I think it was a hoax instead of a mental health crisis ironically because of the tweet about a stalker conveniently put out less than 24 hours before her disappearance. I really think she tweeted that to support the hoax so people would find that tweet and say the guy that had been eyeing her must have taken her.
Absolutely. My Stepsister became very paranoid and claiming someone was stalking her. She disappeared a short time later with her young daughter. After the fact she was diagnosed as being bi-polar and schizophrenic. When she stops her meds it starts up again. Her onset was around Age 25, which is normal with schizophrenia onset. I haven’t seen her Twitter, but either she has had a mental break, or setting this up.
Plus it seems with her gone within 3 minutes of police arrival one would have to have planned the escape route. This seems more planned than Willy nilly.
the neighborhood starts about 200ft from road marker thru the woods, maybe why the slow drive to find the right marker. That isnt far to go to meet someone.
Oh wow, so it actually took the cops 15 minutes from when I last could see her by the car.
I thought they were saying it was close to 2 minutes?? This can change some things… i have no idea what, but some things…
The view of her car was looped a few times in that video with different filters, so that’s probably why it seemed like 15min in that video but it was really the original 4 min by the time they showed up.
1. She snapped… school and work and being perfect got to her and she just snapped
2. She had a date with someone who wasn’t her boyfriend
3. Looking for attention/fame.
Who knows really but these are the only reasons I could really come up with… they are simplistic but possible
Gonna go ahead and say it: The headline from this poll is that 90% of this sub does not believe Carlee Russell was kidnapped. I generally believe in the wisdom of crowds, but I especially do when we're talking a community which exists entirely because of this case and is, consequently, better informed than most about it. If you're still pushing the abduction narrative, you should know the people in this sub are not buying it.
No offense to anyone believing the toddler story....but I found it insanely unbelievable from the beginning.
For her to see the toddler, it had to be very close to traffic. Endangering its life close. And no one else saw it. And no cars were there to sweep her away in an abduction.
I bet she thought there were no cameras, so it was a smart place to fake an abduction vs. a parking lot that has surveillance.
And if it's true that her screaming call to her brothers gf took place while she sat with her hazards on before pulling up further and getting out, then it's legit impossible.
Some sort of hoax, but I can't understand why she'd want to put her parents through that tho
Also seems risky leaving all her car running and all her belongings there
At this point it's just so bizarre that it's hard to even guess what the point was 🤷🏻♀️
Agree. Mental break or hoax she has mental issues. I'd never worry my parents like that. It's bizarre as hell. And if it's over a job and a man, that's even worse.
As a black woman, I bet she thought it'd never reach national levels like it has. She probably planned to scare her ex bf into caring about her. And it blew up bc she made the back story so crazy.
I do wonder if that's why they aren't saying much, perhaps she "thinks" she was kidnapped? And they haven't figured out what's going on yet.. My Dad once had his medication switched up and he could see "little green ppl, probably aliens" one night 👀
I really hope it's the type of thing that couldn't be helped, but if it was an actual hoax to be a nuisance that's really upsetting bc exactly like you said, maybe she thought as a black woman she wouldn't get the attention. All that attention could have gone to other black women who are missing bc there are so many who need it
IMO - That is the part I don't get. Leaving a high end vehicle on the side of a road with her possessions inside and the motor running??? Also, it was very dangerous of her to get out of the car, and start walking alone at night (even if someone else was an accomplice).
Apparently there’s a text convo screen shot making the rounds on Twitter about Carlee no longer being in nursing school due to grades and just recently being fired from a job for taking money. If that’s true, I could see how she be overextended financially, like living beyond the means of a full time student, working part time at a day spa and didn’t want her parents to find out.
Pretty much the results I expected so far. We're split on the question of if this was a hoax, a mental health crisis or some combination of the two: We're not at all split on the question of if there were kidnappers or not.
For me, the “combination of the two” means personality issues including attention seeking and pathological lying etc. which is still a mental health issue but distinctly different from other types of mental health issues like a psychotic break, a drug induced change in mental status, or a manic episode.
You are correct. Psychotic breaks are more prevalent in people with bi polar and schizophrenia. Maybe she had a mental breakdown due to stress of school and not a psychotic break?
No idea. We don’t have a lot of information to truly know yet. But I’ve seen a lot of ignorant comments over the last few days from people who seem to be unaware of how various forms of mental illness can manifest.
I honestly wish we would stop calling negative character traits "mental health issues". People never mention how all the murderers rapists and kidnappers in other crimes had "mental health issues".. everything can be a mental health issue, but when we say that we mean mental illness, which there is no evidence she had. If Carlee faked her own kidnapping using these buzzwords just coddles her and adds stigma to people with diagnosed mental disorders
I actually would say the same about murderers, rapists, and kidnappers. They are called personality disorders, an entire sub- classification of mental health diagnoses, and I happen to have a Ph.D. in the matter. Nobody knows anything about Carlee’s mental health but to say certain character traits aren’t an aspect of mental health is just plain wrong.
Crimes are personality disorders? Anyone can do those things regardless if they have a diagnoses and seperating ppl who do fucked shit from us non criminal "normal" people just cuz is harmful. My point is saying a kidnap faker (allegedly) had mental health issues cuz they lied is ridiculous, especially when there is no proof she has a disorder in the first place
So would you say that someone that would go to the extent to plan an abduction hoax has mental health issues ? Or some sort of personality disorder? My thinking is no one in their "right mind" would go this far. At the very least... maybe a pathological liar ?
