Jump directly to the Content

How One Rogersville Church Aided in Carlie Trent's Rescue

Pastor: “The longer things went unsolved, the bigger the burden.”
How One Rogersville Church Aided in Carlie Trent's Rescue
Image: Tony Webster / Flickr

On Wednesday, May 4, an Amber Alert was issued to signal to Tennessee residents that a nine-year-old girl was missing. Carlie Trent, a resident of the small eastern Tennessee community of Rogersville, had been taken out of school by her non-custodial uncle, Gary Simpson, under false pretenses, and the two had disappeared.

When I heard about Carlie Trent’s disappearance, I couldn’t stop thinking about her, praying for her family, and wondering what I would do in their situation. On the fifth day of her absence, I remember going to bed thinking, “If this were my child, I would be begging every possible person to go out and look for her.”

I was shocked, then, to hear of Carlie’s safe return a few days later, when she was found by Donnie Lawson and Stewart Franklin, two men who belonged to a search group consisting of four Rogersville civilians. I also wondered what role, if any, local churches played in Carlie’s discovery, since media outlets at first reported ...

March
Support Our Work

Subscribe to CT for less than $4.25/month

Homepage Subscription Panel

Read These Next

Related
Listen
Listen
I've noticed that different people interpret what that means in different ways.
From the Magazine
The Evil Ideas Behind October 7
The Evil Ideas Behind October 7
The Hamas attacks in Israel have a grotesque ideological history and deserve unflinching moral judgment.
Editor's Pick
What Christians Miss When They Dismiss Imagination
What Christians Miss When They Dismiss Imagination
Understanding God and our world needs more than bare reason and experience.
close