Hey y’all, it’s Julie Mattson, your host on Pushing Up Lilies. In this episode, I’m diving into a case that stayed cold for 24 long years—until a chilling deathbed confession finally led investigators to the remains of a missing girl and her mother in West Virginia.
It’s a story of heartbreak, secrets buried deep, and justice delayed but not denied. I’ll walk you through the twists and turns of the investigation, how the truth was uncovered after decades of silence, and the emotional toll these unresolved cases leave behind for families and communities.
Join me as we explore the haunting details of this case and the power a confession holds, even in the final moments of life.
* Listener discretion is advised.
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT:
0:06 Welcome to Pushing Up Lilies.
0:08 I’m your host, Julie Mattson.
0:10 Pushing Up Lilies is a weekly True Crime podcast with spine tingling, unusual and terrifyingly true stories from my perspective as a forensic death investigator and a sexual assault nurse examiner.
0:24 Do I have some stories for you?
0:26 Are you ready?
0:31 What a crazy week?
0:32 This has been y’all.
0:33 It was so much fun at Denton’s Day of the Dead Festival.
0:37 I know I mentioned it to y’all last week but Pushing up Lilies got to participate in our first ever day of the Dead Coffin race.
0:47 We had to borrow a coffin from someone because I didn’t get notification that I was going to be a racer until later.
0:57 I didn’t really have time to put a car together.
1:00 I didn’t realize how competitive it was, and I didn’t realize how many people long to be in this race every year, but they only accepted 70.
1:11 The entry fee was 100 and $50.
1:14 And basically, you design a coffin inspired car with no propellant.
1:21 There can be no nitrous, no petals, no gas, nothing.
1:27 Basically, you’re just going downhill towards a bunch of hay Bells.
1:32 You do have to have brakes, and you do have to have steering.
1:36 I borrowed a car from someone who had raced in previous years and done really well.
1:42 And so we raced his car and we just kind of decorated it with some lilies and just a banner and we raced.
1:51 We got through the first two eliminating races.
1:55 We made it to the finals and then our first finals in the race, we raced a really fast car, and we lost, but that’s ok.
2:03 It was so much fun.
2:05 I really want to do it again next year.
2:08 I can’t tell you how nervous I was though.
2:10 It was kind of crazy.
2:12 We had to wear helmets.
2:14 Most people crashed into the hay bells at the end of the race.
2:18 My brakes worked really, really well.
2:20 So I did not, my fear was ruining the car because it wasn’t mine.
2:25 I was trying to avoid damaging the car that I borrowed.
2:30 Anyway, it was so much fun.
2:33 And we also had a vendor booth.
2:36 And so we sold our murder merch.
2:39 We sold a lot of our, let’s talk about serial killer’s doormats.
2:44 And we sold a ton of our coffin bath bombs that dissolve and then a little skeleton pops out.
2:53 It was very fitting that a lot of our stuff of course, had to do with death.
2:57 But also with it being so close to Halloween, it was all very popular.
3:02 We sold a ton.
3:04 We got a lot of new podcast subscribers which I am so thankful for.
3:10 It was nice to let some people in the city of Denton see that I’m from the area and that many of the stories I talk about are from the area.
3:20 It was just amazing.
3:21 It was an amazing day.
3:23 Thank you to everyone who came out.
3:25 Thank you to everyone who cheered us on and to those who purchased from our vendor booth, we hope you come back.
3:32 We will be back next year.
3:34 I was sure to give everyone our website so they could see that they would be able to order throughout the year on our website anyway, so, so, so much fun.
3:43 This is every year in Denton and it’s around the same time.
3:48 I’m already kind of planning for next year.
3:51 I’m super excited about it.
3:54 I wanted to talk to y’all a little bit about a story that I found super interesting out of West Virginia.
4:02 It kind of came to fruition here recently and I guess that’s what drew my attention to it.
4:07 It originally occurred back on August the eighth of 2000.
4:12 Natasha Alexandra, who went by Alex Carter, went missing from Berkeley, West Virginia.
4:20 And now it was believed that she was abducted by her mother, Susan Carter, a felony warrant for kidnapping was issued and this was in November of 2000.
4:34 They believed that Susan had traveled out of state with Alex and may have even changed her appearance and it was believed that a male may have also been with them.
4:48 Natasha was only 10 at the time.
4:50 She was young.
4:52 You know, many times when there is a divorce going on custody battles ensue a lot of times, we all know people stay together because they don’t want to lose custody of their child.