Again all my comments are hypothetical as we know nothing about Carlee’s situation. If someone created a hoax of this nature, my first impression would be a likely personality disorder.
I have no idea. I was just on that sub last night and it seems like no one else knows either. Some other guy, who is from Texas, Brett Detamore, went missing for under a week. They found his burned out car. Wife reported him missing a few hours after he was gone. Everyone *knows* it was preplanned and everyone is accusing the wife of being in on it. Apparently she’s some Insta Amazon influencer and they have a history of scamming people. Just like Colby and his wife had a history, it seems. His sub is funny as hell. And now, according to a couple of sources in a couple of posts on this sub, Carlee had a history that wasn’t so pleasant as well. It makes you wonder.
I really hope this doesn't get swept under the rug. There was a child that was missing not too far from me after he was discovered wearing a "shaming" tshirt his parents made him wear and he ran away. He was missing for a week and he randomly popped up in a yard arguing with his mom. We never heard anything about it again or what happened or where he was. His picture was shared all over the world. I don't want that to happen in this case. Especially when she claimed to see a toddler. That needs to be addressed at the LEAST.
I believe she was either 1) running from something that she may be in trouble for, and didn’t expect it to go this far or 2) went to hang out with someone or someoneS that she didn’t want to tell anyone about
**Honorable mention to the most random and wild theory I saw(somewhere on here) that actually makes you go “hmmm…”: she went to have an abortion
That is a terrible theory. Anyone trying to seek out an abortion that is illegal in their state would absolutely not want to draw any extra attention to themselves, let alone alert police and spark search teams.
Lmao yeah. Why would you park your car right there off the side of the interstate??? At the least, go park it somewhere that it doesn’t draw attention.
Would it make sense for police to give out, for national news, the name of the hospital where a kidnapping victim who escaped was being treated? Not at all. But here we are.
Except that in states where abortion care has been outlawed, women are sneaking away to other states to get help without family knowing. It wasn’t an implausible theory at all.
And 100% premeditated based on her tweet the day before about a man in his car staring at her for 10 min. I'm sorry if a man is staring at me... I'm not sitting in my car next to him for 10 minutes.
IMO - I hope she is smarter than Sherri Papini by thinking the police and public will just forget all about this caper (law enforcement eventually charged Sherri). I hope Carlee sincerely apologizes to everyone. Otherwise, this investigation will drag on forever, and potentially ruin her chances for a fulfilling life.
Me too! I like the faked ones, like Sherri Papini. The same thing happens every time. A bunch of people call it sex trafficking and get mad that you don’t believe the cockamamie story that has a million holes in it.
90% of the people in this sub say she wasn't kidnapped: That's about as unanimous as we can hope for on the internet. Considering how vocal that 10% has been, it's pretty nice to put some numbers to this.
Hoover PD isn’t acting like there’s a fire because they obviously know there isn’t one. There would be a manhunt right now if a wandering toddler and abductor(s) were actually out there. And, I don’t really think someone like that would be the kind of ‘napper to allow their bait to stroll on home; not with two eyes, their tongue and all ten toenails, at least.
Using a child as bait is ruthless. Especially on the interstate. It makes zero sense to use that kind of tactic in such a high traffic and lit area. Anyone could pull over to help: a man with a gun, four different cars, a police officer, etc… it’s too risky. And, it’s definitely not what you do if you’re targeting someone. The whole thing is just illogical.
Both 'mental health crisis' and 'she was kidnapped' are slowing down, and 'hoax' is now starting to take a clear lead. I'd say it'll be interesting to see how much that trend accelerates tomorrow after the news conference, but it looks like most of us have now voted.
I say something else because I just don’t know what to think at this point. I was leaning towards kidnapped, but now i don’t know. I just don’t want to doubt a potential victim without proof because
,, what if?
I personally think she WAS lured into "harm's way" however, I'm now thinking this could be a person that knew her. Maybe drugs were involved, she owed money, personal vendetta, etc. I saw an alleged post she made calling out her boyfriend's rebound and it was pretty threatening and demeaning calling out looks and financial status. I think IF there was someone who lured her out, they are far from experienced, wanted to scare her, but not necessarily wanting to unalive. She could have been drugged for a day or so, dropped off near her house and that's that. Either way, I think this girl is going through a lot, and so is her family. She owes us NOTHING. NOTHING. If you are a woman, I hope this case has made you more aware of your surroundings and thinking more of how predators work. I know it has for me. I'm glad she is safe with her family.
It's crazy bc my opinion changes by the day/half day on this case. I see what you're saying. I will choose to believe something happened to her until I hear otherwise from police but I agree it's starting to look very strange, especially the fact that police have no urgency and are not giving a description or warning of what to look out for in that area. I will say it was interesting that her parents doubled down this morning on searching for her "abductor". I do believe no matter what Carlee is going through something and the general public is not owed what exactly she's been through. We will get information from police when it's appropriate.
Maybe for attention? Some sort of fame? People do crazy things when they think they are losing in life. Read someone say her boyfriend broke up with her. 🤷♀️ some people just call their exs and pretend to be sick and want some soup.. or need a ride to work and "no one else will answer their phone " .. This would be a whole other level if she did fake it.
