October 22, 2025 • 22 mins
For 25 years, Bethany Markowski has been missing - but never forgotten.
In this episode, her family shares memories, laughter, and heartbreak as they remember the little girl they knew and loved. Through their voices, we’re reminded that while Bethany may be missing, her story, and her impact, live on.
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.
In this episode, her family shares memories, laughter, and heartbreak as they remember the little girl they knew and loved. Through their voices, we’re reminded that while Bethany may be missing, her story, and her impact, live on.
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.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
And I said, I'm beginning to think I don't know
if Bethany was real. Was she real or is she
somebody I was making up? Right? So I called the
Obin County Hospital where Bethany was born in New City,
and I was talking to the woman and it was like,
I need to know if my daughter is real. Can
(00:25):
you send me a copy of the versonarticulately? I need
to see her footprints. And I remember how to mail
to my job, and I opened them when they came
in and I was just like, I called Laurie and
I was like, oh my god, this is proof Bethany
is real. She is real, she was here.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
This is missing in Hushtown Season two, Bethany Markowski, Welcome
back Bethany's Brigade to Chapter three. Bethany Missing, not lost.
Throughout this episode, we're going to share stories, interviews, and
memories about Bethany from those who knew her and loved
her best, her sisters, cousins, ants, and of course, her mom,
Johnny Carter. Bethany may be missing for twenty five years now,
(01:09):
but her legacy, her love, and her purpose has never
been lost. Together with her family, we hope to bring
you along the journey to all that is Bethany through
the eyes of all who vowed to find her, and
the impact her disappearance has made on them all. Bethany's
loved ones had just eleven short years with her, and
the trauma they've endured the last twenty five years has
(01:31):
greatly impacted their memories. But through it all, they refuse
to stop telling the world about the girl that Bethany
was to them.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
Sometimes you can't turn you can't turn the feelings off
or even down. They're just there and they're going to
come out, no matter how hard you fight back the
tears or the anger or whatever emotion that you're feeling
at that time. And it's so you just don't know
what emotion you're going to get when you start talking
(02:00):
come a aut it either. I mean there's days I
look at Bethanye's picture and she's smiling, and I'll look
at her and I'll smile right back at her, and
those days I'll look at it, the same picture and
it rips my heart out and I just can't really
look at it.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
I'm your host, Jules. Hey, guys, let's go.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
M we start about when she was born. Actually, can
(02:57):
you go back to like pregnancy.
Speaker 1 (02:59):
Yeah, yes, I do. I remember finding out. I cried
so yeah, it was. It was a scary time. I
didn't really want to be pregnant, not by Larry, but
I was and happy about it.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
According to the National Domestic Abuse Hotland website the hotlane
dot org, quote, abusive relationships are extremely complex situations and
it takes a lot of courage to leave. Abuse is
about power and control. When a survivor leaves their abusive relationship,
they threaten the power and control their partner has established
over the survivor's agency. This often causes the partner to
(03:38):
retaliate in harmful ways. As a result, leaving is often
the most dangerous period of time for survivors of abuse
end quote. Unfortunately, many victims of domestic abuse are blamed, Well,
why didn't you leave? Why would you stay? How could
you allow your daughter in that environment? Johnny, She's a
(03:59):
victim too, and she was doing the best she could.
She was in a constant state of fear of retaliation.
To put it bluntly, she was afraid that leaving Larry
with Bethany would cause Bethany to be harmed, or she'd
never get to see Bethany again. And if Johnny and
Bethany were separated, how could she protect Bethany. She could
take it, she would take it, and if she did,
(04:21):
then maybe he wouldn't turn on Bethany. She was never
going to leave her daughter. When Bethany was born February first,
nineteen ninety, Johnny instantly fell in love her dark hair
and blue green eyes that sparkled. She was loved deeply
by her siblings. Bethany is the youngest of five. She
has two siblings from Larry's former marriage to a woman
named Sheila, Jenny and Daniel, and two on Johnny's side,
(04:44):
Emily and Kyle.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
Bethany was born February first, nineteen ninety. Beautiful baby girl
and silly, funny, sweet kid. I remember when she was little.
