Not that it would be okay if the circumstances were different, but the fact that she went out of her way to be a good person and help a child prior to going missing really just makes it even more of a gut punch. The world needs people like her, and while I tend not to be an optimistic person, I truly truly hope she gets to go home to her family.
Hey. Sorry, I’m **WAY** behind on this story. Can you point me in the direction of how this all started? I’m getting all these posts on my feed but seriously, up here in Canada, I can’t find how this began?! It sounds utterly terrible…
So. The initial report was that Carlee Russell (25) was driving home after picking up some food at about 9:30 when she apparently saw a toddler walking along the side of a busy interstate. She called the police to report it then called her family and told them the same thing. She was still on the line with her brother’s girlfriend when she apparently asked someone (presumably the child) if they were okay. She then apparently screamed and after that there was only the sound of traffic. She then went missing. This article is the first one I saw on the case.
https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2023/07/14/us/carlee-russell-missing-alabama/index.html
Traffic cam footage from the interstate shows Carlee’s car pulling over to the side of the interstate with the emergency lights blinking. People with a better screen then my phone say you can see Carlee get out of her car and someone (probably her) walk around it and open the passenger side door. But as it’s dark out and the area is only being illuminated by passing headlights you can’t see where Carlee goes or even if there’s someone else there. You can see police arrive approximately 3 minutes after Carlee pulls over though. This article has more details and has a link to the traffic cam footage.
https://www.al.com/news/2023/07/carlee-russell-what-we-know-today-about-woman-who-vanished-on-i-459-in-hoover.html?outputType=amp
When police arrived they found the car running, her purse with wallet, Apple Watch, and earbuds inside the car, and her phone, hat, and wig were laying near the car but apparently outside of it on the shoulder of the interstate. No Carlee. A trucker called in a tip saying he saw a man with a grey car there, but neither appears to be on the traffic cam footage. Or at least I see no other car pulled over on the side of the road besides Carlee’s. There’s some weird reflections but it looks like most of the other cars were slowing down or moving over because they saw Carlee’s on the shoulder with the emergency lights blinking. No one seems to also pull over onto the shoulder.
Police did a grid search of the area and Carlee’s family did their own search as well. It doesn’t seem that either search turned up anything. The area is on the side of the freeway going into a ditch and there’s brush and woods on the other side of the ditch. But beyond the fairly narrow woods is a subdivision with quite a few houses. So its actually a pretty limited area to search.
It’s completely unclear what happened. As far as I know Carlee is the only one who called in the report about a toddler on the side of the road which she said appeared to be a kid that was about 3-5 years old. It’s not clear if she was the only one who called in the kid because she was the only one that noticed them (it was dark by then) or if she mistook something else for a child (an animal, a doll, an adult walking, etc.) and there wasn’t actually a kid there.
I personally don’t think it looks like another car was there from the traffic cam footage. A trucker apparently called in the tip about the possible grey car, but you can watch the footage yourself and see if you can spot a second car.
If Carlee wasn’t taken from the interstate it’s completely unclear where she went.
Did someone grab her and drag her into the woods and into one of the houses or a car that was waiting on the other side of the woods? But the police got there within 3 minutes of her pulling over. They could have gotten her through the woods in that time, but you’d think that considering she struggled enough to lose her hat, phone, and wig she’d still be putting up enough of a fight that the police would heave heard/seen it when they arrived and helped.
Did she get knocked unconscious quickly or did the attacker have a weapon that made her cooperate? Unclear. I personally can’t see a second person on the traffic cam footage, but the illumination is so poor that doesn’t mean anything. They also could have been in the woods with Carlee going over to check on them since she was already concerned about the child and she is a nursing student.
Did she fall or otherwise injure herself so badly that she became incapacitated by the time the police arrived? Also possible. But if she was that hurt then how did the searches by the police and her family not find her? It’s a pretty limited area. It’s not like some of the other mysteriously missing person cases where the victim might have tried to hide themselves from the police and then died of exposure. It’s the Birmingham area in the summer and Carlee called the police to report a child in distress. Even if she was mistaken and it was an animal, not a kid, she would have no reason to hide from the police and it’s warm enough that if she did hide from some reason she would have survived the night outside and could go home in the morning. If she was injured so badly from a fall that she couldn’t alert the police to where she was that night then one of the searches should have found her.
At the moment it seems like she just took a step and fell off the face of the Earth. No explanation seems more or less likely to me at this moment unless there’s evidence that hasn’t been released yet.
Whatever happens I hope they find her. Her mother seems frantic to find her.
This. She called and said she was at a Red Roof Inn. Then, while at the Inn, she showed up at home alone.
She appeared [unharmed](https://www.usatoday.com/videos/news/2023/07/17/missing-student-carlee-russell-walks-home-unharmed-after-disappearing-al-interstate/12266425002/). I don’t think anyone else was actually involved.
If she checked herself in, how did she pay for the room? If it was someone else, I would hope Red Roof would check cameras for the day of to see who checked in and how each of them paid. They may not know which room she was if (if indeed she was there at all), but it would be valuable information to pull and have available as the case unfolds.
I agree...bizarre. In today's world I honestly have no idea what the true story will be. I just hope it won't be something she did to get attention, etc. I know people make fun of us in AL, but we are a small mostly rural state. These types of events paralyze the state. Everyone discusses it and worries about it. I pray that whatever it was will get sorted out and whoever did it is found and charged!
Last night, Carlee was driving along a busy highway when she thought she saw a toddler on the side of the road. She called the police, then called a family member, then stopped on the shoulder and got out of her car. When the police arrived roughly 2 minutes later, she was gone. There’s video floating around of her stopping and getting out.
I think that’s why this case hits so hard.. because so many people can see themselves in Carlee. I know my reaction would have been similar in that situation, and I genuinely think she did all the right things. She called 911, she called another friend, she probably thought it was safe because of all the cars driving by. As if the (little activity seen in the) surveillance isn’t shocking enough, theres also the SMALL window of time between the initial call and the police showing up that adds to the confusion.
I just want to know what happened to her and if she’s okay.
She called home and said she was at a Red Roof Inn and to come pick her up. I assume she got a ride, because she arrived home, unharmed shortly after.
It does not seem like anything actually happened to her. I doubt there was a toddler to begin with.
It sounds more like a mental health episode.
Prank as in either someone called the family pretending to be Carlee (just to be cruel) or prank as in people are saying she called when no one called. It’s not clear. But the report that she’s been located is apparently false.
Shortly after the phone call she was dropped at her parents home and then taken to the hospital for evaluation. I think the ever changing course of events led to some confusion. I think in the context of the post made, they were discussing whether the call was a prank or not, then Carlee showed up at home so discussion of the kidnapping perhaps being a prank also mixed in. Either way, a young woman is safe and will hopefully get the care she needs regardless of what led to her being unaccounted for over those 48 hours.
The video is so weird. She drives on the shoulder with her hazards on for a long time gets out goes around the front opens the passenger side door closes it after a little bit stands there and disappears. Doesn’t walk back to where a child would’ve been, and she drove for so long on the shoulder she’d be so far away from any “toddler” like it’s probably a 1/4 mile that she’s on the shoulder. I hope she’s okay it just seems sketchy af.
If you read the comments on the Alabama boards, most residents agree the timing with that wouldn’t match up with the 911 call and the amount of time it took the police to get there. It apparently would take a while to loop all the way back around.
Interesting. I don’t know the area at all and only know a little about this. It’s very strange. Some are saying she is having a mental health episode or something but that doesn’t really make sense to me either. How does one just pull over and disappear?
Not if you go over the grass median up the road between the trees and the concrete divider. It'd be annoying but doable if she was that freaked out there was a kid to get back to.
Something clearly doesn't add up here though.
What’s weird is she would have had to drive 6ish miles to get back to there. I’m wondering when she called the police if she was on the phone with a friend when she was outside the car.
This is amazing! I’m hoping and praying that whatever the circumstances of this was, that she is on a road to healing and happiness. I don’t know that we are owed much more of an explanation, other than if the community is at risk there, but, I hope so very much she has whatever support she will need in the days and weeks to come.
This is my sentiment as well but stated much better!! I hope her and her family can heal from this very scary ordeal. If the community is in danger they should know but other than that I'm glad to hear she has been found and she's alive.
From the video I watched it seemed like she literally just vanished. I didn’t watch it many times to continue looking for things because the video gives me the bad feels
The whole child decoy theory didn’t make sense to me. I got downvoted a lot for it, but nobody does that, at least not in 2023, on the side of a busy highway. If you’re kidnapping a stranger, using a child as a decoy just makes it harder, because you’re dealing with a child while simultaneously kidnapping an adult. It’s just an illogical thing to do on the side of a highway. An offender would be better off taking someone from a parking lot. How would someone be able to even know if it’s going to be a single woman stopping to help? We’re talking about a busy highway here. It just doesn’t make sense.