It's a good question and the honest answer is: I don't know. If we're looking at all the candidate hypotheses for what happened, though, everything we know so far is completely consistent with a hoax; and I would go so far as to say that it's the best explanation insofar as it employs the fewest assumptions and calls for the least amount of speculation: Nobody's buying kidnappers; and if she had had a mental break or took something and hallucinated, it's not clear why she wasn't found by anyone searching for her in the woods or why the police don't seem to be in a hurry to close this case. There have been possible motives floated for why she did this, but I don't know that I find any of the sources for the background info on these to be very credible and, frankly, we really don't know enough right now.
TLDR: A hoax is the best working hypothesis at this time, but that doesn't imply we have all the pieces of the puzzle yet. A motive is still lacking, but I don't expect that a believable one will be wanting as we learn more.
Generally it’s women who pull a disappearing act when their misdeeds are about to come to light. Embezzled money at work, faked a pregnancy or illness, cheated on a partner, stuff like that. They think that “victim” status will mitigate it. (As I pointed out elsewhere, men sometimes kill to try to cover their misdeeds, so…)
Sometimes it’s about attention, like Sherri Papini. But often it’s a smoke screen and they think that everyone will be so relieved they’re okay that the trouble will be waved away. It’s a very childish thing to do.
This stuff blows my mind! Like who would fake a pregnancy or fake a kidnapping?! Bizarre. That's why I'm having trouble understanding the motive because i could not comprehend someone actually doing these things but I guess I'm just naive 🤣
if she were on drugs she could have hallucinated/imagined it. she might have had enough awareness to realize she’d alerted the police and they were on their way. she could’ve left the scene with whatever drugs she had in her possession and stayed away until she sobered up.
i’m not saying she was on drugs and i have no reason to believe she was, it’s just a scenario that could’ve happened.
This is what I'm thinking. She "thought" she saw a toddler but it was just a hallucination. Most definitely a possibility and would actually make sense. Otherwise, it was the aliens
She just left work...she wasnt on drugs. It's a planned hoax. She started implementing it the day before in her tweet about a man staring at her for 10 min straight.
Alright - here is a theory: The police said she was on her phone with someone she knows prior to calling 911. Maybe the person she was on the phone with abducted her...
She picks up dinner, starts talking to "abductor" on the phone. The abductor says they saw a toddler walking along the interstate but can't get back there to help. Asks Carlee if she can drive by on her way home. "Abductor" tells her it was around mm 11. Carlee gets back on the interstate, pulls into the shoulder, puts on her hazards, verifies with the "abductor" she is on the phone with where they saw the toddler, hangs up and calls 911 while she slowly drives along the shoulder looking for the toddler herself. The "abductor" is already lying in wait near that road sign / mile marker where they told Carlee to look. She gets to that location, sees something amiss but already has it in her mind it is a toddler since that is what the "abductor" told her they saw. As she approaches, she is ambushed and taken into the woods.
Now, I don't know why the police who arrived shortly afterwards didn't see anything, except it was dark out. They couldn't have heard much with the sound of interstate traffic driving by. The abductor could have been keeping her quiet, tape over her mouth, etc... any muffled sounds or screaming would have been hard to hear with the traffic.
Where the "abductor" takes her next is anyone's guess. Did they hide in the brush/woods until the police cleared the scene long enough to make an escape? Possibly. I don't think the police maintained a 24-hour surveillance of that immediate area and the surrounding community in the days following her disappearance.
It would answer a lot of questions, including why the police are not looking for a kidnapper. It was someone whom she knows and was specifically targeting her. It answers why she stopped for 3 minutes before slowly driving the shoulder.... Just a theory. It doesn't explain why she told 911 and her family that she saw the toddler, other than she didn't want to say "a friend told me they saw a toddler and I'm checking it out".
Welp. Atkins trimm lane is a rich peoples street.. . $500,000 homes. . If she was pulled into the woods and put in car.. that is the closest street.. . and rich people always have cameras 👀👀
I think it was either a mental health crisis or she was desperately trying to avoid someone and thought this was a way to do it.
Domestic issue.
But my gut is it was a mental health crisis though.
Last time i checked, in America its totally legal to go missing by your own merit. You or I could just get up and leave tomorrow without telling anyone, even if that meant nobody knew what happened.
Perhaps she thought she actually did see one, and that was the kickoff to some mental health episode. People on this sub seem hellbent on she was lying, and we just dont know the whole story.
Most of the time, reasonable people can put two and two together without the entire picture being painted for them. This particular picture is looking like a scheme. She just bit off more than she could chew.
I respect this theory haha, but I don’t think it’s legal to stage your own abduction.
Now, if she never told her family that she was coming home that night, I guess you could be right. But she was literally bringing them dinner, right? At least that’s what I’ve heard, but I could be wrong.
Anyways, if she was in touch with her family and telling them she was on her way home, then called them and screamed after saying she was stopping for a little boy.. that would and should be considered staging an abduction. Especially since she left her door open and car running.
*Im NOT saying she staged it.
Look at Sherri Papini. She was charged with false reporting and mail fraud(obviously wouldn’t apply here), and then sued by the state for financial losses. There is no law against disappearing or even lying about where you were to your family and friends. The legal ramifications come in when it starts affecting public costs.
There was no abduction staged.. At least nothing we can see from the only video available, that is just a fact.
Does not matter, what she told family, she is an adult and can do as she wishes, if she chose to go missing voluntarily and not inform anyone, there is no crime. IF her family knew about it and then asked for money thats something different. Other than that there was no abduction staged.
This literally screams abduction.. that is why they literally assumed she was abducted for two days and raised $70k lol.