She always she would bring me a ponytail holder and
wan her hair put on top of her head and
called her a water spountain. She had this. You could
tell her to make a ugly face, and there's pictures
(05:08):
of it. She would make an ugly face. Just very sweet, silly, funny,
loved everybody, loved everybody. We had some neighbors that was
an elderly couple, so Bethany would get off the school
bus when she got older and stop at their house
and check on and make sure that they were okay.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
The other voices you may hear throughout Johnny's interviews are
her sister aunt Laurie, her sister Tommy, and their best
friend Diane. We all sat together one evening and they
took turns telling about Bethany. Sometimes they finish each other's sentences,
sometimes they correct each other, and sometimes they all talk
at once. Their sisterly bond is beautiful, and their nurturing
(05:48):
hearts are contagious. They banter back and forth. We pause
every now and then because one of them has made
a joke that's hard to recover from. Johnny recalls fondly
how Bethany as a toddler was always into some thing
and up to something. That Bethany was very, very very busy.
Here's sister Jenny.
Speaker 4 (06:06):
She was everything to me.
Speaker 5 (06:07):
We used to have lived beside the church in Sadonia,
and we used to get a sheet, and I used
to make us some mayonnaise and cracker sandwiches and cootlaid
or water, and we'd go down to the church parking
lot and sit under the tree and have picnics together. Me,
me and my brother used to tie up to the
chair and just you know, we used to do what
(06:32):
siblings do. We were eight years apart, so I watched
her a lot. She was just She hung out with
me and my friends a lot. She was just everything
to me.
Speaker 6 (06:44):
How would you describe her her personality to everyone who's
never met Bethany if you had to, kind of just
paint a big picture of Okay, Bethany's coming, get ready,
this is what she's like.
Speaker 5 (06:58):
She was shot at first, talkative. We both have that problem, goofy,
and we both bit our nails. We both bit our
nails down to nothing.
Speaker 4 (07:10):
She was just fun to be around.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
She had her whole life ahead.
Speaker 5 (07:14):
Ever, I don't know she was so young.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
She was just so young.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
So many times in these interviews about Bethany, her loved
one will finish talking, but they're not done speaking. You
can almost feel their memories in the yeir hanging there,
playing like a projector screen in front of us. The
quiet isn't still, it's moving pictures filled with a recipe
of nostalgia and grief. Here's Emily, Bethany's older sister, Johnny's daughter.
Speaker 7 (07:45):
She was so sweet, so funny, and she had like
these little beanie moon eyes when she smiled, and she
would laugh, and I remember her little Kokahontas room and
she would sing and just the sweetest. She has been
the most part happy considering like what kind of life
she must have lived. You know, I was only there
for a short period of time, you know, every other week,
(08:09):
and so I'm sure things were a lot different whenever
all of the other kids were out of the house.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
And it was just them beth Any's siblings on her
mom's I didn't live with Johnny full time. Emily remembers
when Larry and Johnny were together and all the children
would be at the house for weekend visits.
Speaker 7 (08:25):
So when my mom and dad separated, all lived with
my mom for a little bit of kindergarten, and then
I ended up moving and with my dad. So I
only went to my mom and their house every other
weekend for the most part. There were other time frames
(08:45):
where it would be a large larger gap between me going.
I will say that their house was a lot different
from what I was used to at my dad's house.
I just had my own room, a TV, a phone,
and I just kind of do whatever I wanted to do.
But at their house, we had to get up at
like the crack of dawn, all like five of us
(09:06):
kids had to be outside all day long and then
come in like at the end of the day. It
was really weird, like you can only come in to
eat or go to the bathroom. Really strange, but that
was what it was like. I just spent every other weekend.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
There, Bethany's sister on Larry's side. Again, Jenny recalls the
heat and being forced to stay outside.
Speaker 5 (09:25):
He used to make us sit outside in the summer
if he's so hot outside, and we'd be laying on
the porch like dogs, and you know, at night time.
I remember when they lived in Woodland Mills, he would
put it back then it was just the air conditioning unit,
not like a central heat in air, and it was
in the living room, and he would we would sleep
(09:45):
in the bedroom, beth and he was still in diapers,
and me and my brother and her would sleep on
the bedroom floor when I was there on the weekend,
and he put towels underneath the doors to keep the
air in the living room where him and Johnny slept.
I remember we had a box fan and the window
would be up and it would be so hot. We
just take off our clothes and be just like in
(10:08):
a T shirt and panties or underwear or whatever in
that room, and it would be so hot. Bens Andy
would just be in a diaper and we'd just be
laying there. I'd be laying there at night, just like
rocking her butt like this, like patting her butt, rocking
her with her in her bottle. And I'm sure Larry
would make Johnny stay in the living room and we
would sneak out of the bedroom and like just try
to not to fall asleep in the hallway so he'd
(10:30):
wake up in the morning and zeus. So we'd try
to like sneak out the door into the hall and
get some air and then not fall asleep there to
be back in the bedroom.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
Here's EMILYE.