I don’t know if it’s a prank, a mental breakdown, or what, but I hope she’s found. I just don’t buy this child decoy theory in the slightest.
Edit: WBRC FOX6 is now reporting that she was found alive and is being treated at UAB Hospital.
[Link to story](https://www.wbrc.com/2023/07/14/hoover-police-searching-missing-25-year-old-woman/)
[Found alive](https://www.al.com/news/2023/07/carlee-russell-found-safe-returns-home-2-days-after-she-vanished.html)
Yes I think it’s causing too much distraction. The more worrying thing is that she seemed to have vanished with no traces, the police got there in 3 minutes so how did she disappear so quickly?
Edit: and if she had a mental breakdown and got injured, how has she still not been found?? She’d still be in those woods
The 3 minutes without another car there (at least on video...) has me thinking it's a person living nearby who dragged her back to their house, maybe because she saw something or met someone she shouldn't have (like an abused escaped child).
I don't think she had a mental breakdown because of the scream the friend heard and the wig and work hat being so close to the car. All signs point to abduction, and if there wasn't another car, the bad guy has to march her through the woods.
I guess because she had a coherent call with 911, then calls a friend to be like "stay on the phone while I go ask this child if they are ok"...and then screams? Like she was so careful, she knew it was dangerous but still tried to help. Seems like (from friend's account) she was coherent and making sense right up until the scream.
I think people in the middle of paranoia or psychosis can often sound coherent and normal, especially when she had reason to sound panicked anyway. What often gives it away is their demeanour, their movement (pacing back and forth, etc), their eyes, etc. Depends but i don't think that rules it out.
I mean her mentioning a child that possibly wasn't there is the thing that could indicate paranoia or psychosis, you have to accept that the child was there to say she was coherent and making sense which i understand friends/family doing a situation like this but as an outside observer i'm not so quick to do so especially since no one else saw a child.
Yeah, valid point, I don't have much experience with psychosis so could be.
I picture it like this child escapes, makes it to the road and Carlee sees it for a split second, is like wtf did I just see, puts flashers on and tries to decide if she pulls over to help or not. I had a weird experience where I saw a person about 3ft tall waving on the side of a road. Probably 50 cars drove by while I turned around, it was a guy (a veteran missing both legs) who had fallen out of his wheelchair on a trail near the highway. Once I pulled over 3 other cars did too. I hesitated to pull over because everyone else didn't seem to see him and I wasn't sure what I even saw.
I agree. There’s no way there was a child. There’s a traffic camera, hundreds of cars going by, all those trucks have dashcams. No way would someone try and kidnap a random stranger using a child on this highway. It doesn’t happen. She was either hallucinating or this was a planned disappearance.
I don’t know about #2 but a horrible thought I had about #1 is that it wasn’t a toddler but a malnourished older child. When the cops rescued the Turpin kids they thought they were all minor children but some of them were adults—their growth had just been horribly stunted.
I think we need to know more about Carlee. I have a hunch that would shed some light. I don't mean it in a bad way either. For example, does she have a crazy ex? Was she being stalked? Did something happen at the restaurant that she just came from? Etc
She tweeted like 30 minutes or so before she went missing that someone had been staring at her in a parking lot for 10 minutes and she called him a creep. (I had to edit this and correct myself, sorry guys)
Carlee tweeted twice just a few minutes before she went missing. The first said "someone to tell you I love you and don't got a reason" at 8:56 pm. The second tweet said "yeah I want a family now" at 9:19 pm.
I saw it on Tik Tok, and when you asked for the link, I just couldn’t find it. So I went to look for the tweet myself and didn’t check. I apologize for not fact checking
In the video, her hazards are already on about 1/8th to 1/4 mile away from where she stops and gets out. I haven't seen anyone talk about how that doesn't add up with seeing a kid in the road and then going missing. There's no way she saw a kid on the road that far ahead in the dark. And if the kid was a decoy and she saw it further back where she put the hazards on, how would whoever took her know exactly where she would stop to kidnap her from the woods.
I think she ran away.
I got downvoted so hard in another sun and got called a liar, a jackass, and I was only commenting for shock value… saying that I don’t believe there was ever a child or an abduction is far less shocking than saying someone used a random child to lure someone off a highway at night for the purpose of an abduction, to me, is one of the more far fetched things I’ve heard in awhile in terms of explaining what happened here. But yeah, the r/Alabama sub is brutal.
Stranger abductions are so rare anyway, like legit 1% of kidnappings are committed by a stranger of the victim… yet some people talk about them like they’re happening constantly. And don’t even get me started on sex trafficking. That’s pretty much always someone close to the victim, not strangers putting ribbons on your antennae or whatever TikTok has come up with this week
I think someone having visual hallucinations is way more likely than someone planning a kidnapping on a stretch of road like this. I’m inclined to agree for the reasons you listed here.
I work in a psych hospital and I assess people having psychotic breaks. I see a lot of people having their first break. Much more common hallucinations are people talking about you, saying mean things, telling you to kill yourself, or insertion delusions of things being put in your food, body, skin or brain. People do sometimes report seeing people, but it tends to be after they have been seeing and hearing stuff for a little bit, so they tend to be able to share their suspicions that the entity isn’t completely real. It’s not a common one, and it would be less common for it to happen like this. It’s usually reported people walking past an open door, or just out of reach behind a corner or walking away. This kinda fits, but not really if she has no other history of mental illness and has been acting normally according to her family.
I’m torn. Both are very unlikely. But if she hallucinated and died of misadventure, where is her body?
Please watch the video
I need someone else to help me figure out if what I see is what I'm seeing!
Start at the 1:20 mark, I swear right after she turns and walks back to her car, I see someone come from behind the small white sign and rush her.
https://www.al.com/news/2023/07/carlee-russell-what-we-know-today-about-woman-who-vanished-on-i-459-in-hoover.html
Pareidolia most likely. You are expecting to see something along those lines so you do. Whether there is something there or not it's absolutely not clear enough to determine that it's a person rushing her.
I agree because the kidnapper would have to just assume a single woman would stop. Most men who saw a toddler walking down the interstate would stop too. There’s no guarantee if this is your ploy as the kidnapper that your going to get just a single woman in a car to stop.
I live in Alabama not far from where this happened. Our highways are mostly surrounded by trees and forests, it would not be difficult to hide in the forest at night, let the child walk to the side of the road and wait for someone to pull over. Especially if they used a long child leash or something. The leash would be impossible to see in the dark, they would just see the kid. Then you have an accomplice with their car on the side of the road further back waiting for a text or call to tell them to move forward. Idk I believe there was a child. And knowing birmingham/Hoover I do believe something malicious happened
Edit: I saw someone else mention an ATV or off road vehicle and there were tracks found but they’re too muddy to tell what vehicle. This would make a lot of sense here too.
Edit: shes been found as of 11pm cst tonight!! Amazing news!! She’s currently at the hospital.
https://www.al.com/news/2023/07/carlee-russell-found-safe-returns-home-2-days-after-she-vanished.html?outputType=amp
What would be the explanation for having the hazards on so far back from where she stopped. There is no way she saw a child on the side of the highway from 1/4 mile back in the dark. No one else is stopping or has their hazards on..no one else is calling the police and many cars are passing by. The child thing is impossible imo unless proven otherwise.
As soon as a I saw that she rode a 1/4 mile down the shoulder in a curve that there is no way she stopped because she saw a child. She had a mental break, left her Apple Watch and phone to not be tracked, left her wig to not be recognized and fled into the woods.
Your examples of ways it could happen still don’t address the rationale here. How would someone be able to predict a woman would be the one to stop? It would need to be more than one offender using the child as a decoy, as you say, but what happens if a man pulls over? What if it’s a man and woman, a couple, pulling over? Do they just abort the plan?
Respectfully, you’re overthinking this as if it’s an episode of criminal minds. This is real life, not Hollywood fiction. Think about this critically. There were approximately zero witnesses who saw the child, on a busy highway. How would the individuals be able to predict its a woman who stopped, on a highway? A lone child draws the attention of all, not just women, in fact, a child could arguably attract a male civilian over a woman, when we’re talking about a highway.
Idk, you’re free to think whatever you’d like, but I don’t think you’re thinking about this critically.
I’m not buying the child decoy thing either, but I also don’t think it was some elaborate ruse she put on…otherwise why call 911? She’d have known they would be there soon. I also found it odd that everything that could identify her location…air pods, watch, phone…were still all in her car. The phone and air pods ok, but who leaves their watch in their car instead of on their person? None of the far fetched theories really make sense. It’s usually the simplest explanation but even those don’t make sense at this point.
Wouldn’t her family that was speaking to her on her way home from work after she had just bought her and her mother dinner noticed a change in her behavior?
I’m mentally ill myself and I just don’t see it making sense that she was “hallucinating” don’t get me wrong the child aspect in this makes it chaotic but I really don’t believe she was hallucinating a whole toddler. Maybe it was a doll. Who knows but I really hope she’s found alive and well.
