Chapter 4 part 2: The Abduction Attempt

This is chapter four, Part two, the abduction attempt, and this is season two of Missing in Hushtown Bethany Markowski. Throughout the chapter, you're going to hear first person narratives through interviews and statements. I'm your host, Jules. Hey, guys, welcome back. Let's get right to it. The following is an excerpt from producer Rachel Holloway's interview with Larry Markowski's former best friend, mister Harold Roberts. So there's talk about out the time that you and Larry went to Bethany's school to see Bethany. Do you remember that That's one mistake I wish I had never made. Okay, if I had known what was going to go down after that and everything's turned out the way it did, I wouldn have never done that. But I'm gonna tell you why I've done it. And this is something interesting that you want to take note on. Okay, after Johnny left Larry for two weeks, he called me and wanted me to help him find Bethany. And I had done sound Johnny and Bethany twice. She had left him before, one time went to Kansas City, Missouri. Larry don't know how I do it, but I'm smarter than most people, Okay, And I. Tell you exactly how I did. It's called phone records. Why so? And I never I would tell him that because for some reason, if Johnny got away from him and really needed to get away from him, I didn't want to ever tell him and show him how to go about finding out where she might be. But I always done it with phone records. I look at the phone records without him knowing. I look at the phones without him knowing what I was looking. Forward and seeing who she called and whatever she had called. Yeah. So, anyway, two weeks went by a solid every night, ma'am. After Larry's and her had separated and she left him, and he'd call me bawling, squalling. I don't care anything about Johnny. I just want my daughter, usually his phrase. Finally, his mother called me and said, Harold, you've got to help him do something because he's losing it. So I did. I went and I helped him. And one of the things that I've done before we ever win, I talked to his lawyer and I asked the lawyer, I said, if we find Destiny, do we have a right to bring her home? He said at this point, yes, I said, so. If I if we go get her from a school and bring her home, there's no there's no law that's gonna arrest us. He said, no, not if you get her here. No, yeah, he. Said, I can tell you what happened you trying to get her. He said, but y'all got as much or Larry's got as much rock to. Her at this point is Johnny does. So with that being said, I helped him and we found Destiny at a school and I looked at Larry when we pulled up, and I said, Larry, she's here, go in there and get her. Don't delay, and it's get out of town and get it. Get y'all back to Tennessee. Well, he done right to offset, And I didn't realize this until after it all went down, and I fussed at him on the way home about it because I've. Seen through what was really going on. Anyway, to get to the story, he ended up getting a fight with one of the janitors or a school person there, and the law was called, and then Johnny was called, and her sister come up and they got Destiny, and they brought a court order, not a court order, but it was a court order piece of paper that was supposedly be from Dressing Tennessee saying that he had no rights and so anyway, the cops end us running us off. We need to pause Harold's version of this day and bringing Aunt Laurie, Johnny's sister. Aunt Laurie shares with producers Rachel Holloway and Heather Northcraft that Johnny knew she needed to enroll Bethany back into school, and not legally, She'd only have five days to re enroll her. Since Larry could easily find Aunt Laurie, it was decided that Johnny and Bethany were just stay with Aunt Laurie's best friend, Diane once Bethany was enrolled in DuPont Tyler Elementary. Unbeknownst to them, Larry was already working doggedly behind the scenes to track Bethany. He was listing every school from Illinois to southern Tennessee and calling them one by one, and it would be on January thirty first, two thousand and one that he would find Bethany, which happens to be the day before her eleventh birthday. That's what we were trying to do to not break any laws. We're just trying to keep him from getting her. And so we talked to the school and you know, went to go get a registered and begged them, please don't send for her school records. Give us two weeks because that's when we go to court to do visitation. And they were like, So they talked to their legal department. They said, okay, well we'll just you know, not send it right now, going to but just we're going to give you the time that she needs. So we left there, dropped Johnny off back at my friend's house, and then my husband and we went to work. We worked in the same we worked with Johnny works right now and didn't even get my coat off, and Johnny called me screaming and hollering. Evidently he had done figured out where she was. And I'm guessing the way he figured out was process of elimination. He knew our address and where we lived, and he just kind of because the school told us when we got there that he had already hit up three other different elementary schools that morning already, and he looked like he'd been sleeping in a ditch. He looked terrible. Him and his friend from Arkansas, Harold and he brought him or came with him or whatever. But we set out in the parking lot and waited for the school. We're talking to the school on the