5:06 It’s a big issue.
5:07 I’ve heard so many people tell me over the years, you know.
5:11 Yeah, we’re staying together till the kids are grown.
5:13 I always hate that just because I don’t know if the atmosphere is the best for kids to grow up in with tension and fighting or whatever is going on.
5:23 But nonetheless, many couples, we all know stay together for the kids.
5:29 Those who don’t usually end up or can end up.
5:34 Not usually I shouldn’t use that word, but they can end up in a custody battle which just is so stressful for everybody, especially the child.
5:43 And so in this particular situation because there was a divorce going on.
5:49 It was believed because Alex and Susan disappeared, that Susan had abducted her to try to prevent her ex-husband from getting custody of Alex or taking her away from her remains believed to be that of Natasha and Susan who had been missing for nearly 24 years.
6:10 Y’all were found in a West Virginia home the same day, the killer died in prison.
6:17 Now let me tell you this, the suspect Larry Webb confessed on his deathbed and while he was dying, he admitted to shooting and killing Susan and Natasha over financial issues.
6:33 Now, Webb who was in his eighties at the time while he was in prison suffered a medical episode at the Mount Olive Correctional Complex, which is where he was being held without bond after he was arrested earlier in April 2024.
6:52 In connection with Natasha’s death.
6:55 Webb was pronounced at a hospital six hours before Natasha and Susan’s remains were found.
7:03 And I thought this was a crazy story because I guess I always secretly hope that murderers will confess on their deathbed or that murderers will finally confess to their killings before they get lethally injected or before the electric chair or whatever the mode of death is.
7:24 I’m always secretly hoping that they will just confess.
7:27 I mean, it would just, I feel like people who go on and on and on for years denying their crime.
7:34 It put so much agony on the family.
7:37 I just feel like that it would really make it easier for the family to just hear them say, hey, I did it.
7:43 I mean they’re about to die for it anyway, but he did.
7:46 He confessed, Susan Carter was 41 at the time the two went missing and again, she was in a nasty custody battle with Natasha’s father, and she had told him at one time that he would never see his 10-year-old daughter again.
8:05 When they disappeared, that’s another reason why they thought, well, Susan abducted her, they’re off to never, never land and Susan does not want him to see her again or get custody or take her from her in any way back.
8:22 Then when the disappearance occurred, the FBI flyer indicated that the two were living in Webb’s house when they disappeared and the $10,000 reward which was put up back in 2000 was increased to 20,000 in September of 2023 search warrants were issued at Webb’s home but not until 2022 and 2023.
8:52 At which time additional evidence was recovered during one of those searches, Webb said that he had no idea what happened to the two.
9:04 He claimed to have dementia.
9:06 He couldn’t remember anything about the events surrounding their disappearance.
9:13 And he basically said he couldn’t even remember when the last time he saw them was, he did have a caregiver.
9:20 But what really happened allegedly is that Webb noticed that his finances were out of order.
9:27 And so there was a domestic argument that ensued between Webb and Susan and the two argued about it.
9:37 He believed that she stole some money from him, and he shot Carter because the money was missing.
9:44 He thought she had spent it.
9:46 And authorities say that Natasha and this is so sad, but she was killed to avoid detection for Susan’s death.
9:55 I mean, obviously, if he had left the child behind, everyone would ask questions, where’s her mother?
10:01 And she would talk, and she would go to the police.
10:05 He was trying to prevent getting caught altogether and probably knew in the back of his mind that if he just killed both of them, everyone would just think that Susan ran off with Natasha and they couldn’t be found.
10:19 Webb was finally indicted in October of 2023 on a murder charge in Natasha’s disappearance.
10:28 And at that time, he was held in a medical facility.
10:33 He was later arrested on April the 12th after being medically cleared.
10:38 He went to the hospital first got medically cleared and then actually went to the prison.
10:43 Troopers were excavating the property in the 100 block of Kyle Lane in the Mascot area as part of the investigation when the remains were found.
10:56 They finally went in 2022 and 2023 to Webb’s house and started looking.
11:04 Although Susan and Natasha had reportedly moved in with Susan’s mother and her new husband just before they vanished.
11:10 There were also reports that they were staying with Webb.
11:14 The FBI probe led them to the home of Larry Webb in September of 2023 where a caregiver for Webb said that a bullet with Natasha’s blood on it, was removed from a bedroom wall.
11:28 And that is when Webb was finally indicted on a first-degree murder charge in October of 23 for the death of Natasha.
