Found Alive AL - Carlethia “Carlee” Russell, 25, 911 call reported toddler walking on side of interstate, car found, she & toddler gone, Birmingham, 13 Jul ‘23

[justinkjones1993]

Also for all the people saying

"She asked someone "are you okay?", therefore she couldn't possibly be having a mental health episode! That's proof someone was there!"

NO.

If someone is seeing things that aren't there, it's perfectly within reason that said person would also attempt to communicate with something that wasn't there. Her speaking is not evidence of anything, at all. It's actually unbelievable to me that people on this forum of all places can't understand this.

 

[cuffem]

Exactly. There’s much easier, less likely to go wrong ways of abducting someone if that’s the goal. As far as I’m aware, when it comes to things like human trafficking they take people that they think society won’t “miss” or at least won’t notice are missing right away unfortunately.

It also seems a bit over the top for a staged disappearance. Why do something that would guarantee a fast police response and searches? Unless her family is really controlling it’d be much easier/better to leave in a way that gives you at least a few hours before anyone is aware.

Stumbling across something nefarious seems most likely to me but just barely. That theory also has issues that are difficult to explain away.

You are right about wanting more time if planned. You would not want police in a hurry to a spot you just left.
Has tracking dogs been used?

There has been a few bizarre cases with bizarre outcomes on WS, so this one might be surprising. I hope it is surprising in that she is ok.

 

[GoBuckeyes]

And so would having someone on the other end of the phone hear Carlee ask if someone was ok before hearing her scream and then nothing but highway noise.

The person on the other end of the call didn't mention hearing the phone hit the pavement, did they?

Would she be able to distinguish that sound through all of the highway noise?? IDK

 

[Coolcamino]

Understood. But she didn’t have a flashlight or even her phone to use as a light, so how would she navigate through the woods in the dark? Especially if she wasn’t perhaps familiar with that area to know there were homes back there.

She could have easily had a flashlight.

 

[BeginnerSleuther]

Also for all the people saying

"She asked someone "are you okay?", therefore she couldn't possibly be having a mental health episode! That's proof someone was there!"

NO.

If someone is seeing things that aren't there, it's perfectly within reason that said person would also attempt to communicate with something that wasn't there. Her speaking is not evidence of anything, at all. It's actually unbelievable to me that people on this forum of all places can't understand this.

I haven't seen anyone say that.

What I, and others, have said is that there is no evidence of a mental health crisis. Her speaking actually is evidence of something. People who are psychotic are, by definition of the illness, disorganized. If she is speaking coherently in an organized, calm fashion, it suggests she isn't acutely psychotic. People who are psychotic don't typically hallucinate a fully formed child walking along a highway. Those types of hallucinations would suggest a neurologic cause, usually, especially if there's no auditory hallucination to pre-date or even accompany it. But a neurologic cause wouldn't explain the disappearance. So her 911 call and call to her sister-in-law are important, IMO, if we want insight into her mental status.

 

[K9Enzo]

It’s tricky (imo) to information gather from the family of the missing. They sometimes withhold information especially about the state of mind of the missing person . They worry LE will view their loved one in a different way, and it could result in them not being found safe. All information is critical, even info that seems irrelevant.

I would want to talk to her closest friends and coworkers. They would be my focus. It’s not unusual for family not to know what’s really going on in their adult child’s daily life.

Any type of trafficking scenario is a hard stop for me. She, imo, does not fit the vulnerable & high risk targets these people go after to groom victims into sexual abuse. There was no bait child on the side of the road. imo

I’m not sure what happened but find it interesting she uses her emergency lights, like she should, to pull over. This is a simple, but clear headed task. She was being careful. This makes me put staged further down my list for now. imo

 

[keepitsimplestupid]

Are gators prevalent there?

Not likely. This is in a landlocked area of Alabama, nowhere near the small stretch of coast to the south along the Gulf.

 

[cuffem]

Why would someone want to film this though? It seems like a pretty normal occurrence. I see people driving with their hazards on the shoulder fairly frequently and never think anything of it. I just assume they are having car trouble or something

IMO

I think the poster meant the cars that have cameras that film automatically the drive ahead.

 

[sng]

You think Gators are on that specific area?!

I don’t know about that precise point on the map but if there’s a shallow body of fresh water in the Deep South, there’s a good chance gators are around. It’s not Florida or south Alabama where there’s one in every ditch, but they’re around. Look for a street called Lakecrest Circle on the other side of the strip mall from where she stopped - that strip of water along it is an old swamp.

 

[Melisende10]

And they are snatching wigs off ?

I thought the wig was in her car along with her cell phone?

 

[MistyWaters]

Nah I’m looking at the same thing. You see various reflections like that throughout the video. I’m not sure why it only happens with some vehicles and not all but you can see which ones are causing it. I’m also not sure why TMZ marked it with an arrow because it’s a car in the middle lane. Looks like maybe a Camaro?