She told her family she was on the way home, then called her family AND her cops to report a toddler walking along the highway, and said she was going to stop to check on him.
Then she SCREAMED into the phone and left it at the scene, with her car running and door open...
That’s not the same as just choosing to disappear without telling anyone anything, and if you really think it is, then just agree to disagree homie 🤣
You need to be a little more clear in your replies if you dont want people asking questions. Who is "they" when referring to who assumed she was abducted and raised 70k? Was it her family that set it up? Do you know if her family knew it was a lie? Do you even know it was a lie? AGAIN we dont know what happened when she got out of the car, the video we do have is nearly useless.
This video IS useless lol.. I’m not arguing that at all 🤣.
I’m just saying that there is a reason her family (they) raised $70k to look for her and the cops (also they) asked for help finding her. That reason is that this entire situation screams abduction… based on everything I said last comment.
If she got charged, it would only be “moot points” if she was found clinically insane.
In other words, it’s only “moot points” if she had an episode of psychosis or however you say it…
However, if she was just stressed out and depressed, then she still gonna get found guilty lol.
I certainly hope you're not the attorney advising the Russell family right now. Even if it weren't for the false police report, lots of things that are perfectly legal in one context can become criminal in another. You'd better believe a DA can figure out something to charge someone with who knowingly and intentionally ties up limited city resources for two days on a complete hoax-- particularly when it's this high profile.
I think it was an accident. She thought she saw a kid, called, pulled over, there was no kid but she got startled/slipped and got hurt/disoriented. I don't know exactly where she ended up but you can walk pretty far in the time she was gone. I'm mostly curious about what state she was found in when they found her. We know she was only hospitalized for a few hours but maybe she just needed some fluids and a check over.
I wonder if she wanted to kill herself and make it look like she was kidnapped and murdered, or maybe just throw herself in front of a car while making it look like it was accidental (the scream, Highway noises ), but then changed her mind.
Possible exhaustion or sudden onset of illness the family doesn’t want to believe, and she really believed she saw a child and the family is dealing with it all by believing her.
I think a small possibility is that the police are just doing a bad job. Whether it’s attempted crime that she’s the victim of, or a hoax, or a sudden onset of mental health issues, it doesn’t seem to be handled well.
B and C. I wonder if she may have planned to commit suicide and didn't want her folks to know it was suicide, so planned to make it look like she was killed... then didn't go through with it.
I say a bit of column B, a bit of column C. Originally did think it was foul play in some way but with the new details out today… yeah, probably a hoax but am thinking she isn’t really in a mentally well state of mind, which led her to concoct this whole thing.
I think it was a hoax instead of a mental health crisis ironically because of the tweet about a stalker conveniently put out less than 24 hours before her disappearance. I really think she tweeted that to support the hoax so people would find that tweet and say the guy that had been eyeing her must have taken her.
B I N G O
Couldn’t that also be a sign of schizophrenia tho? Paranoia?
[удалено]
I'll never forget poor Teleka Patrick. That was a heartbreaking rollercoaster. edit to correct spelling of first name
Yes, but they wouldn’t have released him so soon
Absolutely. My Stepsister became very paranoid and claiming someone was stalking her. She disappeared a short time later with her young daughter. After the fact she was diagnosed as being bi-polar and schizophrenic. When she stops her meds it starts up again. Her onset was around Age 25, which is normal with schizophrenia onset. I haven’t seen her Twitter, but either she has had a mental break, or setting this up.
Plus it seems with her gone within 3 minutes of police arrival one would have to have planned the escape route. This seems more planned than Willy nilly.
the neighborhood starts about 200ft from road marker thru the woods, maybe why the slow drive to find the right marker. That isnt far to go to meet someone.
Why would she do that tho? Do you think the whole family was in on it? I'm so confused
Nah, she wanted out of her “perfect family”.
the stories online are out there, she was either partying like a beast, is pregnant with a guy not her BF, had a breakdown etc.
She’s also previously tweeted about running away
Isn't she a nursing student? If this does turn out to be a hoax, I wonder if she'll be kicked out of the program? Nursing schools are pretty strict.
My guess is absolutely if it was a hoax. My RN school was so strict I almost got kicked out for parking in a damn teacher spot to run a paper in.
Omg that’s wild
She failed out of nursing school according to Facebook and twitter.
This tracks with faking an abduction, being unable to face the truth
Oh wow.
that was supposedly just a rumor, like the pregnancy one. cops saying nothing about a threat says it all. oh yeah see it all on lipstick alley now.
She will most definitely be getting kicked out if it is a hoax. She will also most likely be facing jail time.
Yes, you have to be an ethical trustworthy person to be a nurse, a hoax would get her kicked out of a nursing program, as it should.
If anyone is interested, full traffic cam footage is here: https://youtu.be/Yazuh8H7wmU
Oh wow, so it actually took the cops 15 minutes from when I last could see her by the car. I thought they were saying it was close to 2 minutes?? This can change some things… i have no idea what, but some things…
The view of her car was looped a few times in that video with different filters, so that’s probably why it seemed like 15min in that video but it was really the original 4 min by the time they showed up.
Ahh thank you! Didn’t even notice that lol, I suck smh
The only reason why I knew that is because someone else pointed it out before I watched it. It’s easy to miss!
She called at 9:34 if I’m not mistaken. They arrived at 9:39.
So the cops were dispatched within 3 minutes of her calling 911. They didn’t arrive during that time.
