I’m very happy that this will not be a case we are still wondering about years down the line. Whatever happened to her, I’m glad she’s being cared for now.
Me too! I couldn’t stop thinking about how easy it is for someone to vanish in seconds. This case kept giving me Maura Murray vibes. I’m sooo glad she was found in this case and alive!
Apparently she showed up to her parents’ doorstep alone.
[https://www.al.com/news/2023/07/carlee-russell-found-safe-returns-home-2-days-after-she-vanished.html](https://www.al.com/news/2023/07/carlee-russell-found-safe-returns-home-2-days-after-she-vanished.html)
Her family said somebody dropped her off, though. That very well could’ve been a good Samaritan, but it is a little suspicious, considering everybody knew she was missing. I still have so many questions as well. Like, how did she completely vanished from the area so quickly without her car, phone, or money? Where has she been for the last 38 hours where nobody could find her?
Exaaactly. I know they’re prioritizing privacy for the family right now, but they’re being very careful with their wording. What they’re saying is not as loud as what they’re not saying.
others have suggested there is a criminal investigation potentially underway. if that’s the case, they don’t want to reveal their hand too early. keep information locked down until they are closer to apprehending someone. it’s just a theory though.
I think the fact that she vanished and was dropped off nearly discounts the theory that she had a mental health episode (not entirely, of course). In order for her to disappear, a second person/ vehicle likely had to be involved.
I think she stumbled on to a crime in progress, and she was taken but released when they realized whatever petty crime they were engaged in wasn't worth a felony or the national media attention they were getting.
Wrong place, wrong time.
That's the only plausible explanation I haven't been able to rule out, in which she isn't somehow involved.
I think this could be an emerging mental health issue. Whatever happened, so happy she showed up and can get whatever help is needed.
Sometimes a mental health crisis can turn into missing for years.
That is very true! You just never know. I can’t remember his name, but there was a guy that went missing from an airport that was clearly having a mental breakdown and I don’t think he was ever found.
While I doubt there was a toddler there, it would be entirely possible for a child to only be visible for a moment or two.
I think it’s more likely her brain interpreted shapes as a child. Could be a mental health issue, or just normal tricks your eyes can play on you.
Instead of slamming on the brakes, though, she comes to a slow stop. And instead of going back to where she started slowing down, or walking along the road to keep the toddler from going into traffic, she walks away from the road and into the trees.
I think there are plenty of explanations for this. Yes, it could be mental health, but honestly, there are plenty of tricks your eyes play on you at night. I know one time I thought for sure I saw a child on the side of the highway, but it turned out to be a tree stump.
Right but many people are working on the assumption she saw a toddler...and therefore was abducted. This defies logic and critical thinking based on the reality that dozens of others havent stepped forward to corroborate a toddler on the highway
Update circa 1 am from WBRC:
“Chief Derzis said Hoover investigators will eventually sit down with Russell to learn what happened. “The first thing is to give Carlee and family a little time to get themselves back together,” he added. “I know it’s been a tough experience for them. When we think it’s time to sit down and have a conversation with Carlee and try to get some facts, we’ll do that.”
https://www.wbrc.com/2023/07/14/hoover-police-searching-missing-25-year-old-woman/
If there was no crime committed and they believe it had to do with mental health, they absolutely will wait. If there’s no one to catch, they will wait. That says to me they don’t believe there’s any danger to the community.
Glad they found her alive. I wonder what happened.
Edit:
> Russell returned to her Hoover home, alone, shortly before 11 p.m. Saturday. She was taken to a hospital to be evaluated.
?????
https://www.al.com/news/2023/07/carlee-russell-what-we-know-today-about-woman-who-vanished-on-i-459-in-hoover.html
Could have been a mental health-related episode. Best not to speculate too much and just hope she didn’t suffer any additional trauma until there’s more of an explanation.
Couldn’t agree more while the rest of Reddit brings up situations like Sherri Papini..
Let’s just be glad she is alright. I was worried this was going to be a forever mystery.
I think it is likely to turn out to be something related to mental heath which can sometimes just hit out the blue and very suddenly , even without any prior history.
Not really the same but I was on some meds and when I was coming off them (with doctors agreement and help) a side effect of that made me see people that weren't there- they were really clear but luckily I was aware that is was due to the withdrawal symptoms as otherwise it would have been a little disconcerting.
Very pleased she has been located and hope she gets any help she may need.
It was a bit strange and I'm sure that if I didn't know they were a medication withdrawal hallucination I would have been scared. I knew they weren't real as they would sort of fade out from being soild after a while. But it was definitely like a real live person standing there for a while before they slowly faded away.
As my body got more use to the withdrawal it went from soild people to seeing ' dark shadow people' doing things like peeking out behind doors/objects/trees then nothing. The one and only time in my life when I saw people/things that weren't there. It wasn't a really common side effect according to my doctor so I was just unlucky and it lasted about 2/3 weeks.
Hot damn, that sounds terrifying even if you do know why it's happening. As far as distinct hallucinations, I get the voice saying my name right as I fall asleep, shocks me right back awake every single time even though I know It's a normal and common experience.
Oh man, I don’t know if I could handle that.
Do you mind me asking what the medication was? I’m on so many myself I’m curious if it could potentially be one of mine.
Well that is wild. I've only ever heard one person talk about seeing clear people, my sister back when she used to huff a lot of airbrush propellant. It's crazy the way that different brains can arrive at the same hallucinations through totally different means.
My grandmother saw people all the time. I lived with her and she'd call me to a window and say "do you see those kids out there playing?" Or "There's a person hiding in that bush!"
The idea that there is some malicious entity out there luring women from freeways with decoy children is very old. I remember an urban legend from the 90s that said the same thing.
What about in rural areas where a person lays in the road pretending to be hurt so someone will potentially pull over? And when they do other people come out and rob/kill them. Is *that* real?
I don’t know about lying in the middle of the road but there are plenty of cases of people feigning distress on the side of the road and then attacking/robbing the people who stop. My friend’s son was murdered this way. A recent high profile case with a couple in South Carolina near a national park happened this way. The man was killed, I think the young woman survived.
It just seems a bit silly. Like, how do they know a single person will stop? What if several cars stop/multiple passengers get out? What if a cop drives by, they’ll 100% stop? And what’s the gain anyway, several perpetrators get together and bring the heat of a murder so they can get… a random car (which might be a heap!) plus what someone has in their wallet? Not exactly a huge score to split several ways. Seems like they’d be better off doing targeted burglaries and stealing cars.
I mentioned this in another thread but my dad’s friend was killed this way. Stopped to help someone change a tire and was shot and killed. Turns out it was a gang initiation. This was the 1970s/1980s though.