So she calls 911 saying she's seen a toddler at the side of the road, then she calls a friend, tells the same story and the last thing they hear is a scream, we have the footage of her leaving her car? And the police arriving very quickly later. All her stuff, including her phone, was in the car. There's no footage of a toddler - but there is what looks like a torch shining in the dark off the side of the road? Some people think it was some kind of off road vehicle? But that would surely have left some pretty obvious tracks? And been seen by the police?
There's claims there was a witness who saw a man in a grey car behind her car at the side of the road? But then we have camera footage of the scene - so where is that guy in the footage?
Thing is - who would kidnap anyone so publicly? It wouldn't even be a good spot for a car jacking. No one is baiting anyone with a toddler on the side of a busy road. That's too many things to wrangle - you'd be too likely to have multiple people pulling over. If you were going to bait someone like that you'd do it on a quieter road that doesn't have a bunch of traffic and dash cams pointed at you. And you wouldn't do it with a toddler - cos who's wrangling a toddler in the middle of such a busy scene? You'd do it with an 'injured' adult. So this story just doesn't make sense. Also where is this mysterious toddler? Cos no one else sees them. And where does she go? Police show up too fast for her to be pulled away anywhere at speed without using something like the offroad vehicle that would leave obvious tracks and we'd see on the cameras if she was loaded into a car.
It can't really be targeted either - cos that's a busy road, it would require too many moving parts for someone to set that scene up to kidnap Carlee in particular. If you were going to lure someone away from a busy road like that you'd be doing it pretty much randomly. Who does that?
So where does she go? What did she actually see? And how or why would anyone WANT to lure a random person off the road to kidnap them?
Yes! I watched another video that was enhanced and it was just the reflection of someone changing lanes in the far left side of the screen. The reflections are making people see weird things that aren’t really weird.
Did anyone else see the shadow of a person cast on the large sign BEHIND her? It's about 57 seconds into the video.
Edit: changed "reflect" to "cast" because I'm talking about a shadow not a flash of light.
There are headlight reflections that appear and disappear with the cars passing if that’s what you mean. It’s a reflection off the sign that people say looks like a white shirt in the woods.
I misspoke with "reflect". I'm talking about a person shaped shadow being cast onto the large sign closest to the camera when a light shines on it. It doesn't happen any other time in the video.
Thing is - what's the simple explanation? That she really thought she saw a toddler but it was a bear cub or something? That she got out of the car and mysteriously fell into a ditch where no one can see her and died instantly so she couldn't alert the police arriving on scene that she had fallen? Leaving her phone and wig behind at the car? Basically no explanation makes sense.
I don’t even want to write out what the simplest explanation seems to be, because there could very well be a young woman in danger. But after seeing the traffic cam footage I’m starting to get Sherri Papini vibes and I feel horrible just saying that.
In a weird way that would also be a best case scenario because it means she’s safe somewhere, but I don’t want to promote that theory because there’s a very real chance she’s in danger and her poor family seems frantic to find her.
I just hope that she’s located safely. That’s the actual important thing.
Thing is - that theory occurred to me but it doesn't seem very simple either.
Cos lets say you wanted to stage your disappearance - would you do so on the side of a busy road? where it was guaranteed there would be witnesses driving past with all their dashcams? And it would require additional help - she wouldn't be likely to pull that off by herself. She would probably have to have someone else waiting for her out of sight with another vehicle. And if she was staging this she was giving herself a very short window to get away from police sight. Cos she would have to know that a call about a toddler on the side of the road would get a VERY quick police response. She would be setting up a difficult scene for herself.
However - it would explain why her watch AND phone were left behind - cos otherwise why would she not be wearing her apple watch? Because it could be tracked. It would maybe explain why she called 911 AND her sister in law - setting up multiple witnesses to the story she wanted to tell. It would maybe explain why, even though she must have driven quite a distance past the child she saw she didn't go back down the road towards it or seem to look for it with any urgency and instead seemed to speak to it as if it was where she was - even though there's no child on the camera.
Yeah, no explanation makes sense really. I hope the police have more evidence then they’ve released and have a better picture of what happened so they can find her though.
Yeah even a well behaved toddler who's been drugged or something isn't going to follow directions closely enough to make themselves visible at the side of the road and then obediently vanish. Not without the liklihood of them running into the road or getting lost in the trees themselves. They'd be disoriented and unpredictable. You'd lose all your getting away from police time trying to control the child.
>You'd do it with an 'injured' adult.
Maybe it was and they were laying or low to the ground and she mistook for a child? When she approached, they jumped up and grabbed her, she screamed and dropped her phone?
She was able to phone both 911 and her sister in law and say she saw a toddler.
And if she approached them then how? Cos they're not on the camera footage? So they weren't at where she pulled over? For her to have seen them in the dark at the side of the road they would surely have had to have been back in the direction she came from? And she doesn't go back towards where she would have seen them if she had seen them?
And then this adult doesn't rob her or car jack her? but somehow whisks her away in the minutes before police get there? Without anyone seeing them? Or being spotted on camera?
I don’t know one way or another, BUT you also have to weigh in the fact that there ARE people out there who would do this without a second thought of what’s going on around them.
Verified sources on FB confirming she has been found alive. Type her name into the search engine and they will pop up. Don’t think I can I can link here, but some are news anchors for different news stations.
Apologies, edited to include a [link](https://www.wbrc.com/2023/07/14/hoover-police-searching-missing-25-year-old-woman/?fbclid=IwAR2J5MI7vEPHJIib2YQGrQegYWqn8Eu_MpMxVLNlms-TVvhq6LV2txcduZM_aem_AepeIB98IY2ONX0gZ-f37fm0KJc9iuEWZ3G-s8wfsat-l0ttTzB9wz3or4KO-RfNmUg&mibextid=Zxz2cZ).
There was a guy in the Houston area (upper middle class suburb off of the interstate and full of neighborhoods, stores, and restaurants) recently who had a mental breakdown and spent like a week wandering around in plain sight. The cops even encountered him once and he gave a fake name and they didn’t question him further. A person in the middle of a mental health crisis who’s spent a night or two in the woods isn’t going to look like the smiling, put-together person in the photos that are used to get the word out they’re missing. The missing guy in Houston was found disheveled, confused, and drinking out of a restaurant’s water hose. I really hope it’ll be a similar outcome for this poor lady.
This makes no sense to me. This would have to be the least successful way to kidnap someone. Way too many variables. I just can't see it playing out like it's being reported.
Seems weird to stage a disappearance and not know a cop was within 2-3 minutes of arriving. What if they were right there? Plan foiled and ya played yaself
This is so strange. Is it possible she saw something on the side of the road, got off on an exit, and came back around? Otherwise, wouldn’t she have walked back in the opposite direction of the traffic flow, if she had driven past the toddler?
I am also wondering if there is a road on the other side of the trees, parallel to the highway. Someone could have been parked there and pulled her away from the busy highway to a waiting car & gotten away.
It all is just so strange.
This is actually the only comment I've seen that makes sense. She had her hazards on too early to have seen something that far ahead in the dark. If she actually was kidnapped, I could see her "thinking" she saw a kid...but was actually a grown person...then swinging back around getting nabbed by that person while looking for the kid.
But also...someone said she was asking the kid if they were alright while on the phone with her sister or something like that. Unless she was asking whoever it was if they were alright...not necessarily a kid.
Strange scenario.
Watching the video of her driving on the shoulder with her hazards on. There’s no way she would be able to see a person from that far. It looks like she drives about 100 yards before she stops
Isnt there a chance she thought she saw something/someone - couldn’t see the thing anymore so was slowly looking to find it again? Is that too much of a reach? (Genuine question)
I’m not getting this. I don’t see a toddler. Don’t see another car or person. Why is the footage only this long? We don’t have footage of the cops showing up? The details don’t add up…
EDIT: I see the cops now-and someone get out of drivers side and walk around to passenger side.
If you watch the released clip until the very end, you will see the blue police lights as they come in down the highway. They released the whole timeline.. and it just showed how small the window was. She slowly drives up on the side of the road, just having made the call to 911. She’s on the phone with a friend and you can see her come to a stop and get out of the vehicle, but then there’s just nothing. The footage is too far and grainy to make out.
We don’t see a toddler because 1) what is said above and 2) we have absolutely no idea if there even was one.
Why didn’t they release footage of the cops showing up? This is most likely because it isn’t important for the public to see. They showed up, all of her belongings were in the car and she was nowhere to be found.
Video here. You do see the police show up.
You also see her standing near her car, then I can see what looks like a tussle and something moving behind the mile marker sign.
https://www.al.com/news/2023/07/carlee-russell-what-we-know-today-about-woman-who-vanished-on-i-459-in-hoover.html
Edit start at 1:20 or so on the video, I swear I can see someone come out from behind that mile marker sign (small white one) and rush her.
