In the quiet farming community of Lacona, Iowa, the morning of June 19, 2015, began like many others for 68-year-old Shirley Carter, a White female. She and her husband of more than 50 years, Bill Carter, went out for coffee, a familiar routine. After their coffee, Bill dropped Shirley back at their rural farmhouse before he left to haul corn. This ordinary day would soon take a devastating turn, leaving a family fractured and a community in search of answers.
It was later that morning that the couple's son, Jason Carter, arrived at his parents' home and discovered a scene of horror. His mother, Shirley, was found dead on the kitchen floor, having been shot twice.
Jason Carter called his sister to deliver the tragic news before dialing 911. When law enforcement arrived, they found a scene that initially suggested a burglary gone wrong. The house appeared to have been ransacked, with drawers pulled out and papers scattered. However, investigators noted that valuable items, including Shirley's purse containing cash and credit cards, and an envelope with a significant amount of money, were left untouched. This led authorities to suspect that the motive was personal and the ransacking was staged to mislead them. The investigation soon began to focus on family members, and suspicion fell upon Shirley's son, Jason.
The investigation into Shirley Carter's death moved slowly, and for over two years, no arrests were made. Frustrated with the lack of progress, Bill Carter, Shirley's husband, took the unusual step of filing a wrongful death lawsuit against his own son, Jason, in 2016. The civil trial took place in December 2017, pitting father against son and tearing the family apart. The jury in the civil case found Jason Carter liable for his mother's death, ordering him to pay $10 million to her estate. The standard of proof in a civil trial is a preponderance of the evidence, a lower threshold than the "beyond a reasonable doubt" standard required in criminal cases.
Just days after the civil verdict, authorities arrested Jason Carter and charged him with first-degree murder. The criminal trial was held in March 2019. Prosecutors argued that Jason killed his mother to gain access to his parents' financial assets. The defense countered that investigators had failed to pursue other viable leads and that there was a lack of direct evidence connecting Jason to the crime scene. After a trial that lasted nearly three weeks, the jury deliberated for only a couple of hours before returning a verdict of not guilty. Jason Carter was acquitted of all criminal charges related to his mother's murder. Despite the civil court's finding of liability, the criminal court's acquittal means that, officially, the murder of Shirley Carter remains unsolved.
