(Image via wsaz.com)
Staff Writer: Olivia Beaudette
Email: obeaudette@umassd.edu
A man has just confessed to murdering a mother and daughter 24 years ago, leading to their remains also being discovered.
In August 2000, Susan Carter and her 10-year-old daughter Natasha “Alex” Carter went missing. They were living with a man named Larry Webb in his home in West Virginia.
Susan and Alex lived with Larry because Susan was fighting with Alex’s father over custody rights at the time. Webb is the man who has since confessed to the murder of Susan and Alex upon his deathbed.
This has been a cold case for over two decades, but in 2021, the FBI began to re-investigate. Eighteen months ago, officials received a search warrant for Webb’s home in Beckley, West Virginia.
As they were searching the house, they found a bullet that was embedded into the wall of a bedroom. The bullet was covered in blood, so they sent it to an FBI lab for DNA testing. It was confirmed to be Alex Carter’s blood.
By October 2023, Webb was on trial, where he was charged with first-degree murder by a grand jury. However, due to health issues with Webb, the court proceedings were delayed, which held up the case.
These delays have led to now.
During the first week of April, investigators went to Hilltop Nursing Home Center, where Webb lived. This is when he finally confessed.
Webb went into extreme detail about what he did to Susan and Alex Carter. He described wrapping their dead bodies in bed linens and leaving them on the floor of his basement for two days. During these two days, he dug a shallow grave in his backyard.
Webb confessed to shooting Susan Carter after they got into an argument about finances. Webb had discovered Susan had been taking some of his money and spending it.
One of the investigators recalled Webb saying, “At that moment, he knew he had ruined his life forever.” Webb then confessed to murdering Alex because he thought killing her would prevent him from being caught for her mother’s murder.
Webb said that he “cried himself to sleep that night” before digging the grave in his backyard, leading him to tell the investigators where they could find the remains.
After being told where to find the bodies, investigators and a landscaper began digging in Webb’s backyard. Three days of digging later, they finally found the bodies, and it was pretty clear to investigators that those were the bodies of Susan and Alex.
Based on Webb’s confessions and the conditions of the bodies, it was evident that Webb was telling the truth about what happened.
Webb said that the reason he decided to confess was because he “was on his deathbed, looking to come to Jesus at that point.”
He was then transferred from the Southern Regional Jail to Mount Olive Correctional Complex. A few days after being transferred, he faced some medical issues, so he was sent to Montgomery General Hospital. He was then pronounced dead at 10:30 A.M.
He died only hours before Susan and Alex’s remains were found.
Alex Carter’s father spoke at a press conference, saying, “Kind of a sad day, but also a happy day because I can bring my baby home.”
After decades of going unsolved, this case can finally be closed, and there are answers for the friends and family who were left wondering what happened to Susan and Alex.