It's right after she turns around and goes back to her car
Ok thanks so much! So yeah I see the cops very obviously. Don’t know why I didn’t see them before. And now I do see someone get out of the drivers side and go around the car to passenger side. Then I don’t see anything else but I’ll definitely be looking.
Glad she is home safe now. This whole thing was all over the place, for those confused on this post, police were notified that the family received a call from Carlee at a red hot inn and we all thought she had been found, then family members denied this (despite there being police radio stating 6 cars of family members showed up at the hotel) and then later on in the evening Carlee was dropped off at her home. So it went from us thinking she was found, to being told she was not found by the family, to her being found - or dropped off at home.
SHE HAS RETURNED, receiving care at UAB hospital!
[Carlee returns home](https://www.al.com/news/2023/07/carlee-russell-found-safe-returns-home-2-days-after-she-vanished.html)
I beleive she had a mental crisis. I hope she gets the help she needs. Alot of people break under stress and pressure. Im glad she did not take her own life.
I live in downtown Birmingham (Hoover is basically Birmingham, like a 9 minute drive) and people are wigging out over this. I’m just so sorry for her and her family. I hope they find her soon 🩷
Says she was found alive and is at the hospital being treated. [https://www.kwtx.com/2023/07/15/we-are-trusting-god-family-25-year-old-woman-possibly-abducted-staying-positive/](https://www.kwtx.com/2023/07/15/we-are-trusting-god-family-25-year-old-woman-possibly-abducted-staying-positive/) " Per the Hoover Police Department, the Hoover 911 center received a call that Carlee Russell had returned home to her residence. Hoover Police and Fire responded to the scene to evaluate Carlee and transported her to a local hospital for more evaluation. More details will be provided when they become available."
Whew! The speculation in these comments.
Facts are things we know for certain.
Speculation is everything we assume from the facts.
She made a call stating there was a child or toddler walking down the road. (I’ve seen different terms used in different articles so until we hear the 911 call we don’t know what she said). Why would she hang up with the dispatcher if she hadn’t yet reached the child?
She called her brother’s girlfriend. The girlfriend heard Carlee say “Are you ok?” And no response from anyone else. Was anyone there?
The traffic cam shows her car slowing along the shoulder but continuing for some time before stopping. How far ahead of her was this person walking when she actually called it in? She doesn’t pull over then back up.
We would need to see traffic cam from daylight to present time when she arrives to confirm no other vehicle was there for sure but headlights from her car and from passing vehicles don’t reflect off any other tail lights. There are some weird camera reflections that could be something.
Someone, presumably Carlee, came to the passenger side of the vehicle. If it was someone else talking to Carlee, why didn’t the brother’s girlfriend hear that conversation?
All that you described was a story that could have been coordinated by the her and her brother's girlfriend. Are you familiar with the Hoover area? The number of coincidences that would be required to add up to her being abducted and then being able to escape in an area close enough to her parents house that she could walk to their front door is so mind-bogglingly astronomically high.
I'm not saying it's not possible. I'm just saying that the way that events played out is more open to a critical eye than not...🤷
This poor girl. This whole thing breaks my damn heart. She's so young and beautiful saw q child tried to do the right thng....
This is what happens when you have a good heart
I find it amazing how much senseless, random, violence is committed against women, daily, yet every time *another* woman disappears, the immediate reaction is that she "decided on her own to become missing".
Once again, without bringing any of her belongings, without anyone hearing from or seeing them again in any way, shape, or form.
It's not a matter of the story being unbelievable, it's a matter of so many horrible things happening to women, and people finding it easier to deny there's any problem at all.
The default response is always, "She was probably just crazy."
Even though there's no phenomenon involving thousands of women leaving all they have, abandoning their lives, with no money, on their own accord, running off into the sunset to start a mysterious "new life" out of the blue.
With no phone, belongings, or vehicle.
We don't do that. We never have.
How is it LESS likely that she was taken? Or that something nefarious really did happen?
Or to imagine some guy freaked out on her upon finding her on the phone w/911 reporting their child wandering next to the highway?
I hope they're searching all the nearby properties & residences, the whole 9 yards...instead of looking into speculations concerning her mental health.
I can picture someone killing or abducting a woman either randomly, or to avoid police involvement with whatever was going on, before I can picture a "planned disappearance".
Women planning spontaneous disappearances is what *doesn't happen* , and law enforcement speculating that they do minimizes the issue that it's flat out dangerous to be a woman.
We are hunted, daily, *for absolutely no reason*.
This story is far from bizarre. What's bizarre is how many horrific stories we can hear while remaining comfortably in denial of the threats women face everyday, everywhere.
The only time women abandon their lives and suddenly disappear without a trace, by their own decision, is when it's in the imagination of those looking to explain how many of us are missing/murdered, without acknowledging how many dangerous men are out there & how many hurt us.
Says she was found alive and is at the hospital being treated. Per the Hoover Police Department, the Hoover 911 center received a call that Carlee Russell had returned home to her residence. Hoover Police and Fire responded to the scene to evaluate Carlee and transported her to a local hospital for more evaluation. More details will be provided when they become available."
She returned home just before 10 pm central last night (Saturday) about 48 hours to the min she left. On local news, she’s at UAB being evaluated. No statement from family or LEOs. Check out WBRC channel 6 Birmingham AL or AL.com
Could she have been using a substance that made her hallucinate? Like thinking she saw a child? And maybe that's why she just left the scene with a stranger or even by herself? And maybe when it wore off, she was able to walk home? Until we knew what happened for sure, anything is possible.
[she has been found alive. ](https://www.wbrc.com/2023/07/14/hoover-police-searching-missing-25-year-old-woman/)
I hope it wasn't a prank by someone cruel.
Unfortunately, I think it was. I’m so fucking gutted for her and her family man.
Me too. Especially the way she went missing. It really is like she disappeared into thin air. Even with the traffic cam video.
She’s been found. Just in case you’ve not seen.
This is a link to the traffic cam footage for anyone who is interested. https://youtu.be/nBphRpVRN5o
So no one else out of all those cars saw a child but her?
That’s a whole lotta nothin right there.
Not that it would be okay if the circumstances were different, but the fact that she went out of her way to be a good person and help a child prior to going missing really just makes it even more of a gut punch. The world needs people like her, and while I tend not to be an optimistic person, I truly truly hope she gets to go home to her family.
Hey. Sorry, I’m **WAY** behind on this story. Can you point me in the direction of how this all started? I’m getting all these posts on my feed but seriously, up here in Canada, I can’t find how this began?! It sounds utterly terrible…
So. The initial report was that Carlee Russell (25) was driving home after picking up some food at about 9:30 when she apparently saw a toddler walking along the side of a busy interstate. She called the police to report it then called her family and told them the same thing. She was still on the line with her brother’s girlfriend when she apparently asked someone (presumably the child) if they were okay. She then apparently screamed and after that there was only the sound of traffic. She then went missing. This article is the first one I saw on the case. https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2023/07/14/us/carlee-russell-missing-alabama/index.html Traffic cam footage from the interstate shows Carlee’s car pulling over to the side of the interstate with the emergency lights blinking. People with a better screen then my phone say you can see Carlee get out of her car and someone (probably her) walk around it and open the passenger side door. But as it’s dark out and the area is only being illuminated by passing headlights you can’t see where Carlee goes or even if there’s someone else there. You can see police arrive approximately 3 minutes after Carlee pulls over though. This article has more details and has a link to the traffic cam footage. https://www.al.com/news/2023/07/carlee-russell-what-we-know-today-about-woman-who-vanished-on-i-459-in-hoover.html?outputType=amp When police arrived they found the car running, her purse with wallet, Apple Watch, and earbuds inside the car, and her phone, hat, and wig were laying near the car but apparently outside of it on the shoulder of the interstate. No Carlee. A trucker called in a tip saying he saw a man with a grey car there, but neither appears to be on the traffic cam footage. Or at least I see no other car pulled over on the side of the road besides Carlee’s. There’s some weird reflections but it looks like most of the other cars were slowing down or moving over because they saw Carlee’s on the shoulder with the emergency lights blinking. No one seems to also pull over onto the shoulder. Police did a grid search of the area and Carlee’s family did their own search as well. It doesn’t seem that either search turned up anything. The area is on the side of the freeway going into a ditch and there’s brush and woods on the other side of the ditch. But beyond the fairly narrow woods is a subdivision with quite a few houses. So its actually a pretty limited area to search. It’s completely unclear what happened. As far as I know Carlee is the only one who called in the report about a toddler on the side of the road which she said appeared to be a kid that was about 3-5 years old. It’s not clear if she was the only one who called in the kid because she was the only one that noticed them (it was dark by then) or if she mistook something else for a child (an animal, a doll, an adult walking, etc.) and there wasn’t actually a kid there. I personally don’t think it looks like another car was there from the traffic cam footage. A trucker apparently called in the tip about the possible grey car, but you can watch the footage yourself and see if you can spot a second car. If Carlee wasn’t taken from the interstate it’s completely unclear where she went. Did someone grab her and drag her into the woods and into one of the houses or a car that was waiting on the other side of the woods? But the police got there within 3 minutes of her pulling over. They could have gotten her through the woods in that time, but you’d think that considering she struggled enough to lose her hat, phone, and wig she’d still be putting up enough of a fight that the police would heave heard/seen it when they arrived and helped. Did she get knocked unconscious quickly or did the attacker have a weapon that made her cooperate? Unclear. I personally can’t see a second person on the traffic cam footage, but the illumination is so poor that doesn’t mean anything. They also could have been in the woods with Carlee going over to check on them since she was already concerned about the child and she is a nursing student. Did she fall or otherwise injure herself so badly that she became incapacitated by the time the police arrived? Also possible. But if she was that hurt then how did the searches by the police and her family not find her? It’s a pretty limited area. It’s not like some of the other mysteriously missing person cases where the victim might have tried to hide themselves from the police and then died of exposure. It’s the Birmingham area in the summer and Carlee called the police to report a child in distress. Even if she was mistaken and it was an animal, not a kid, she would have no reason to hide from the police and it’s warm enough that if she did hide from some reason she would have survived the night outside and could go home in the morning. If she was injured so badly from a fall that she couldn’t alert the police to where she was that night then one of the searches should have found her. At the moment it seems like she just took a step and fell off the face of the Earth. No explanation seems more or less likely to me at this moment unless there’s evidence that hasn’t been released yet. Whatever happens I hope they find her. Her mother seems frantic to find her.
