The lights were low. Flameless candles flickered in people’s hands. A SHeDAISY song played softly through the speakers. On the screen at the front of the room, a slideshow cycled slowly through the faces of missing children. Nobody spoke.
That was the candlelight vigil at our annual Tennessee Missing Children’s Day Community Event, held March 4, 2026 at Capitol Theatre in Lebanon, Tennessee. It was the 25th anniversary of the day Bethany Markowski vanished, and not an anniversary that we like to remember, but one we have to. 25 years after Bethany’s disappearance, it was the night The Bethany Markowski Foundation officially became something real.
This is what happened.
Why March 4 & Why It Took 25 Years
Bethany Leanne Markowski was 11 years old on March 4, 2001. She was a typically sweet and sassy young girl, who smiled all the time, despite how she grew up. The last words she spoke to her mother Jonnie were on the phone the day she disappeared. She said “I love you.”
She never came home.
For 25 years, Jonnie Carter, Bethany’s mother, searched. She organized vigils. She pushed investigators. She sat across tables from district attorneys and TBI agents and FBI contacts. She never let her daughter’s name disappear.
In 2017, Jonnie worked with the Tennessee legislature to pass a law designating March 4 as Tennessee Missing Children’s Day (Tennessee Code § 15-2-127). She did it so Bethany’s disappearance would mean something beyond her own family’s grief. She did it so the date would never just be the anniversary of a loss. It would be a call to action.
On March 4, 2026, The Bethany Markowski Foundation answered that call for the first time.
The Event: What Happened at Capitol Theatre
Doors opened at 5:30 PM at Capitol Theatre, 110 W Main St, Lebanon, TN. The program began at 6:00 PM. What unfolded over the next few hours was part community gathering, part safety education, part memorial, and entirely, unmistakably, Jonnie’s.
Here is what families found when they walked in the door:
Free Child Fingerprinting
Between 20 and 30 children were fingerprinted that night, ages 1 through 17, at no cost. Each family left with a complete child safety kit, donated by the Polly Klaas Foundation, NCMEC and The Bethany Markowski Foundation. The kits include space for fingerprints, photos, physical descriptions, and emergency contacts which is everything a family needs in the first critical hours if a child goes missing.
The fingerprinting table was one of the most active spots of the evening, because every parent who sat their child down at that table understood why this matters.
When Bethany went missing, we didn’t have her fingerprints. We had nothing. That’s why we do this.
NCMEC Resources and Child Safety Education
Resource tables with information from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) and The Bethany Markowski Foundation lined the event space. Families picked up printed guides, digital safety resources, and educational materials covering everything from online safety to what to do if a child goes missing. NCMEC Outreach Specialist Casey Jones coordinated the materials.
Tennessee currently has 932 active open missing children cases. Approximately 500 to 600 Tennessee children are reported missing every single month. The materials on those tables exist because those numbers are real, and most families don’t know where to start until they desperately need to.
Silent Auction
A silent auction brought together donations from local businesses and community supporters, including generous contributions from Jack’s Guitarcheology, Boulay Fine Art Portraiture, Sports Village Fitness, The Pilot Company, Golden Gals Mobile Tanning, Market Basket Liquor & Wine, Action Nerd Fun Spot, Sammy B’s, Sam’s Club, Jewell & Jane Co., Buff City Soap, Martin’s Barbeque, and Lebanon Coffee House. Every dollar raised goes directly toward the foundation’s free programs for families of missing children.
The Candlelight Vigil
The vigil was the night’s most powerful moment. Attendees gathered on the Capitol Theatre dance floor, flameless candles in hand, as the lights dimmed and the room went quiet. The SHeDAISY song “Still Holding On to You” played, a song that Jonnie plays every year at their annual observance of March 4th.
On the screen above the stage, a slideshow played slowly through missing children’s posters. Face after face after face. Every one of them someone’s child. Every one of them still waiting to come home.
The room was respectful and contemplative. A quiet that feels full of something that words can’t hold.
When it ended, it felt like a release, but also like a beginning.
The Moment Nobody Expected
During Jonnie’s speech, something happened that nobody planned.
Her seven-year-old niece (who she mistakenly calls by Bethany’s name all the time) ran up onto the stage and Jonnie scooped her up mid-speech and held her while she kept talking. Then we watched as 25-year-old grief and a seven-year-old child, occupied the space behind a podium on a stage in front of a room full of people who understood exactly what that image meant.
