Chapter 10: I am Bethany

I look at Bethany's picture and she's smiling, and I'll look at her and I smile right back at her. In 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. It's twenty sixteen. Johnny's phone rings. She answers it's the Tennessee Bureau of Investigations Agent Kathy Ferguson. Agent Ferguson tells Johnny that after fifteen years, they believe they have found Bethany. Johnny is speechless. What do they mean they found her? This is missing In Hushtown, Season two, Chapter ten, I am Bethany, I'm your host, Jules, Let's go. A young woman about twenty five years old shows up on a doorstep of a home in Knoxville, Tennessee. She is disheveled, looks disoriented, and is barefoot. When the homeowners ask her if she needs help, and she nods yes, they call the police. The young woman takes off, but it doesn't take long for the officers to locate her. It's obvious to all that she needs help, so they take her to a hospital. When asked what her name is, she tells hospital staff Bethany Markowski. When her name is searched and it shows up as a missing person, the TBI is contacted. It's then that she tells TBI again that her name is Bethany Markowski and her birth birth date is February first, nineteen ninety. The agents then show the young woman some photos. She points to a photo of Bethany and Johnny and says, that's that's me and my mom. Meanwhile, with agents convinced this is the first major lead in fifteen years for the location of Bethany, they call Johnny. Johnny is beside herself, speechless, overwhelmed, but leaps into action. Could her baby finally be coming home. She calls her family and quickly everyone begins to arrive at her house. They make plans to get a room ready for Bethany, talk about how to secure a car for her, and they get decorations for her homecoming. Just waiting on the DNA test to confirm if Bethany is finally home or not, the phone rings again. The voice on the other line takes in a deep breath and releases the words it's not her. Johnny closes her eyes and hangs up the phone and just like that, She's once again lost her daughter. So who was this girl? How did she know Bethany's name? How did she know Bethany's birthday? How did she know who Johnny was? By twenty sixteen, Bethany's story was already circulated throughout the nation. Johnny had already appeared on multiple daytime talk shows, and the papers had covered Bethany's case every year. Could it be possible that this girl had seen the story followed it or could this girl have known Bethany? After March four, two thousand and one, many theories have been that Bethany was abducted and put into sex trafficking. Could this young woman have been trafficked along with Bethany or could she have been given Bethany's identity after trafficking. Johnny asks about this young woman, although it's not her Bethany, she may be someone else's back. Bethany and her mama heart was aching to know if this unidentified woman needed to be renadded with her family too, Could Johnny help her? The TBI respectfully informed Johnny that they could not tell her any more information about this young woman, that the woman had privacy rights and as far as Johnny is concerned she needed to have nothing to do with this young woman from here on out. But that didn't sit right with Johnny. Of course it didn't. She had so many unanswered questions, and she just couldn't stop wondering how this young woman knew so many details about her Bethany, and knew the details while she was clearly in a mental health crisis. So Johnny called the hospital. The woman on the other end of the line listened to Johnny's story and felt empathy for her pain. Johnny was told where the young woman was transferred and her name. Johnny shared the photo of the young woman who said she was Bethany with me, and as I stared at the image, I tried to make it out to be Bethany, but nothing about that photo told me it was her. The girl looking back at me had a face full of freckles, and she looked like she was a natural blonde, maybe strawberry ginger blonde. But even as Bethany's sister Emily says, you can convince yourself anyone is someone when you want it bad enough and you stare long enough. Here's Emily, I knew that was not Bethany. From the jump she Bethany had her nostrils or triangular. But then the craziest thing is, and I can sind you what I put. I can find it in my phone. I did like a little cladge thing, and it was that girl's picture and Bethany's picture side by side, and then I just like stared at it for like an entire day. And then I guess you kind of start seeing things that you want to see. And then I was like, well, that girl like the eyes one eyes like slightly you know, turned or whatever. And then like I saw as Bethany's and then like if you look at their pictures side by side, then you can kind of see like, well, their tin is kind of shaped the same. So then I started to be like, what in the world. But I don't know what was going on with her. I feel like she was probably in a really bad situation, you know, one of the odds that she picked Bethany's name to say very strange. I think she probably was trying to be somebody else for an obvious