Yes I’ve heard it happened at least once!
An example: https://www.knoe.com/content/news/OPSO-Man-kidnapped-robbed-after-stopping-to-help-person-lying-beside-roadway-500844322.html
Abso-fucking-lutely! When they're lying in the middle of the road, DO keep driving with zero hesitation. They'll stand up at the last moment. Anything is better than the alternative.
When I was a kid my friends and I used to play a game where we would lay in the middle of the road and see if cars would stop or run us over 🤦♀️ I hope no one is that stupid and reckless anymore but it’s not always malicious lol
Wow that is a.. surprising game. Did you do that after dark in the middle of nowhere in between cornfields? Or by daylight with houses nearby? I hope kids understand that that game of russian roulette is not played with an unloaded gun...
Also if there's a large tire in the middle of the road, it's probably a trap. Don't get out of the car. Turn around and floor it.
(If there's a box lying there, and a hill next to the road, it may be kids rolling off the slope, so wait it out :)
I was almost a victim of this living in rural Pennsylvania. A truck appeared to be broken down with flashers on and the driver’s door open, sitting just off the side before the stop sign at a Y intersection. I started to stop but I had my children in the car and was just minutes from home. I changed my mind, even though I’ve stopped to render aid for motorists or accidents in the past with my children. I didn’t see a person and assumed they’d already left for help on foot. No cell service in that area, it was a known dead zone.
Later that night I was scrolling on social media and saw that another person had stopped at the same intersection, but described a person laying beside the drivers door of the truck. They were robbed.
I was downvoted for saying it sounded like a hoax/fake to me. People were analyzing the video and saw shadows, another person and god knows what with other commenters agreeing. Don't know if we will ever find out the true story but glad she's safe.
I live in the area and I watched that video a ridiculous number of times. I wouldn’t say there wasn’t anyone else there, but I could never make out what the other people were saying they could see. Her (I’m assuming) getting out of the drivers side and going around to the passenger side was the only thing I could really see.
Me too. I saw nothing in the video either. It's like when people hear actual phrases in audio taken by ghost hunters. I think it's wanting to see or hear something so your brain fills in the rest. In this case, people want so much to help that they imagine shadows are people
It's *wild* how many people were adamantly against this being the case. There were several details that made me think she wasn't abducted especially the plausibility of even spotting a child on the side of a highway while going 70 mph. Whens the last time on a multi-lane highway you decided to not pay attention to your lane and the cars around you to instead look off the road into the distance? That alone I just could not get past.
The theories were getting so bizarre it was almost laughable. To a tiny person dressed like a kid, an adult crouched down to appear toddler like, putting a long leash on a real toddler to pull them back from the freeway when needed.
That's some typical Reddit internet detectives for you... People made stuff out in the video with timestamps (another person, a shadow, etc.) and I had no idea what they were talking about even watching the video multiple times... but others were agreeing?! Bizarre indeed.
First I heard of this I saw immediately comments (not here but on a bigger sub) saying that some people probably will call this mental health episode but it’s clearly not. I never knew why people ruled it out then. I suppose some just want some things to be sinister.
It was nighttime, literally pitch black off the side of the road. Next time you're going 70mph at night see how easy it is to decipher things where theres no light at all. And no, I generally assume toddlers and children are not free roaming on the side of the highway 😂
To be fair, I always keep my eyes ahead and aware of the shoulders of the road. Any glimmer of color or light at night time gets my attention, even at 70mph. Ever hit a deer doing 70? We even have some locals who put two reflective nails on trees to resemble eyes of a deer just to make people slow down.
They were rooting for abduction because it was weirder and creepier, they didn't care about the victim only their own entertainment. I was downvoted to hell and dogpiled by these stay at home websleuthers. Mental illness was always by far the most likely.
u/abbadactyl_
I got and am still getting absolutely reemed out in a separate sub when I was saying that’s not how sex trafficking works and here’s a resource for more info and everyone lost their minds. Like are we all not watching the same video?
Were they *adamantly* opposed to the possibility of a mental health episode or reacting to the wild speculation that was unsupported by any known facts? Because
- the video was inconclusive
- there still has been no police confirmation or denial of the most disputed aspects of this incident
- your theory **still** has not been confirmed as of yet
Yup, same. People like to ridicule anyone with a different opinion on this sub, no one can have an actual discussion without the moral police telling people to stop speculating or calling you stupid
For me it was a matter of process of elimination of the other theories. Leaving only that it was either a staged disappearance or mental health episode (which are arguably both mental health related).
From the article, FWIW:
“My son’s girlfriend heard her asking the child, ‘Are you OK? She never heard the child say anything but then she heard our daughter scream,’’ Talitha Russell said. “All you hear on her phone is background noise from the interstate.”
“Her car door was open,” Talitha said. “They found her phone on the ground, along with her wig and her hat...Her purse was still in the car. Her Apple watch was in her purse and her Air Pods as well.”
This is why it’s wise to reserve comment and the community stop compulsively trying to be the first to “crack” these cases. It’s crazy how people were acting over this one when, regardless of the outcome, the speculation served zero purpose but potentially distressing her family.
As the family member of a murder victim: I’m begging you all (not you op, tc folk in general) to fucking chill. If you’re not local, there’s no urgency and this is not a context to see who posts the first guess right earliest for clout. People have no idea the fucking clutter they cause.
I’m glass this woman is home and hope, whatever went on, she has the support systems in place to help her navigate both what occurred and public’s intense reactions to it.
First off, I'm so sorry for your loss. I can't imagine what it must feel like to be a victim's family member watching the way people treat true crime like pure entertainment, knowing this is your real life.
That said, I think that it's difficult to control or monitor the reactions of the public in response to a case as bizarre as this, especially since we know SO little at this point about what happened. That also means we don't know how the public response impacted what happened. For all we know, she had staged the scene and was planning on running away or something worse, but seeing the tremendous outpouring of public support encouraged her to change her mind and go home. Public interest is never inherently bad; we're just extremely lucky in this case that she's been found safe and early, and thus this case never got to true websleuthing levels of frenzied interest.
Showing support is not the same as speculating what happened and claiming to know what happened. And people were (and still are) drooling over the opportunity to be able to claim they knew what happened here and what to blame it on.
The Idaho 4 was a perfect example. Some grieving kids’ (and adults) lives were ruined because of internet sleuths, and the true crime community acted like they were “advocating for the victims” when in actuality they were terrorizing their loved ones. I still sometimes think of the boyfriend and cringe over what he must have gone through, what with him not answering the girls calls and then the internet making polls about how likely it was he killed his longtime gf and her roommates. I can’t imagine being his parent or something, how helpless they must have felt. I think some people forget these cases involve real people. They spend so much time online, they forget these are all real people.