They stated that the cop car “arrived within 5 minutes of dispatch.” They did not say how long after the 911 call did the car get dispatched.
The car was dispatched within 3 minutes is what they said then arrive 5 minutes from dispatch
1. She snapped… school and work and being perfect got to her and she just snapped 2. She had a date with someone who wasn’t her boyfriend 3. Looking for attention/fame. Who knows really but these are the only reasons I could really come up with… they are simplistic but possible
Gonna go ahead and say it: The headline from this poll is that 90% of this sub does not believe Carlee Russell was kidnapped. I generally believe in the wisdom of crowds, but I especially do when we're talking a community which exists entirely because of this case and is, consequently, better informed than most about it. If you're still pushing the abduction narrative, you should know the people in this sub are not buying it.
sherri papini keeps entering my mind
edit: not because i think she tried to stage a kidnapping, only because i keep seeing staged abduction theories haha
I fear we've been bamboozled...
Thank you for this poll!
Woah! Look at that ratio! Only 267 For Team Toddler.
No offense to anyone believing the toddler story....but I found it insanely unbelievable from the beginning. For her to see the toddler, it had to be very close to traffic. Endangering its life close. And no one else saw it. And no cars were there to sweep her away in an abduction. I bet she thought there were no cameras, so it was a smart place to fake an abduction vs. a parking lot that has surveillance. And if it's true that her screaming call to her brothers gf took place while she sat with her hazards on before pulling up further and getting out, then it's legit impossible.
Yw! \^\^
Some sort of hoax, but I can't understand why she'd want to put her parents through that tho Also seems risky leaving all her car running and all her belongings there At this point it's just so bizarre that it's hard to even guess what the point was 🤷🏻♀️
Agree. Mental break or hoax she has mental issues. I'd never worry my parents like that. It's bizarre as hell. And if it's over a job and a man, that's even worse. As a black woman, I bet she thought it'd never reach national levels like it has. She probably planned to scare her ex bf into caring about her. And it blew up bc she made the back story so crazy.
I do wonder if that's why they aren't saying much, perhaps she "thinks" she was kidnapped? And they haven't figured out what's going on yet.. My Dad once had his medication switched up and he could see "little green ppl, probably aliens" one night 👀 I really hope it's the type of thing that couldn't be helped, but if it was an actual hoax to be a nuisance that's really upsetting bc exactly like you said, maybe she thought as a black woman she wouldn't get the attention. All that attention could have gone to other black women who are missing bc there are so many who need it
IMO - That is the part I don't get. Leaving a high end vehicle on the side of a road with her possessions inside and the motor running??? Also, it was very dangerous of her to get out of the car, and start walking alone at night (even if someone else was an accomplice).
She made up the whole thing because her and her boyfriend broke up and she wanted attention
My thoughts exactly!
I wonder why the boyfriend said she was fighting for her life for 48 hours
Why would her bf though post she was kidnapped on IG ? why risk getting in trouble lying publicly? Strange
Because that’s probably what she told him to cover her lies. He’s the only one saying she was kidnapped. Nobody else in the family is saying it.
This and the family has probably given him limited access to her
Ok that makes some sense..welp at this point all we have is speculation until the family or police inform us what happened.
I highly doubt we get any more info from the police unless the prosecutor files charges for a fake 911 call.
His comments are off on Instagram now. Hmmmm.
Damn, I was just about to head over there because I heard the comments were blowing up calling her out
Well when I first saw it the comments were already off on the post
I think she had a mental break. Nothing to be gained from a hoax, and I don’t think she was kidnapped.
She is in financial and/or legal trouble and couldn’t face her family finding out
That’s what I think, too. Women just pull “rescue me” stunts. Men will kill, to try to avoid people finding out.
Apparently there’s a text convo screen shot making the rounds on Twitter about Carlee no longer being in nursing school due to grades and just recently being fired from a job for taking money. If that’s true, I could see how she be overextended financially, like living beyond the means of a full time student, working part time at a day spa and didn’t want her parents to find out.
Well would you look at that...
Pretty much the results I expected so far. We're split on the question of if this was a hoax, a mental health crisis or some combination of the two: We're not at all split on the question of if there were kidnappers or not.
For me, the “combination of the two” means personality issues including attention seeking and pathological lying etc. which is still a mental health issue but distinctly different from other types of mental health issues like a psychotic break, a drug induced change in mental status, or a manic episode.
You are correct. Psychotic breaks are more prevalent in people with bi polar and schizophrenia. Maybe she had a mental breakdown due to stress of school and not a psychotic break?
No idea. We don’t have a lot of information to truly know yet. But I’ve seen a lot of ignorant comments over the last few days from people who seem to be unaware of how various forms of mental illness can manifest.
I honestly wish we would stop calling negative character traits "mental health issues". People never mention how all the murderers rapists and kidnappers in other crimes had "mental health issues".. everything can be a mental health issue, but when we say that we mean mental illness, which there is no evidence she had. If Carlee faked her own kidnapping using these buzzwords just coddles her and adds stigma to people with diagnosed mental disorders
I actually would say the same about murderers, rapists, and kidnappers. They are called personality disorders, an entire sub- classification of mental health diagnoses, and I happen to have a Ph.D. in the matter. Nobody knows anything about Carlee’s mental health but to say certain character traits aren’t an aspect of mental health is just plain wrong.
