashville moving on in the timeline from March four,
two thousand and one, and now we're at the Old
Hickory Mall in Jackson, Tennessee, around three to three thirty
according to Larry. Remember, Aunt Laurie is supposed to meet
Larry in Waverley, Tennessee, the midway point between Gleason and Nashville,

(22:47):
at five pm. Per the court paperwork and custody agreement.
The distance from the mall to the meeting point is
between seventy to ninety miles. Now, depending on the route,
the fastest route will be just over an hour, meaning
Bethany and Larry would have just an hour at the
mall before they turn around and drive to Waverley to

(23:07):
get there by five pm. To ensure they arrived on time,
Larry would actually need to leave no later than three
forty five. So tell me this. Why did he decide
to park at the mall, send his eleven year old
daughter into the mall alone and take a nap? And
why is his phone off from the last call with
Jenny at twelve twelve pm until five forty three pm

(23:30):
when Larry finally answers Aunt Laurie's call, demanding to know
this Where the hell is Bethany Markowski.

Speaker 6 (23:56):
Missing? In Hushtown? Season two is executive produced in partnership
by five fire Eyes Media LLCs Jules Thorpe and John Rivera,
as well as Mom Cast Productions Rachel Holloway and Heather Northcraft.
The script is written by Jules Thorpe and edited by
Heather Northcraft. Project lead is Rachel Holloway and master editing
and audio production is done by John Rivera. Jeels Thorpe

(24:19):
is your host. Fire Eyes Media Mom has

Speaker 1 (24:28):
Weird raising voices while raising kids.