11:37 Because Natasha’s blood was found on a bullet that was found in the wall at Webb’s house.
11:44 I know back in 2000, they collected the evidence and obviously had Natasha’s DNA so that they can match it to the blood that was on the bullet that they found in 2023.
11:56 But I’m curious as to why there was not more of an investigation into Webb and maybe a search warrant issued back then, not that it would have saved them.
12:09 I know they were already deceased, but I just don’t know how far into it.
12:14 They looked back then.
12:16 I couldn’t find any information.
12:19 I actually reached out to Susan’s husband, ex… well, I guess he was still her husband because they never divorced.
12:26 But I reached out to him on Facebook.
12:30 I believe he may be deceased.
12:31 He did not respond.
12:33 I also reached out to another family member just asking if the FBI ever did an investigation further into Web initially.
12:44 And I think like I said, I couldn’t find anything.
12:47 I think that they didn’t.
12:49 And I say that because they just thought at the time that she had been abducted, but I still really don’t understand why they wouldn’t have looked into it further, especially before now.
13:04 I mean, because 24 years had gone by y’all.
13:07 That’s a long time, I guess if there were reports that they were living with him.
13:12 I would have investigated him a little bit more.
13:16 They may have found the bullet back then and I would think that they would have good reason if Susan and Natasha were staying with him to investigate that further.
13:27 But thank goodness they did collect samples back then even before DNA was a thing.
13:33 And so now that it is, we can match those samples up, my guess is that there was not a big investigation because they just assumed that Susan took off with her, which is really sad.
13:45 And again, it wouldn’t have saved their life because they were already gone.
13:48 But this guy lived 24 years, scott free.
13:53 Long story short, Webb lived a somewhat normal life for 24 years because he was not further investigated.
14:03 Initially, Natasha’s father, Ricky Lafferty and again, I reached out to him, I read something on his Facebook page about hospice, but then I also read that his dad had cancer.
14:17 And so I don’t know if the hospice com was referring to him or his father.
14:22 I don’t know if he is still living, but I have not gotten a response from him yet.
14:27 But Ricky Lafferty had not seen Natasha in months during the last mediation meeting, Susan didn’t show up at the following meeting.
14:37 And so Lafferty was granted custody at that time, but Natasha was already gone.
14:44 He was trying to get full custody of her and because Susan had you know, quote unquote, abducted her and had not shown up for that second mediation meeting.
14:55 The judge gave Lafferty custody.
14:59 The bodies were wrapped in sheets and left in the basement for two days until Webb could dig a grave in the backyard.
15:09 Now, I don’t know, he may have lived in a secluded area, but y’all, I’m sure are like me.
15:16 Like if I see my neighbor in the backyard digging a hole, I mean, I’m going to wonder why, I don’t know that I would confront them necessarily because they could have had a pit pass away.
15:28 But we’ve all seen the movies, the horror movies where the murderer is digging a hole in their backyard in the rain, hit in the middle of the night.
15:38 And so this is just what I picture.
15:40 But anyway, he kept him in the basement for two days until he could dig this grave in the backyard.
15:47 He told investigators on his deathbed that after he shot Carter, he knew he had ruined his life forever.
15:55 That’s basically when he realized that he was going to have to kill Natasha as well because she would talk and there would be no way that he would not get caught.
16:10 This case interested me just because it went on for so, so long.
16:15 Y’all like, could you imagine I would feel so guilty?
16:19 First of all, if I were Webb knowing that I had killed two people and gotten away with it, I mean, you know he didn’t live a normal life.
16:27 Well, you can tell by looking at him he wasn’t a quote unquote normal person.
16:32 He looks super creepy.
16:34 And then I’m assuming the caregiver when this bullet was found with blood on it was the one that went to the police, which is kind of what opened up the investigation and made them finally search his home and resulted in him actually being arrested.
16:49 But wow, that’s crazy.
16:52 And how scary for that caregiver to realize, oh my God, I’ve been in a home alone, taking care of this man who was a murderer.
16:59 I mean, I don’t know, it’s a crazy story all over money.
17:04 I mean, money starts so many issues.
17:07 I’ve even heard the police say that a lot of domestic violence issues are related to finances.
17:12 It causes so many problems and of course, right now the economy is terrible and so money is a lot of people’s issues.
17:23 We are seeing a lot of suicides because of financial issues.
17:28 It’s really sad.
17:29 I mean, sometimes, I don’t know, I don’t know what we would do without money.
17:32 I mean, we obviously need it, but I think it does cause a lot, a lot of problems.