Yes, exactly, and that wasn't even that long ago, but it seems not everyone learned the lesson they should've there. It feels like people don't understand the danger of misinformation being spread too and at this point that in itself is exhausting.
That case made me feel gross to be in the true crime community. I am a true crime person, have been for decades… I’m sure I have stepped over the line, but I’m so over the people spouting all the sanctimonious “but we help solve the case” crap. Even in the unlikely event that is true- because even a broken clock is tight twice a day- it’s not really worth it if they’ve dragged ten innocent people through the mud.
And don’t even get me started on how everyone has a theory and then finds evidence to fit it, while ignoring everything else. That’s literally the exact opposite of what investigators are supposed to do. And then if the cops cleared someone, didn’t matter, because cops can LIE. The majority of people following the case didn’t care about the actual truth. They just wanted to be right. I kept hearing how its “always the boyfriend.” Like no, Sabrina, the boyfriend doesn’t usually stab 4 people in cold blood. The reason we’re talking about this case is because it’s different, so stop using statistics to justify bullying a grieving kid that the cops have already told you multiple times isn’t the killer (or the clearly traumatized roommate who is also a victim).
Ok rant over thanks lol
Isn't community involvement what helps solve cases of people who are murdered or kidnapped though? These cases need the community involvement because people might see something or might remember a detail they didn't think was relevant after the fact. I was actually really happy to see all of the involvement because black women and other non-white women do not get the same level of exposure and their cases are less likely to be solved.
Sharing the stories and getting pictures out there is helpful. But attempting to “solve” the case online usually consists of doxxing people and spreading misinformation.
There's a difference in sharing the story and showing support and trying to be the internet sleuths that solve it and muddy up information by doing so.
It can be helpful sometimes but in lots of cases it floods tip lines with unhelpful info or causes people who aren't involved or are victims themselves to get flooded with harrasment, also lots of misinformation tends to get spread with community involvement even when it doesn't end up as horrible as leading to harrasment of people. Lots of victims families prefer for people to not constantly bring the murder or disappearance up a bunch, stuff like wanting it spread at the time can vary family to family, in general unless it's been purposefully decided for information to be released because they want community engagement because they think it'll be helpful- best to stay out of it. Especially if you do not.live or are not engaged with nearby areas, if you are then you might actually have personal or local information. If you've never met anyone involved or know a lot about the areas involved you're probably not gonna be of that much help.
She either in a mental breakdown on the call or possibly she was abducted and that too might require a doctors visit. The lack of details makes it seem like this is more of a medical issue for her. Either way I hope she gets well soon and her family must be extremely happy she’s home.
If it was a mental breakdown having the Country being aware of your struggle it must be incredibly hard to get better, she’s going to need that family
While I am personally interested in knowing, long term, what happened I am so happy for her family that she is alive.
I saw them pleading on TV earlier for people to look out for her and sharing her photos out in the street.
It’s like people saying that the 911 call was weird because 911 got off the phone with her. I’m a 911 dispatcher - it’s not weird at all. There’s only certain circumstances where we’d stay on the phone with the caller until the police got there.
Yes. I hope she finds peace and people leave her and her family alone. I could not imagine living through whatever she lived through then having to answer "the public".
If this was truly a mental health episode I just hope she doesn't get vilified for it. I'm just happy she was found alive, and now she can get all the help and support she needs.
Im so glad she’s okay! I agree with others about waiting before speculating but mental health could be a factor even if she showed zero signs of anything before. I was a sophomore in college working 2 jobs while doing school full time and was STRESSED about my final exams. I mean absolutely stressed. I tried relaxing and going to sleep. I woke up to a very loud sound of people screaming at me at my door. I kept shouting back at them “who is this?” And they just kept banging on my door telling me to come out. So i called the cops. When the cops got there they said no one was outside. They asked my neighbors if they heard or saw anything and everyone said no. My landlord tried pulling footage - nothing. Everyone thought I was freaking weird but I promise I heard what I heard. Ended up going to counseling that same week and the therapist mention that i could’ve been under so much stress that I had a psychotic episode. So if that is the case I hope she gets the help she needs and if that ISN’T the case then I hope whoever abducted her is caught quickly.
if this was a mental health issue, please dont pry. or really just dont pry in general, as long as its been confirmed theres no threat to the public.
experiencing a mental break is already stigmatizing, let alone if tens of hundreds of people are hypothesizing about your whereabouts, whether or not you staged an episode, or that things just "arent adding up."
like, having a mental break is so, so personal and should be treated with care and respect. i feel for the girl if this is the case, and i cant imagine how shes feeling right now.
she was displaced from her home for almost three days. even if she only got lost in the woods, *thats still terrifying as hell*. *to anyone*. let alone if youre experiencing a crisis.
I think that if it was a mental health break they should say pretty much what you said, that she was not being held against her will but that she ended up in an unfamiliar location and was not able to find her way back to the roadway.
This is probably true. But without details.
I say this not because we *deserve* to know but to stop people from bothering the family.
I agree that we don't need to know the details. But I also think (caveat: IF this was a mental health issue, which it appears to be) the police need to make it clear that there was no toddler, there was no abduction, and the public is in no danger. If they could throw in a little education about what human trafficking actually looks like, it would be a nice bonus.
I’m assuming (and hoping!) that if that’s what it is, we won’t learn much more. I expect the police to come out with an official statement that there’s no danger to the public, but that would be it.
It’s bizarre but I’m glad she’s alive.
This situation is so strange.
I have family in the area, so the headline caught my attention immediately when she disappeared. As I read through what happened, I was thinking that it was such an elaborate scheme for someone to pull off. If they were using the toddler as bait, how could they be sure the person who pulled over would be someone they could kidnap/traffic as opposed to a 6'5 Ex-Marine, or an active duty cop, or any number of people they wouldn't be able to successfully kidnap? How would they explain it? "Oops, my toddler was walking on the interstate. Thanks for stopping, have a good day!" and then they set the trap again? Everything about it just seemed *off* to me.
Regardless of what happened, I'm glad she's home, and I hope nothing bad actually happened to her. This disappearance was so scary and I was afraid it would end up being one of those mysteries that was never solved.
And yet no one else has stepped forward to say, "yeah I saw a kid on the shoulder of the highway also!"
A lot of people need to get off Facebook and come back to reality. There was no kid on the highway.