Speaker 8 (10:41):
Do you mind going into why you were living with
your dad primarily because I know a lot of people
listening will obviously think that's not the norm to live
primarily with your father. Are you open to going into that?
Speaker 7 (10:54):
Sure? I mean I wanted to and they let me. Apparently.
Never it was time to go to court for custody,
I don't think my mom was allowed to show up,
so my dad got custody.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
This is correct per Johnny's recollection. Here's Johnny.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
When I left and moved to Union City, Tennessee, and
I had an apartment and I was getting a divorce
from my husband, I had custody of both of the kids,
or you know, he got every weekend or every the weekend,
I can't remember. And then when Larry and I got together,
Max's husband got tired of picking the kids up and
me having a black eye, or the kids saying, you know,
(11:34):
we had to go outside and we could hear mama screaming,
and so he took me to court for full custody
of the kids, thank god. And so the court date
came and I wasn't allowed to get out of bed
that day. It really wouldn't have mattered if I'd have
been able to get out of bed. I didn't have
a car, I didn't have a way to go there.
Larry had already sold my car. I was totally one
(11:58):
hundred per dependent on him. But again, it was the
best thing for my kids. Did it devastate me? Absolutely?
I wanted my kids. I love my kids, and we
didn't have a relationship for years. You know, Emily was twelve.
She called to talk to me one day, and you know,
(12:19):
Larry answered the phone, and he was telling her, you know,
she don't need you, She's got Bethany and all this stuff.
And Emily said, kiss my ass. And I was not
allowed to see my kids for the next five years
until he decided it was okay for Bethany to call
and talk to Emily.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
Here's Emily's right collection.
Speaker 7 (12:41):
I was in sixth grade, going into seventh grade, and
I wanted to try it for cheerleading, and my mom
and Larry were supposed to have health insurance on me.
So I called and Larry answered the phone. And I
don't know if you just maybe they just didn't have
health insurance on me or something. I have no idea,
but I guess he got pissed and he said to me,
(13:02):
you don't need your mom because you have your stepmom.
I'm not going to say her name, but he said,
because you have your stepmom, which I'd never ever said before.
And he said so, and your mom doesn't need you
because she has Bethany. Period. I did not talk to
or see any of them until several months before Bethany
came up missing. She called me on my parents' landline
(13:28):
and was just like, hey, this is Bethany, So we're
like okay, and she came and spent the weekend at
my dad and step mom's house a few weeks later,
I guess it was. And then we just went and
did like I don't know, shopping and stuff like that,
and then they came and picked her up and that
was the last time I.
Speaker 2 (13:48):
Ever saw Johnny remembers that last visit Emily had with
Bethany as well.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
Emily called me I lost costin to my kids and
which was the best thing in the world that could
have happened to them. And Larry would say, do you
want to do you want to call your kids? And
if I said yeah, then he would be like, why
do you want to call them? They hate you, they
don't have nothing to do with you. And if I
(14:14):
said no, then what kind of parent are? You don't
even want to talk to your kids. So there was
no right answer at all, and he would do the
same thing, you know, to Bethany, do you want to
call your sister? And Emily and she would just look
over me. But one day, out of the blue, He
looked at Bethany and said, you want to call Emily,
(14:35):
and Bethany, you looked at me, and she just kind
of sugar her head. Yeah, he said, we'll call her.
He called her and talked. Bethany called Emily and talked
to her, and then I talked to her.
Speaker 3 (14:45):
And.
Speaker 1 (14:47):
Emily asked Bethany could she come and spend the weekend
and Larry said yes, and she went and spent the
weekend with Emily and her dad.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
Soon after that visit, Emily's little sister, Bethany would never
be seen again. Johnny carries a lot of guilt about
this time in Emily's life.
Speaker 1 (15:09):
She didn't understand she was just a kid, you know,
she was twelve years old, or she was younger than that,
and she didn't have a mom. For the first date,
she had her dad, which she did an amazing job.
And that's the guilt that I have to live with.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
You know, both Bethany's life and Bethany's disappearance, I simultaneously
shaped everyone's life who loves her.
Speaker 1 (15:32):
I mean mistakes every single day, every day, and I'll
own up to him. I will say on record, I
lost my freaking mind. I was thirty eight years old,
and I started drinking and I became pretty much an alcoholic.