17:38 Speaking of, I went on a scene yesterday and I think the death was rather expected.
17:47 The person was very young, not on hospice, but was an alcoholic.
17:54 I think the family believed that death was imminent for him because of his chronic alcoholism.
18:00 But I just noticed, I guess it reminded me of how different a reaction we can get from family members when someone passes away.
18:12 I mean, many times we get so much grief and crying and screaming and it’s always so hard for investigators to hear that, especially in child death.
18:26 And then again, some people you don’t really see crying, you kind of almost get the feeling that they’re relieved, which is strange.
18:38 But I mean, so many years of doing this and having seen so many different reactions, you never know what you’re going to get.
18:46 You know, the family asked me if they could see him and of course, it was a natural death.
18:50 There was no purge at all.
18:53 He was lying on his back, there was no fluid from his nose, no fluid from his mouth.
18:57 He literally looked like he was asleep, and he was laying on the bed, on a pillow, one leg was on the bed, one leg was kind of hanging off the bed in a T shirt, underwear and socks, you know, was somewhat clothed and the family wanted to see him again.
19:15 You know, a lot of our investigators are different as I’m sure they are in different areas.
19:21 I’m normally pretty open to this given the fact, especially in this situation, there was no blood and there was nothing really, you know, there wasn’t a bullet hole in the head, there was no purge, it was not bloody, there was no intubation to, he just looked asleep.
19:41 I chose to allow the parents and the sister to go in the room and look at him.
19:49 I mean, their response was just very matter of fact.
19:52 Yeah, we pretty much knew that this was how it was going to end.
19:55 We knew this is what was going to happen.
19:58 There were no tears, which is fine.
20:00 You know, and many people don’t cry initially because you’re just still in shock.
20:05 You really don’t know how to respond.
20:07 You don’t know how to act.
20:07 You don’t know what to think.
20:09 I allowed them though because they were very calm and very matter of fact and emotionless, I guess I hate to use that word but emotionless that I allowed them to go in and it went very smoothly, but I explained to them, you know, not all investigators would allow that I get it.
20:31 I understand somebody wanting to see somebody, but I always have to kind of look at each situation individually because I did have a kid in his teens, shoot himself in the head.
20:44 It was very bloody in a closet.
20:47 And the dad insisted on seeing him to the point that I feel like he would have ended up getting shot by the police.
20:54 I mean, he was pushing, shoving, yelling, screaming, cursing.
20:59 And it was like, you know what, let’s just give this guy what he wants.
21:04 I mean, he knows what he’s in for, he knows what happened.
21:09 You know, we have not sugar coated the situation.
21:12 He knows it’s going to be bloody.
21:14 He wants to see his son.
21:15 Let’s just let him do it.
21:16 And then we don’t have to worry about fighting him.
21:18 I didn’t want him to go to jail.
21:20 I mean, he just lost his son.
21:21 I don’t want him to go to jail for assaulting a police officer.
21:25 I let him in there again.
21:28 Many investigators would not.
21:30 And we all use our own best judgment in situations like that.
21:35 And you know, that’s kind of what it reminded me of yesterday.
21:38 We do have to use our judgment on every single scene.
21:43 There’s so many things to take in, you know, family dynamics and you know what’s going on in this situation.
21:51 What are the risks in the situation?
21:54 Is it volatile at all?
21:56 Many times you’re going to have a sister and a mom and a dad and a wife or an ex-wife or Children of the decedent that may not get along.
22:07 They didn’t get along when they were alive and they’re getting along even less when they’re dead.
22:12 We have all these family dynamics, and we don’t know the people.
22:15 And so we’re just kind of thrown into this situation where, you know, we do a little quick interview, maybe scan the room, talk to a few people, try to figure out who’s, who try to get a good idea of the relationships or lack of and do what we think is best.
22:35 But in this particular situation, I felt like it would go just the way it did.
22:39 And thank goodness that’s the way it went down.
22:42 But again, I feel like I’m one that’s a little more lenient in situations like that when families ask to see their loved one, I’m curious, I would love to hear from y’all if you would shoot me an email and maybe we can even have a discussion about this on Zoom when we start our Zoom calls with my Patreon because I’m just interested to see.
23:05 Would you want to see your loved one?
23:07 You know, right after, I mean, typically if there’s a lot of blood or whatnot, I’ll tell the family well, during autopsy, they’re cleaned up and when they get to the funeral home, there won’t be any blood, there won’t be any medical intervention.