phone and waiting for them to let us know when it's time to come in. And we saw Spawn and Harold walk around the back of the school and then the secretary was she said, all right, come in now, and then we went in there and then she was like, hold on, something's going on. And then we could see on the camera because they have cameras in the hallways for the school and it's in the office. We could see the commotion going on with him trying to grab Bethany and all that stuff. And the thing that he said to Bethany is you're gonna tell me where your mom is. So this had nothing to do with Bethany, has had everything to do with Johnny, which she was just collateral damage. We ended up in the office. Of course, they tackled him, some teachers tackled me and got anyway. Anyway, we never saw him. I think he thinks that he saw us, but he never saw us. He never saw all three of us. We wanted to because he said all he wanted to do was see Bethany because it was her birthday and give her some money or something like that, and they were like, you know, can you at least see her? And we're like, we didn't want him to. Johnny is calling her lawyer who is a judge in whatever county that is, and they get another judge. They take it over there of a restraint or or whatever. So he couldn't take her that day because the school said, we can't stop me. Now, what he had have done was while charges against him, we're trying to nap her out of school, but nobody did that. For some reason, he shoved a teacher. I don't we have an Affidavid or her saying what happened. We do have a copy of that teacher's official statement, so let's hear it, as read by a producer, Heather Northcraft. On January thirty first, two thousand and one, Larry Markowski came into my classroom without permission from the office. His daughter, Bethany and I were in the room. I had been warned that he might come and try to take her. I asked if I could help him, and he said he had come to talk to his daughter. I asked if he had permission from the office to be up here. He said he did. Bethany started crying and saying she couldn't go with him. It was obvious to me that she was frightened. I asked him to go downstairs and they could get this straightened out and then he could possibly see her. He would not leave. He then took her by the arm and started quickly taking her from the room, pushing me aside. I told him to stop, that I could not let him take her. I then ran after him into the hallway and screamed I needed help. Several teachers came into the hall and we were able to take Bethany away from him. The police officer then came and escorted him downstairs. Bethany was taken back into my room. Jamie Sloane, homeroom teacher. Harold shares about the drive home with Larry after the incident at Bethany's school that day. I looked at Larry and I said, Larry, this was not about Deathny whatsoever. I said, you wanted to see Johnny, and I said you was disappointed? Is I'll get out when Laurie came instead of Johnny. So that's what that was all. About. But looking back on all of it, man, that's the only thing that I regretted in this whole deal. It's ever getting involved. And had I known that these other things was going to take place, I would have stood my ground and stood my guts instead of listening to his mama and him. But here's there's here's something that I. Want you to take note of. He called me for two weeks when she disappeared with Johnny. He has never never asked me to help him find best in me now. Never. Yeah, and you guys at that time were still you were asked in him to. Get out in the media, to get it on talk shows, to get it, put posters up. Matter of fact, he got mad at me because I even told his boss that she had a daughter disappeared. He didn't want nobody to know about it. I said why, He said, because I'm afraid they think I'm involved, and that right there. Should have told me something then, but it didn't because I was still believing that possibility Johnny had sent her son there to pick. Up beth in me. Harold is referring to Bethany's oldest sibling, Kyle, who was an adult in two thousand and one. In an interesting twist, Kyle was actually the one who helped his mother Johnny put up flyers for his missing sister, not Larry. I didn't start believing the truth until I started saying the lies. Yeah, it's definitely hard, especially when you when you grew up with someone and you've known them for so long and you know you I never dreamed it. I mean I. Would have thought to an at tiger to defend him, because. You would have never made me believe that Larry could have been a part of that. Yeah, but now. He's the only one that can be a part of it. And whoever was doing it with him. He didn't do it by Phil. You've heard me say it a thousand times, and he talked to me a thousand more times. You go hear me say it. He didn't do it by Sale. Somebody done it with him. Mister Larry Rakowski did talk with me for a bit on the phone, and he did touch on the alleged school abduction. Here is Rachel and me talking about that phone call on a recorded video call. Immediately after Larry and I hung up, I took copious amounts of notes, so you'll hear me pause to reference them. Often the background noise is, well, my life. I have small children, and I live on a farm. I went to that school in Nashville, and Harold came with me. When Harold and I were looking for Bethany everywhere, so we went to every school we could think of in Nashville, and he said, and we went in there, and I went to