she said that when she got home, he had brought miss carter back to the house. andrea canning: she told the jury when she got home, beverly was locked in their bathroom, and what she said next showed how little thought went into this plan. lewis had forgotten beverly s purse with her atm card at the property, so we went back to get it. crystal says when he got close to the house, cops were everywhere. one even pulled him over. this particular officer just stopped a car that was coming in to say, hey, if you see have you seen just to ask questions and to put the person on alert. andrea canning: the officer couldn t have known that aaron lewis was the man they were looking for. miss carter was still alive, and he just didn t know it. andrea canning: when lewis returned home, crystal told the jury that s when the couple ran out of options. john johnson: she was in the bathroom with crystal s medication, and so she knew crystal s name. andrea canning: beverly had seen too much. they agre
to beverly s son, carl jr., he didn t look like a kidnapper. carl jr.: he just looks like a regular guy, and it s almost like, what did this punk want with my mom? like it didn t make sense. and so i almost was like, are we sure we have the right guy? andrea canning: detectives believed they did, but the roller coaster ride for beverly carter s family and friends was far from over. i can remember the feeling when he was captured. we were just all like, yes, ok, now where is she? come on. where are you? you know, we re ready to find you. andrea canning: as investigators focused on aaron lewis, they backed off on beverly s husband as a suspect. now detective allison was keeping carl in the loop. and he said, maybe we got him. and i said, well, where s beverly? he said, we re still questioning him. we re going to find out. we re going to keep [inaudible]. we re going to keep on until we find her. then did you have a little burst of hope? just a little bit of hope. i mean that s all i had.
carl: she forgave me right then, because she knew that i wasn t me. andrea canning: detective allison says he wasn t ready to cross carl off his list. he had other work to do. the email address and phone numbers of the prospective buyers found in beverly s notebook were fake. tracking the couple required more digging, and he had a new clue to follow. beverly s cell carrier retrieved eerie photos from her phone taken inside the house just before she went missing. what had happened inside that house? a new lead morphs into an all out manhunt. coming up detective allison: a guy jumps out of a second story window. this is like a movie, this chase and this kidnapping. oh, yeah. craig melvin: when dateline continues.
i said, well, was she alive? and he said, no. i m sorry. but she wasn t. we had worked so hard, i mean, to find her. i mean we just we really tried to do right, and it wasn t enough. i know she pleaded. i know she pleaded for her life and to be sent come back to us and for her grandbabies. and i just have to know that god was there to comfort her. andrea canning: aaron lewis was charged with murder and kidnapping, and his wife, crystal lowery, charged as his accomplice. they pleaded not guilty. but his words to reporter shannon miller outside the sheriff s office didn t sound like those of an innocent man. why beverly? beverly? she was a rich broker. it was just as chilling in person as it was on tv. and then he gets into the car, and you re going,
andrea canning: finally, aaron lewis took the stand and told the jury the story about the alleged rendezvous with beverly and his wife. during cross-examination, prosecutors pounced. they questioned him about every detail, including that one piece of evidence that seemed to contradict his entire story beverly s voice on that tape, telling her husband she d been kidnapped. what he ultimately told the jury was that he had done it himself. he had synthesized her voice and created this tape. you ll forgive me if that sounds maybe a little silly. well, you ll forgive me if i remind you that i didn t say it happened. i m just telling you what the evidence was. i m just saying what happened in the trial. andrea canning: to beverly s friends and family, lewis s story was not only preposterous, it was painful to listen to. we have been victimized over and over again by him. i was angry that not only that he was able to do it, but that he continued to be able to hurt my mom.