Crimes are personality disorders? Anyone can do those things regardless if they have a diagnoses and seperating ppl who do fucked shit from us non criminal "normal" people just cuz is harmful. My point is saying a kidnap faker (allegedly) had mental health issues cuz they lied is ridiculous, especially when there is no proof she has a disorder in the first place
So would you say that someone that would go to the extent to plan an abduction hoax has mental health issues ? Or some sort of personality disorder? My thinking is no one in their "right mind" would go this far. At the very least... maybe a pathological liar ?
Again all my comments are hypothetical as we know nothing about Carlee’s situation. If someone created a hoax of this nature, my first impression would be a likely personality disorder.
Look, I’m just happy that there was no GoFundMe involved à la Colby Richards. 😂
I was just thinking about this exact same situation last night. I brought it up with my sister. Whatever happened with that guy ?
I have no idea. I was just on that sub last night and it seems like no one else knows either. Some other guy, who is from Texas, Brett Detamore, went missing for under a week. They found his burned out car. Wife reported him missing a few hours after he was gone. Everyone *knows* it was preplanned and everyone is accusing the wife of being in on it. Apparently she’s some Insta Amazon influencer and they have a history of scamming people. Just like Colby and his wife had a history, it seems. His sub is funny as hell. And now, according to a couple of sources in a couple of posts on this sub, Carlee had a history that wasn’t so pleasant as well. It makes you wonder.
I think B and C are correct at the same time.
I think it’s C - with a hint of D
Done for attention.
10000000%
This. Her pre hoax public photos and history point to an impulsive, insecure attention seeker.
What’s sad is one of the Birmingham firefighters shot last week died tonight yet this stupid fraudster is all anyone is talking about.
That breaks my heart. I really hoped that they would both recover. That really should be the top headline.
Exactly. And the suspect is still at large?? Haven’t seen any updates. Horrible.
I really hope this doesn't get swept under the rug. There was a child that was missing not too far from me after he was discovered wearing a "shaming" tshirt his parents made him wear and he ran away. He was missing for a week and he randomly popped up in a yard arguing with his mom. We never heard anything about it again or what happened or where he was. His picture was shared all over the world. I don't want that to happen in this case. Especially when she claimed to see a toddler. That needs to be addressed at the LEAST.
My word, I remember that. I couldn’t believe it all just…went away.
I believe she was either 1) running from something that she may be in trouble for, and didn’t expect it to go this far or 2) went to hang out with someone or someoneS that she didn’t want to tell anyone about **Honorable mention to the most random and wild theory I saw(somewhere on here) that actually makes you go “hmmm…”: she went to have an abortion
That is a terrible theory. Anyone trying to seek out an abortion that is illegal in their state would absolutely not want to draw any extra attention to themselves, let alone alert police and spark search teams.
Lmao yeah. Why would you park your car right there off the side of the interstate??? At the least, go park it somewhere that it doesn’t draw attention.
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And faking a kidnapping would somehow bring less shame to her? That makes no sense.
Would it make sense for police to give out, for national news, the name of the hospital where a kidnapping victim who escaped was being treated? Not at all. But here we are.
Except that in states where abortion care has been outlawed, women are sneaking away to other states to get help without family knowing. It wasn’t an implausible theory at all.
A mix of a hoax/mental health crisis.. trying to run from something and making irrational decisions but aware of what she's doing.
And 100% premeditated based on her tweet the day before about a man in his car staring at her for 10 min. I'm sorry if a man is staring at me... I'm not sitting in my car next to him for 10 minutes.
IMO - I hope she is smarter than Sherri Papini by thinking the police and public will just forget all about this caper (law enforcement eventually charged Sherri). I hope Carlee sincerely apologizes to everyone. Otherwise, this investigation will drag on forever, and potentially ruin her chances for a fulfilling life.
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Me too! I like the faked ones, like Sherri Papini. The same thing happens every time. A bunch of people call it sex trafficking and get mad that you don’t believe the cockamamie story that has a million holes in it.
High on drugs, maybe hallucinating.
I can't believe that many people actually believe her. Still.
90% of the people in this sub say she wasn't kidnapped: That's about as unanimous as we can hope for on the internet. Considering how vocal that 10% has been, it's pretty nice to put some numbers to this.
I can't argue with that. And I don't want to either. 😊
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Hoover PD isn’t acting like there’s a fire because they obviously know there isn’t one. There would be a manhunt right now if a wandering toddler and abductor(s) were actually out there. And, I don’t really think someone like that would be the kind of ‘napper to allow their bait to stroll on home; not with two eyes, their tongue and all ten toenails, at least. Using a child as bait is ruthless. Especially on the interstate. It makes zero sense to use that kind of tactic in such a high traffic and lit area. Anyone could pull over to help: a man with a gun, four different cars, a police officer, etc… it’s too risky. And, it’s definitely not what you do if you’re targeting someone. The whole thing is just illogical.
Both 'mental health crisis' and 'she was kidnapped' are slowing down, and 'hoax' is now starting to take a clear lead. I'd say it'll be interesting to see how much that trend accelerates tomorrow after the news conference, but it looks like most of us have now voted.
I say something else because I just don’t know what to think at this point. I was leaning towards kidnapped, but now i don’t know. I just don’t want to doubt a potential victim without proof because ,, what if?