reason. So I, you know, I hope she's fine, and Okay, it kind of put our family. Through through the wringer for a little bit. So not cool on that part. But yeah, that I knew it wasn't her immediately, but then I think I kind of talked myself into thinking it was possible. Well, and she also that photo your mom sent me, that girl has a lot of freckles all over. Yeah, and she was like a redhead I think, so, Yeah, she looked like she. Was like a natural ginger. Did Bethany have that many freckles on her face? Because the photos that circulate about of betting. That we and I don't. She did not have that many freckles on her face. But I don't know. Like I said, I think you can like talk yourself into scene, like believe in anything, and so. But yeah, it definitely wasn't her. Like I said, just but. If you cover that girl's like above her mouth and you just if you just look at her mouth area, she does kind of look like the same mouth as. Larry or yeah, Larry Markowski. So I don't know. I'll send you the picture and. Yeah, send it to me because I want to see that I have. Let me tell you Emily about the rabbit holes I have gone on today alone. I spent probably seven hours alone on a rabbit. Hole out of respect for whomever is a young woman in that photo, we will not be sharing it, nor will we be sharing her name. However, I continue to go back to the photo and the name of the girl in it. I've found a young woman with multiple arrests for drug charges who I do believe may be her. I've also messaged her, her family and more acquaintances I could find, but no one has written back. One hurdle I constantly run into while reaching out to people is that the emails I'm able to locate are often outdated, but on the flip side, I can almost always find them on social media platforms. However, most messages I send to people go to their Unread Messages box, and most people do not know how to access this, nor do they get any notifications of these messages. Most of my messages sit in the delivered but unread category, But I keep trying. I don't want to disrupt this young woman's life, especially if it is the one I believe her to be that I found because she's struggling with mental health and substance issues per multiple arrests records I found. But I do want to know if that was her, how did she know Bethany's name, birthday, and mother. How closely was this followed up by the TBI after it was determined that the young woman's DNA was not a match. And does the FBI plan to do anything about this lead now that they are the ones in charge of Bethany's case. I asked Johnny how she truly knows it wasn't Bethany who showed up, and she said, because the DNA didn't match. I'm a skeptic. I asked if she ever saw the lab work about this? She said no, And so I asked, is there a privacy law for adults who don't want their information released? What if it was Bethany but she was protected by rights to not have information released? But then again, we don't believe TBI would lie to Johnny not about this, so it's not likely. But the words not likely have never stopped me from following a lead, and to this very day, I am still trying to find this ye women so we can find the truth. What if. What if she did know Bethany after two thousand and one? Could this mean Bethany is still possibly alive? Recalled krol Markowski. Bethany's anti marriage whom many people believed matched the description of the woman who attempted to enroll a child who resembled Bethany into a private school in Sweetwater shortly after March two thousand and one. Well we found an interesting crime blurb about her online, which was dated twenty sixteen. Quote Carol and Markowski, fifty eight, homeless was charged with domestic assault misdemeanor and held on two thousand dollars bond. Dispatched to a driver assist call on Interstate seventy five at mile marker seventy five, police arrived in the middle of a verbal dispute between Markowski and a man. According to the arrest report, both individuals were separated and the police interviewed the couple. According to the report, quote, the man was complaining of a hand injury, of which there was still fresh blood on his hand invisible bitemarks on his right little finger end quote. Tennessee Highway Patrol Trooper Ryan Smith wrote in the report, Markowski admitted to the police that she bit the man's hand. End quote. This is the same interstate used to get to Knoxville. In fact, the Interstate seventy five to Knoxville takes commuters from Chattanooga through Sweetwater in Lenar City, which is less than a two hour driving distance between the two. Realistically, there's only so much we should do about this young woman. The search for Bethany doesn't end though. After we produce a chapter of this podcast. Once I commit to a family for a Hushtown season, I vowed to remain locked in until justice is found. This case continues to baffle me. So many people have claimed to beat Bethany over the year. One particular girl, whom we'll call Elle, has gone so far as to create multiple Facebook pages under the name Bethany Markowski. She's messaged the help find Bethany Markowski facebook page multiple times over the years. Here's