Missing Overland Park woman made stops in Missouri and Arkansas before disappearing
Twelve days after a 36-year-old Overland Park woman disappeared, Overland Park police said they have been doing everything they can but still can’t find her.
On Friday, Overland Park police detective Blake Larsen provided an update on the search for Marilane Carter, who was last seen by her family leaving her home about 8:15 p.m. Aug. 1.
She was driving a gray 2011 GMC Acadia and was headed to Birmingham, Alabama, to visit her sister who is due to have a baby soon, as well as seek some medical treatment. But she never arrived.
Police have traced Carter’s travels to locations in Missouri and Arkansas but it’s unclear what happened to her after that. Larsen said the search was not considered an active criminal investigation.
“At this time, there’s no reason to believe that there’s any criminal activity afoot or anything nefarious has happened, especially in Overland Park, Kansas or the Kansas City metro,” Larsen said.
“We are simply trying to help the family locate Marilane Carter and bring her back to her children, to her husband, to her parents,” Larsen said. “They are all worried sick about her.”
Before leaving Overland Park Carter had booked a flight but for some reason decided to leave by vehicle, Larsen said. She also had made some statements that concerned her family.
“She traveled through Rolla, Missouri, making a stop at a McDonald’s,” said Larsen, who added that they found credit card purchases there. “And she eventually made it to West Plaines, Missouri, on Aug. 2, Sunday morning at about 3:45 a.m.”
Carter stayed in a hotel but didn’t stay long, checking out at 6:05 a.m., he said.
“Obviously investigators and family found it strange for that short of stay,” Larsen said. That is where police got the first confirmed video sighting of her, as well as an additional credit card purchase.
“In that video she is by herself in her vehicle and in the lobby,” Larsen said. “She doesn’t look to be under duress; doesn’t look to be with anybody else.”
Carter then travels south into Arkansas, where she stops at a convenience store in Hazen, where a credit card purchase was made. She then heads east to West Memphis, Arkansas, in the Memphis, Tennessee metropolitan area.
A video showed Carter at a Shell gas station shortly before 5 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 2, off of Interstate 55 just west of the Mississippi River near West Memphis.
It was around there when her cellphone pinged for the last time on a cell tower at 8:02 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 2.
“That is the last confirmed video contact that we have,” Larsen said.
“The videos are really similar . . .” Larsen said. “She’s by herself. She’s of her own free will. She’s moving about. She goes into the convenience store on the last video. It looks like she maybe fills up like a Yeti-type container, or she has a glass, with water. She gets gas outside, goes to her vehicle and leaves.”
Carter’s husband became concerned and reported her missing about 3 or 4 a.m. Monday, Aug. 3.
Carter, a white woman, is 5-feet-8-inches tall and about 130 pounds, police said. She has green eyes and long brown hair. Her SUV had a Kansas license plate of 194 LFY.
Overland Park police have had help from police departments in Memphis, West Memphis and Marion, Arkansas, as well as the Arkansas State Police and the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation. Overland Park has also had contact with the FBI and the U.S. Marshals Service.
Larsen said law enforcement agencies are using all logical and reasonable investigative techniques, including cellphone and credit card data. It’s not possible to track her via General Motors’ OnStar system or satellite radio, Larsen said.
“We are doing everything possible,” Larsen said. “We’ve even attempted to get a search warrant in the Kansas courts for her cellular tower pings just to show her routes and where she had been.”
Kansas laws, however, only allow search warrants for that data when some type of criminal activity is involved, Larsen said.
Authorities in the Memphis area have conducted searches this week of the Mississippi River near the last known cell tower ping. Civilian organizations were helping with the search using sonar Thursday and Friday.
“The path kind of stops at West Memphis, Arkansas . . . ” Larsen said. “After her phone goes off at 8:02 . . . it goes cold.”
This story was originally published August 14, 2020 at 1:50 PM.
