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Dateline: The Client, which aired on NBC on 17th April 2016, reported on the abduction and murder case of Beverly Carter, a realtor from Arkansas. She went missing on 25th September, 2014, and was found dead a few days later.
Beverly had gone to show a rural property to a couple, which was not unusual. She went missing when she went to that showing, and as it turns out, the couple posing as her clients would be the ones who ended her life.
The case was not only devastating for the Carter family but also sent shockwaves through the realtors of the area. After the Dateline episode aired in 2016, the details and updates about the case were revisited by Andrea Canning on Dateline in 2020. Read this article for a complete timeline of the case.
A complete timeline of Dateline: The Client
Here's a complete timeline of Dateline: The Client:
September 25, 2014 - The day Beverly went missing
1) As seen on Dateline, Beverly Carter was a fifty-year-old real estate agent who worked at the Crye-Leike Real Estate in Arkansas. She had won $50 in a company contest that day and looked forward to a quiet dinner with her husband, Carl Carter Sr., at their home after finishing work.
2) Beverly had one final showing scheduled for the day. It was a rural home located at 14202 Old River Drive in Scott, Arkansas, that she was supposed to show to a couple who claimed they wanted to relocate to the area.
3) She arrived and parked her brown Cadillac SUV in the driveway. Tragically, she was never seen alive again.
4) Later in the night, as Dateline reports, after not hearing from Beverly, Carl Sr. went to the showing location. There, he discovered her SUV with her purse still inside and the house door ajar.
5) Beverly was nowhere to be found. He alerted authorities, sparking immediate concern for her safety.
September 26–27, 2014
6) A full-scale search commenced. Real estate colleagues, family, and law enforcement worked together to distribute flyers and search the surrounding areas.
September 28, 2014 – A Break in the Case
7) As ABC News (2014) reports, Investigators identified thirty-three-year-old Arron M. Lewis as a suspect.
8) A warrant was issued for his arrest, and he was taken into custody not long after. Charges included capital murder, kidnapping, and robbery.
September 30, 2014 – Beverly's Body Is Found
9) Using data from Lewis's cell phone, authorities located Beverly's remains behind a concrete plant in Cabot, a place where Lewis had once worked.
10) According to the Associated Press, Capt. Simon Haynes said that Aaron Lewis had said that Beverly had been selected as a target simply because she was alone, someone Lewis saw as a wealthy, vulnerable real estate agent.
October 2014 – Second Arrest
11) Investigators also arrested Crystal Lowery, Lewis’s wife. She faced the same serious charges of capital murder and kidnapping.
12) Details of the crime remained sealed under court order for several months.
2015–2016 – Revelations and Court Proceedings
13) According to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Lowery agreed to a plea deal in exchange for testifying against Lewis. She pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and kidnapping and was sentenced to 30 years in prison.
14) In her testimony, Lowery revealed that she and Lewis intended to kidnap Beverly for ransom and hold her in a deserted office at the concrete plant. But changes at the plant made their plan impossible.
15) With no safe place to take her, Lewis brought Beverly to his Jacksonville home, where she was restrained with duct tape in the bathroom.
16) While Lowery guarded Beverly with a stun gun, Lewis returned to the property to retrieve her belongings. But the area was already under police surveillance, forcing him to flee empty-handed.
17) The couple recorded a brief ransom message from Beverly, urging her husband to cooperate. Tragically, the message was never delivered before her death.
18) Fearing that Beverly could identify them, particularly since she may have seen Lowery's name on prescription bottles, the pair decided to kill her.
19) Beverly died from suffocation, her head wrapped in duct tape, hands bound behind her back.
2016 – Trial and Conviction
20) According to the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, prosecutors described Beverly’s final moments as brutal and terrifying, saying,
"She died a horrible, terrifying death that no one deserves,"
"Beverly loved her life. The last thing Beverly experienced was unspeakable terror at that man's hands."
21) As Dateline reports, defense attorney Bill James, however, told a different story, arguing that Beverly hadn’t been abducted but had willingly joined the couple in what he claimed was a consensual encounter.
22) He painted her as someone facing personal struggles, citing marital problems and declining real estate sales. He suggested she was living a double life.
23) Carl Carter Sr. acknowledged some challenges in their marriage, including an old affair and a past altercation, but maintained that they were in a good place emotionally at the time of her disappearance.
24) After a swift deliberation of less than an hour, the jury convicted Arron Lewis of capital murder and kidnapping.
25) As Dateline reports, he received a life sentence without parole.
Aftermath
26) Following her mother’s death, Carl Carter Jr. became an advocate for safer practices in real estate. He teamed up with the Arkansas Realtors Association to provide safety training and tools for agents.
27) The association now recommends use of the buddy system, pre-screening clients at the office, and collecting identification before showings.
28) Carl Jr. also created the Beverly Carter Foundation, a nonprofit committed to protecting real estate professionals through education and safety awareness.
30) In a 2019 interview with KATV, he shared how helping others has become his life’s mission.
2020 – Lowery Seeks Clemency
30) Crystal Lowery submitted a request to the Arkansas Parole Board asking for her 30-year sentence to be reduced.
31) According to KATV, in a letter to then-Governor Asa Hutchinson, she claimed spiritual transformation and good conduct in prison. The publication revealed that Lowery said,
“I know I can never say or do enough to change what I did,”
32) She added that she was no longer a threat to society and wanted a second chance to make amends.
33) As KARK reported, her petition was denied in July 2020.
Dateline: The Client is streaming on Peacock. New episodes of Dateline come out on Fridays at 10 pm ET.
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