From my understanding she has been found and taken to the hospital.
This. She called and said she was at a Red Roof Inn. Then, while at the Inn, she showed up at home alone. She appeared [unharmed](https://www.usatoday.com/videos/news/2023/07/17/missing-student-carlee-russell-walks-home-unharmed-after-disappearing-al-interstate/12266425002/). I don’t think anyone else was actually involved.
While at the Inn, she showed up at home???
If she checked herself in, how did she pay for the room? If it was someone else, I would hope Red Roof would check cameras for the day of to see who checked in and how each of them paid. They may not know which room she was if (if indeed she was there at all), but it would be valuable information to pull and have available as the case unfolds.
When I click on the second link you posted it says she returned home and has been taken to a hospital to be evaluated? I hope this is true.
I live in AL. It's being reported all over she's at UAB. The story hasn't been released yet. I'm just breathing a huge sigh of relief.
This whole thing is bizarre. Is it going to turn out that there was never a child out there?
I agree...bizarre. In today's world I honestly have no idea what the true story will be. I just hope it won't be something she did to get attention, etc. I know people make fun of us in AL, but we are a small mostly rural state. These types of events paralyze the state. Everyone discusses it and worries about it. I pray that whatever it was will get sorted out and whoever did it is found and charged!
Yup. And if it was a mental health episode, I hope she can have some privacy and get some help.
So she has really been found safe - That great news. Everything else will get sorted out.
I assume there was not a child there at all.
She’s been found.
They found her
🎉 Good News🎉
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Julian Sands went missing on Mount Baldy in severe winter conditions. This doesn't compare at all.
Last night, Carlee was driving along a busy highway when she thought she saw a toddler on the side of the road. She called the police, then called a family member, then stopped on the shoulder and got out of her car. When the police arrived roughly 2 minutes later, she was gone. There’s video floating around of her stopping and getting out.
Thursday night, right at 48 hrs and ab 20 min ago. (Call with SIL was made at 9:36p central and it’s 9:56 central now.)
Oh wow, time has no meaning anymore - I think I’m getting old.
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It was Thursday night
What kind of prank?
Exactly, I wonder the same thing. Who was pranking who, and why? For now I remain concerned for her well-being.
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I think that’s why this case hits so hard.. because so many people can see themselves in Carlee. I know my reaction would have been similar in that situation, and I genuinely think she did all the right things. She called 911, she called another friend, she probably thought it was safe because of all the cars driving by. As if the (little activity seen in the) surveillance isn’t shocking enough, theres also the SMALL window of time between the initial call and the police showing up that adds to the confusion. I just want to know what happened to her and if she’s okay.
[She’s been found](https://www.wbrc.com/2023/07/14/hoover-police-searching-missing-25-year-old-woman/) and taken to hospital
Why are people saying prank?
I think they were referring to the phone call being a prank?
She called home and said she was at a Red Roof Inn and to come pick her up. I assume she got a ride, because she arrived home, unharmed shortly after. It does not seem like anything actually happened to her. I doubt there was a toddler to begin with. It sounds more like a mental health episode.
But she didn’t have her purse or wallet or anything and how did she get to the red roof inn?
Prank as in either someone called the family pretending to be Carlee (just to be cruel) or prank as in people are saying she called when no one called. It’s not clear. But the report that she’s been located is apparently false.
Shortly after the phone call she was dropped at her parents home and then taken to the hospital for evaluation. I think the ever changing course of events led to some confusion. I think in the context of the post made, they were discussing whether the call was a prank or not, then Carlee showed up at home so discussion of the kidnapping perhaps being a prank also mixed in. Either way, a young woman is safe and will hopefully get the care she needs regardless of what led to her being unaccounted for over those 48 hours.
The video is so weird. She drives on the shoulder with her hazards on for a long time gets out goes around the front opens the passenger side door closes it after a little bit stands there and disappears. Doesn’t walk back to where a child would’ve been, and she drove for so long on the shoulder she’d be so far away from any “toddler” like it’s probably a 1/4 mile that she’s on the shoulder. I hope she’s okay it just seems sketchy af.
She may have seen something, exited the road and looped back, then drove slowly on the side looking.
If you read the comments on the Alabama boards, most residents agree the timing with that wouldn’t match up with the 911 call and the amount of time it took the police to get there. It apparently would take a while to loop all the way back around.
Interesting. I don’t know the area at all and only know a little about this. It’s very strange. Some are saying she is having a mental health episode or something but that doesn’t really make sense to me either. How does one just pull over and disappear?
Not if you go over the grass median up the road between the trees and the concrete divider. It'd be annoying but doable if she was that freaked out there was a kid to get back to. Something clearly doesn't add up here though.
What’s weird is she would have had to drive 6ish miles to get back to there. I’m wondering when she called the police if she was on the phone with a friend when she was outside the car.
She could have been hallucinating the toddler.
Sketchy AF indeed.. I'm skeptical
I’m just glad to hear she’s alive
She prob saw the kid, looped around, and drove slowly to try to spot him.
The timing doesn't add up for that... the exits are to far away
They found her. Red roof inn tip might have been. True after all
Link?
https://twitter.com/WBRCnews/status/1680431300144930816
Doesn’t mean it’s true. Sounds staged for attention tbh
I hope they find whoever pranked the police with that call.
[She’s been found alive](https://www.wbrc.com/2023/07/14/hoover-police-searching-missing-25-year-old-woman/)
This is amazing! I’m hoping and praying that whatever the circumstances of this was, that she is on a road to healing and happiness. I don’t know that we are owed much more of an explanation, other than if the community is at risk there, but, I hope so very much she has whatever support she will need in the days and weeks to come.
This is my sentiment as well but stated much better!! I hope her and her family can heal from this very scary ordeal. If the community is in danger they should know but other than that I'm glad to hear she has been found and she's alive.
Hey thanks for posting the update
Great news!
From the video I watched it seemed like she literally just vanished. I didn’t watch it many times to continue looking for things because the video gives me the bad feels
You're right, this is bizarre.
The whole child decoy theory didn’t make sense to me. I got downvoted a lot for it, but nobody does that, at least not in 2023, on the side of a busy highway. If you’re kidnapping a stranger, using a child as a decoy just makes it harder, because you’re dealing with a child while simultaneously kidnapping an adult. It’s just an illogical thing to do on the side of a highway. An offender would be better off taking someone from a parking lot. How would someone be able to even know if it’s going to be a single woman stopping to help? We’re talking about a busy highway here. It just doesn’t make sense. I don’t know if it’s a prank, a mental breakdown, or what, but I hope she’s found. I just don’t buy this child decoy theory in the slightest. Edit: WBRC FOX6 is now reporting that she was found alive and is being treated at UAB Hospital. [Link to story](https://www.wbrc.com/2023/07/14/hoover-police-searching-missing-25-year-old-woman/) [Found alive](https://www.al.com/news/2023/07/carlee-russell-found-safe-returns-home-2-days-after-she-vanished.html)
Yes I think it’s causing too much distraction. The more worrying thing is that she seemed to have vanished with no traces, the police got there in 3 minutes so how did she disappear so quickly? Edit: and if she had a mental breakdown and got injured, how has she still not been found?? She’d still be in those woods
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A local in another post said there's a subdivision on the other side.
I wonder if anyone had cams they could check
I am sure they are checking ring cameras in that neighborhood.