And I went to after Bethany had been missing for
(15:52):
like ten years and I had done warm myself and
my family out, I finally went and talk to a psychiatrists.
And you know, one of the first things he told me,
you know, we needed you need sleep. Yeah, I said,
you know, the only time I sleep is when I'm drunk,
and I passed out. And he said, well, that's that's
not sleep, that's not sleep. And you know, he put
(16:15):
me on Ambien and Xenex and adderall and all kinds
of medication. And I took that stuff for like two
or three months, and I just couldn't do it anymore.
It noned me too much. I couldn't it sounds weird.
I couldn't feel the pain, and I needed the pain.
Speaker 2 (16:39):
Johnny would spend the next ten years volunteering for the
National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, helping other families
of missing children. She poured herself into advocacy and activism.
She knew how isolating it felt to be in their shoes,
and she knew she could help them through her grief
and her pain and everything she had learned by taking
it one day out of time.
Speaker 1 (17:01):
So I started volunteering for the National Serphramasius for Children
with a group called Team Hope. And I did that
for I think about ten years, and it, Oh, it
probably sounds crazy. It made me feel like I was
doing something I wasn't looking for my daughter. I mean
(17:25):
I still wasn't. And I took breaks. I did. I
took I had to mentally and physically take breaks. But
I was trying to help other parents because I didn't
have I had my family, and I didn't have anybody
really that had ever been through it. And once I did,
(17:47):
once I talked to somebody that had a missing child,
then I wasn't ashamed to speak the truth. I wasn't
ashamed to tell them all of my crazy thoughts. That
you're kind of embarrassed to your family. You don't want
to feel like they're worried for you or anything like that.
(18:12):
And I feel like if I know I did help
one person because she became a Team Hope volunteer and
she got her son back, that it made me made
me feel good, made me feel like I did something
good out of all this bad that happened to Bethany.
I feel like it gave me a purpose.
Speaker 9 (18:36):
Yeah, when you're searching for answers at this stage, we
searching for Bethany or are we searching for answers about
what happened for Bethany? Is there a difference and what.
Speaker 1 (18:55):
Direction you've been going and now depends on the day.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
If Bethany was here with her family today, what would
she be like? Would she have competed in sports like
she wanted to do. Would she have been involved with
animals horses specifically? Would she live near Johnny in Middle
Tennessee or in East Tennessee near her sister Jenny and
brothers Daniel and Kyle. Or would she have traveled the
world and been a free spirit exploring the wonders of
(19:22):
what this beautiful world would have had to offer her.
Trauma rewires brains. It can be cruel and erase memories,
making them foggy or replay the worst ones. Bethany was
with their family for just eleven years, but she's been
missing for twenty five years. But Bethany was never lost,
she was never forgotten, she was never dismissed, but she
(19:45):
is missing. Each day her family misses her so much
so that what they do day in and day out
is shaped by the absence of Bethany. You'll continue to
hear stories about Bethany throughout the season, and you'll come
to know her throughout her actions, reactions, words, hopes, and dreams.
Bethany loved her family, and it's the same family that
(20:08):
will never never allow Bethany's memory to become lost. No
matter how exhausted, defeated, worn out, or hopeless they may
feel at times, their love for Bethany carries them on
their mission to find Bethany. Leanne Murkowski next time on
Missing in Hushtown.
Speaker 4 (20:26):
As it got closer to her going back that week prior,
she seemed one. I don't think she felt good. She
seemed like she had a little bit of fear. I
think she was coming down with something. But too she
was going around to everybody in the house, you know,
even the kids, and saying, you know what if Daddy
didn't bring me back. So I felt like she knew
something was going on, that he had done threatened her
(20:48):
or done something because she didn't want to go and Johnny's,
you know, the night before, she's trying to help her
pack her bag, and she was like, well, do you
want to take this? And she was like even that
typical kid thing. No, I don't want that. I don't
like that. I don't like so she and she's like,
you have to pack. She said why she didn't want
to go, and she's like, she said, you have to go.
Speaker 1 (21:10):
She said, if you.
Speaker 4 (21:10):
Don't go, I'm breaking the law, you know, and they'll
they'll then they'll take you from me, and then I
won't you know, then I want to you know. She
was like, well, what if he doesn't bring me back?
She said, he has to. He has to bring you back.
He doesn't bring you back, we'll come and get you
and he'll never see you again. And that was and
she said she regrets that so much that she made her.
