Steve Carter: The story of a boy missing & then found

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The murders of Abigail Williams and Liberty German. Richard Allen was the accused and he is now the official convicted he was found guilty on all counts, and I was a little back and forth. I'm not gonna lie with the trial. First of all, the investigation was botched from the very beginning, which was a huge issue, and I was very back and forth pretty much throughout the whole trial. But there were a lot of things. That Richard Allen had said in some of his pseudo confessions that really only the killer would have known. And he put himself there. My friend Katie really said the best thing. He almost was like a real life version of the Telltale Heart if you guys are familiar with that. His conscience got the best of him and. He put himself literally at the scene of the crime when the girls were there and when this Bridge guy would have been spotted, and he didn't spot him because he is Bridge guy. So I do think that they got it right. I think it was extremely messy, and I do feel like there was a huge chance that he could have gotten away with this. So it really just goes to show you. How important good police work is from the beginning and getting it right in the stage of prosecution and taking things to trials. So his sentencing is going to be I believe on December twentieth, he could face up to one hundred and thirty years in prison, which I do believe the brutal death of two teenage girls is probably going to earn him the maximal sentence. So I'll continue to keep you guys updated on that. All the jurors and witnesses and everyone family is under a gag order until the sentencing, so we're not going to be hearing from any of them like you normally would in other trials. Once the trial's over, usually they can come out and speak, but because of the sentencing coming up, they are all currently under a gag order, so we're not going to be hearing from any of them right now. There is also news in the case of Ellen Greenberg. I don't know if you. Guys listened since the beginning, but it was the very I think. It was the second episode I did. I did a story about Ellen Greenberg, and they ruled her death very quickly of suicide when it was evident by anybody with eyes that she could not stab herself that many times many of those wounds were. Fatal, so you do the math. So her family has been fighting very very hard to try to get her case reopened and reclassified to not a suicide because it was not a suicide, so the Chester County District Attorney released a statement and it says the Chester County. District Attorney's Office announces an. Update in the investigation related to the death of Ellen Greenberg. As discussed below, the office is currently unable to move forward with criminal charges and is placing the investigation into an inactive status. The details of the investigation into the. Cause of Ellen Greenberg's death, which has been widely reported, are briefly summarized here. On January twenty six of twenty eleven, Miss Greenberg, then twenty seven years old, was found dead by her fiance in the kitchen of her residence at five six h one Flat Rock Road, Apartment six oh. Three in Philadelphia. The Philadelphia Police Department investigated the case in coordination with the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office. After an autopsy, on January twenty seventh of twenty eleven, Miss Greenberg's death was ruled a homicide. The initial determination was later changed to suicide by the Philadelphia Medical Examiner's Office. In twenty eighteen, the investigation was turned over to the Pennsylvania Attorney General's Office for review in order to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest. In August of twenty twenty two, the investigation was turned over to the Chester County Detectives. After receiving the case, Chester County Investigators worked to determine whether sufficient evidence existed to. Reopen the investigation. Detectives first conducted a thorough review of the PPD and OEG investigations. They then pursued additional investigative steps, including but not limited to, conducting new interviews and consulting with independent forensics experts. After the review, the investigative team determined that, based on the current state of the evidence, we cannot prove beyond a reasonable doubt that a crime was committed. This standard of proof beyond a reasonable doubt makes the criminal investigation different than other legal cases or issues that's around Miss Greenberg's death. Because we cannot meet our burden of proof with the information and evidence presently available, replaced this. Investigation into an inactive status. There is no statute of limitations for criminal homicide in Pennsylvania, and because investigations can take new directions, we are not closing the case. Therefore, we will not be answering any questions about this matter. So tell me you've been paid off. Without telling me you've been paid off. Anybody, like I said, with eyes, knows that Ellen Greenberg did not commit so and it really enrages me, as somebody who has no connection whatsoever to Ellen, that whoever hurt