Realty agent's body is found

Investigators discovered the body of missing real estate agent Beverly Carter early Tuesday morning after interrogating their chief suspect in the case for more than 12 hours, the Pulaski County sheriff's office said Tuesday.

Carter, 49, was reported missing late Thursday evening after her husband discovered her abandoned car outside a home for sale in rural Scott. Carter had left earlier that day to show a series of homes, including the house at 14202 Old River Drive.

Capt. Simon Haynes, who leads the sheriff's office criminal investigation division, said during a news conference Tuesday that investigators believed that Arron Lewis had contacted Carter earlier that day posing as a potential client and lured her to the address.

Haynes said cellphone data from Carter's phone were a contributing factor in investigators' initial decision to name Lewis as a person of interest in the case, although the officer would not comment further.

Pulaski County District Judge Wayne Gruber granted a motion to seal court files related to the case filed by senior deputy prosecutor Melanie Martin.

Lewis was arrested Monday morning after people spotted him in west Little Rock and called 911 about 9:43 a.m. He was booked into the Pulaski County jail at 12:42 a.m. Tuesday after several intensive interrogation sessions, Haynes said.

"It wasn't 12 hours of continuous talking," Haynes said. "The individual is allowed some time to rest, we are allowed time to look into things we discover throughout our interrogation."

Lewis is charged with capital murder, kidnapping, robbery and several counts of possession of firearms by certain persons, as well as parole violations.

Shortly after Lewis was booked into jail, investigators discovered Carter's body in a shallow grave behind Argos Southern Star Concrete at 12117 Arkansas 5 in Cabot, according to a sheriff's office statement. Haynes declined to comment as to the time or manner of Carter's death.

Arkansas Department of Community Correction officials familiar with Lewis' parole history confirmed Monday that Lewis was employed by Argos.

After he was arrested Monday in west Little Rock, a large truck belonging to Argos was found in the immediate area and was seized and towed by Little Rock police, police spokesman Lt. Sidney Allen said. Haynes said the truck was a "contributing factor" to the successful location of Carter's body, but would not elaborate.

Pulaski County Sheriff Doc Holladay said Argos had been "very cooperative" since the discovery of Carter's body. Calls to the company were not answered, and calls to media contacts at the Argos corporate headquarters were not returned. A Pulaski County sheriff's deputy posted outside the plant said the business owners had asked the sheriff's office to keep media and other individuals from entering the property.

While being escorted to jail, Lewis told reporters that he had sought out Carter because "she was just a woman that worked alone. A rich broker."

Haynes said Lewis' actual motive was still being investigated.

"[I don't know] specifically why she was targeted. More or less, it was a target of opportunity for him," Haynes said.

Holladay said that investigators were not pursuing any other suspects in Carter's abduction or murder at this time.

"This case did not end as we had hoped," Holladay said. "But now we must prepare a case for submission, for trial, that will result in the pursuit of justice."

The Pulaski County Public Defender's Office entered a plea of innocent on Lewis' behalf Tuesday morning. Tuesday afternoon, Conway private attorney Jim Hensley was hired as Lewis' counsel.

When reached by phone Tuesday night, Hensley declined to comment on who had hired him.

Pulaski County Prosecuting Attorney Larry Jegley cautioned that developing a case against Lewis will be a slow-moving process.

"This never gets easier, in all the 20- or 30-plus years that we've been involved in it," Jegley said. "I want to remind everyone that this is the beginning of a long process, and it's going to be frustrating at times. The wheels of justice do not move quickly."

Lewis has a criminal history that spans multiple states and began more than a decade ago. He has been convicted of robbery, theft or burglary in at least three states, including Utah, Louisiana and Kansas.

Although Haynes declined to say whether Lewis was presently considered a suspect in any other unsolved crimes, a spokesman for the West Des Moines, Iowa, police said Tuesday that investigators with that department plan to contact Pulaski County investigators about an unsolved 2011 murder there of a real estate agent "once things calm down a bit."

"Right now, we're trying to be respectful of the amount of work they've had to do over the past few days," West Des Moines spokesman Sgt. Ken O'Brien said.

He said West Des Moines investigators want to talk to Pulaski County authorities about Lewis' possible involvement in the April 8, 2011, abduction and murder of 27-year-old Ashley Okland, a West Des Moines real estate agent who disappeared during an open house showing and was later found dead from gunshot wounds. Despite their age difference at the times of their deaths, Okland and Carter bore a striking resemblance, O'Brien said.

Lewis' whereabouts at the time of Okland's murder could not be determined Tuesday. According to state Department of Correction officials, the latest previous episode in Lewis' legal history was a failure to appear for a court date in March 2011.

O'Brien said he did not necessarily believe that Lewis was connected with Okland's death, but that the unsolved nature of her murder compelled the West Des Moines police to inquire about the possibility.

"If I was going to rank the chances this guy was involved, I'd say slim to none," O'Brien said. "But we're going to touch every base we can. We're looking at everything."

Lewis was being held at the detention center Tuesday night without bail.

Employees of Crye-Leike Real Estate Services, for whom Carter was an agent and broker, posted funeral arrangements Tuesday on the business' Facebook page.

Information for this report was provided by Gavin Lesnick of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

A section on 10/01/2014