CRAWFORD CO.—As searchers are entering day 3 of the manhunt for Jared Carter, more and more is emerging about his history.
Jared Carter’s Bond County mug from 2011
Last night we posted that his latest wife, Sheila, had filed for a divorce in Crawford County on July 18. No DOC officials had addressed, to this point, whether he had people in the area that he was related to by blood or marriage; to know Sheila Carter existed might have been a good thing to be told up front, just in case she might have been in the area tending to the divorce. However, our researchers believe they may have found Mrs. Carter, in Mulberry Grove, Ill. (Bond County). So if indeed this is THE Sheila Carter in Bond County, it would still have been nice to know and be aware in Crawford. More information is better than little.
It also might have been helpful to have known from the very start that Carter was part of a work-crew that was cleaning up outside the perimeter of the prison, as we didn’t find out until we read it in a Springfield-area paper. There, they reported that Carter was in an area slightly isolated from the rest of the crew, and overpowered a correctional officer with a broom handle: weird, as we generally think of work crews as doing roadside cleanup, in weeds, ditches, rights-of-way, etc. What exactly they were doing with brooms out on this particular work-crew is one of those unknown pieces of information that DOC hasn’t seen fit to disseminate…unless, of course, they were on a parking lot area cleaning it up. Which makes it even more weird that Carter would have escaped, as that would be a flat area with easy visual contact with the crew. But the details are unknown.
One of the things we did learn, however, came from a piece found by one of our researchers about Carter’s 2011 crime; and this piece indicates that he’s not a very smart guy.
From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch comes this little gem, dating back to May 2011 regarding Carter’s Clinton County crime, specifically in Highland:
Add another name to the list of people in trouble because of credit cards.
Madison County authorities allege that 28-year-old Jared C. Carter of Redbird Drive in Troy left a credit card with his name on it at the scene of an attempted residential burglary early Sunday morning near Highland.
Sheriff’s Capt. Brad Wells said a homeowner in the 2400 block of Becker Road heard a noise at the door about 4:30 a.m. The homeowner went to investigate and saw a man later identified as Carter using a credit card to try to open the locked door.
The suspect fled, but left behind Carter’s credit card. Deputies arrested Carter Sunday afternoon in Pierron.
Perhaps he’ll screw up this time like he did that time. Or, he may merely already be long gone.
There have been no valid reports of sightings of Carter in the past 24 hours. A search remains underway in the Bennett Trailer Park in Robinson. The focus here is on outbuildings. Residents are being told to lock everything down and don’t leave the premises without an escort. Please report anything suspicious to authorities by dialing 911.