Case that inspired TN Missing Children’s Day goes 23 years unsolved
JACKSON, Tenn. (WKRN) — As the search continues for countless children missing out of Tennessee, March 4 marks a day of awareness for the families who still refuse to give up.
The day has been known as Tennessee Missing Children’s Day ever since 2017, when Jonnie Carter and Rep. Darren Jernigan (D-Old Hickory) created the measure in recognition of Carter’s daughter, Bethany Leanne Markowski.
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Markowski was only 11 years old when she disappeared on March 4, 2001. According to her mother, she was a kind, smart, sassy kid. “Loved to sing, didn’t want you to watch her, so you had to turn your back while she would sing into a brush and dance,” Carter told News 2 in a 2017 interview.
Her father was reportedly the last person to see Markowski before she seemingly vanished from the Old Hickory Shopping Mall in Jackson. Carter’s mother said it was her second visitation with her father.
According to the FBI, which has been involved in the investigation, Markowski went into the mall alone while her father waited for her in the car. “He had taken a nap out in the parking lot… He let Bethany go into the mall, and she’s gone,” Carter said.
After about two hours had passed, Markowski’s father went into the mall to look for her, but she was nowhere to be found. Unconfirmed sightings have poured in throughout the years, but none of them have turned out to be credible.
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It’s one of dozens of cases out of Tennessee that have continued to haunt investigators for years. Currently there are 13 unsolved cases in the state where the children have been missing so long, they would now be over 18 years old.
In some cases, the children have been declared legally dead, but their disappearances remain under investigation until they are recovered or their whereabouts are discovered, according to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI).
The agency estimates that nearly 500 to 600 children go missing each month — many due to parental abductions or runaways — with about eight to nine AMBER alerts issued each year.
“Whenever we issue an AMBER Alert, those children will remain an AMBER Alert until we’ve located them, regardless of what the circumstances might be,” Shelly Smitherman, TBI Assistant Special Agent in Charge, told News 2 in a 2022 interview. “Even if they’re believed to be deceased, we don’t stop looking.”
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As of March 4, 2024, there are at least 40 Tennessee children whose whereabouts are still unknown after being reported missing within the last few years, and six active AMBER alerts.
The legislation designating March 4 as Tennessee Missing Children’s Day was aimed at bringing awareness to these unsolved cases. Smitherman said it’s often the public that helps resolve these cases after seeing a child’s face or remembering a piece of information.
“It’s beyond anything I could ever imagine,” Carter told News 2 shortly before the measure was passed in 2017. “I know Bethany would be proud of this.”
Markowski, who would now be 34 years old, was last seen wearing a green shirt, blue jeans, and black shoes. She was around 4-feet, 8-inches tall at the time of her disappearance, weighed about 95 pounds and has brown hair and green eyes.
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Anyone who has any information on Markowski’s disappearance is asked to contact the TBI at 1-800-TBI-FIND or their local FBI office. A full list of Tennessee’s missing children can be found by clicking here.
The TBI also suggests parents use the “TN KidKit” to document key details about their children such as photographs and identifying factors in case of an emergency. Having that information on hand helps authorities issue alerts faster.
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