her and took her life is getting away with it, blatantly getting away with it. It's not even to the point where you could say, well, she might have stabbed herself. She was stabbed so many times, many of those stab wounds to the back of her head, and many of them fatal, Meaning you can't fatally stab yourself and then keep stabbing yourself. It doesn't make any sense. The people that. Are involved in this investigation should really take a long, hard look at themselves in the mirror, in my opinion, because there is so much corruption all over this case. And like I said, if you have listened to the episode, you know that there is no way. That Ellen did this to herself. It is absolutely unbelievable that they have come to this conclusion yet again. So we still wait for justice for Ellen, and I hope and pray that Ellen does get justice one day, that her family her poor parents have been fighting so hard to get justice for their daughter, and I know that they're going to keep fighting, and I know and I hope that one day they will get the justice and Ellen will get the justice that she deserves and needs. But I personally am truly saddened by that press release, by that information. I can't believe that this is happening. I really cannot believe that this is happening. Last thing I want to talk about right now in True Crime is Little Meninda's Brother's News. So if you listen to the last episode or the episode before. That, I can't remember, the DA had come out and recommended a resentencing. Well, then the election happened and that DA is no longer going to be the DA. So we have a new DA, and he has revealed his new plan for the case. So his name is Nathan Hoffman. He's going to be sworn in on December second, and he said that his administration is going to operate a lot differently than the one of George Gisson, who was there prior, who is the. One that made the recommendation for the resentencing. So he said basically, when it comes to all of the cases that are going to come across his desk. That he's going to look at each case individually. He's going to look at the defendant's history and the impact of the potential release of the Menendez brothers. He also said that he really needs to play ketchup to really determine what his thoughts on the matter are, and he said he has to actually look at all the thousands of pages of confidential prison files that he doesn't currently have access to read. He needs to go through thousands of pages of transcripts from month long trials. And he also said, I've got to speak to the prosecutor's law enforcement, the defense, victim family members, and only then will I be able to be in a position to determine if the current resentencing request is just that. So, he said the only realistic way that the brothers would be released before Thanksgiving is if Governor Gavin Newsom grants them clemency. And basically they've talked about, you know, they have the hearing scheduled for December, early December, but they're already talking about that being pushed back because of the election and him coming in and all of that. So there's a lot going on. If Gavin Newsom does grant them clemency, they will be released immediately. If not, it's going to be a little while. Before all of these things get worked out and we proceed on with a hearing and going from there. So I'll continue to keep you guys updated. I feel like this is huge right now in California, so I really don't know what way they're going to go. I don't know anything about I don't know anything about the OLDA, and I don't know anything about the new DA. So I'll keep you guys updated as I hear. So that is it for right now in True Crime. A couple of housekeeping items just to keep you guys in the loop. After today's episode. I am going to be taking the remainder of the month off because I never give myself time off and I'm forcing myself to rest. But I'm still gonna have episodes out for you guys that are going to be from some of my very best friends in true crime podcasting. So I will still release episodes. It's just not going to be me. It's going to be told by someone else, and they all do such an amazing job, and it will also give you a chance to check out another podcast and then you can go right on over and follow them. Also, on Black Friday. November twenty ninth, we are releasing our collaborative podcast called The Homicide Tree. There is a group of us women. In podcasting who all got together and we are each telling two stories, two cases whether they're solved or unsolved, that deserve to be told. People that should be home during the holidays with their families but do not get that chance because their lives were stolen. So I am really looking forward to that project dropping. I do want to give a shout out to everybody that is involved in it, especially Joels and Gen, because they have been busting their butts trying to get our episodes edited and put together at the music, get it everything uploaded, and Rachel from Like Mother, Like Murder has been crushing it doing our social media for the Homicide Tree and marketing it. If you guys aren't following the Homicide Tree on Instagram, please. Go over right now and follow. We are raising money for