Speaker 10 (21:32):
Go missing in Hushtown. Season two is executive produced in
partnership by Fireeyes Media LLC's Jules Thorpe and Johen Rivera,
(21:56):
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. Jules Thorpe
is your host. Fireeyes media mom
Speaker 2 (22:20):
Haspard raising voices while raising kids.
And I said, I'm beginning to think I don't know
if Bethany was real. Was she real or is she
somebody I was making up? Right? So I called the
Obin County Hospital where Bethany was born in New City,
and I was talking to the woman and it was like,
I need to know if my daughter is real. Can
(00:25):
you send me a copy of the versonarticulately? I need
to see her footprints. And I remember how to mail
to my job, and I opened them when they came
in and I was just like, I called Laurie and
I was like, oh my god, this is proof Bethany
is real. She is real, she was here.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
This is missing in Hushtown Season two, Bethany Markowski, Welcome
back Bethany's Brigade to Chapter three. Bethany Missing, not lost.
Throughout this episode, we're going to share stories, interviews, and
memories about Bethany from those who knew her and loved
her best, her sisters, cousins, ants, and of course, her mom,
Johnny Carter. Bethany may be missing for twenty five years now,
(01:09):
but her legacy, her love, and her purpose has never
been lost. Together with her family, we hope to bring
you along the journey to all that is Bethany through
the eyes of all who vowed to find her, and
the impact her disappearance has made on them all. Bethany's
loved ones had just eleven short years with her, and
the trauma they've endured the last twenty five years has
(01:31):
greatly impacted their memories. But through it all, they refuse
to stop telling the world about the girl that Bethany
was to them.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
Sometimes you can't turn you can't turn the feelings off
or even down. They're just there and they're going to
come out, no matter how hard you fight back the
tears or the anger or whatever emotion that you're feeling
at that time. And it's so you just don't know
what emotion you're going to get when you start talking
(02:00):
come a aut it either. I mean there's days I
look at Bethanye's picture and she's smiling, and I'll look
at her and I'll smile right back at her, and
those days I'll look at it, the same picture and
it rips my heart out and I just can't really
look at it.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
I'm your host, Jules. Hey, guys, let's go.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
M we start about when she was born. Actually, can
(02:57):
you go back to like pregnancy.
Speaker 1 (02:59):
Yeah, yes, I do. I remember finding out. I cried
so yeah, it was. It was a scary time. I
didn't really want to be pregnant, not by Larry, but
I was and happy about it.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
According to the National Domestic Abuse Hotland website the hotlane
dot org, quote, abusive relationships are extremely complex situations and
it takes a lot of courage to leave. Abuse is
about power and control. When a survivor leaves their abusive relationship,
they threaten the power and control their partner has established
over the survivor's agency. This often causes the partner to
(03:38):
retaliate in harmful ways. As a result, leaving is often
the most dangerous period of time for survivors of abuse
end quote. Unfortunately, many victims of domestic abuse are blamed, Well,
why didn't you leave? Why would you stay? How could
you allow your daughter in that environment? Johnny, She's a
(03:59):
victim too, and she was doing the best she could.
She was in a constant state of fear of retaliation.
To put it bluntly, she was afraid that leaving Larry
with Bethany would cause Bethany to be harmed, or she'd
never get to see Bethany again. And if Johnny and
Bethany were separated, how could she protect Bethany. She could
take it, she would take it, and if she did,
(04:21):
then maybe he wouldn't turn on Bethany. She was never
going to leave her daughter. When Bethany was born February first,
nineteen ninety, Johnny instantly fell in love her dark hair
and blue green eyes that sparkled. She was loved deeply
by her siblings. Bethany is the youngest of five. She
has two siblings from Larry's former marriage to a woman
named Sheila, Jenny and Daniel, and two on Johnny's side,
(04:44):
Emily and Kyle.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
Bethany was born February first, nineteen ninety. Beautiful baby girl
and silly, funny, sweet kid. I remember when she was little.
She always she would bring me a ponytail holder and
wan her hair put on top of her head and
called her a water spountain. She had this. You could
tell her to make a ugly face, and there's pictures
(05:08):
of it. She would make an ugly face. Just very sweet, silly, funny,
loved everybody, loved everybody. We had some neighbors that was
an elderly couple, so Bethany would get off the school
bus when she got older and stop at their house
and check on and make sure that they were okay.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
The other voices you may hear throughout Johnny's interviews are
her sister aunt Laurie, her sister Tommy, and their best
friend Diane. We all sat together one evening and they
took turns telling about Bethany. Sometimes they finish each other's sentences,
sometimes they correct each other, and sometimes they all talk
at once. Their sisterly bond is beautiful, and their nurturing
(05:48):
hearts are contagious. They banter back and forth. We pause
every now and then because one of them has made
a joke that's hard to recover from. Johnny recalls fondly
how Bethany as a toddler was always into some thing
and up to something. That Bethany was very, very very busy.
