Body of Missing Kansas Pastor’s Wife Presumed Found

UPDATE Aug. 20, 2020: Although the body has yet to be positively identified, “Information gathered from family members concerning her mental and emotional state during her final communications, along with facts gathered from the scene, have led investigators to believe that Marilane Carter drove the vehicle into the container and in doing so caused her demise,” the Crittenden County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement, according to Fox 4 Memphis.

The vehicle of Marilane Carter, a pastor’s wife an mother of three who had been missing for more than two weeks, was found Aug. 18 in West Memphis, Arkansas, with the body of a deceased female inside, reports Baptist Press.

A family member discovered the car, which was registered to Carter and her husband and contained her purse and credit cards, while searching the area where Carter was last known to have been, Crittenden County Sheriff Mike Allen told WMC-TV, Memphis. The vehicle appeared to have been driven into an empty storage container on private property, Allen said.

Carter’s husband, Adam Carter, is pastor of Leawood Baptist Church in Leawood, Kansas. On Aug. 6, he posted to Twitter a request for help in finding Marilane and urging those who saw anything to “please contact law enforcement.”

Please help us find my sweet wife. If you see anything please contact law enforcement. #findmarilane pic.twitter.com/2fRQI2xknm

— Adam Carter (@AdamCarter86) August 7, 2020

Carter went missing Aug. 1 when she left her home in Overland Park, Kansas, headed for Birmingham, where reports said she planned to seek psychiatric care. But she disappeared near West Memphis and was last sighted at a gas station in the small town just west of the Mississippi River, according to Baptist Press. “Adam Carter told The Alabama Baptist he’d spoken with her by phone Aug. 2 and said she told him she was about to cross the Mississippi River into Memphis on the I-55 bridge,” the outlet reported.

An extensive search by law enforcement in several states as well as the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Marshals Service followed. Baptist Press also reports that dozens of family members and other volunteers joined in the search, distributing thousands of missing-person fliers through several states.

Please join the Charisma Media staff in praying for the entire Carter family. {eoa}