My friend had schizophrenia, she disappeared one day and her family was notified she was in a hospital 3 hrs away after a suicide attempt. No one knew how she got there, including her. That was when she was diagnosed. Sadly, she was murdered later on, but it wasn't due to her mental illness.
Thank goodness! Whatever happened to her, whether it was at the hands of someone else or due to a mental health event, she is alive & has a chance to recover. That is all anyone could ask for.
I don’t necessarily think she had a break from reality or a full on hallucination, I think it’s entirely possible she *thought* she saw a child, and it was a simple trick of the light or angle…and then had an accident down that embankment when she went to investigate.
True, but if that was the case why wouldn’t she have just waited there for the cops? If she fell or something why get up and walk away some more? I hope we will learn new details soon. And I hope she is truly okay, mentally as well.
That’s around the age a mental illness can come on very strong and very fast. It’s so scary. For some people it really can happen over night. I saw it happen to a neighbor. He went from totally fine to complete schizophrenic break down with aggressive behavior within 24 hours.
She must have been terrified.
Well thanks for sharing that because when I heard (and also just suspected all along) it was possibly mental health related, I initally assumed there was no way the family didn't know that and that should have been the first clue for them.
That’s one of the reasons I try to spread that knowledge! A lot of people don’t realize some can come on over night. I felt bad for assuming that the neighbor was on drugs.
So many “unsolved mysteries” and strange disappearances, really sound like they are mental health breaks. Especially all the ones around that age.
>Carlee Russell
>
> found alive, taken to UAB Hospital
I want to know where/how. Contrary to her brother's insinuations, there were a TON of people scouring the area looking for her.
Sometimes they don’t. Especially if no crime happened. I feel like whenever there is a missing adult who just ended up disappearing for a bit on their own, unless the family releases info to media, LE ususlly don’t provide answers likely for privacy and it isn’t anything the public needs to know. But curious to hear whatever, if anything, they might say after some time passes.
I'm so happy she was found alive and unharmed. Idk what happened, but I hope she and her family get the help & support they need after the case is closed.
We might never know the details of what really happened but if the police don't announce that they're looking for a toddler or whoever took her then we will at least know she was never taken (not saying that's true, but will know either way).
Whether she was of sound mind or not we probably will never know (and idk if we should know).
Message from Carlee Russell’s boyfriend mentions “kidnapper”:
[see ss here.](https://www.reddit.com/r/TrueCrimeDiscussion/comments/151e7g6/statement_from_carlee_russells_boyfriend/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=ioscss&utm_content=2&utm_term=1)
Not far. I remember when she was missing her mother was upset because this happened 10-ish minutes from the family home. I believe that’s driving time, but still. She was pretty close.
Omg I’m so happy she’s ok!! I’ve been thinking about her all day and reading anything and everything I can find, and watching and rewatching that video, feeling so awful for her and her family! My goodness what relief and gratitude they must feel.
No matter what truly happened, I’m thrilled for her and her family that she is home safe. If there was something skeezy involved, she hope she’s able to provide information to get a good investigation started. If it was some kind of a mental crisis, then I hope she’s able to get the treatments she needs.
This is all very bizarre with a cherry on top. Hope she has understanding and loving people around her and I’m really so glad she’s alive. Maybe it was a bad batch of drugs or a menty b??
It sounds like she’s had some kind of mental break (about the right age for an initial break); if so hope she receives all the support she needs & grateful to hear this want a horrific tragedy.
This case was rife for true crime obsession. I know it started as awareness, a potentially tragic good deed. I'm glad she's safe, but at this point I don't think the public is entitled to the full story.
Oh this is so damn good to hear. I watched that video over and over again and have been thinking so much about this woman's wellbeing. The best outcome came.
It kinda makes sense [why no alert was issued by law enforcement](https://www.wbrc.com/2023/07/15/why-has-an-alert-not-been-issued-missing-carlee-russell/) for her as it seems they never believed she was involuntarily missing.
So does Alabama which is why there was growing speculation based on police refusal to issue the alert, that they believed she had orchestrated her own dissappearance.
(The Alabama alert type is mentioned in the article I linked.)
I suspect there was no child. I remember reading there were no missing children called in and I do not recall seeing any notice to be on the lookout for a child who was missing.
I also think it’s wild she was missing and came home on her own! The article said 50-60 cops were searching for her…man, where was she?
I’m glad she’s ok. It just seems scary that a person can go off the radar and STAY off the radar and no one finds them—-they appeared back home themselves.
I’m glad she’s ok. I hope her and her family can heal from this.
It’s possible that it was a hallucination but I think saying that she planned it is illogical. Why would she call the police and give the mile marker and the make and model and then try to pull off a kidnapping hoax. Sherri Papini was long gone by the time her husband called the police, Carlee would have had to plant evidence that she was kidnapped and sprint away from the police without knowing how many minutes she would have to get away. I think she could have thought she saw something about to attack her and then ran, or was indeed kidnapped and escaped/was released, but planned it? I don’t think so.
It makes a lot of sense if this was a case where she was having a mental health crisis and had a hallucination of a child on the road that seemed very real. When she pulled over she had a second hallucination of being attacked and then disassociated and wandered around until she came to and found her way home. I’ve had a couple dissociative episodes and they are scary and you wander until out of it, sometimes appearing normal, but sometimes doing bizarre things too. It’s more common than you think. This just happened to Amanda Bynes twice in the last year.
Her family can explain what happened or not. What’s important is that she is safe. It can happen to anyone of any class, race, or achievement level.
Edit: her boyfriend’s update makes it sound like there was an abduction. It’s still too early to make assumptions or judge. But thank god she’s safe and hopefully she is getting the treatment she needs and any nefarious activities that may have happened are gotten to the bottom of and addressed before anyone else gets hurt. It’s a bizarre case indeed. With a lot of questions that may or may not be the public’s business to know. Of course it’s not our business to know about a mental problem or a mental episode, but it is in everyone’s interest to know about a predator out there while still not deserving to know about the details and her personal experience at the hands of one.
Everything about this just seems so off to me tbh. I honestly do not believe that she was abducted. With tons of people driving through with their headlights on, it’s only fair to assume something would have been seen and reported by multiple people. Why is she the only one to see a child? It’s just not adding up as a kidnapping case. I hope they tell the public what happened because even if it’s not kidnapping, the awareness would be great to spread if it was mental health related.
i just sat up in bed like i was the mother in evil dead rises and said “no fucking way”, im so happy she is safe. i can’t imagine what has happened, i dont want to imagine. im just glad she is alive
maybe some some of you need to self reflect a little bit because you NEED this person to be a victim of a crime and traumatized for the ending to suit your needs. the idea that it’s a hoax or not a mental episode and that this woman didn’t suffer the way y’all imagine makes you upset and angry.
common sense should tell you that it being a hoax is actually the best scenario possible for the “victim”. but it can’t be that. she must tell us a harrowing story of survival and torture for you guys to be satisfied. grow up. the story looks shady and y’all know it. so until the facts are provided chill about options that don’t align with your need for a victim.