Here's sister Jenny.
Speaker 4 (06:06):
She was everything to me.
Speaker 5 (06:07):
We used to have lived beside the church in Sadonia,
and we used to get a sheet, and I used
to make us some mayonnaise and cracker sandwiches and cootlaid
or water, and we'd go down to the church parking
lot and sit under the tree and have picnics together. Me,
me and my brother used to tie up to the
chair and just you know, we used to do what
(06:32):
siblings do. We were eight years apart, so I watched
her a lot. She was just She hung out with
me and my friends a lot. She was just everything
to me.
Speaker 6 (06:44):
How would you describe her her personality to everyone who's
never met Bethany if you had to, kind of just
paint a big picture of Okay, Bethany's coming, get ready,
this is what she's like.
Speaker 5 (06:58):
She was shot at first, talkative. We both have that problem, goofy,
and we both bit our nails. We both bit our
nails down to nothing.
Speaker 4 (07:10):
She was just fun to be around.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
She had her whole life ahead.
Speaker 5 (07:14):
Ever, I don't know she was so young.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
She was just so young.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
So many times in these interviews about Bethany, her loved
one will finish talking, but they're not done speaking. You
can almost feel their memories in the yeir hanging there,
playing like a projector screen in front of us. The
quiet isn't still, it's moving pictures filled with a recipe
of nostalgia and grief. Here's Emily, Bethany's older sister, Johnny's daughter.
Speaker 7 (07:45):
She was so sweet, so funny, and she had like
these little beanie moon eyes when she smiled, and she
would laugh, and I remember her little Kokahontas room and
she would sing and just the sweetest. She has been
the most part happy considering like what kind of life
she must have lived. You know, I was only there
for a short period of time, you know, every other week,
(08:09):
and so I'm sure things were a lot different whenever
all of the other kids were out of the house.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
And it was just them beth Any's siblings on her
mom's I didn't live with Johnny full time. Emily remembers
when Larry and Johnny were together and all the children
would be at the house for weekend visits.
Speaker 7 (08:25):
So when my mom and dad separated, all lived with
my mom for a little bit of kindergarten, and then
I ended up moving and with my dad. So I
only went to my mom and their house every other
weekend for the most part. There were other time frames
(08:45):
where it would be a large larger gap between me going.
I will say that their house was a lot different
from what I was used to at my dad's house.
I just had my own room, a TV, a phone,
and I just kind of do whatever I wanted to do.
But at their house, we had to get up at
like the crack of dawn, all like five of us
(09:06):
kids had to be outside all day long and then
come in like at the end of the day. It
was really weird, like you can only come in to
eat or go to the bathroom. Really strange, but that
was what it was like. I just spent every other weekend.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
There, Bethany's sister on Larry's side. Again, Jenny recalls the
heat and being forced to stay outside.
Speaker 5 (09:25):
He used to make us sit outside in the summer
if he's so hot outside, and we'd be laying on
the porch like dogs, and you know, at night time.
I remember when they lived in Woodland Mills, he would
put it back then it was just the air conditioning unit,
not like a central heat in air, and it was
in the living room, and he would we would sleep
(09:45):
in the bedroom, beth and he was still in diapers,
and me and my brother and her would sleep on
the bedroom floor when I was there on the weekend,
and he put towels underneath the doors to keep the
air in the living room where him and Johnny slept.
I remember we had a box fan and the window
would be up and it would be so hot. We
just take off our clothes and be just like in
(10:08):
a T shirt and panties or underwear or whatever in
that room, and it would be so hot. Bens Andy
would just be in a diaper and we'd just be
laying there. I'd be laying there at night, just like
rocking her butt like this, like patting her butt, rocking
her with her in her bottle. And I'm sure Larry
would make Johnny stay in the living room and we
would sneak out of the bedroom and like just try
to not to fall asleep in the hallway so he'd
(10:30):
wake up in the morning and zeus. So we'd try
to like sneak out the door into the hall and
get some air and then not fall asleep there to
be back in the bedroom.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
Here's EMILYE.