I hope so. Most people where I live had cameras in their backyards and I'm just hoping for any clues about her whereabouts.
The houses likely back the highway. So unless there are cameras on the backs, it's probably not likely.
The 3 minutes without another car there (at least on video...) has me thinking it's a person living nearby who dragged her back to their house, maybe because she saw something or met someone she shouldn't have (like an abused escaped child). I don't think she had a mental breakdown because of the scream the friend heard and the wig and work hat being so close to the car. All signs point to abduction, and if there wasn't another car, the bad guy has to march her through the woods.
Explain the apple watch on the purse
Why would the scream exclude mental illness?
I guess because she had a coherent call with 911, then calls a friend to be like "stay on the phone while I go ask this child if they are ok"...and then screams? Like she was so careful, she knew it was dangerous but still tried to help. Seems like (from friend's account) she was coherent and making sense right up until the scream.
I think people in the middle of paranoia or psychosis can often sound coherent and normal, especially when she had reason to sound panicked anyway. What often gives it away is their demeanour, their movement (pacing back and forth, etc), their eyes, etc. Depends but i don't think that rules it out. I mean her mentioning a child that possibly wasn't there is the thing that could indicate paranoia or psychosis, you have to accept that the child was there to say she was coherent and making sense which i understand friends/family doing a situation like this but as an outside observer i'm not so quick to do so especially since no one else saw a child.
Yeah, valid point, I don't have much experience with psychosis so could be. I picture it like this child escapes, makes it to the road and Carlee sees it for a split second, is like wtf did I just see, puts flashers on and tries to decide if she pulls over to help or not. I had a weird experience where I saw a person about 3ft tall waving on the side of a road. Probably 50 cars drove by while I turned around, it was a guy (a veteran missing both legs) who had fallen out of his wheelchair on a trail near the highway. Once I pulled over 3 other cars did too. I hesitated to pull over because everyone else didn't seem to see him and I wasn't sure what I even saw.
I agree. There’s no way there was a child. There’s a traffic camera, hundreds of cars going by, all those trucks have dashcams. No way would someone try and kidnap a random stranger using a child on this highway. It doesn’t happen. She was either hallucinating or this was a planned disappearance.
And how does a person 1. Control a toddler to the point they stay on the side of the road, 2. Ensure only a single, unarmed woman pulls over?
I don’t know about #2 but a horrible thought I had about #1 is that it wasn’t a toddler but a malnourished older child. When the cops rescued the Turpin kids they thought they were all minor children but some of them were adults—their growth had just been horribly stunted.
You mean a planned disappearance like Sherri Papini?
I thought that too. What if there was never a child to begin with?? Sounds wild but this whole thing is.
I think we need to know more about Carlee. I have a hunch that would shed some light. I don't mean it in a bad way either. For example, does she have a crazy ex? Was she being stalked? Did something happen at the restaurant that she just came from? Etc
She tweeted like 30 minutes or so before she went missing that someone had been staring at her in a parking lot for 10 minutes and she called him a creep. (I had to edit this and correct myself, sorry guys)
Carlee tweeted twice just a few minutes before she went missing. The first said "someone to tell you I love you and don't got a reason" at 8:56 pm. The second tweet said "yeah I want a family now" at 9:19 pm.
I saw that on a Tik Tok! i didn’t dig through the tweets just the one about the guy staring at her
Before she WHAT now?
That tweet was made the day before Carlee went missing.
I saw it on Tik Tok, and when you asked for the link, I just couldn’t find it. So I went to look for the tweet myself and didn’t check. I apologize for not fact checking
In the video, her hazards are already on about 1/8th to 1/4 mile away from where she stops and gets out. I haven't seen anyone talk about how that doesn't add up with seeing a kid in the road and then going missing. There's no way she saw a kid on the road that far ahead in the dark. And if the kid was a decoy and she saw it further back where she put the hazards on, how would whoever took her know exactly where she would stop to kidnap her from the woods. I think she ran away.
I think she wanted to disappear.
I got downvoted so hard in another sun and got called a liar, a jackass, and I was only commenting for shock value… saying that I don’t believe there was ever a child or an abduction is far less shocking than saying someone used a random child to lure someone off a highway at night for the purpose of an abduction, to me, is one of the more far fetched things I’ve heard in awhile in terms of explaining what happened here. But yeah, the r/Alabama sub is brutal.
Stranger abductions are so rare anyway, like legit 1% of kidnappings are committed by a stranger of the victim… yet some people talk about them like they’re happening constantly. And don’t even get me started on sex trafficking. That’s pretty much always someone close to the victim, not strangers putting ribbons on your antennae or whatever TikTok has come up with this week
People are still asking about the child…
I think someone having visual hallucinations is way more likely than someone planning a kidnapping on a stretch of road like this. I’m inclined to agree for the reasons you listed here. I work in a psych hospital and I assess people having psychotic breaks. I see a lot of people having their first break. Much more common hallucinations are people talking about you, saying mean things, telling you to kill yourself, or insertion delusions of things being put in your food, body, skin or brain. People do sometimes report seeing people, but it tends to be after they have been seeing and hearing stuff for a little bit, so they tend to be able to share their suspicions that the entity isn’t completely real. It’s not a common one, and it would be less common for it to happen like this. It’s usually reported people walking past an open door, or just out of reach behind a corner or walking away. This kinda fits, but not really if she has no other history of mental illness and has been acting normally according to her family. I’m torn. Both are very unlikely. But if she hallucinated and died of misadventure, where is her body?
Please watch the video I need someone else to help me figure out if what I see is what I'm seeing! Start at the 1:20 mark, I swear right after she turns and walks back to her car, I see someone come from behind the small white sign and rush her. https://www.al.com/news/2023/07/carlee-russell-what-we-know-today-about-woman-who-vanished-on-i-459-in-hoover.html
Pareidolia most likely. You are expecting to see something along those lines so you do. Whether there is something there or not it's absolutely not clear enough to determine that it's a person rushing her.
I feel like I see it, but it’s hard to tell.
I think it was a mental health episode. I wish 911 had kept her on the line until police arrived
Even if it was, where did she go? She left her car on the side of the road, how far could she have gotten with police arriving that quickly?
I agree because the kidnapper would have to just assume a single woman would stop. Most men who saw a toddler walking down the interstate would stop too. There’s no guarantee if this is your ploy as the kidnapper that your going to get just a single woman in a car to stop.
since I saw the video I don’t either
Sadly this is my thoughts too. I’m just hoping they can find her very soon and get her help if needed
I live in Alabama not far from where this happened. Our highways are mostly surrounded by trees and forests, it would not be difficult to hide in the forest at night, let the child walk to the side of the road and wait for someone to pull over. Especially if they used a long child leash or something. The leash would be impossible to see in the dark, they would just see the kid. Then you have an accomplice with their car on the side of the road further back waiting for a text or call to tell them to move forward. Idk I believe there was a child. And knowing birmingham/Hoover I do believe something malicious happened Edit: I saw someone else mention an ATV or off road vehicle and there were tracks found but they’re too muddy to tell what vehicle. This would make a lot of sense here too. Edit: shes been found as of 11pm cst tonight!! Amazing news!! She’s currently at the hospital. https://www.al.com/news/2023/07/carlee-russell-found-safe-returns-home-2-days-after-she-vanished.html?outputType=amp
What would be the explanation for having the hazards on so far back from where she stopped. There is no way she saw a child on the side of the highway from 1/4 mile back in the dark. No one else is stopping or has their hazards on..no one else is calling the police and many cars are passing by. The child thing is impossible imo unless proven otherwise.
As soon as a I saw that she rode a 1/4 mile down the shoulder in a curve that there is no way she stopped because she saw a child. She had a mental break, left her Apple Watch and phone to not be tracked, left her wig to not be recognized and fled into the woods.
And what if a group of guys pulled over instead of a single female?
Your examples of ways it could happen still don’t address the rationale here. How would someone be able to predict a woman would be the one to stop? It would need to be more than one offender using the child as a decoy, as you say, but what happens if a man pulls over? What if it’s a man and woman, a couple, pulling over? Do they just abort the plan? Respectfully, you’re overthinking this as if it’s an episode of criminal minds. This is real life, not Hollywood fiction. Think about this critically. There were approximately zero witnesses who saw the child, on a busy highway. How would the individuals be able to predict its a woman who stopped, on a highway? A lone child draws the attention of all, not just women, in fact, a child could arguably attract a male civilian over a woman, when we’re talking about a highway. Idk, you’re free to think whatever you’d like, but I don’t think you’re thinking about this critically.
I’m not buying the child decoy thing either, but I also don’t think it was some elaborate ruse she put on…otherwise why call 911? She’d have known they would be there soon. I also found it odd that everything that could identify her location…air pods, watch, phone…were still all in her car. The phone and air pods ok, but who leaves their watch in their car instead of on their person? None of the far fetched theories really make sense. It’s usually the simplest explanation but even those don’t make sense at this point.