one of the exchanges. Elle, DNA came back. I got the investigation back today. It's beyond hard to believe. I am ninety nine percent positive. I am your daughter. As I said on my couch cry and I did ancestry. Thank you for contacting the Help Find Bethany Markowski page. We will get back to you as soon as possible, typically within a day or two. If you are submitting a tip, please provide as much information as possible. If this tip is urgent. Please call law enforcement at nine one one or call one eight hundred. The lost. Hi, Elle, would you be willing to speak to the FBI? If so, send me your address and phone number and I will pass it to them. Thank you. Johnny Bethany's mom, Elle, I can't comment, sorry, I was advised by the detective in charge not to. L would go on to show images allegedly from ancestry dot com showing Johnny Markowski as her mother. However, as I did some digging, it appeared to be a family tree and ancestry which users who are logged in can build themselves. I also was able to locate Elle's real identity and verify it through multiple family searches and connections. After finding her family tree, I, along with the rest of our team, one hundred percent do not believe this woman to be Bethany. If you've been on the Help Find Bethany Markowski page on Facebook, you may have seen L's posts yourself. However, she also has left numerous posts on missing persons pages, blogs and websites claiming to be Bethany Markowski, and even after she was asked numerous times to do an official DNA test, she continues to evade the request. Law enforcement has given her appointments and locations, and she fails to follow through, all while continuing her claims through the dicks I've done, it is apparent that this young woman also is experiencing mental health struggles. There are numerous pleas on her pages by family members to get help, focus on her health, and get her children back. Elle is not the same age as Bethany, and get this. Elle's eyes are dark brown, Bethany's are very light, but she does look enough like Bethany otherwise, and combined with her incessant claims to be Bethany, it's costed Bethany's loved ones turmoil and stress. Is this really her? And we just don't believe her? I had to stop searching Elle's Facebook presence once I hit twenty different profiles. She's made under numerous different names. She's claimed to be a few different missing individuals, and even on one post, has claimed to be Bethany's mother. It's very confusing to Bethany's family, but they all believe this young woman is struggling herself and needs help, even after all these messages from her posts being sent to them that she continues to make they have empathy for her. Is she also someone's missing daughter? So they sent the information to the FBI and have done all they can do for her. If she is Bethany. Once the FBI does a DNA test, it'll either confirm, which we do not believe it will, or it will finally help this young woman see that she is not Bethany, but perhaps it can help her realize who she really is. Is she a missing woman too? She's even reached out to Valerie Markowski. Valerie shares with me her experience talking with Elle on Facebook messenger. Larry he did finally talk to her, and when he got off the phone, and it is like, well, what do you think? And he said, I don't know. I really don't know. So he started searching for DNA tist because she said she would take one, and he started looking. I can't even remember the name, but we started looking and it was where you could like send one to her and one would be sent to him, but it would be the same number, you know. But then she ended up changing her story yes, okay, And then I just looked at him. I was like, I can't handle it anymore. I blocked her but then I unblocked her because of what if started again. Yeah. So, but he was, you know, he was even you know, wanting to go up there. He's like, do you think we should go? It's a fifteen hour drive. And then I was kind of right. We talked about it and like, well, what if we go up there and she doesn't even do the DNA? You know, I was like, well, let's just send you know, send her because her story is changing so much. Let's just see if we can send the DNA to her, you know, the DNA test. But then she changed her story again, and I was like, I can't handle this anymore. So that's when I started sending everything to you. Yeah. Yeah, and that's when Johnny contacted you know, you sent it to Johnny, and then Johnny contacted me, and Johnny spoke with her. Yeah, and from what. I'm understanding, I believe Johnny told me that she contacted the FBI. Yep, and they've been in contact with her and she agreed to a dnagis. Yeah, And I've told Johnny and you both like, this girl I do feel is a liability. Let the federal agents confirm or not whether or not she's Bethany because there's a lot going on with her. There is, and that's what I but I was like, you know, explain to Larry the whole thing. I'm like, He's like, well, she's probably crazy. I said, well, I said, and I hate to say this to you, Larry, but Bethany may be crazy. Bethany may has mental issues. Because we don't know what