SAN ANTONIO ā The body of a missing Arkansas real estate agent was found Tuesday morning and now a San Antonio realtor is sharing her own frightening experience in an effort to warn other agents.
Authorities found Beverly Carter's body in a shallow grave days after she showed a home last week and never returned.
The man accused of kidnapping and killing Carter said she was targeted because she was "a woman that worked alone."
"I just feel very sad that all someone was doing was trying to make a living," said Janice Tisdale, a San Antonio real estate agent. "And someone terrible took her life away."
Carter's case hits close to home for Tisdale. In 2010, a man struck her over the head and nearly killed her while she was showing a home.
"It just brings back all of those horrible feelings the day it happened to me," said Tisdale. "But I was fortunate I lived so it's pretty emotional."
Tisdale said she tried to run, but her attacker her caught her.
Tisdale said five kids saw her being dragged from the home and jumped out of their car to help. The kids had just driven by the home, but returned because they felt something was not right.
"These kids gave me my life back," said Tisdale. "And I will forever be indebted to them,"
Tisdale said she knows she was lucky, but she is now on a mission to warn other real estate agents about the dangers they could face when showing houses.
She teaches a class on the danger realtors face. She also tells agents she works closely with to give her the address of the house they are showing and to text her when they are done.
"Initially, I heard her story at SABOR," said Kathleen O'Shea, a realtor. "So, it heightened my awareness about what kind of safety issues there are when going to meet people you haven't met before."
When Tisdale reflects back to the day she was attacked, she said she did everything right for the most part.
She told her husband where she was going. She drove her own car, but the mistake she made was not listening to her gut instincts that told her if something doesn't feel right, just drive away.