23:23 They will look much more peaceful, and I prefer that you wait until that time to view them.
23:30 Most people are ok with that answer but not all are.
23:36 And again, I know we’ve had investigators that are like absolutely not.
23:40 I do not do viewings at home.
23:42 I’m not letting the family in.
23:44 But again, it’s case by case, I felt like the decision I made yesterday was a good one.
23:50 But, you know, if it had been a different family, I may not have made the same decision.
23:55 Those are just other issues that we as death investigators have to deal with on a daily basis.
24:01 Just trying to figure out the dynamics, man, because families don’t always get along and you have somebody deceased in the back room and then you have this big mix of aunts and cousins and parents and ex-wives and current wives and man.
24:19 I mean, it’s pretty volatile.
24:22 You have to kind of measure the room and put yourself in a situation where everybody knows you’re there for everybody and you can’t appear to take sides or anything like that.
24:36 It’s kind of another difficult part of our job.
24:40 It just reminded me of that yesterday though because I mean, I was surrounded by a lot of different dynamics, a lot of different people, a lot of different personalities and, you know, occasionally one family member will blame the other.
24:53 So there’s that, yeah, that’s just another part of our job that you throw into the mix, and it could be dangerous.
25:03 I mean, again, if somebody blamed somebody else and a fight ensued, I mean, we could be right there in the middle of it.
25:11 It could be dangerous in our office.
25:14 We do not carry weapons.
25:16 And so that’s why we usually don’t go to a scene, and we don’t go visit a family, anything like that without a law enforcement officer with us.
25:24 And that’s because we do not carry at work, some offices.
25:29 Do I know that when I go to conferences and meet death investigators from other states.
25:34 Many of them do carry, we do not at this time, which I’m kind of glad of because honestly, I don’t want that responsibility.
25:44 I would rather just take an officer with me hoping that it is someone who has good judgment and will have my back if something goes down.
25:55 But I feel like most of the officers in our area are very capable of going with me and protecting me if something happens at a scene again, just another kind of scary part of our job.
26:09 But it went down good, it went down good.
26:11 So all is, well, now I am going to do my first recording for my YouTube channel tonight.
26:20 I’m excited that I continue to get followers, and I was kind of trying to work on my following before I did a lot of recording.
26:28 But now I think I’m ready.
26:30 We’re working on designing the boxes for the cereal box subscription and I’m super excited y’all about the stuff that’s going to be in this first subscription soon.
26:42 We will have availability on the website where you can start ordering that again.
26:47 I would like to know if there’s anybody interested in maybe getting the first box at a discounted rate to kind of maybe critique it and let me know what I could do a little bit differently.
26:59 So, if you’re interested in that, shoot me an email Julie at PushingUpLilies.com and this will be a monthly subscription box.
27:07 It will contain crime scene items, items about death, death investigation, crime scene investigation, serial killers, just different things like that.
27:20 I hope that y’all are interested in it.
27:23 I think it’s going to be fun.
27:24 It’s going to be fun for me to try to search for items, to put in there, to excite y’all every month anyway.
27:30 I’m glad that that is up and coming soon.
27:32 School y’all, I’m in my 11th week of 11, in my advanced pharmacology class, I can say that it is.
27:42 I think I told you all this week a little bit easier than my advanced pathophysiology class was I have a B in it.
27:48 Now, hope to bump that up to an A I have a test tonight and then I have another test on Saturday.
27:53 My final is on Saturday.
27:55 So pray for me there and then my next class starts, boom.
27:59 I got a five-week class that starts November 4th.
28:03 That is going to be evidence-based nursing practice, which I feel like should be pretty easy for me just because I do that all the time.
28:11 It’s going well, it’s hard to believe that I’m already six months into the program time is just flying and I can’t even believe that it’s almost Christmas.
28:21 And I’ve already bought a Christmas present.
28:24 Finally, I can say I have bought a Christmas present.
28:28 I hope that everyone has an amazing day.
28:30 I am headed to the medical examiner’s office this morning and hope the county is good to us.
28:36 I appreciate y’all so much.
28:37 Thank you for listening and I will talk to you next week.
28:41 Bye y’all.
28:43 Thank you so much for joining me today on Pushing Up Lilies.
28:46 If you like this podcast and would like to share with others.
28:50 Please do me a quick favor and leave a review on Apple podcast.
28:54 This helps to make the podcast more visible to the public.
28:57 Thanks again for spending your time with me and be sure to visit me at PushingUpLilies.com for merchandise and past episodes.