Speaker 8 (10:41):
Do you mind going into why you were living with
your dad primarily because I know a lot of people
listening will obviously think that's not the norm to live
primarily with your father. Are you open to going into that?
Speaker 7 (10:54):
Sure? I mean I wanted to and they let me. Apparently.
Never it was time to go to court for custody,
I don't think my mom was allowed to show up,
so my dad got custody.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
This is correct per Johnny's recollection. Here's Johnny.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
When I left and moved to Union City, Tennessee, and
I had an apartment and I was getting a divorce
from my husband, I had custody of both of the kids,
or you know, he got every weekend or every the weekend,
I can't remember. And then when Larry and I got together,
Max's husband got tired of picking the kids up and
me having a black eye, or the kids saying, you know,
(11:34):
we had to go outside and we could hear mama screaming,
and so he took me to court for full custody
of the kids, thank god. And so the court date
came and I wasn't allowed to get out of bed
that day. It really wouldn't have mattered if I'd have
been able to get out of bed. I didn't have
a car, I didn't have a way to go there.
Larry had already sold my car. I was totally one
(11:58):
hundred per dependent on him. But again, it was the
best thing for my kids. Did it devastate me? Absolutely?
I wanted my kids. I love my kids, and we
didn't have a relationship for years. You know, Emily was twelve.
She called to talk to me one day, and you know,
(12:19):
Larry answered the phone, and he was telling her, you know,
she don't need you, She's got Bethany and all this stuff.
And Emily said, kiss my ass. And I was not
allowed to see my kids for the next five years
until he decided it was okay for Bethany to call
and talk to Emily.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
Here's Emily's right collection.
Speaker 7 (12:41):
I was in sixth grade, going into seventh grade, and
I wanted to try it for cheerleading, and my mom
and Larry were supposed to have health insurance on me.
So I called and Larry answered the phone. And I
don't know if you just maybe they just didn't have
health insurance on me or something. I have no idea,
but I guess he got pissed and he said to me,
(13:02):
you don't need your mom because you have your stepmom.
I'm not going to say her name, but he said,
because you have your stepmom, which I'd never ever said before.
And he said so, and your mom doesn't need you
because she has Bethany. Period. I did not talk to
or see any of them until several months before Bethany
came up missing. She called me on my parents' landline
(13:28):
and was just like, hey, this is Bethany, So we're
like okay, and she came and spent the weekend at
my dad and step mom's house a few weeks later,
I guess it was. And then we just went and
did like I don't know, shopping and stuff like that,
and then they came and picked her up and that
was the last time I.
Speaker 2 (13:48):
Ever saw Johnny remembers that last visit Emily had with
Bethany as well.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
Emily called me I lost costin to my kids and
which was the best thing in the world that could
have happened to them. And Larry would say, do you
want to do you want to call your kids? And
if I said yeah, then he would be like, why
do you want to call them? They hate you, they
don't have nothing to do with you. And if I
(14:14):
said no, then what kind of parent are? You don't
even want to talk to your kids. So there was
no right answer at all, and he would do the
same thing, you know, to Bethany, do you want to
call your sister? And Emily and she would just look
over me. But one day, out of the blue, He
looked at Bethany and said, you want to call Emily,
(14:35):
and Bethany, you looked at me, and she just kind
of sugar her head. Yeah, he said, we'll call her.
He called her and talked. Bethany called Emily and talked
to her, and then I talked to her.
Speaker 3 (14:45):
And.
Speaker 1 (14:47):
Emily asked Bethany could she come and spend the weekend
and Larry said yes, and she went and spent the
weekend with Emily and her dad.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
Soon after that visit, Emily's little sister, Bethany would never
be seen again. Johnny carries a lot of guilt about
this time in Emily's life.
Speaker 1 (15:09):
She didn't understand she was just a kid, you know,
she was twelve years old, or she was younger than that,
and she didn't have a mom. For the first date,
she had her dad, which she did an amazing job.
And that's the guilt that I have to live with.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
You know, both Bethany's life and Bethany's disappearance, I simultaneously
shaped everyone's life who loves her.
Speaker 1 (15:32):
I mean mistakes every single day, every day, and I'll
own up to him. I will say on record, I
lost my freaking mind. I was thirty eight years old,
and I started drinking and I became pretty much an alcoholic.
And I went to after Bethany had been missing for
(15:52):
like ten years and I had done warm myself and
my family out, I finally went and talk to a psychiatrists.
