9 Year Old Carlie Marie Trent Found Alive by Donnie Lawson & Roger Carpenter in Hawkins County, TN … Gary Simpson Arrested

Carlie Marie Trent found SAFE!!!

9 year old Carlie Trent was found safe yesterday by two men, Donnie Lawson and Roger Carpenter, in  Hawkins County, Tennessee. The two men were searching isolated areas in the back country of northeastern Tennessee on Thursday when they came upon Carlie Trent and her uncle, Gary Simpson. Roger Carpenter, a Baptists minister, held the uncle at gunpoint, while the other man, Donnie Lawson, called the authorities. Carlie Trent had been missing since May 4, when Simpson, an uncle by marriage,  picked the girl up from her elementary school in Rogersville.

Gary Simpson was arrested and taken into police custody. Tennessee Bureau of Investigation Director Mark Gwyn stated that the Gary Simpson is being charged with especially aggravated kidnapping and may face additional charges. According to accounts, Carlie appeared to be OK; however, she was taken to the hospital to be checked out and evaluated.

Two men searching the back country of northeastern Tennessee on Thursday found a 9-year-old girl who has been missing for more than week and held the uncle accused of abducting her at gunpoint until police arrived, authorities said.

Donnie Lawson and Roger Carpenter found Carlie Marie Trent in Hawkins County, the same rural part of the state she had disappeared from on May 4 after police said her uncle Gary Simpson took her out of school without permission, Tennessee Bureau of Investigation Director Mark Gwyn said at a news conference.

Lawson and Carpenter were acting on law enforcement appeals to search isolated areas on all-terrain vehicles, Gwyn said. Carpenter, a Baptist minister, held Simpson at gunpoint while Lawson went to call police.

“This is just two heroes that went onto the property just to see, by chance, could they be there,” Gwyn said. “And they were.”