victims of crimes through the victim advocacy called Shores of Strength, which was founded by our very own Gen And you can go to the Homicide Tree on Instagram and they're a link in our bio and you can click on that and donate through that to Shores of Strength, which is a great nonprofit, so please check that out. Please follow along with the Homicide Tree. All the episodes are going to drop it once on Black Friday, so you'll. Have a lot of good episodes to binge. And with all of that being said, all of that housekeeping, look forward to hearing back for me week one of December. If there is any true crime craziness. That happens, I will be sure to pop in with a little bonus episode. But I am going to hand the baton off to my girls so they can tell you a couple of stories that they really need. To get out into the community. More ears, more eyes on a story means hopefully we will get closer to having that case solved. So with all of that being said, finally we are going to get into this week's episode. Okay, guys, today we are going to be going in a bit of a different direction and I am going to tell you a story of a little boy who went missing, was eventually adopted, and decades later he discovered that he was a missing child. This story is so interesting and it really goes to show you that it's never too late. And the cool part about the story is that Steve, who I'm going to be telling you about, trusted his gut and decided to dig into his past a little bit more and try to find out where he came from. And it proved to be. Very successful because soon he would be unraveling a thirty five year long convol the good story about how. He came to be Steve Carter. Steve has done multiple appearances to tell his story. He's been on CNN, The tammern Hall Show, He's done articles with People Magazine, People dot Com, and he also did an episode on a podcast explaining his story. So I am going to be taking all that information that I got from reading all of the different sources, and we are going to. Talk about Steve's story. Max Panama Moriarty Barnes, also known as Marx Barnes, was born on January seventeenth of nineteen seventy seven to his father, Mark Barnes and his mom, Charlotte Moriarty, in Hawaii. Mark was a Vietnam veteran and a journalist, and Charlotte was a free spirit artist. Mark and Charlotte met about a year before their son was born. Charlotte, like I said, was a bit of a free spirit, and she would often take off and then just show up back a few days later, no harm, no foul. Her and Mark did fight a lot, and they were very different people. On June twenty first of nineteen seventy seven, when baby Marx was only a few months old, Charlotte took him out for a walk and never returned. Charlotte had stopped at a stranger's home and gave a fake name for herself and her son. She ended up being placed in a psychiatric facility and the baby was placed in protective care. Charlotte then disappeared a few days later, never to be seen or. Heard from again. And we'll get to that in a little bit of time. So, with this baby, baby Marx, having a fake name, they were unable to reunite him with his father or his family. Now, Mark had reported both. Of them missing, but in nineteen seventy seven times were different, and the reach that a missing person's report had, especially a missing child, was way different than it was today. Mark said that he was devastated when they disappeared, and he would spend his time driving around the island. Just searching for them. Baby Marx was eventually placed up for adoption and he was adopted when he was four years old by a couple named Steve and Pat Carter of New Jersey. Mark very much tried to pick up the pieces. He very much struggled when Marx and Charlotte went missing, and he always had held out hope that his son would be found. Now we are going to enter a woman named Jennifer who is Steve's half sister, and she was only eight years old at the time of her brother and her mother's disappearance. So Jennifer is the sister to baby Marx, who would then be eventually called Steve Carter, and this was her brother. They shared a mother, so her mother and brother both went missing. So at the time that Baby Mars disappeared, she was living in New Mexico with her father, and she is going to be a huge piece of this case being solved, so please stay tuned for that. So, like I said, baby Marx was adopted at four years old. He then became known as Steve Steve Carter. He said that he had an amazing childhood. He had the best parents, but as he grew older, he felt kind of a nagging to figure out his origin. He thought that there were some details surrounding him in his. Life that were suspicious. He knew that he was adopted. From an orphanage in Honolulu, Hawaii, but other than that, he really didn't have a whole lot to go on. And there was the fact that his birth certificate was created when he was one years old. That was very odd to Steve, and he thought, there has to be something more going on what happened before I was adopted. So in twenty eleven, Steve was thirty four years old. He was working as a salesman and one day he was getting ready for work and he had the TV on in the background and there was a show on CNN