Wife of Leawood Baptist Church pastor is missing

The pastor of Leawood Baptist Church is asking social media users to help find his missing wife, 36-year-old Marilane Carter.

“Please help us find my sweet wife,” Adam Carter wrote on Twitter. “If you see anything, please contact law enforcement A Facebook page has also been created to help find Marilane.”

Marilane Carter. Photo courtesy of Overland Park Police Department

Marilane left her home in Overland Park last Saturday, driving to Birmingham, Ala., to seek mental health treatment and was last seen in Memphis, according to KSHB-TV A woman said she helped Marilane get gas. Afterwards, she was seen going into the bathroom, wearing a white shirt, black yoga pants and a backpack. Her phone went dead somewhere in the area of the I-55 bridge coming into Memphis, KMBC-TV reported.

“I had offered to take her to a hospital there in the Kansas City area, but she wanted to go somewhere to just get some help at a place that she felt that she could trust and was familiar with,” Carter said. Marilane has family in Alabama, where she was headed.

“I just told our three kids to pray for mom, mommy,” Carter said. “We’re going to find her. It might take a few days. She’s a loving mother, loving wife. We have a great relationship. I miss her terribly. I want her home. I want her home with our kids.”

Leawood Baptist Church Associate Pastor Jason Franklin told says that only a few people in the church knew about Marilane’s mental health struggles

“Whenever things like this happen, there’s always this, ‘Could I have done something, did I miss some sign?’” Franklin said. “And obviously her mental struggles were not something that was widely known among the entire congregation. It was kept very close to the chest.

“We definitely pray that Marilane is found safely and for a happy reunion of the family. But regardless, for God’s strength and love to surround the family and lift them up and support them through this time.”

–Alan Goforth | Metro Voice