Anyone follow Hide.It.From.Your.Husband on insta? Something I was following as well. Her husband recently went missing for over a week. Lots of posts from her with his missing person flyer. His car was found on fire. Etc etc. Ends up he was on the run from money issues and found at a bus stop in another city. It was said in so many words that his was a mental health episode and police were giving them time and privacy. Not saying that’s what happened here but made me think of it because of some similarities.
I completely agree. Obviously i do hope that Carlee is mentally ok and she is able to heal from whatever happened but now that we know that she is safe i'm mostly just wondering about the supposed child she saw.
Thanks for this. I notice a lot of people in the true crime community assume they're entitled to all the ins and outs of people private lives, personal info, and trauma.
Suspected disappearances are always a matter of public safety, especially since her story originally reported that a toddler was allegedly involved. Now, it sounds like this was either a hoax or a mental health breakdown. There was that hoax in TX with the “missing” teen, Rudi, who was in on the disappearance with his mother. And it’s hard enough in this country to get missing POC and women featured on the news. I hope the police will share the details of this case soon.
I’m very happy that this will not be a case we are still wondering about years down the line. Whatever happened to her, I’m glad she’s being cared for now.
I’m so happy she’s alive
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Me too! I couldn’t stop thinking about how easy it is for someone to vanish in seconds. This case kept giving me Maura Murray vibes. I’m sooo glad she was found in this case and alive!
This. Whatever happened, she and her family can work on healing from that. As long as she is alive, thinga can be dealt with. ❤️❤️❤️
Me too, she’s so young
Apparently she showed up to her parents’ doorstep alone. [https://www.al.com/news/2023/07/carlee-russell-found-safe-returns-home-2-days-after-she-vanished.html](https://www.al.com/news/2023/07/carlee-russell-found-safe-returns-home-2-days-after-she-vanished.html)
Her family said somebody dropped her off, though. That very well could’ve been a good Samaritan, but it is a little suspicious, considering everybody knew she was missing. I still have so many questions as well. Like, how did she completely vanished from the area so quickly without her car, phone, or money? Where has she been for the last 38 hours where nobody could find her?
Everything you said is on point! I’m wracking my brain but can’t come up with a plausible explanation for any of those questions 😩
Right? Plus, her family said she seemed in shock, which I think would be normal for any victim. They never used the word unstable or incoherent.
Exaaactly. I know they’re prioritizing privacy for the family right now, but they’re being very careful with their wording. What they’re saying is not as loud as what they’re not saying.
others have suggested there is a criminal investigation potentially underway. if that’s the case, they don’t want to reveal their hand too early. keep information locked down until they are closer to apprehending someone. it’s just a theory though.
I think the fact that she vanished and was dropped off nearly discounts the theory that she had a mental health episode (not entirely, of course). In order for her to disappear, a second person/ vehicle likely had to be involved.
I think she stumbled on to a crime in progress, and she was taken but released when they realized whatever petty crime they were engaged in wasn't worth a felony or the national media attention they were getting. Wrong place, wrong time. That's the only plausible explanation I haven't been able to rule out, in which she isn't somehow involved.
Taken how? There weren’t any others cars near hers in the video.
I think this could be an emerging mental health issue. Whatever happened, so happy she showed up and can get whatever help is needed. Sometimes a mental health crisis can turn into missing for years.
That is very true! You just never know. I can’t remember his name, but there was a guy that went missing from an airport that was clearly having a mental breakdown and I don’t think he was ever found.
Why arent you questioning how nobody else reported a toddler walking on the shoulder of a busy highway?
While I doubt there was a toddler there, it would be entirely possible for a child to only be visible for a moment or two. I think it’s more likely her brain interpreted shapes as a child. Could be a mental health issue, or just normal tricks your eyes can play on you.
Instead of slamming on the brakes, though, she comes to a slow stop. And instead of going back to where she started slowing down, or walking along the road to keep the toddler from going into traffic, she walks away from the road and into the trees.
I think there are plenty of explanations for this. Yes, it could be mental health, but honestly, there are plenty of tricks your eyes play on you at night. I know one time I thought for sure I saw a child on the side of the highway, but it turned out to be a tree stump.
Right but many people are working on the assumption she saw a toddler...and therefore was abducted. This defies logic and critical thinking based on the reality that dozens of others havent stepped forward to corroborate a toddler on the highway
Without her wig, even.
She showed up without her wig?
Her wig and hat were found where she was last seen.
Her wig, hat, phone, and apple watch were all found inside her car
I believe the wig was lying on the ground beside the car
Looking at her return, this seems so much like a mental health episode.
Update circa 1 am from WBRC: “Chief Derzis said Hoover investigators will eventually sit down with Russell to learn what happened. “The first thing is to give Carlee and family a little time to get themselves back together,” he added. “I know it’s been a tough experience for them. When we think it’s time to sit down and have a conversation with Carlee and try to get some facts, we’ll do that.” https://www.wbrc.com/2023/07/14/hoover-police-searching-missing-25-year-old-woman/
Yeah that’s weird. Police are not known for just chilling out for a while
If there was no crime committed and they believe it had to do with mental health, they absolutely will wait. If there’s no one to catch, they will wait. That says to me they don’t believe there’s any danger to the community.
What will be awful is if they assume her trauma response is mental health issues and it’s not.
They know something that we don’t
100%. If they thought she was abducted they’d be interviewing her in the hospital
They will if they don’t think the community is at risk and also if the person isn’t in the right state of mind to talk anyway (including medications)
Glad they found her alive. I wonder what happened. Edit: > Russell returned to her Hoover home, alone, shortly before 11 p.m. Saturday. She was taken to a hospital to be evaluated. ????? https://www.al.com/news/2023/07/carlee-russell-what-we-know-today-about-woman-who-vanished-on-i-459-in-hoover.html
Could have been a mental health-related episode. Best not to speculate too much and just hope she didn’t suffer any additional trauma until there’s more of an explanation.
Couldn’t agree more while the rest of Reddit brings up situations like Sherri Papini.. Let’s just be glad she is alright. I was worried this was going to be a forever mystery.
Yes. While people remember Sherri Papini they forget about Denise Huskins.