about Carlina White, who had been abducted as a child, went on to find herself on a website for missing kids and unraveled this decade's old mystery about what had happened. He then again heard the same story on the way to work, and the story just kept popping up, so in his mind he felt like he needed to dig into his past a little more. And the fact that he kept seeing the Carlina White story was his sign. So he ended up on a website that shared about missing children in Hawaii, and he just pretty much searched for missing thirty four years old Hawaii, and there it was. He found himself staring at an age progress photo of a child who went missing as a baby. The photo was Steve at six months old, shortly before he went missing. They used this photo and a combination of his biological mother Charlotte and father's pictures to come up with this age progress photo. And let me tell you, when you see Steve as he was when he discovered all this and the age progress photo, it is scary how accurate it is. He knew right away that he was staring back at a picture of him. He was shocked by what he had discovered, and he told his friends what was going on, his suspicions, and they urged him to contact somebody to complete a DNA test, which he would go and do. Several months later, it. Was confirmed that Steve was indeed Mark Barnes, who disappeared in nineteen seventy seven. So obviously, once Steve learned this new information his real identity, he was a little obviously shocked, didn't really know what to think, and he didn't immediately reach out to his biological family and let them know. I honestly can't imagine learning something so shocking and then trying to sit. There and process the information. Although Steve was the one who was really seeking it out, I'm sure the whole thing was just mind blowing, unreal and really hard to grasp and knowing that you have a family who has loved and raised you, and now you have this whole bio family and you really don't know anything about the circumstances surrounding why you were separated from them, what happened, all of the different emotions that come along with that. But Steve did say he felt guilty because he felt like he should have been doing more to alert his biological family that not only was he safe, but that he was extremely happy and living a very fulfilled life. Steve's parents also were very emotional about the news of Steve finding out who his biological family was, and his mom said that on an emotional level, she felt like she had taken someone. Else's child, although that wasn't true at all. They had legally adopted him from an orphanage in Hawaii. They knew nothing of the child's past or what had happened, and apparently neither did the orphanage. They didn't realize he was a missing kid because his. Mom had given a fake name. So about a year after Steve learned the truth about who he was, he reached out to his half sister, Jennifer, who I had brought up earlier, and he also reached out to his father Mark. So now we're going to talk about Jennifer because without her, this case would never have been solved. So, like I said, Jennifer was eight years old living with her father when her mother and Steve went missing. She assumed that they were. Both deceased, but in two thousand and one she had earned urged the Hawaiian authorities to reopen their case, and that is how they ended up coming up with this age progress photo of Steve, which essentially led him to finding himself and his own identity. Steve and Jennifer spoke for hours on the phone and realized they shared a lot in common, which I think is so cool from a genetic standpoint that you can spend your whole life apart from a sibling and you still have similarities to someone who shares your DNA. Mark also got a call. From his son in February of twenty twelve, and he just couldn't believe that his son was alive. After all of this time, in talking with Mark and Jennifer, Steve was able to piece together what had happened that day that they had gone missing. So earlier I shared about the story about Charlotte taking her son for a walk and they ended up at this woman's house, and the fake name happened, and so on and so forth. So they had gone on this walk and Charlotte. Went into a home that was not hers, and the homeowner would later arrive at the home and was obviously startled, ended up calling the cops. And when the cops came up, that's when Charlotte made up the identity of her and her son to be a different identity than the real identities. She also had said that the baby's father was a Native Hawaiian, which was not true because Mark was white and from California, And Steve kind of always wondered, because he is fair skinned, blonde hair, light eyes, he always wondered, like where the Hawaii aspect kind of came into play. So this makes total, incomplete sense so Steve says that he has compassion for his birth mother and realizes that she was struggling from a mental health standpoint when everything went down in nineteen seventy seven. He says he doesn't blame her for anything. Charlotte is still missing, but Steve believes that she maybe went to East Asia for fresh start with nobody there knowing her true identity, and he