the front office, and he goes, and mind you, it's Bethany's birthday on this day. And I go to look for her, and they said she's upstairs. So I go upstairs and I go to the classroom. They say she's in. It's only her and one teacher. He goes, I don't know what that was about, but she saw me. I saw her obviously as only one other person, and I said, hey, sweetheart, and give me some sugar or something, and gave her a hug. He said, and then he told them that he was going to take her to the office downstairs. He said, I wasn't going to leave with her. My lawyer said I could take her if I wanted to, but I wasn't going to. I wasn't going to leave with her. And they spun it around and got it all wrong, and I was just going to take her downstairs to the office with the principal and talk with them there. He goes, I was giving her. I gave her fifty or one hundred bucks for her birthday, and I wanted to let her know I was getting a lawyer so I could get her back, and that daddy was looking for her. I didn't just leave her, and he goes, that's when they spun it, and Harold comes in and says, they're coming around side of the building. He said, who. He goes, Johnny and her family. They're sneaking around the side of the school. And then he says while he's in the office, and Harold's in there cussing up and down because you're supposed to grab that, He's like, you need to take her and leave. He goes, I'm not going to take her. I just wanted to see her and let her know I was looking for her. According yeah, and he said. While he was in the principal's office, a fax comes into the principle and Harold grabs it from the principle and reads it, and he's like, this isn't worth the paper it's printing on because it's not signed by a judge. Apparently that fax was something about that he couldn't take bethany or whatever. And he tells me, he goes and I told her I'm working on getting a lawyer, and I got one, and I'm gonna fight for her to come back to come back home to Gleason. And he told me this is I quoted it. He told me, ma'am, God is my witness, that was not my intent to take her that day. And I said, well, have you seen the written statements from the police fraker He says no, ma'am. I said, okay, well, the written statements show something a different story. So what I can do is, should you invite me to come talk with you, I will show you all these statements and tell you where we're coming from. In this narrative, Larry said he knows that Harold was saying all that Shi t about him, because Larry says, and Valerie was in the background talking that they had said something to the police about Harold, and it got back to Harold, and so he yeah, coming back to him, and I think what he's talking about is allegedly this is not confounded, but there were rumors of some sort of mistreatment of family members by Harold, and I'm wondering if that is what he's referring to. But he said, yeah, I saw him throw his wife off foot bridge. What if his ex wife's and punch him, He goes, I've got things I could just he goes, but I'll do it if I have to one day. Is it possible Larry was not trying to abduct Bethany, but rather get to Bethany to track down Johnny and get Johnny's attention. Sure, we have to leave room for all possibilities until we have concrete evidence that says otherwise. However, we do have reports of a hostile Larry Murkowski at the school that day, intending to grab his daughter. For what purpose That still remains unknown, And it could absolutely be true that what Larry told me was true, that he only wanted to find his daughter to see her and give her money for her birthday. I think it comes down to this simple question, though, what is the common denominator in everyone's story and why isn't Larry's erratic and unpredictable behavior one thing we do know? No matter mister Murkowski's intentions. On January thirty first, two thousand and one, he went about it in the most alarming way possible. Following the incident at Bethany's new school, Johnny and Laurie knew Larry had their location. So although Johnny and Bethany were staying with Aunt Laurie's best friend, the Sweet Diane, they decided it was time to stop hiding and move in with Aunt Laurie. Those weeks that Johnny was with Laurie, we're like walking on eggshells, not for the family within the four walls of Laurie's sanctuary, but for the fear of who was outside. Larry. Here's Laurie. We felt like that he was stalking us, and you know, because we knew he knew where I lived, we wouldn't let our own kids go outside and play, you know. We made them stay in and we kept the blinds closed, and so it was kind of creepy there for a while. Larry was soon granted unsupervised visitation for the interim, pending the next court date. However, this would be something that the granting judge would later come to regret and share his remorse with Bethany's family. Larry was only given every other weekend, and it started on that Friday and went until that Sunday evening. He had one prior visitation already, and again it was unsupervised. And that's the time Bethany sat in the back of Larry's astro van looking to feed it and said according to sister Jenny, and Jenny comforted her by telling her to just hang on a little longer. Here's Aunt Laurie again. She provides more details on how Bethany felt and about Larry's behavior. Bethany had to talk to him a couple times a week, and she didn't want to do it. So I told her I'd listen on the phone because I didn't know why she didn't want to do it. Didn't