Sep. 6—New forensic evidence has been uncovered in a decades-old investigation of a missing 10-year-old and her mother who were last seen on Aug. 8, 2000.
The new information in the investigation of the disappearance of Natasha Carter, better known as “Alex,” and her mother, Susan Carter, resulted in search warrants executed at a home in Raleigh County last week, according to a press release issued by Captain R.A. Maddy, deputy chief of staff for the West Virginia State Police.
“Based on new information obtained regarding this investigation, members from the West Virginia State Police and the Federal Bureau of Investigation have executed two search warrants at the last known location of Susan & Natasha Carter, being 126 Kyle Lane in Beckley WV,” Maddy stated in the release.
“While conducting this search warrant, the FBI crime scene team was able to identify and recover additional forensic evidence related to this investigation.”
Maddy did not reveal what the new evidence was.
After police searched the home on Kyle Lane last week, media were allowed inside the house by Terry Lilly, the caretaker of Larry Dell Webb who owns the home.
Once inside, Lilly showed media where sections of drywall in one room and tile flooring in another had been removed by law enforcement.
A few days after giving the interview to media, Lilly died. A representative from the Rose and Quesenberry Funeral Home confirmed the passing of Lilly.
Lilly died Sunday at the age of 69, according to a death notice in The Register-Herald and an obituary on the funeral home’s website.
At the time of their disappearance, Susan Carter, 41, and Alex’s father were having a custody dispute and Alex moved in with her mother and mother’s new husband. Not long after Alex moved in with her mother, the two of them vanished.
According to the release from WVSP, “This case was originally reported as Susan Carter kidnapping Natasha Carter, but over the course of this investigation it has been determined that both Susan Carter and Natasha Carter are, and have been, missing since August 8, 2000.”
At the end of 2021 the FBI, WVSP, the Beckley Police Department and the U.S. Marshals Service hosted a press conference announcing a new initiative in the search for Alex and her mother.
Since then the reward for information that would lead to the discovery of Alex or her mother has doubled and is now at $20,000.
Anyone with information is asked to contact the West Virginia State Police Beckley Detachment at (304) 256-6700.