believes that she went there and got caught up in a lifestyle. She was always that kind of person that wanted to have a good time, and they believe that she found it. They do believe that Charlotte is to cease now. Steve unfortunately did not get to meet his birth dad, Mark before Mark passed away in twenty twenty three. Mark unfortunately had substance abuse issues and that made for having a close relationship with Steve very difficult. However, Steve and Mark did speak, so Mark at least had the closure that his son was okay after not knowing for so long. Steve also, very much through all of this, had to keep a great sense of humor through all of the trials and tribulations of learning his identity and his past and everything that had transpired. Steve's wife says that his sense of humor really carried him through everything. This is a really good example. Case in point. When Steve and his now wife got married, he had requested that the band play Van Halen's Panama in honor of his original and new found medal name. Steve has very much embraced this journey and like I said, has shared his story with others. He said he'll publicly get recognized and has become a beacon of hope for other parents who are missing children. Steve is quoted as saying, and for anyone dealing with the missing loved one, always have hope. There's a chance that that person is doing well and will surface. Again to be reunited with you. End quote. And I think that whole story is just the coolest story in the world, because what are the chances that this guy, who is living a very fulfilled life just off chance thinks I'm going to dig in to see if I can figure out my origin, where I came from. Why did I only have a birth certificate after one year of life? What's going on? It is so crazy and interesting that he kind of had that gut feeling and ended up researching it and he literally solved his own missing person's case not even knowing he was missing. And I think it's just a testament that it is never too late. Your story is not done and over until it's done and over. There's also been people who have seen Steve out and about and said, we have a missing child, and you've inspired us. You've given us hope that our child is still out there, and you really never know. That is why I think social media. The power of podcasting, the power of these age progressed photos is so important. And in Steve's case, we know that age progression was accurate. They took a baby photo of Steve, and they took Mark's picture and Charlotte's picture and they were able to come up with this age progress picture, which it's it's so wild. Once you see the picture compared to what Steve really looks like, you're going to be like, oh my god, how do they do it? It's accurate as all can be. So I'm going to. Be posting those pictures on my Instagram and Facebook pages, so be sure you're following me over there. On Facebook, it's Primetime Crime again, Crime with the k Over. On Instagram, it's at primetime crime pod, and I'm going to be sharing all of that over there, so please be sure to check it out. If you're not following me, please follow me. If you haven't rated the podcast yet, if you're on a platform that you can, please rate five stars. I would really really appreciate it. It helps push the podcast out to other people in the true crime community, and that's what we need, is more eyes and ears on these stories. Steve's story was a little bit different because it very much was a good, happy ending, which a lot of the times doing unsolved cases, we don't really get that resolution that we so. Desperately need and want as humans. I not doing Steve's story was going to be a nice little change of pace and a good way to go in to my two week break. So I appreciate you guys for listening. Please be sure to check out the episodes that I'm going to be sharing in the next couple of weeks from some of my podcasting friends. They all work so so hard, they're all so passionate. We all have really bonded over our passion for being in the true crime space and doing things the right way, So please give them a listen. Also, go give them a follow, and I will see you guys in a couple of weeks. If there is anything breaking in the true crime world, I will be sure to do a little mini episode. But I appreciate you guys. I hope you have a great weekend, a great holiday coming up, and I will see you the first week of December for a brand new unsolved case. Have a great one and I will see you then. Bye. Also, don't hate me, but I'm going to add a little bit of blooper reel. When I had my Halloween party, I was showing a couple of folks my little podcasting room and my little studio. It's just my office. Don't be too excited, but I made them do a little blooper real with me, so enjoy. There we go, Hi, guys, It's Kylie and Amber social media manager Amber, Amber, Marie and our hubby Jared, who's my official photographer. Now for all in my headshots, I believe it or not, we've done some professional photos. I feel like you should be a photographer for sure. I'm going to feature this on my bloopers on my next episode. I've never done bloopers before, but we're gonna do it. Primetime crime team. Coming in hat and we're out.