True Crime Chronicles: A 2014 attack on a Boone County shopkeeper sent a brutal killer to prison for life without parole
- Dennis McCaslin
- Jun 27
- 2 min read
The tiny, rural community of Bear Creek Springs in Boone County was shaken to its core in July 2014 when 75-year-old shopkeeper Adah Lorraine Carte was found murdered inside her store, the Ozark Emporium
Authorities responded to a welfare check at the shop just north of Harrison and discovered Carte’s body late Thursday evening. Surveillance footage from the store quickly led investigators to a suspect: Donald C. Biles, a then-60-year-old parolee with a criminal record spanning decades.
Biles, who had been released on parole in 2013 after serving time for theft and burglary, was arrested the following day during a traffic stop near Bergman. He was later charged with capital murder, aggravated robbery, and identity fraud, all as a habitual offender. In December 2014, he was sentenced to life without parole.
Prosecutors described the crime as a robbery gone violently wrong. Biles allegedly entered the Ozark Emporium under the pretense of shopping, then fatally attacked Carte. to the during the course of the robbery.
The case reignited debate over Arkansas’s parole system, as Biles had a long history of offenses dating back to the early 1980s, including aggravated robbery, escape, and possession of a firearm by certain persons.
Boone County Deputy Prosecutor Wes Bradford, who had prosecuted Biles in earlier cases, expressed frustration at the system’s failure to prevent the tragedy. “If he had still been in prison, this poor lady would not be dead,” Bradford said in a 2014 interview.
Today, Biles remains incarcerated at the East Arkansas Regional Unit in Brickeys, Arkansas. His inmate record reflects four separate incarcerations and a litany of convictions across multiple counties.
As for the community of Bear Creek Springs, the memory of Adah Lorraine Carte lives on. Locals remember her as a kind-hearted businesswoman who loved antiques, conversation, and the people of Boone County. Her death left a void that no sentence can truly fill.