Bethany's. Been through exactly. That's true. We don't know, you know, we don't know exactly what Bethany looks like. You know, we don't we don't know anything. Valerie sent me multiple screenshots of conversations she's had with l She feels sorry for this young girl, and she says she is very soft spoken and seems to truly believe she is Bethany. She even shares stories with Valerie of memories being taken to them all and kidnapped. She tells Valerie she has PTSD and can't remember many details, yet says the woman who took her and raised her looks a lot like the woman in the police sketch who allegedly tried to enroll Bethany in school in Sweetwater. She even gave Valerie a photo and the name of the woman, and once Valerie gave me all this information, including a copy of Elle's driver's license, I went into research mode. I spent eight hours that day trying to make sure that we weren't dismissing this girl. If she was Bethany, and if she wasn't, could we help someone else. She says she has no baby pictures, remembers being enrolled in school in third grade, and recalls her face being beaten and having bruises. When Valerie us for more proof, El shows her a wristband from a recent hospitals day which has the name Bethany Markowski with the birthday February first, nineteen ninety all Bethany's information. I did some digging. The numbers on the wristband indicate an emergency room visit and also indicate that she's been in the system before, so she's registered previously as Bethany Markowski more than once at that location. Hospitals do not run DNA tests on registrants. They take the name that you give them upon entry, especially if you do not have any identifiers on you. She can give any name and have it on a wristband. Our team did what we do a head first, dive into all the key names in this case and cross reference their past addresses, employers, classmates, at etc. To Elle's given last name. We wanted to see if there was perhaps a connection between her family and anyone else we've talked about. Could there be a link we all missed. Could Bethany be alive out there somewhere and Elle could have crossed paths with her along the way. It's obvious that this young woman is lost in her own life. And while Johnny navigated the roller coaster of having a missing child and throughout her journey to find Bethany, she's become a missing person's advocate, fighting NonStop year after year to make sure nobody forgets Bethany. Here's Aunt Lourie. It's a lot for twenty four years to and I can't imagine what Johnny goes through every single day. I mean, she's gone through some stuff sometimes where it was just really she was struggling. She always struggles around the birthday and stuff like that. She does better around the holidays than she used to, but birthday and missing date, that all just kind of comes together all at the same time. And she's right. In fact, it's more of a trifecta of events. January, they flee. February Bethany's birthday. In March, Bethany goes missing. There's almost not enough time in between waves to catch her breath. For the longest time, probably the first year, she felt guilty to even feel good about any you know, smile or laugh or you know, she'd catch herself like, you know, she'd feel bad about it. It took her a while to start eating again, but just because she all she could think about was is Bethany eating? Is she warm? Is she okay? Is she you know? That kind? And I get that I'd did the same way, But how Johnny has handled things, I don't think, because you know, a lot of people I've seen on these podcasts and websites and stuff, you know, you know, I don't know why she didn't leave me more earlier. Each day for Johnny begins with Bethany and ends with Bethany. We've had twenty four years to run every scenario and try to think of ways we could get some information or you know, be sneaky about something, and we're at a loss, you know, which is probably one of the biggest reasons Johnny decided to start helping others with their missing kids is because she feels like, you know, I've done everything I can, you know, unless there's something new comes up, I can't. But I gotta stay busy. I gotta keep you know, pushing for other people. And that's exactly what we see Johnny doing. She continues to push and continues to get live for families. She attends events with fingerprinting Kids for Children, volunteering her time and resources to help families. Bethany never had her fingerprints in any system, which means that if someone was to have taken Bethany, her fingerprints could have been registered as any name in the book, and she but never be alerted if her daughter was somewhere out there. Johnny may say that she feels like she's done everything she can do, but yet she still never stops trying to do more. Take one more step, make one more call, overturn one more rock. And it's here on chapter ten that we pause our coverage. We don't pause our investigation, our advocacy, or our goals to get loud for Bethany, but we pause sharing everything we know for now. When we began this journey, Johnny sat us down and told us it was time to let everything out, to air it all, tell it