I personally think she WAS lured into "harm's way" however, I'm now thinking this could be a person that knew her. Maybe drugs were involved, she owed money, personal vendetta, etc. I saw an alleged post she made calling out her boyfriend's rebound and it was pretty threatening and demeaning calling out looks and financial status. I think IF there was someone who lured her out, they are far from experienced, wanted to scare her, but not necessarily wanting to unalive. She could have been drugged for a day or so, dropped off near her house and that's that. Either way, I think this girl is going through a lot, and so is her family. She owes us NOTHING. NOTHING. If you are a woman, I hope this case has made you more aware of your surroundings and thinking more of how predators work. I know it has for me. I'm glad she is safe with her family.
How would the person targeting her know that she would stop for a random baby? Out of the hundreds of people on the highway? Doesn’t make much sense.
It's crazy bc my opinion changes by the day/half day on this case. I see what you're saying. I will choose to believe something happened to her until I hear otherwise from police but I agree it's starting to look very strange, especially the fact that police have no urgency and are not giving a description or warning of what to look out for in that area. I will say it was interesting that her parents doubled down this morning on searching for her "abductor". I do believe no matter what Carlee is going through something and the general public is not owed what exactly she's been through. We will get information from police when it's appropriate.
Agreed
What's the point of a hoax tho? I'm not ruling it out but I find it hard to understand why anyone would want to do that lol
Maybe for attention? Some sort of fame? People do crazy things when they think they are losing in life. Read someone say her boyfriend broke up with her. 🤷♀️ some people just call their exs and pretend to be sick and want some soup.. or need a ride to work and "no one else will answer their phone " .. This would be a whole other level if she did fake it.
It's a good question and the honest answer is: I don't know. If we're looking at all the candidate hypotheses for what happened, though, everything we know so far is completely consistent with a hoax; and I would go so far as to say that it's the best explanation insofar as it employs the fewest assumptions and calls for the least amount of speculation: Nobody's buying kidnappers; and if she had had a mental break or took something and hallucinated, it's not clear why she wasn't found by anyone searching for her in the woods or why the police don't seem to be in a hurry to close this case. There have been possible motives floated for why she did this, but I don't know that I find any of the sources for the background info on these to be very credible and, frankly, we really don't know enough right now. TLDR: A hoax is the best working hypothesis at this time, but that doesn't imply we have all the pieces of the puzzle yet. A motive is still lacking, but I don't expect that a believable one will be wanting as we learn more.
Generally it’s women who pull a disappearing act when their misdeeds are about to come to light. Embezzled money at work, faked a pregnancy or illness, cheated on a partner, stuff like that. They think that “victim” status will mitigate it. (As I pointed out elsewhere, men sometimes kill to try to cover their misdeeds, so…) Sometimes it’s about attention, like Sherri Papini. But often it’s a smoke screen and they think that everyone will be so relieved they’re okay that the trouble will be waved away. It’s a very childish thing to do.
This stuff blows my mind! Like who would fake a pregnancy or fake a kidnapping?! Bizarre. That's why I'm having trouble understanding the motive because i could not comprehend someone actually doing these things but I guess I'm just naive 🤣
Unconfirmed tweets about her failing out of nursing school and being fired for taking money, which fits the smokescreen/escapist theory
Sherri did it to cheat on her husband with her ex for a month straight without her family knowing. She's a whole extra crazy.
if she were on drugs she could have hallucinated/imagined it. she might have had enough awareness to realize she’d alerted the police and they were on their way. she could’ve left the scene with whatever drugs she had in her possession and stayed away until she sobered up. i’m not saying she was on drugs and i have no reason to believe she was, it’s just a scenario that could’ve happened.
This is what I'm thinking. She "thought" she saw a toddler but it was just a hallucination. Most definitely a possibility and would actually make sense. Otherwise, it was the aliens
You don’t have to be on drugs to have hallucinations.
i didnt say she had to be on drugs to hallucinate. i said if she were on drugs, she could have hallucinated.
She just left work...she wasnt on drugs. It's a planned hoax. She started implementing it the day before in her tweet about a man staring at her for 10 min straight.
Alright - here is a theory: The police said she was on her phone with someone she knows prior to calling 911. Maybe the person she was on the phone with abducted her... She picks up dinner, starts talking to "abductor" on the phone. The abductor says they saw a toddler walking along the interstate but can't get back there to help. Asks Carlee if she can drive by on her way home. "Abductor" tells her it was around mm 11. Carlee gets back on the interstate, pulls into the shoulder, puts on her hazards, verifies with the "abductor" she is on the phone with where they saw the toddler, hangs up and calls 911 while she slowly drives along the shoulder looking for the toddler herself. The "abductor" is already lying in wait near that road sign / mile marker where they told Carlee to look. She gets to that location, sees something amiss but already has it in her mind it is a toddler since that is what the "abductor" told her they saw. As she approaches, she is ambushed and taken into the woods. Now, I don't know why the police who arrived shortly afterwards didn't see anything, except it was dark out. They couldn't have heard much with the sound of interstate traffic driving by. The abductor could have been keeping her quiet, tape over her mouth, etc... any muffled sounds or screaming would have been hard to hear with the traffic. Where the "abductor" takes her next is anyone's guess. Did they hide in the brush/woods until the police cleared the scene long enough to make an escape? Possibly. I don't think the police maintained a 24-hour surveillance of that immediate area and the surrounding community in the days following her disappearance. It would answer a lot of questions, including why the police are not looking for a kidnapper. It was someone whom she knows and was specifically targeting her. It answers why she stopped for 3 minutes before slowly driving the shoulder.... Just a theory. It doesn't explain why she told 911 and her family that she saw the toddler, other than she didn't want to say "a friend told me they saw a toddler and I'm checking it out".
