Deathbed confession leads police to solve 24-year-old West Virginia cold

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Police never fully close the book on a murder case. And here’s a good example why:

A West Virginia man indicted for killing a mother and her daughter made a deathbed confession in the 24-year-old cold case.

Larry Webb, who was in his 80s, was indicted on murder charges in October 2023 for the 2000 disappearance of Susan Carter, 41, and her 10-year-old daughter, Natasha ‘Alex’ Carter.

Neither the mother or the daughter had been seen since early August of 2000, when they were living at Webb’s house in Beckley, West Virginia:

Police had obtained a search warrant for Webb’s property about a year and a half ago; during the search they “recovered a bullet embedded in the wall of Alex Carter’s bedroom inside Webb’s home,” with DNA from a blood sample on on the bullet matched to the missing girl.

Webb had been held at the Mt. Olive Correctional Complex — about an hour north of Beckley — after the October indictment. The accused killer reportedly had dementia and “suffered a medical episode” this week before making what prosecutor Ben Hatfield called “a detailed, undeniable, unconflicted confession” in the murders.

Local media said the killings stemmed from a dispute over money:

The Prosecuting Attorney said Webb confessed to shooting Susan Carter during an argument over cash inside the home that he believed Susan had spent.

He told investigators after shooting Susan he ‘knew he had ruined his life forever’ and believed he had to shoot 10-year-old Alex to avoid detection of killing Susan Carter.

Webb himself, meanwhile, was “pronounced dead at Montgomery General Hospital” just before the bodies were found.

As for the surviving family of the murder victims: