Deathbed confession | Man admits to killing woman, 10-year-old girl solving 24-year-old cold case
BECKLEY, W.Va. (WSAZ) – A deathbed confession has provided closure in a 24-year-old cold case surrounding the deaths of a 10-year-old girl and her mother.
Troopers say around 4:30 p.m. on Monday, April 22, 2024, remains believed to be those of Susan and Natasha “Alex” Carter were found in the 100 block of Kyle Lane in Beckley.
Alex Carter was only 10-years-old when she and her mother disappeared. They were last seen around Aug. 8, 2000, in Beckley.
On Tuesday, April 23, 2024, West Virginia State Police held a press conference to report that the lead suspect in the disappearance, Larry Webb, had confessed to killing the mother and daughter, burying their bodies in his backyard.
Presumed remains of mother/daughter in nearly 24-year cold case recovered
Officials said 18 months ago a search warrant was obtained for the home of Larry Webb.
Members of the FBI’s Evidence Recovery Team and West Virginia State Police Crime Scene Investigative Unit conducted the search warrant and recovered a bullet embedded in the wall of Alex Carter’s bedroom inside Webb’s home.
The bullet found embedded in the wall behind the baseboard was collected and sent to the FBI lab where DNA results confirmed the blood on the bullet belonged to 10-year-old Alex Carter.
In October of 2023, Webb was indicted for Alex’s murder. He was not taken into custody until early April 2024.
Armed with that evidence, State Police said law enforcement were able to get Larry Webb to confess to the murder of Alex and Susan Carter.
He detailed how and why he murdered both the young girl and her mother, making the confession during the first week of April 2024, officials said.
The Prosecuting Attorney said Webb confessed to shooting Susan Carter during an argument over cash inside the home that he believed Susan had spent.
He told investigators after shooting Susan he ‘knew he had ruined his life forever’ and believed he had to shoot 10-year-old Alex to avoid detection of killing Susan Carter.
He explained he wrapped their bodies in bed linings and placed them on the floor in the basement of the home as he dug a swallow grave in the wooded area of the backyard.
West Virginia State Police said a landscaper who lived just a few doors down from the residence assisted in the recovery operation this week in Beckley.
Susan and Alex’s bodies were discovered on the third day of digging on Monday, April 22.
According to West Virginia State Police, the condition in which the bodies were found aligned with Webb’s confession and confirmed to investigators that they were in fact the bodies of Alex and Susan Carter.
Investigators say around 10:30 a.m. Monday, suspect Larry Webb, who had been imprisoned at Mount Olive Correctional Complex, “suffered a medical episode and was pronounced dead at Montgomery General Hospital.”
“It was later that same afternoon (Monday, April 22) when we found Susan and Alex Carter. A bit of a poetic ending that not even I could write.”
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