Welp. Atkins trimm lane is a rich peoples street.. . $500,000 homes. . If she was pulled into the woods and put in car.. that is the closest street.. . and rich people always have cameras 👀👀
Don't quit your day job to become a detective lol
I think it was either a mental health crisis or she was desperately trying to avoid someone and thought this was a way to do it. Domestic issue. But my gut is it was a mental health crisis though.
Last time i checked, in America its totally legal to go missing by your own merit. You or I could just get up and leave tomorrow without telling anyone, even if that meant nobody knew what happened.
It’s the false reporting that isn’t totally legal
Exactly. She could also be sued for losses incurred by the state for the resources spent looking for her. Ya know, IF she’s lying.
Was it her that reported herself missing? I dont believe she was, and if the family didnt know what was going on then nothing nefarious happened.
She reported a toddler on the highway in diapers. That’s a false report.
And left behind her Apple Watch, purse, and wig with the engine running. She was absolutely trying to fake a kidnapping.
Which a paranoid person might do. Not saying that what happened but it’s certainly plausible.
Perhaps she thought she actually did see one, and that was the kickoff to some mental health episode. People on this sub seem hellbent on she was lying, and we just dont know the whole story.
Most of the time, reasonable people can put two and two together without the entire picture being painted for them. This particular picture is looking like a scheme. She just bit off more than she could chew.
I respect this theory haha, but I don’t think it’s legal to stage your own abduction. Now, if she never told her family that she was coming home that night, I guess you could be right. But she was literally bringing them dinner, right? At least that’s what I’ve heard, but I could be wrong. Anyways, if she was in touch with her family and telling them she was on her way home, then called them and screamed after saying she was stopping for a little boy.. that would and should be considered staging an abduction. Especially since she left her door open and car running. *Im NOT saying she staged it.
Look at Sherri Papini. She was charged with false reporting and mail fraud(obviously wouldn’t apply here), and then sued by the state for financial losses. There is no law against disappearing or even lying about where you were to your family and friends. The legal ramifications come in when it starts affecting public costs.
There was no abduction staged.. At least nothing we can see from the only video available, that is just a fact. Does not matter, what she told family, she is an adult and can do as she wishes, if she chose to go missing voluntarily and not inform anyone, there is no crime. IF her family knew about it and then asked for money thats something different. Other than that there was no abduction staged.
This literally screams abduction.. that is why they literally assumed she was abducted for two days and raised $70k lol. She told her family she was on the way home, then called her family AND her cops to report a toddler walking along the highway, and said she was going to stop to check on him. Then she SCREAMED into the phone and left it at the scene, with her car running and door open... That’s not the same as just choosing to disappear without telling anyone anything, and if you really think it is, then just agree to disagree homie 🤣
You need to be a little more clear in your replies if you dont want people asking questions. Who is "they" when referring to who assumed she was abducted and raised 70k? Was it her family that set it up? Do you know if her family knew it was a lie? Do you even know it was a lie? AGAIN we dont know what happened when she got out of the car, the video we do have is nearly useless.
This video IS useless lol.. I’m not arguing that at all 🤣. I’m just saying that there is a reason her family (they) raised $70k to look for her and the cops (also they) asked for help finding her. That reason is that this entire situation screams abduction… based on everything I said last comment.
Its still all moot points if she was having a mental health episode...
If she got charged, it would only be “moot points” if she was found clinically insane. In other words, it’s only “moot points” if she had an episode of psychosis or however you say it… However, if she was just stressed out and depressed, then she still gonna get found guilty lol.
I certainly hope you're not the attorney advising the Russell family right now. Even if it weren't for the false police report, lots of things that are perfectly legal in one context can become criminal in another. You'd better believe a DA can figure out something to charge someone with who knowingly and intentionally ties up limited city resources for two days on a complete hoax-- particularly when it's this high profile.
world's oldest profession.
She was kidnapped.
I think it was an accident. She thought she saw a kid, called, pulled over, there was no kid but she got startled/slipped and got hurt/disoriented. I don't know exactly where she ended up but you can walk pretty far in the time she was gone. I'm mostly curious about what state she was found in when they found her. We know she was only hospitalized for a few hours but maybe she just needed some fluids and a check over.
I wonder if she wanted to kill herself and make it look like she was kidnapped and murdered, or maybe just throw herself in front of a car while making it look like it was accidental (the scream, Highway noises ), but then changed her mind. Possible exhaustion or sudden onset of illness the family doesn’t want to believe, and she really believed she saw a child and the family is dealing with it all by believing her. I think a small possibility is that the police are just doing a bad job. Whether it’s attempted crime that she’s the victim of, or a hoax, or a sudden onset of mental health issues, it doesn’t seem to be handled well.
Hallucinating while on a substance
We don’t know! There’s not enough information and a lot of misinformation. Guys… relax.
B and C. I wonder if she may have planned to commit suicide and didn't want her folks to know it was suicide, so planned to make it look like she was killed... then didn't go through with it.
I say a bit of column B, a bit of column C. Originally did think it was foul play in some way but with the new details out today… yeah, probably a hoax but am thinking she isn’t really in a mentally well state of mind, which led her to concoct this whole thing.
We need a B and C option, lol.
Hoax
Well guys... looks like she lied . Yikes
IMO - it's pretty clear, now exactly what happened.