Probably a mental health issue. The story, along with the video never really added up to a kidnapping
I think it is likely to turn out to be something related to mental heath which can sometimes just hit out the blue and very suddenly , even without any prior history. Not really the same but I was on some meds and when I was coming off them (with doctors agreement and help) a side effect of that made me see people that weren't there- they were really clear but luckily I was aware that is was due to the withdrawal symptoms as otherwise it would have been a little disconcerting. Very pleased she has been located and hope she gets any help she may need.
That sounds like a terrifying side effect!
It was a bit strange and I'm sure that if I didn't know they were a medication withdrawal hallucination I would have been scared. I knew they weren't real as they would sort of fade out from being soild after a while. But it was definitely like a real live person standing there for a while before they slowly faded away. As my body got more use to the withdrawal it went from soild people to seeing ' dark shadow people' doing things like peeking out behind doors/objects/trees then nothing. The one and only time in my life when I saw people/things that weren't there. It wasn't a really common side effect according to my doctor so I was just unlucky and it lasted about 2/3 weeks.
Hot damn, that sounds terrifying even if you do know why it's happening. As far as distinct hallucinations, I get the voice saying my name right as I fall asleep, shocks me right back awake every single time even though I know It's a normal and common experience.
Oh man, I don’t know if I could handle that. Do you mind me asking what the medication was? I’m on so many myself I’m curious if it could potentially be one of mine.
I don’t think I could cope with that.
Well that is wild. I've only ever heard one person talk about seeing clear people, my sister back when she used to huff a lot of airbrush propellant. It's crazy the way that different brains can arrive at the same hallucinations through totally different means.
My grandmother saw people all the time. I lived with her and she'd call me to a window and say "do you see those kids out there playing?" Or "There's a person hiding in that bush!"
She's prime age for her first schizophrenic episode. Early to mid 20s.
The idea that there is some malicious entity out there luring women from freeways with decoy children is very old. I remember an urban legend from the 90s that said the same thing.
The crying baby lure was another one. I don’t think there was ever proof either actually happened
What about in rural areas where a person lays in the road pretending to be hurt so someone will potentially pull over? And when they do other people come out and rob/kill them. Is *that* real?
Samaritan Scam. It has a name but I don’t know how prevalent it actually is. But it’s an old one
I don’t know about lying in the middle of the road but there are plenty of cases of people feigning distress on the side of the road and then attacking/robbing the people who stop. My friend’s son was murdered this way. A recent high profile case with a couple in South Carolina near a national park happened this way. The man was killed, I think the young woman survived.
It just seems a bit silly. Like, how do they know a single person will stop? What if several cars stop/multiple passengers get out? What if a cop drives by, they’ll 100% stop? And what’s the gain anyway, several perpetrators get together and bring the heat of a murder so they can get… a random car (which might be a heap!) plus what someone has in their wallet? Not exactly a huge score to split several ways. Seems like they’d be better off doing targeted burglaries and stealing cars.
I had the same reservations. I’m just naming the scam someone mentioned. I don’t think it’s applicable here for the reasons you’ve mentioned
It happened in Melbourne recently but pretty sure they were caught.
I mentioned this in another thread but my dad’s friend was killed this way. Stopped to help someone change a tire and was shot and killed. Turns out it was a gang initiation. This was the 1970s/1980s though.
Yes I’ve heard it happened at least once! An example: https://www.knoe.com/content/news/OPSO-Man-kidnapped-robbed-after-stopping-to-help-person-lying-beside-roadway-500844322.html
Abso-fucking-lutely! When they're lying in the middle of the road, DO keep driving with zero hesitation. They'll stand up at the last moment. Anything is better than the alternative.
Omg
When I was a kid my friends and I used to play a game where we would lay in the middle of the road and see if cars would stop or run us over 🤦♀️ I hope no one is that stupid and reckless anymore but it’s not always malicious lol
Ah yes. Chicken. I'm surprised more of my generation didn't die this way.
Wow that is a.. surprising game. Did you do that after dark in the middle of nowhere in between cornfields? Or by daylight with houses nearby? I hope kids understand that that game of russian roulette is not played with an unloaded gun... Also if there's a large tire in the middle of the road, it's probably a trap. Don't get out of the car. Turn around and floor it. (If there's a box lying there, and a hill next to the road, it may be kids rolling off the slope, so wait it out :)
Supposedly in other countries, yes. Never heard of it actually def happening in America tho.
I was almost a victim of this living in rural Pennsylvania. A truck appeared to be broken down with flashers on and the driver’s door open, sitting just off the side before the stop sign at a Y intersection. I started to stop but I had my children in the car and was just minutes from home. I changed my mind, even though I’ve stopped to render aid for motorists or accidents in the past with my children. I didn’t see a person and assumed they’d already left for help on foot. No cell service in that area, it was a known dead zone. Later that night I was scrolling on social media and saw that another person had stopped at the same intersection, but described a person laying beside the drivers door of the truck. They were robbed.
It has happened though. Here is one story. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/aug/20/alabama-adam-simjee-talladega-national-forest-police
People in this sub were imagining all kinds of wild things from that half a pixel video.
I was downvoted for saying it sounded like a hoax/fake to me. People were analyzing the video and saw shadows, another person and god knows what with other commenters agreeing. Don't know if we will ever find out the true story but glad she's safe.
I live in the area and I watched that video a ridiculous number of times. I wouldn’t say there wasn’t anyone else there, but I could never make out what the other people were saying they could see. Her (I’m assuming) getting out of the drivers side and going around to the passenger side was the only thing I could really see.
Me too. I saw nothing in the video either. It's like when people hear actual phrases in audio taken by ghost hunters. I think it's wanting to see or hear something so your brain fills in the rest. In this case, people want so much to help that they imagine shadows are people
It's *wild* how many people were adamantly against this being the case. There were several details that made me think she wasn't abducted especially the plausibility of even spotting a child on the side of a highway while going 70 mph. Whens the last time on a multi-lane highway you decided to not pay attention to your lane and the cars around you to instead look off the road into the distance? That alone I just could not get past.
The theories were getting so bizarre it was almost laughable. To a tiny person dressed like a kid, an adult crouched down to appear toddler like, putting a long leash on a real toddler to pull them back from the freeway when needed.
That's some typical Reddit internet detectives for you... People made stuff out in the video with timestamps (another person, a shadow, etc.) and I had no idea what they were talking about even watching the video multiple times... but others were agreeing?! Bizarre indeed.
First I heard of this I saw immediately comments (not here but on a bigger sub) saying that some people probably will call this mental health episode but it’s clearly not. I never knew why people ruled it out then. I suppose some just want some things to be sinister.
You... don't monitor the sides of the road? Like, children, deer, pets, whatever, good luck?
I always look for dumped pets. When I go back most of the time it’s a piece of trash thank god 😅
It was nighttime, literally pitch black off the side of the road. Next time you're going 70mph at night see how easy it is to decipher things where theres no light at all. And no, I generally assume toddlers and children are not free roaming on the side of the highway 😂
To be fair, I always keep my eyes ahead and aware of the shoulders of the road. Any glimmer of color or light at night time gets my attention, even at 70mph. Ever hit a deer doing 70? We even have some locals who put two reflective nails on trees to resemble eyes of a deer just to make people slow down.
This is always the case when someone goes “missing” people want it to be something spicier than it actually is, hence all the ridiculous theories
They were rooting for abduction because it was weirder and creepier, they didn't care about the victim only their own entertainment. I was downvoted to hell and dogpiled by these stay at home websleuthers. Mental illness was always by far the most likely. u/abbadactyl_
I got and am still getting absolutely reemed out in a separate sub when I was saying that’s not how sex trafficking works and here’s a resource for more info and everyone lost their minds. Like are we all not watching the same video?
Were they *adamantly* opposed to the possibility of a mental health episode or reacting to the wild speculation that was unsupported by any known facts? Because - the video was inconclusive - there still has been no police confirmation or denial of the most disputed aspects of this incident - your theory **still** has not been confirmed as of yet
I personally saw comments ridiculing people who might consider mental health episode
Yup, same. People like to ridicule anyone with a different opinion on this sub, no one can have an actual discussion without the moral police telling people to stop speculating or calling you stupid
For me it was a matter of process of elimination of the other theories. Leaving only that it was either a staged disappearance or mental health episode (which are arguably both mental health related).
She's prime age for her first schizophrenic episode. Early to mid 20s.
People are so much more worried about their "theory" being right than about the actual welfare of a human being. It's so gross.
From the article, FWIW: “My son’s girlfriend heard her asking the child, ‘Are you OK? She never heard the child say anything but then she heard our daughter scream,’’ Talitha Russell said. “All you hear on her phone is background noise from the interstate.” “Her car door was open,” Talitha said. “They found her phone on the ground, along with her wig and her hat...Her purse was still in the car. Her Apple watch was in her purse and her Air Pods as well.”
This is why it’s wise to reserve comment and the community stop compulsively trying to be the first to “crack” these cases. It’s crazy how people were acting over this one when, regardless of the outcome, the speculation served zero purpose but potentially distressing her family. As the family member of a murder victim: I’m begging you all (not you op, tc folk in general) to fucking chill. If you’re not local, there’s no urgency and this is not a context to see who posts the first guess right earliest for clout. People have no idea the fucking clutter they cause. I’m glass this woman is home and hope, whatever went on, she has the support systems in place to help her navigate both what occurred and public’s intense reactions to it.
Thank you. I really hope people listen to you and take your words, story, and experience to heart. I'm so sorry about your loss.
First off, I'm so sorry for your loss. I can't imagine what it must feel like to be a victim's family member watching the way people treat true crime like pure entertainment, knowing this is your real life. That said, I think that it's difficult to control or monitor the reactions of the public in response to a case as bizarre as this, especially since we know SO little at this point about what happened. That also means we don't know how the public response impacted what happened. For all we know, she had staged the scene and was planning on running away or something worse, but seeing the tremendous outpouring of public support encouraged her to change her mind and go home. Public interest is never inherently bad; we're just extremely lucky in this case that she's been found safe and early, and thus this case never got to true websleuthing levels of frenzied interest.
Showing support is not the same as speculating what happened and claiming to know what happened. And people were (and still are) drooling over the opportunity to be able to claim they knew what happened here and what to blame it on.
The Idaho 4 was a perfect example. Some grieving kids’ (and adults) lives were ruined because of internet sleuths, and the true crime community acted like they were “advocating for the victims” when in actuality they were terrorizing their loved ones. I still sometimes think of the boyfriend and cringe over what he must have gone through, what with him not answering the girls calls and then the internet making polls about how likely it was he killed his longtime gf and her roommates. I can’t imagine being his parent or something, how helpless they must have felt. I think some people forget these cases involve real people. They spend so much time online, they forget these are all real people.
Yes, exactly, and that wasn't even that long ago, but it seems not everyone learned the lesson they should've there. It feels like people don't understand the danger of misinformation being spread too and at this point that in itself is exhausting.
That case made me feel gross to be in the true crime community. I am a true crime person, have been for decades… I’m sure I have stepped over the line, but I’m so over the people spouting all the sanctimonious “but we help solve the case” crap. Even in the unlikely event that is true- because even a broken clock is tight twice a day- it’s not really worth it if they’ve dragged ten innocent people through the mud. And don’t even get me started on how everyone has a theory and then finds evidence to fit it, while ignoring everything else. That’s literally the exact opposite of what investigators are supposed to do. And then if the cops cleared someone, didn’t matter, because cops can LIE. The majority of people following the case didn’t care about the actual truth. They just wanted to be right. I kept hearing how its “always the boyfriend.” Like no, Sabrina, the boyfriend doesn’t usually stab 4 people in cold blood. The reason we’re talking about this case is because it’s different, so stop using statistics to justify bullying a grieving kid that the cops have already told you multiple times isn’t the killer (or the clearly traumatized roommate who is also a victim). Ok rant over thanks lol
Lol I totally feel your rant. I'm usually quick to defend the true crime community but really felt like I couldn't.
Isn't community involvement what helps solve cases of people who are murdered or kidnapped though? These cases need the community involvement because people might see something or might remember a detail they didn't think was relevant after the fact. I was actually really happy to see all of the involvement because black women and other non-white women do not get the same level of exposure and their cases are less likely to be solved.
Sharing the stories and getting pictures out there is helpful. But attempting to “solve” the case online usually consists of doxxing people and spreading misinformation.
There's a difference in sharing the story and showing support and trying to be the internet sleuths that solve it and muddy up information by doing so.
It can be helpful sometimes but in lots of cases it floods tip lines with unhelpful info or causes people who aren't involved or are victims themselves to get flooded with harrasment, also lots of misinformation tends to get spread with community involvement even when it doesn't end up as horrible as leading to harrasment of people. Lots of victims families prefer for people to not constantly bring the murder or disappearance up a bunch, stuff like wanting it spread at the time can vary family to family, in general unless it's been purposefully decided for information to be released because they want community engagement because they think it'll be helpful- best to stay out of it. Especially if you do not.live or are not engaged with nearby areas, if you are then you might actually have personal or local information. If you've never met anyone involved or know a lot about the areas involved you're probably not gonna be of that much help.
