Volunteers gather to search for missing Realtor

SCOTT — More than 100 volunteers gathered Saturday to begin searching by foot and all-terrain vehicle for a Realtor who disappeared after she was scheduled to show a house Thursday in Scott.

The Pulaski County sheriff's office says Beverly Carter, 50, an agent for Crye Leike Realtors in North Little Rock, told her husband by phone she was going to show someone a home at 14202 Old River Drive. When she didn't return home later that night, Carter's husband went to the house and found her sport utility vehicle parked outside with her purse in it and the door to the home open. But there was no sign of Carter.

Police spent Friday searching the area and questioning residents to see if anyone had seen anything while volunteers, including a number of real estate agents, handed out fliers with Carter's photo and descriptors.

On Saturday, dozens of volunteers gathered near the Stonelinks Golf Course in North Little Rock, a starting point before splitting into a pair of groups to search areas closer to the home on Old River Drive.

David Goldstein, a Realtor who works with Carter, coordinated the effort, helping set up a grid of the area and develop a plan to "search everything we possibly can."

"We expect we will get information today," Goldstein told the crowd of volunteer searchers. "My expectation is to find Beverly and to find her OK. But time is of the essence."

Goldstein, who said Carter was one of his two first agents at the office, said it was touching to get offers of support from so many people over the last day.

"It means everything to me," he said. "The prayers, the emails, the Facebook posts, the sharing — everything. It just shows that what we give is appreciated and it comes back when we need it."

Some volunteers combed the drainage ditches or knocked on doors along Old River Drive, looking for anything that seemed unusual. Others walked the shoulders of U.S. 165, using sticks to clear tall brush or waving signs with Carter's photo on them at passing motorists.

Deputies responded to reports of several possible leads, though none had been deemed relevant to the investigation by midday, a sheriff's office spokesman said. One group found a towel along the highway and another saw tracks in a field that looked fresh.

Susan Vaught, another Realtor in the Crye Leike office where Carter works, choked back tears as she described learning of Carter's disappearance in a middle-of-the-night call from the sheriff's office. She helped investigators then to access Carter's computer to try and find who she may have been showing the home to and then came out Saturday to help in the ground search.

"It's just on and on and on trying to find clues," she said. "We're just trying to find clues ... Somebody's going to find her alive. That's the only [call] we want."

Anyone with information is asked to call authorities at (501) 340-6963.