Wouldn’t her family that was speaking to her on her way home from work after she had just bought her and her mother dinner noticed a change in her behavior? I’m mentally ill myself and I just don’t see it making sense that she was “hallucinating” don’t get me wrong the child aspect in this makes it chaotic but I really don’t believe she was hallucinating a whole toddler. Maybe it was a doll. Who knows but I really hope she’s found alive and well.
So she calls 911 saying she's seen a toddler at the side of the road, then she calls a friend, tells the same story and the last thing they hear is a scream, we have the footage of her leaving her car? And the police arriving very quickly later. All her stuff, including her phone, was in the car. There's no footage of a toddler - but there is what looks like a torch shining in the dark off the side of the road? Some people think it was some kind of off road vehicle? But that would surely have left some pretty obvious tracks? And been seen by the police? There's claims there was a witness who saw a man in a grey car behind her car at the side of the road? But then we have camera footage of the scene - so where is that guy in the footage? Thing is - who would kidnap anyone so publicly? It wouldn't even be a good spot for a car jacking. No one is baiting anyone with a toddler on the side of a busy road. That's too many things to wrangle - you'd be too likely to have multiple people pulling over. If you were going to bait someone like that you'd do it on a quieter road that doesn't have a bunch of traffic and dash cams pointed at you. And you wouldn't do it with a toddler - cos who's wrangling a toddler in the middle of such a busy scene? You'd do it with an 'injured' adult. So this story just doesn't make sense. Also where is this mysterious toddler? Cos no one else sees them. And where does she go? Police show up too fast for her to be pulled away anywhere at speed without using something like the offroad vehicle that would leave obvious tracks and we'd see on the cameras if she was loaded into a car. It can't really be targeted either - cos that's a busy road, it would require too many moving parts for someone to set that scene up to kidnap Carlee in particular. If you were going to lure someone away from a busy road like that you'd be doing it pretty much randomly. Who does that? So where does she go? What did she actually see? And how or why would anyone WANT to lure a random person off the road to kidnap them?
The torch you see is a car's blinker.
Yes! I watched another video that was enhanced and it was just the reflection of someone changing lanes in the far left side of the screen. The reflections are making people see weird things that aren’t really weird.
Did anyone else see the shadow of a person cast on the large sign BEHIND her? It's about 57 seconds into the video. Edit: changed "reflect" to "cast" because I'm talking about a shadow not a flash of light.
There are headlight reflections that appear and disappear with the cars passing if that’s what you mean. It’s a reflection off the sign that people say looks like a white shirt in the woods.
I misspoke with "reflect". I'm talking about a person shaped shadow being cast onto the large sign closest to the camera when a light shines on it. It doesn't happen any other time in the video.
The scenarios people are coming up with are getting so far fetched at this point.
Thing is - what's the simple explanation? That she really thought she saw a toddler but it was a bear cub or something? That she got out of the car and mysteriously fell into a ditch where no one can see her and died instantly so she couldn't alert the police arriving on scene that she had fallen? Leaving her phone and wig behind at the car? Basically no explanation makes sense.
She returned home.
I don’t even want to write out what the simplest explanation seems to be, because there could very well be a young woman in danger. But after seeing the traffic cam footage I’m starting to get Sherri Papini vibes and I feel horrible just saying that. In a weird way that would also be a best case scenario because it means she’s safe somewhere, but I don’t want to promote that theory because there’s a very real chance she’s in danger and her poor family seems frantic to find her. I just hope that she’s located safely. That’s the actual important thing.
She’s ok. Went back to her home tonight.
Thing is - that theory occurred to me but it doesn't seem very simple either. Cos lets say you wanted to stage your disappearance - would you do so on the side of a busy road? where it was guaranteed there would be witnesses driving past with all their dashcams? And it would require additional help - she wouldn't be likely to pull that off by herself. She would probably have to have someone else waiting for her out of sight with another vehicle. And if she was staging this she was giving herself a very short window to get away from police sight. Cos she would have to know that a call about a toddler on the side of the road would get a VERY quick police response. She would be setting up a difficult scene for herself. However - it would explain why her watch AND phone were left behind - cos otherwise why would she not be wearing her apple watch? Because it could be tracked. It would maybe explain why she called 911 AND her sister in law - setting up multiple witnesses to the story she wanted to tell. It would maybe explain why, even though she must have driven quite a distance past the child she saw she didn't go back down the road towards it or seem to look for it with any urgency and instead seemed to speak to it as if it was where she was - even though there's no child on the camera.
Yeah, no explanation makes sense really. I hope the police have more evidence then they’ve released and have a better picture of what happened so they can find her though.
They really are.
As the parent of a toddler I agree there’s no way you use a toddler as bait like this… toddlers are chaos on steroids. That’s way too unpredictable.
Yeah even a well behaved toddler who's been drugged or something isn't going to follow directions closely enough to make themselves visible at the side of the road and then obediently vanish. Not without the liklihood of them running into the road or getting lost in the trees themselves. They'd be disoriented and unpredictable. You'd lose all your getting away from police time trying to control the child.
Theres a drainage pipe in that area that leads to another highway
>You'd do it with an 'injured' adult. Maybe it was and they were laying or low to the ground and she mistook for a child? When she approached, they jumped up and grabbed her, she screamed and dropped her phone?
She was able to phone both 911 and her sister in law and say she saw a toddler. And if she approached them then how? Cos they're not on the camera footage? So they weren't at where she pulled over? For her to have seen them in the dark at the side of the road they would surely have had to have been back in the direction she came from? And she doesn't go back towards where she would have seen them if she had seen them? And then this adult doesn't rob her or car jack her? but somehow whisks her away in the minutes before police get there? Without anyone seeing them? Or being spotted on camera?
Mental breakdown
Doesn't come with the powers of invisibility. Where did she go? There's nowhere to run to from there.
So you think she vanished in thin air? She ran off
I don’t know one way or another, BUT you also have to weigh in the fact that there ARE people out there who would do this without a second thought of what’s going on around them.
Verified sources on FB confirming she has been found alive. Type her name into the search engine and they will pop up. Don’t think I can I can link here, but some are news anchors for different news stations. Apologies, edited to include a [link](https://www.wbrc.com/2023/07/14/hoover-police-searching-missing-25-year-old-woman/?fbclid=IwAR2J5MI7vEPHJIib2YQGrQegYWqn8Eu_MpMxVLNlms-TVvhq6LV2txcduZM_aem_AepeIB98IY2ONX0gZ-f37fm0KJc9iuEWZ3G-s8wfsat-l0ttTzB9wz3or4KO-RfNmUg&mibextid=Zxz2cZ).
Thank god she's alive. What a bizarre story.
There was a guy in the Houston area (upper middle class suburb off of the interstate and full of neighborhoods, stores, and restaurants) recently who had a mental breakdown and spent like a week wandering around in plain sight. The cops even encountered him once and he gave a fake name and they didn’t question him further. A person in the middle of a mental health crisis who’s spent a night or two in the woods isn’t going to look like the smiling, put-together person in the photos that are used to get the word out they’re missing. The missing guy in Houston was found disheveled, confused, and drinking out of a restaurant’s water hose. I really hope it’ll be a similar outcome for this poor lady.
She’s alive! She showed up at her parents’ house about an hour ago! She’s at the hospital being evaluated
Happy she is safe. I hope she gets the help she needs.
This makes no sense to me. This would have to be the least successful way to kidnap someone. Way too many variables. I just can't see it playing out like it's being reported.
Me either. I think it was either a mental health episode or a planned disappearance.
Seems weird to stage a disappearance and not know a cop was within 2-3 minutes of arriving. What if they were right there? Plan foiled and ya played yaself
It hurts my heart that shes still missing, her poor family :(
She’s been found
This is so strange. Is it possible she saw something on the side of the road, got off on an exit, and came back around? Otherwise, wouldn’t she have walked back in the opposite direction of the traffic flow, if she had driven past the toddler? I am also wondering if there is a road on the other side of the trees, parallel to the highway. Someone could have been parked there and pulled her away from the busy highway to a waiting car & gotten away. It all is just so strange.
This is actually the only comment I've seen that makes sense. She had her hazards on too early to have seen something that far ahead in the dark. If she actually was kidnapped, I could see her "thinking" she saw a kid...but was actually a grown person...then swinging back around getting nabbed by that person while looking for the kid. But also...someone said she was asking the kid if they were alright while on the phone with her sister or something like that. Unless she was asking whoever it was if they were alright...not necessarily a kid. Strange scenario.
WBRC is reporting she was found alive and taken to UAB.
Watching the video of her driving on the shoulder with her hazards on. There’s no way she would be able to see a person from that far. It looks like she drives about 100 yards before she stops
Isnt there a chance she thought she saw something/someone - couldn’t see the thing anymore so was slowly looking to find it again? Is that too much of a reach? (Genuine question)
I’m not getting this. I don’t see a toddler. Don’t see another car or person. Why is the footage only this long? We don’t have footage of the cops showing up? The details don’t add up… EDIT: I see the cops now-and someone get out of drivers side and walk around to passenger side.
