Kali White VanBaale
aetv.com
2024
Why Violence and Murder Is a Real Concern for Real Estate Agents
https://www.aetv.com/real-crime/real-estate-agent-murders
April 27, 2024
A+E Networks
On April 8, 2011, 27-year-old real estate agent Ashley Okland was holding an open house for a model townhome in the quiet, upscale suburb of West Des Moines, Iowa on a sunny afternoon—something the successful agent had done many times before. Shortly before 2 p.m., a nearby employee working in the complex heard a commotion inside the townhouse and went to investigate. Inside, the worker discovered Okland unconscious and bleeding on the floor and called 911.
Medics rushed Okland to a Des Moines trauma center, where she later died of two gunshot wounds.
West Des Moines Police found the crime scene inside the home baffling, with no signs of a struggle, no evidence of theft or sexual assault, no clear apparent motive.
Okland’s case quickly became national news. Despite nearly 900 leads and 500 interviews in the ensuing years, it went cold and remains unsolved.
Okland’s murder, while shocking, seemed unusual in the real estate business at the time. But just three years later, on September 25, 2014, 50-year-old real estate agent Beverly Carter, a top agent in Arkansas, disappeared while showing a house to a prospective male client in Scott, Arkansas, an isolated area outside of Little Rock.
After Carter’s body was discovered in a shallow grave two weeks later, suspects Aaron Lewis and his estranged wife Crystal Lowery were eventually arrested, tried and convicted of Carter’s abduction and murder. They admitted to setting up a fake house showing with Carter so they could kidnap her for ransom—and then killing her when the plot went awry. Lewis was sentenced to two life terms and Lowery was sentenced to 30 years in prison.
The Okland and Carter cases reflect a disturbing pattern of real estate industry violence that affects professionals in the field, regardless of age, location and even gender.
According the U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics, 23 real estate-related professionals died from violence on the job in 2022. And a 2022 safety survey conducted by the National Association of Realtors (NAR) revealed that 2 percent of residential real estate agents were victims of a crime while on the job, meaning 30,000 of the 1.5 million agents reported they were victims of a robbery, physical attack or sexual assault. The survey also found that 23 percent of respondents reported feeling concerned for their safety.
In the case of Beverly Carter, when Lewis was asked why he targeted her, he responded, “Because she was just a woman that worked alone—a rich broker.”
For Jen Stanbrough, a managing broker in West Des Moines and close friend and former co-worker of Ashley Okland, April 8 is a day that will always haunt her.
“In looking back over my early real estate days, I had experienced several unsettling incidents or realized I’d placed myself in scenarios or positions which had left me vulnerable,” Stanbrough tells A&E True Crime. “I hadn’t been taught or thought about precautions.”
But Okland’s murder inspired Stanbrough to get serious about real estate agent safety. She became a founding member of the Des Moines Area Association of Realtors’ Safety Committee, and helped author the REALTOR® Safety Pledge and the National Association of Realtors Safe Showing Listing Form, a tool used to talk with sellers about the importance of their own safe practices.
Stanbrough regularly keeps Okland’s story alive to warn other real estate professionals about the dangers they potentially face in the field.
“It can happen to you, to one of your friends, a colleague or family member,” she told attendees at a recent safety webinar in September 2023 for REALTOR® Safety Month. “I don’t tell you that to scare you; I want you to be prepared.”
Here are a few safety tips from Stanbrough and Geoff Fahringer, a NAR safety instructor and law enforcement officer:
While Stanbrough feels “overall real estate safety has improved” through awareness and trainings like Farhinger’s webinars, “agents are [still] sometimes willing to put a potential sale above the need for safe practices.”
She acknowledges it is easy to get complacent and slip back into old habits, but, “we have to continue training and implementing safe practices every day. Let’s hold each other accountable.”
Anyone with information about Okland’s murder can report it to Crime Stoppers of Central Iowa by calling 515-223-1400 or 800-452-1111, or submit it online at crimestoppersofcentral.com or on the app P3TIPS.com.
Related Features:
The Work of a Cold Case Detective: Finding Answers Years After a Crime
How a Group of Active and Retired Homicide Investigators Anonymously Solve Cold Cases
The Cold Case Murders That Keep Retired Detectives Up at Night
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