And you know, one of the first things he told me,
you know, we needed you need sleep. Yeah, I said,
you know, the only time I sleep is when I'm drunk,
and I passed out. And he said, well, that's that's
not sleep, that's not sleep. And you know, he put
(16:15):
me on Ambien and Xenex and adderall and all kinds
of medication. And I took that stuff for like two
or three months, and I just couldn't do it anymore.
It noned me too much. I couldn't it sounds weird.
I couldn't feel the pain, and I needed the pain.
Speaker 2 (16:39):
Johnny would spend the next ten years volunteering for the
National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, helping other families
of missing children. She poured herself into advocacy and activism.
She knew how isolating it felt to be in their shoes,
and she knew she could help them through her grief
and her pain and everything she had learned by taking
it one day out of time.
Speaker 1 (17:01):
So I started volunteering for the National Serphramasius for Children
with a group called Team Hope. And I did that
for I think about ten years, and it, Oh, it
probably sounds crazy. It made me feel like I was
doing something I wasn't looking for my daughter. I mean
(17:25):
I still wasn't. And I took breaks. I did. I
took I had to mentally and physically take breaks. But
I was trying to help other parents because I didn't
have I had my family, and I didn't have anybody
really that had ever been through it. And once I did,
(17:47):
once I talked to somebody that had a missing child,
then I wasn't ashamed to speak the truth. I wasn't
ashamed to tell them all of my crazy thoughts. That
you're kind of embarrassed to your family. You don't want
to feel like they're worried for you or anything like that.
(18:12):
And I feel like if I know I did help
one person because she became a Team Hope volunteer and
she got her son back, that it made me made
me feel good, made me feel like I did something
good out of all this bad that happened to Bethany.
I feel like it gave me a purpose.
Speaker 9 (18:36):
Yeah, when you're searching for answers at this stage, we
searching for Bethany or are we searching for answers about
what happened for Bethany? Is there a difference and what.
Speaker 1 (18:55):
Direction you've been going and now depends on the day.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
If Bethany was here with her family today, what would
she be like? Would she have competed in sports like
she wanted to do. Would she have been involved with
animals horses specifically? Would she live near Johnny in Middle
Tennessee or in East Tennessee near her sister Jenny and
brothers Daniel and Kyle. Or would she have traveled the
world and been a free spirit exploring the wonders of
(19:22):
what this beautiful world would have had to offer her.
Trauma rewires brains. It can be cruel and erase memories,
making them foggy or replay the worst ones. Bethany was
with their family for just eleven years, but she's been
missing for twenty five years. But Bethany was never lost,
she was never forgotten, she was never dismissed, but she
(19:45):
is missing. Each day her family misses her so much
so that what they do day in and day out
is shaped by the absence of Bethany. You'll continue to
hear stories about Bethany throughout the season, and you'll come
to know her throughout her actions, reactions, words, hopes, and dreams.
Bethany loved her family, and it's the same family that
(20:08):
will never never allow Bethany's memory to become lost. No
matter how exhausted, defeated, worn out, or hopeless they may
feel at times, their love for Bethany carries them on
their mission to find Bethany. Leanne Murkowski next time on
Missing in Hushtown.
Speaker 4 (20:26):
As it got closer to her going back that week prior,
she seemed one. I don't think she felt good. She
seemed like she had a little bit of fear. I
think she was coming down with something. But too she
was going around to everybody in the house, you know,
even the kids, and saying, you know what if Daddy
didn't bring me back. So I felt like she knew
something was going on, that he had done threatened her
(20:48):
or done something because she didn't want to go and Johnny's,
you know, the night before, she's trying to help her
pack her bag, and she was like, well, do you
want to take this? And she was like even that
typical kid thing. No, I don't want that. I don't
like that. I don't like so she and she's like,
you have to pack. She said why she didn't want
to go, and she's like, she said, you have to go.
Speaker 1 (21:10):
She said, if you.
Speaker 4 (21:10):
Don't go, I'm breaking the law, you know, and they'll
they'll then they'll take you from me, and then I
won't you know, then I want to you know. She
was like, well, what if he doesn't bring me back?
She said, he has to. He has to bring you back.
He doesn't bring you back, we'll come and get you
and he'll never see you again. And that was and
she said she regrets that so much that she made her.
Speaker 10 (21:32):
Go missing in Hushtown. Season two is executive produced in
partnership by Fireeyes Media LLC's Jules Thorpe and Johen Rivera,
(21:56):
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. Jules Thorpe
is your host. Fireeyes media mom
Speaker 2 (22:20):
Haspard raising voices while raising kids.
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