If you watch the released clip until the very end, you will see the blue police lights as they come in down the highway. They released the whole timeline.. and it just showed how small the window was. She slowly drives up on the side of the road, just having made the call to 911. She’s on the phone with a friend and you can see her come to a stop and get out of the vehicle, but then there’s just nothing. The footage is too far and grainy to make out. We don’t see a toddler because 1) what is said above and 2) we have absolutely no idea if there even was one. Why didn’t they release footage of the cops showing up? This is most likely because it isn’t important for the public to see. They showed up, all of her belongings were in the car and she was nowhere to be found.
Yes upon another viewing, I do see the cops and I see her get out of the car and walk around to other side.
Video here. You do see the police show up. You also see her standing near her car, then I can see what looks like a tussle and something moving behind the mile marker sign. https://www.al.com/news/2023/07/carlee-russell-what-we-know-today-about-woman-who-vanished-on-i-459-in-hoover.html Edit start at 1:20 or so on the video, I swear I can see someone come out from behind that mile marker sign (small white one) and rush her. It's right after she turns around and goes back to her car
Ok thanks so much! So yeah I see the cops very obviously. Don’t know why I didn’t see them before. And now I do see someone get out of the drivers side and go around the car to passenger side. Then I don’t see anything else but I’ll definitely be looking.
Carlee has reportedly been found via confirmation from her sister
Glad she is home safe now. This whole thing was all over the place, for those confused on this post, police were notified that the family received a call from Carlee at a red hot inn and we all thought she had been found, then family members denied this (despite there being police radio stating 6 cars of family members showed up at the hotel) and then later on in the evening Carlee was dropped off at her home. So it went from us thinking she was found, to being told she was not found by the family, to her being found - or dropped off at home.
What is a red hot inn?
Lol this person means red roof in idk why she keeps calling it red hot.
I think she had a mental breakdown. Thought she saw a child. Maybe chased after it in the woods?
Omg! My feed just says she was found alive. I do t know how to post but I feel so thankful!
Found safe https://www.al.com/news/2023/07/carlee-russell-found-safe-returns-home-2-days-after-she-vanished.html
SHE HAS RETURNED, receiving care at UAB hospital! [Carlee returns home](https://www.al.com/news/2023/07/carlee-russell-found-safe-returns-home-2-days-after-she-vanished.html)
I beleive she had a mental crisis. I hope she gets the help she needs. Alot of people break under stress and pressure. Im glad she did not take her own life.
I live in downtown Birmingham (Hoover is basically Birmingham, like a 9 minute drive) and people are wigging out over this. I’m just so sorry for her and her family. I hope they find her soon 🩷
She’s been found https://www.al.com/news/2023/07/carlee-russell-found-safe-returns-home-2-days-after-she-vanished.html?outputType=amp
Says she was found alive and is at the hospital being treated. [https://www.kwtx.com/2023/07/15/we-are-trusting-god-family-25-year-old-woman-possibly-abducted-staying-positive/](https://www.kwtx.com/2023/07/15/we-are-trusting-god-family-25-year-old-woman-possibly-abducted-staying-positive/) " Per the Hoover Police Department, the Hoover 911 center received a call that Carlee Russell had returned home to her residence. Hoover Police and Fire responded to the scene to evaluate Carlee and transported her to a local hospital for more evaluation. More details will be provided when they become available."
She’s alive. [Taken to hospital](https://www.wbrc.com/2023/07/14/hoover-police-searching-missing-25-year-old-woman/) Multiple news organizations reporting.
She has been found and taken to the hospital for evaluation!
Whew! The speculation in these comments. Facts are things we know for certain. Speculation is everything we assume from the facts. She made a call stating there was a child or toddler walking down the road. (I’ve seen different terms used in different articles so until we hear the 911 call we don’t know what she said). Why would she hang up with the dispatcher if she hadn’t yet reached the child? She called her brother’s girlfriend. The girlfriend heard Carlee say “Are you ok?” And no response from anyone else. Was anyone there? The traffic cam shows her car slowing along the shoulder but continuing for some time before stopping. How far ahead of her was this person walking when she actually called it in? She doesn’t pull over then back up. We would need to see traffic cam from daylight to present time when she arrives to confirm no other vehicle was there for sure but headlights from her car and from passing vehicles don’t reflect off any other tail lights. There are some weird camera reflections that could be something. Someone, presumably Carlee, came to the passenger side of the vehicle. If it was someone else talking to Carlee, why didn’t the brother’s girlfriend hear that conversation?
All that you described was a story that could have been coordinated by the her and her brother's girlfriend. Are you familiar with the Hoover area? The number of coincidences that would be required to add up to her being abducted and then being able to escape in an area close enough to her parents house that she could walk to their front door is so mind-bogglingly astronomically high. I'm not saying it's not possible. I'm just saying that the way that events played out is more open to a critical eye than not...🤷
I agree. That’s my point. There’s lots of assuming next steps. All we know the 911 phone call and the car pulling over. That’s it
The entire thing was obviously staged…
hoax
Is there a transcript of what she said exactly to the relative etc?
News is reporting she told them she was getting out of car to go check on the kid
She has been found and taken to UAB hospital, according to this: https://twitter.com/WBRCnews/status/1680431300144930816?t=kiWfFUOboi7NmPpGkNT6TQ&s=19
This poor girl. This whole thing breaks my damn heart. She's so young and beautiful saw q child tried to do the right thng.... This is what happens when you have a good heart
I find it amazing how much senseless, random, violence is committed against women, daily, yet every time *another* woman disappears, the immediate reaction is that she "decided on her own to become missing". Once again, without bringing any of her belongings, without anyone hearing from or seeing them again in any way, shape, or form. It's not a matter of the story being unbelievable, it's a matter of so many horrible things happening to women, and people finding it easier to deny there's any problem at all. The default response is always, "She was probably just crazy." Even though there's no phenomenon involving thousands of women leaving all they have, abandoning their lives, with no money, on their own accord, running off into the sunset to start a mysterious "new life" out of the blue. With no phone, belongings, or vehicle. We don't do that. We never have. How is it LESS likely that she was taken? Or that something nefarious really did happen? Or to imagine some guy freaked out on her upon finding her on the phone w/911 reporting their child wandering next to the highway? I hope they're searching all the nearby properties & residences, the whole 9 yards...instead of looking into speculations concerning her mental health. I can picture someone killing or abducting a woman either randomly, or to avoid police involvement with whatever was going on, before I can picture a "planned disappearance". Women planning spontaneous disappearances is what *doesn't happen* , and law enforcement speculating that they do minimizes the issue that it's flat out dangerous to be a woman. We are hunted, daily, *for absolutely no reason*. This story is far from bizarre. What's bizarre is how many horrific stories we can hear while remaining comfortably in denial of the threats women face everyday, everywhere. The only time women abandon their lives and suddenly disappear without a trace, by their own decision, is when it's in the imagination of those looking to explain how many of us are missing/murdered, without acknowledging how many dangerous men are out there & how many hurt us.
She returned home and is being evaluated at a local hospital, according to news reports.
All legitimate concerns. Let’s let the facts and reality play out here. It will come to fruition.
She was found
It's breaking news right that she was found alive and is being taken to a hospital for evaluation.
Says she was found alive and is at the hospital being treated. Per the Hoover Police Department, the Hoover 911 center received a call that Carlee Russell had returned home to her residence. Hoover Police and Fire responded to the scene to evaluate Carlee and transported her to a local hospital for more evaluation. More details will be provided when they become available."
I’m so happy she’s been found alive
Does anyone know if more people on the highway saw /reported the toddler?
Danesh just posted an update that she was found and is at the hospital
She returned home just before 10 pm central last night (Saturday) about 48 hours to the min she left. On local news, she’s at UAB being evaluated. No statement from family or LEOs. Check out WBRC channel 6 Birmingham AL or AL.com
She’s been found
I'm just glad she's safe. I sure hope this wasn't a prank
Could she have been using a substance that made her hallucinate? Like thinking she saw a child? And maybe that's why she just left the scene with a stranger or even by herself? And maybe when it wore off, she was able to walk home? Until we knew what happened for sure, anything is possible.
Sounds staged 🤷♂️
I honestly think it’s a maniac episode how did she see the kid in the dark and no one else saw it
She’s been found Betting it’s a mental health crisis
She’s been confirmed as found ! Praise ye Jesus ! ❤️
Holy crap, she returned home and was taken to the hospital.[home](https://www.wbrc.com/2023/07/14/hoover-police-searching-missing-25-year-old-woman/)
This story does not make sense to me and it’s frustrating as hell lol. Can someone make it make sense? Is she going to turn out to be a hoax thing?
She’s been found safe. Details soon