Missing Kansas woman believed to have died near Memphis from carbon monoxide poisoning
A missing Overland Park woman is believed to have died from carbon monoxide poisoning in Arkansas, officials said Wednesday.
The body believed to be that of 36-year-old Marilane Carter was found Tuesday morning in the driver’s seat of a vehicle which had been backed into a storage container in Crittenden County, Arkansas, Chief Todd Grooms, of the county’s sheriff’s office, told The Star Wednesday. No foul play is suspected.
The car’s ignition was in the run position when the woman was found, he said, adding that there’s evidence the car had been running inside the container.
It’s believed she died of asphyxiation due to carbon monoxide poisoning, though an official autopsy report had not yet been completed, Grooms said Wednesday afternoon.
The body assumed to be Carter’s, due to the clothing she was wearing, was sent to the Arkansas State Crime Lab Wednesday morning, William Wolfe, chief deputy coroner for Crittenden County, said Wednesday. There, investigators will officially identify the woman, as well as her cause of death.
Just before 10:30 a.m. Tuesday, a family member of Carter’s discovered a storage container with Carter’s vehicle inside in a wooded area across from the weight scales on Interstate 55, Grooms said. The family member contacted local authorities who came to the scene.
WREG Memphis reported Carter’s uncle initially found the shipping container and noticed that the door on one of the three containers in the field was open.
“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,” Grooms said in a statement Wednesday.
Carter was last seen by her family leaving her home around 8:15 p.m. Aug. 1. She was driving a gray 2011 GMC Acadia to Birmingham, Alabama, to visit family and seek medical help.
In a Facebook post Wednesday morning, the church where her husband is lead pastor announced to its congregation that Carter was found along with her SUV in West Memphis.
“It is with very heavy hearts that we share that Marilane Carter has passed away,” the Leawood Baptist Church announced in the post.
The church asked its members to keep her husband, Pastor Adam Carter, and their three children in their prayers.
Last week, Overland Park police said Carter had traveled through Rolla, Missouri, and then arrived in West Plains, Missouri, around 3:45 am. She checked out of a hotel at 6:05 a.m.
She traveled south into Arkansas where she stopped at a convenience store in Hazen. 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. on Sunday, Aug. 2.
Carter’s husband reported her missing around 3 or 4 a.m. on August 3.
The Star’s Robert A. Cronkleton, Cortlynn Stark and Katie Bernard contributed to this reporting.
This story was originally published August 19, 2020 at 5:46 PM.