make any sense, you know, It's like I don't I mean, other than she was scared of him. I don't really know. At that time, I didn't know what was going on, right, So I told her, I said, you feel make you feel better, I'll listen on the other line. I said, I don't understand. So but I did figure out really quick what it was that was upsetting her because he was on the other line screaming and hollering and crying, like what are you doing to Bethany, you're killing me. Do you know you're killing me? And she is eleven, you know, And I'm like, so I budded it and I said, hey, knock it off. I said, she's eleven years old. I said, you need to hang up. Call back after you've composed yourself a little bit, but you're not going to do this. As the weeks moved close to Friday, March second, two thousand and one, Bethany's second unsupervised visitation with her father Larry. Johnny's temporary restraining order was still in place against Larry. Laurie sensed something was off that her niece Bethany didn't want to go. She seemed like she had a little bit of a figure. I think she was coming down with something. But too she was going around to everybody in the house, you know, even the kids and saying, you know what if daddy didn't bring me back. So I felt like she knew something was going on that he had done threatened her or done something because she didn't want to go. And Johnny's, you know, the night before, She's trying to help her pack her bag and she was like, well do you want to take this? And she was like doing that typical kid thing. No, I don't want that. I don't like that all so and she's like, you have to pass. She said why she didn't want to go, and she's like, she said, you have to go. She said, if you don't go, I'm breaking the wall. Then they'll take you from me. And then I won't you know, then I want to you know. And she was like, well, what if he doesn't bring me back, and she said he has to. He has to bring you back. He doesn't bring you back, will come and get you and he'll never see you again. And she said she regrets that so much that she made her go. And so on Friday, March second, two thousand and one, Aunt Laurie and her best friend Diane go together to pick up Bethany from school and then proceed to drive to the mutual meeting site that McDonald's at the Waverley exit, where an eager father would be awaiting his weekend with his daughter. When they arrived, Larry was already there waiting on them. Aunt Laurie helped Bethany get out, and she watched as her niece hopped into Larry's van. This would be the last time Aunt Laurie would see Bethany. Ever, Laurie walks over to the driver's side window and tell Larry that she didn't think Bethany felt well and she felt a little warm to her, so he might want to give her some title. According to Laurie, Larry acknowledges it and then tells Laurie. Quote, tell Johnny, I'm gonna pay the child support end quote. Aunt Laurie and Diane watched the van drive away, never thinking that Larry was about to take Bethany to Arkansas and violate his visitation orders not to cross state lines. Who was in Arkansas? Harold Roberts, Larry's lifelong best friend. He was invited to my house because he had called me several times a day, okay, and at nine how depressed he was. So I might have mentioned, I said, Larry, when you get back, and we'd love to see her. He's going to go to church with us and night he'd feel better before we went home. But couldn't I unbeknowing, I didn't know this. Until after I had talked to Johnny, that he never had permission from Johnny to beat there with Bethany. Johnny also has the same story that when someone in her home tried to get on the AOL account, it said that it was already in use, and that's because Bethany was on it. In two thousand and one, only one person could use the account at a time. So Johnny called Larry's phone and asked to speak with Bethany. Now, it's not until this call Friday evening that Johnny finds out from Bethany that she's been taken to Little Rock, Arkansas, to Harold Roberts's home. The events which would transpire in Little Rock, Arkansas will be the epitome of it, he said. He said, between Larry and Harold. However, one truth prevails above all allegations. Larry Markowski would spend the next forty eight hours without sleep and would abruptly leave Harold's home and take Bethany with him back to Tennessee. We'll take you through each narrative according to Harold, and then according to Larry, next time on missing in hush Town. It's gonna be very thorough on this one more time, very thorough. You're never going to get. Him until you put pressure on him. One on. He's gonna have to feel threatened that he's going to be exposed, and I'm telling you he's gonna start. I'm just telling you what's gonna go down. Before it goes, if it ever comes. He's gonna start squealing on people about everything that he can think of, and eventually he's gonna step up and tell you something. According to this case, he's hiding. He's not coming out. He's not doing anything about this case. He's hiding. That means he's hiding from the truth that somewhere down the lines, he's threatened by what's gonna come down, and he might gonna sweat, and he might as we'll wring youth hands because I'm won't do everything and make that day possible that I can. Missing in Hushtown Season two is executive produced in partnership by Fire Eyes Media LLC's Jules 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. Ask for that decisis Raising voices while raising kids.