HAWKINS COUNTY - After more than a week, the nationwide search for Carlie Trent is over. The missing 9-year-old Rogersville girl was located safe in the very county were she was taken.
TBI director Mark Gwyn said two men--- Donnie Lawson and Roger Carpenter, a minister, located Carlie and Gary Simpson on private property on Clinch Mountain, which is in the northern part of Hawkins County.
Simpson, an uncle who previously had custody of Carlie, picked her up from school last Wednesday under false pretenses. They hadn't been seen since that day, until now.
Gwyn said the two men, who he called heroes, held Simpson at gun point until authorities arrived. They were located in a rural area with very limited cell phone service. It was accessible only by four-wheeler.
Carlie appeared to be okay but was being taken to a hospital to be checked out.
Franklin and Simpson were part of a group of four men who'd been scouring the back roads and rural properties of Hawkins County for almost a week.
Roger Carpenter was one of those men, along with Roger Hamblen. Carpenter couldn't share the details of the rescue with 10News, but he talked about the search and the elation that they'd found Carlie.
Watch the interview with Carpenter here.
The men, using four wheelers and on foot, are very familiar with the Hawkins County wilderness. Carpenter said they were very close to the barn where they located Simpson and Carlie the day before, but had moved on because they didn't see any tire tracks.
But he said something urged them to go back, and Carpenter credited God.
"He gave us a clue," he said. "Thank God we went back there."
They returned to the Gravelly Valley area Thursday around 1 pm, to search again. Within hours, they found what they, and many others, had been looking for.
Carpenter won't take credit. "I'm no hero," he told 10News. "I'm an old country boy, raise cattle."
He said he was inspired to start the search in part because of Carlie's resemblance to his own granddaughter.
"If this was her, I'd want everyone of you all out there looking for her," he said.
Carlie's mother, Shannon Trent, told 10News that Carlie was safe. She said she was so relieved, and so happy, to get that call.
TBI investigators still aren't sure at this time if Carlie and Simpson were in the same general area for the eight days they've been out of sight. Gwyn said the white van they were searching for was near where the pair was found.
TBI cast a wide net for the search, and fielded hundreds of tips from several states, but Gwyn said their information and experience led them to believe that the two were likely still close to home.
Since Carlie's disappearance, authorities and the public have been searching for her across the country. In Hawkins County, community members organized several searches to comb through the rural areas. The public's help finally paid off.
"It was the public who rescued Carlie. Without their assistance, I wouldn't be standing here right now," said Gwyn.
Gwyn believed the two men were doing as the TBI asked, checking out rural properties where the two could have been hiding. He thanked everyone who took part in the search.
Thankful that Carlie was found safe, Gwyn said their work isn't done.
"In the coming days and weeks, we will work with District Attorney Dan Armstrong to ensure that Gary Simpson is prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law," he said.
Carlie was picked up at school by her uncle, Gary Simpson, under false pretenses last Wednesday. Simpson had custody of Carlie in the past, but no longer does. The two were last spotted buying supplies at a grocery store in Rogersville after Carlie was picked up at school, but they haven't been spotted since.
The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation initially issued an endangered child alert, but upgraded to an Amber Alert last Thursday after receiving information that indicated Carlie could be in danger.
Simpson was added to the TBI's Top 10 Most Wanted List on Thursday. He faces an enhanced charge of especially aggravated kidnapping.