First time I’ve ever seen a reflection of a car in the middle lane going in the opposite direction well beyond the road. It’s unusual because the light begins very near where the car has stopped on the shoulder.

It appears to me to be a single light, not headlights.

Video Shows Missing AL Woman Carlee Russell Pull Over Before Vanishing

New video taken the night that Carlee Russell disappeared in Alabama appears to show the moment she pulled over on a highway to help a child ... this before mysteriously vanishing.

www.tmz.com

 

[BeginnerSleuther]

Not likely. This is in a landlocked area of Alabama, nowhere near the small stretch of coast to the south along the Gulf.

Gators don't live in the Gulf. They live in lakes and ponds.

 

[ConfusedPopsicle]

You are right about wanting more time if planned. You would not want police in a hurry to a spot you just left.
Has tracking dogs been used?

There has been a few bizarre cases with bizarre outcomes on WS, so this one might be surprising. I hope it is surprising in that she is ok.

For sure. For her sake this would be the best outcome. Do we know if she lived with her parents still? We don’t know her family dynamic, maybe they are super controlling and this was the only way she thought she could get away? It just seems so unlikely with everything I’ve read so far. I remember it not taking long I’m the Sherri Papini case for stories to come out about her either doing something similar before or having a history of personality disordered behavior/lying etc.. From what I’ve read Carlee is a good person without any questionable things in her past. Of course it’s always possible that kind of info is being held close in order to keep people from brushing this off.

 

[Starkville]

You are right about wanting more time if planned. You would not want police in a hurry to a spot you just left.
Has tracking dogs been used?

There has been a few bizarre cases with bizarre outcomes on WS, so this one might be surprising. I hope it is surprising in that she is ok.

There was the case of Lisa Theris (also in AL) who was missing for a month.

Other cases of women who went missing in an alarming way and were found alive later are: Sherri Papini,Heather Mounce, rescued from the side of a steep cliff, Carrie Bradshaw-Crowther, went missing on her due date.

In all of these cases, there was underlying reason that these women disappeared themselves. None of them good. The families truly believed they had been abducted. Men even do it, too. Nobody wants to say it’s anything the victim did of their own accord.

IMO Carlee’s story could be similar to one of these. And IMO I hope so, because the baited abduction version is horrific. If she’s alive, she can return to the people who love her and get help. I wish nothing more than for her to be found alive and well.

 

[MistyWaters]

I think the poster meant the cars that have cameras that film automatically the drive ahead.

Dash cams too, yes.

 

[Kas80]

She could have easily had a flashlight.

That’s likely why she had her phone in her hand. To use it as a flashlight.

 

[DeDee]

She is only seen walking into woods at the car but I guess she could have walked through the woods on down. Depends how thick the woods are.
But in the dark would be difficult.IMO

HeyJB WFLA has a new video this evening where I grabbed this SS. The woods are v dense. On the other side of the trees is a rather nice neighborhood. If she entered, the briars and the bushes would prevent her from reaching the homes. It's hot summertime and ticks would be all in the pine needles.

This is not a ruse or a hoax unless there was a reason and a purpose on her part. There's the adorable vid with Gparents when she's tricking them about their history so it's ok to consider mischief may have happened here but also consider this child drove a shiny red Mercedes'. Maybe she couldn't afford it so the best way out of debt was to abandon it on I-459.

Otherwise, there must be an event that occurred for the HWY patrol to be putting sincere efforts searching there after releasing the video. I've watched her vanish in the TMZ video five times. I don't see her walking into the woods but it was dark and the footage is poor so that doesn't mean it didn't happen.



https://www.tmz.com/watch/2023-07-15-071523-carlee-russell-1649694-986/

 

[GoBuckeyes]

ICKEdMeL trying to figure this out

- YouTube

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

www.youtube.com

Great find! <modsnip: no source link>

 

[Snail-Overlord]

Also for all the people saying

"She asked someone "are you okay?", therefore she couldn't possibly be having a mental health episode! That's proof someone was there!"

NO.

If someone is seeing things that aren't there, it's perfectly within reason that said person would also attempt to communicate with something that wasn't there. Her speaking is not evidence of anything, at all. It's actually unbelievable to me that people on this forum of all places can't understand this.

Psychotic people don’t usually respond in a logical or reasonable way to their own hallucinations. Calling 911 and pulling over to check IMO is a perfectly rational response to thinking there was a child. Others have said this too, but psychotic people have disorganized speech and show clearly odd behavior. Those symptoms are more common than hallucinations are.

 

[ConfusedPopsicle]

First time I’ve ever seen a reflection of a car in the middle lane going in the opposite direction well beyond the road. It’s unusual because the light begins very near where the car has stopped on the shoulder.

It appears to me to be a single light, not headlights.

Video Shows Missing AL Woman Carlee Russell Pull Over Before Vanishing

New video taken the night that Carlee Russell disappeared in Alabama appears to show the moment she pulled over on a highway to help a child ... this before mysteriously vanishing.

www.tmz.com

Ok *shrug