all, because at the time, it had been twenty three years since Bethany disappeared, and Johnny wanted to get as loud as she could, and she still does want to get loud, but she respects law enforcement and it's this reson she has asked us to hold off on the next few chapters we plan to publish. The information in those chapters could possibly arm those who know where Bethany is with more insider information and thus direct the efforts of law enforcement. It's our honor and our responsibility to pause those next episodes. And here's why law enforcement is working hard. We've shifted from what the team felt was just an open investigation to an active investigation. And that was always the goal, wasn't it. And while we do not attribute the podcast to the shift, we have to shout out the law enforcement team who have been working with intention, tenacity, and passion to help answer the question where the hell is Bethany Markowski? But have we given away too much information? Have we helped the investigation? Have we asked the right questions for listeners to buy into the journey to find Bethany. Have we operated with integrity in our searches. Searches AH one of the chapters we won't share for now, but we will say this. We've been boots on the ground as a search team to look for Bethany, and one day we'll take you behind the scenes of it all, from our tips to interviews to our actual foot search. But for now, it's time we step back and let those who are the experts do their jobs. But we're still here, all four of us. Rachel, Heather, Jan and me Jules will join Johnny in New Mexico in April at twenty twenty six to share Anthony story on stage at Beyond the Crime Convention, and then I will be in Las Vegas at Crime Con on Creator Row in May. Rachel and I will be at Crime Con London on Creator Row in October, and then I will be on stage in Boston at Crime Story Fest in October sharing about missing in Hushtown. We'll link these conventions on our website. What do we do now? What we've been doing, continue to review every piece of information we can to push forward in our search for one very loft and very very missed Bethany. Serious disappearance of an eleven year old hermitage girl four months ago has her family desperately searching for clues and answers. Night her mother is pleading for the public's help. This is a sketch book that she had been drawn in in the first part of January. She loves to draw. But Johnny Markowski's daughter hasn't drawn in this sketch book for a long time. Eleven year old Bethany has been missing for four months. It's like a bad dream that every morning when you wake up, you later and think, no, this is real. The nightmare began on March fourth. Bethany was visiting her father for the weekend when she disappeared from the old Hickory Mall in Jackson, Tennessee. I just want whoever has got her to know that right now today they still have an option. All we want is Bethany back. Not knowing. If they're eating, if they're cold, if they're scared, if they're sleeping in a car, if they've got a bed, is the person being mean to them? Are they scared? Markowski clips every newspaper and magazine article about her daughter's disappear and is saving all of Bethany's artwork for a scrap book she hopes to show her some day soon. Talking about missing persons, you see this in the news all the time, children missing, adults missing. There are local cases, national cases. And to my right is Johnny Markowski. And your daughter Bethany disappeared earlier this year March fourth, March the fourth, and you've been searching for her since. And Mickey Miller protected with the Metro Police Department for these missing persons cases. They're all different. How difficult are they to solve? When someone does it get more difficult? Is it just a very case to case? It does, and you know it definitely gets more difficult this time passes. My daughter Bethany is the most loving, affectionate person that I've ever met. She's to leave me notes telling me how much she loved me. She'd be sitting in school and just write them and bring them home for me. She's got a smile at a melt your heart. I'm not ever going to give up hope, never ever. We'll be back with bonus episode's interviews and even an explosive revelation about one story told to us on the podcast, which we now know was a lie, and we'll share accusations, theories, police reports. We have a lot left to expose while we say see you later. For now, we refuse to stop moving forward behind the scenes, and so for now we find ourselves ending this season where we began. On March fourth, two thousand and one, Bethany Leanne Markowski disappeared, and it's today, on March fourth, twenty twenty six, twenty five years later, that Bethany is remembered and honored on Tennessee's official Missing Children's Day. Bethany Leanne Markowski, you are loved, you are wanted, and you deserve to be found. Missing in Hushtown. Season two is executive produced in partnership by Fire Eyes Media LLC's Jewels Thorpe and Johen Rivera, 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. Jewels Thorpe is your host Fire Eyes Media Mom Haspard, raising voices while raising kids