Kansas pastor's wife, 36, 'died of carbon monoxide poisoning after driving her car into an abandoned shipping container' on way to seek treatment for anxiety
- The body of Marilane Carter, 36, is believed to have been found Tuesday
- Discovery was made Tuesday in a field in rural Crittenden County, Arkansas
- Sheriff's officials do not suspect foul play in connection to woman's death
- Investigators 'believe she drove her car into the container, causing her demise'
- Carter left her home in Overland Park, Kansas, on August 1 to head to Birmingham, Alabama, to seek treatment for anxiety and to visit family
- She was last seen on surveillance footage checking into the hotel in West Plains, Missouri, on August 2 where she stayed for three hours
A Kansas pastor's wife likely died of carbon monoxide poisoning after driving her car into a shipping container on her way to seek treatment for anxiety, police have said.
Marilane Carter's uncle discovered decomposing remains when he traveled to rural Arkansas to look for his niece and saw the door of the abandoned unit open on Tuesday.
The body has not yet been positively identified as mother-of-three Carter and the cause of death has not yet been confirmed, but authorities said the car is hers. A credit card bearing her name was also recovered inside the vehicle.
On Wednesday the Crittenden County Sheriff’s Office said: 'Information gathered from family members concerning her mental and emotional state during her final communications, along with facts gathered from the scene, have led investigators to believe that Marilane Carter drove the vehicle into the container and in doing so caused her demise.'
Carter was last seen on August 2 when she checked into a Quality Inn hotel in Missouri for three hours on her way to Alabama to seek treatment for anxiety and visit relatives.
She later called her parents from the road, sounding confused and telling them she kept getting lost. Carter was never heard from again.
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A Kansas pastor's wife likely died of carbon monoxide poisoning after driving her car into a shipping container on her way to seek treatment for anxiety, police have said. Carter, a mother-of-three and married to Rev. Adam Carter of the Leawood Baptist Church in Kansas, had made concerning statements to her family
An uncle of missing Kansas mother Marilane Carter on Tuesday came upon this shipping container in an Arkansas field where he found a body believed to be his niece
The decomposing body was inside Carter's 2011 GMC Acadia, which contained her purse and credit card (pictured)
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On Wednesday afternoon, the Leawood Baptist Church in Kansas, where Carter's husband is a pastor, posted a message on its Facebook page confirming Marilane's death.
'It is with very heavy hearts that we share that Marilane Carter has passed away,' the post read in part. 'Her vehicle and body were found Tuesday in the West Memphis area. Law enforcement says that foul play is not suspected.'
After a frantic two-week search, Carter's gray GMC SUV was found inside a shipping container in a remote field off Interstate 55.
The engine is said to have been left on and no foul play is suspected.
Carter, 36, a mom-of-three pastor's wife, vanished without a trace on August 2 en route to Alabama
Crittenden County Sheriff's Department Chief Todd Grooms told WREG that officers had searched that field before and seen several shipping containers, but did not think to look inside them.
'I just never would have dreamed that her vehicle would have been up inside one of them,' Grooms said.
On Tuesday morning, Carter's uncle, who stayed behind after a weekend search involving other family members, was driving and walking around the area where his niece's phone was last pinged when he came upon three shipping containers in the field.
He noticed that one of the containers was open and decided to take a look inside, discovering his niece's gray 2011 GMC Acadia with Kansas plates with a body inside.
The sheriff's chief said no foul play is suspected at this time in connection to the woman's death.
'I believe that anything that happened, happened by her own doing,' Chief Todd Grooms said.
The woman's decomposing body was taken to the state crime lab in Little Rock for an autopsy.
DailyMail.com found footage Wednesday in which Carter shared her love for children and passion for teaching in a touching video just three months before she vanished.
The two-minute clip was posted to a YouTube page on May 5, 2020.
Mother-of-three Marilane Carter shared her love for her children and her passion for teaching in a video application in May - three months before she vanished from her home in Overland Park, Kansas. DailyMail.com came across the video (pictured) on Wednesday, just after police announced that they had recovered a body believed to be Carter inside her car in a shipping container in Crittenden County, Arkansas
Carter, 36, (pictured with her husband Adam) vanished while travelling from her home in Overland Park, Kansas, to Birmingham, Alabama, to seek treatment for anxiety and to visit family
Officers had previously searched this field in rural Crittenden County, Arkansas, and seen three containers there, but had not opened them
Officials believe that for an unknown reason Carter ended up driving inside the container of her own accord
The last known movements of the missing mom-of-three and pastor's wife and the site where the body was found inside her SUV
Carter, the wife of Rev. Adam Carter, of the Leawood Baptist Church, left her home in Overland Park on the night of August 1 to head to Birmingham where her parents live and where she hoped to seek mental health treatment at a hospital where she once worked.
She was last seen alive on surveillance footage checking into the hotel in West Plains, Missouri, the following morning.
In the footage, Carter is seen walking across the parking lot of the hotel with her luggage before entering the building and approaching the reception where she is greeted by hotel staff.
She checked out of the hotel three hours later and left in her car.
The 36-year-old, who has two young sons and a daughter, was last heard from later that night.
Video showed Carter on August 2 as she checked into a Quality Inn in Missouri for three hours before vanishing on her way to seek mental health help in Alabama
In the footage, Carter is seen walking across the parking lot of the hotel with her luggage
She then entered the building and approached the reception where she was greeted by hotel staff
Her husband Adam said he had spoken with her on the night of August 2 and his wife's cell phone went dead.
A short time later, Carter spoke to her mom Marlene Mesler on the phone.
'We were in contact with her all the way, but then, partway through the trip, she started seeming confused and disoriented. She said she kept on getting lost,' Mesler told WREG.
Carter's phone went dead somewhere on the I-55 bridge.
This was the last time she was heard from and her credit cards have not been used since.
Her family were asking the authorities to search the Mississippi River around the bridge close to where the missing mom's cell phone last pinged.
Authorities said Carter had made concerning statements to her family in the lead-up to her disappearance.
'Our three kids miss her,' her husband Adam told WMC Action News. 'I miss her. We want to have her home.'