And then, at the end of Jonnie’s remarks, Blakely stepped to the microphone herself. She was seven years old and hadn’t prepared anything. She just told the room what she thought about all of it. That it was sad.
The room agreed.
You Should Be Angry
Jonnie said something during her speech that she wants you to sit with.
You should be mad. You should be angry that we have to do this.
She’s right. In Tennessee alone, 22,000 youth were involved in exploitation cases in 2025, which is a 140% increase since 2020. Tennessee ranks 7th nationally for missing persons. There are 932 active open cases of missing children in this state right now.
We shouldn’t have to hold candlelight vigils. We shouldn’t have to fingerprint children at community events because families might need that record someday. We shouldn’t have to build a handbook explaining what to do in the first 24 hours after your child disappears, because no parent should ever need that knowledge.
But we do. Because the alternative is doing nothing, forgetting, and moving on. That is not something Jonnie Carter feels she is capable of. And it’s not something this foundation will do.
Coverage and Community Response
Tennessee’s media community showed up for the story. WKRN News 2 reporter Lexi Wilson covered the 25th anniversary in a piece published March 3, 2026. WBBJ TV in Jackson published their coverage on March 5. A Fox 17 news crew attended the event in person. Wilson County Source covered the foundation ahead of the event.
The coverage matters for Bethany. Every article is another chance for someone who knows something to come forward. Her case is still active with the TBI and FBI, and every read is a potential tip.
If you have information about Bethany Markowski’s disappearance, please call TBI at 1-800-TBI-FIND or submit an anonymous tip at findbethany.org/tips.
What Comes Next: Chapter 2
Driving home that night, the honest feeling was this: we want this event to be ten times bigger! We want every Tennessee family to know it exists. We want the fingerprinting line to stretch out the door.
But here is also what’s true: this was a crucial first step. The Bethany Markowski Foundation is no longer just a website and a dream. It is a nonprofit that held a real event, in a real building, for real families, on the exact date that changed everything 25 years ago.
That matters and that’s not nothing. That’s Chapter 1.
Chapter 2 is already being written. We are building two free programs that will be available to any family, anywhere:
- A handbook for of Tennessee families of missing children — a practical, compassionate guide for families in the earliest and most disorienting hours after a child goes missing. What to do first. Who to call. What your legal rights are. How to survive.
- Free child safety online courses — accessible education for parents, caregivers, and educators covering online safety, recognizing warning signs, and what to do when something feels wrong. Available at no cost to anyone who needs it.
Both programs are free and are funded entirely by donations. Both exist because of what happened to Bethany, and because of every family sitting in that room on March 4th who shouldn’t have to figure any of this out alone.
Help Us Make TMCD 2027 Even Bigger
The next annual Tennessee Missing Children’s Day Community Event will happen on March 4, 2027. We are already committed to making it larger, louder, and more resourced than this year.
More fingerprinting stations. More child safety kits. More families who leave feeling prepared instead of afraid.
If you want to be part of that, please donate today at givebutter.com/gptnQ8. Every dollar funds the programs, the resources, and the infrastructure that makes this event possible. And every dollar is a message to Jonnie Carter that she is not doing this alone.
Bethany Markowski would be 36 years old. Her case is open. Her mother is still fighting.
Don’t forget her. 💚
About The Bethany Markowski Foundation
The Bethany Markowski Foundation is a Tennessee 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization (EIN: 41-2321010) founded by Jonnie Carter in memory of her daughter Bethany Leanne Markowski, who disappeared March 4, 2001 at age 11 in Jackson, Tennessee. The foundation provides free child safety education, support for families of missing children, and keeps Bethany’s case in the public eye. Website: findbethany.org | Donate: givebutter.com/gptnQ8 | Tips: 1-800-TBI-FIND
This was the most awsome experience I have has in a very long time and was worth the 9 hr drive to get here to participate. I think Jonnie and Bethany have been delta a miscarriage of justice from the day she disappeared into thin air. I love you and your family and thank you for letting me participate.💚💚💚
Thank you so much for coming!! We are so grateful, especially for those of you with the long drive who put so much effort into showing up. We hope we will see you next year!