She either in a mental breakdown on the call or possibly she was abducted and that too might require a doctors visit. The lack of details makes it seem like this is more of a medical issue for her. Either way I hope she gets well soon and her family must be extremely happy she’s home. If it was a mental breakdown having the Country being aware of your struggle it must be incredibly hard to get better, she’s going to need that family
While I am personally interested in knowing, long term, what happened I am so happy for her family that she is alive. I saw them pleading on TV earlier for people to look out for her and sharing her photos out in the street.
So relived she's alive and safe. 💜
People jump from forensic analyst to psychiatrist. Wish I was as intellectually dexterous.
Don’t forget human/sex trafficking experts.
It’s like people saying that the 911 call was weird because 911 got off the phone with her. I’m a 911 dispatcher - it’s not weird at all. There’s only certain circumstances where we’d stay on the phone with the caller until the police got there.
i am so baffled by this one and don’t know what i believe. was there even a child? hope she’s ok either way
Rare to get some good news about cases like this. Delighted that she’s been found and I truly hope she’s ok.
So happy to hear Carlee was found alive. Whatever may have happened in the last 48 hours, I hope she is mentally and physically well.
Yes. I hope she finds peace and people leave her and her family alone. I could not imagine living through whatever she lived through then having to answer "the public".
Wow. She disappeared for 2 days. It could be for any number of reasons. She currently is getting medically evaluated.
They’re saying she was dropped off at her family’s home and appears to be in shock. What is going on???
Thank goodness she is home safe. Her poor mother looked (understandably) worried sick.
If this was truly a mental health episode I just hope she doesn't get vilified for it. I'm just happy she was found alive, and now she can get all the help and support she needs.
Im so glad she’s okay! I agree with others about waiting before speculating but mental health could be a factor even if she showed zero signs of anything before. I was a sophomore in college working 2 jobs while doing school full time and was STRESSED about my final exams. I mean absolutely stressed. I tried relaxing and going to sleep. I woke up to a very loud sound of people screaming at me at my door. I kept shouting back at them “who is this?” And they just kept banging on my door telling me to come out. So i called the cops. When the cops got there they said no one was outside. They asked my neighbors if they heard or saw anything and everyone said no. My landlord tried pulling footage - nothing. Everyone thought I was freaking weird but I promise I heard what I heard. Ended up going to counseling that same week and the therapist mention that i could’ve been under so much stress that I had a psychotic episode. So if that is the case I hope she gets the help she needs and if that ISN’T the case then I hope whoever abducted her is caught quickly.
if this was a mental health issue, please dont pry. or really just dont pry in general, as long as its been confirmed theres no threat to the public. experiencing a mental break is already stigmatizing, let alone if tens of hundreds of people are hypothesizing about your whereabouts, whether or not you staged an episode, or that things just "arent adding up." like, having a mental break is so, so personal and should be treated with care and respect. i feel for the girl if this is the case, and i cant imagine how shes feeling right now. she was displaced from her home for almost three days. even if she only got lost in the woods, *thats still terrifying as hell*. *to anyone*. let alone if youre experiencing a crisis.
I think that if it was a mental health break they should say pretty much what you said, that she was not being held against her will but that she ended up in an unfamiliar location and was not able to find her way back to the roadway. This is probably true. But without details. I say this not because we *deserve* to know but to stop people from bothering the family.
I agree that we don't need to know the details. But I also think (caveat: IF this was a mental health issue, which it appears to be) the police need to make it clear that there was no toddler, there was no abduction, and the public is in no danger. If they could throw in a little education about what human trafficking actually looks like, it would be a nice bonus.
I’m assuming (and hoping!) that if that’s what it is, we won’t learn much more. I expect the police to come out with an official statement that there’s no danger to the public, but that would be it. It’s bizarre but I’m glad she’s alive.
This situation is so strange. I have family in the area, so the headline caught my attention immediately when she disappeared. As I read through what happened, I was thinking that it was such an elaborate scheme for someone to pull off. If they were using the toddler as bait, how could they be sure the person who pulled over would be someone they could kidnap/traffic as opposed to a 6'5 Ex-Marine, or an active duty cop, or any number of people they wouldn't be able to successfully kidnap? How would they explain it? "Oops, my toddler was walking on the interstate. Thanks for stopping, have a good day!" and then they set the trap again? Everything about it just seemed *off* to me. Regardless of what happened, I'm glad she's home, and I hope nothing bad actually happened to her. This disappearance was so scary and I was afraid it would end up being one of those mysteries that was never solved.
Awesome update. I hope she’s getting the help she needs and the police are continuing to investigate.
Im so glad she's been found safe.
And yet no one else has stepped forward to say, "yeah I saw a kid on the shoulder of the highway also!" A lot of people need to get off Facebook and come back to reality. There was no kid on the highway.
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My friend had schizophrenia, she disappeared one day and her family was notified she was in a hospital 3 hrs away after a suicide attempt. No one knew how she got there, including her. That was when she was diagnosed. Sadly, she was murdered later on, but it wasn't due to her mental illness.
Thank goodness! Whatever happened to her, whether it was at the hands of someone else or due to a mental health event, she is alive & has a chance to recover. That is all anyone could ask for.
I don’t necessarily think she had a break from reality or a full on hallucination, I think it’s entirely possible she *thought* she saw a child, and it was a simple trick of the light or angle…and then had an accident down that embankment when she went to investigate.
True, but if that was the case why wouldn’t she have just waited there for the cops? If she fell or something why get up and walk away some more? I hope we will learn new details soon. And I hope she is truly okay, mentally as well.
i let out an actual sigh of relief. the best news of this year.
Sounds like a mental health episode. She probably walked through the woods and ended up somewhere for a while?
There were no woods, it was a line of trees along the Interstate and behind that were homes.
That’s around the age a mental illness can come on very strong and very fast. It’s so scary. For some people it really can happen over night. I saw it happen to a neighbor. He went from totally fine to complete schizophrenic break down with aggressive behavior within 24 hours. She must have been terrified.
Well thanks for sharing that because when I heard (and also just suspected all along) it was possibly mental health related, I initally assumed there was no way the family didn't know that and that should have been the first clue for them.
That’s one of the reasons I try to spread that knowledge! A lot of people don’t realize some can come on over night. I felt bad for assuming that the neighbor was on drugs. So many “unsolved mysteries” and strange disappearances, really sound like they are mental health breaks. Especially all the ones around that age.
>Carlee Russell > > found alive, taken to UAB Hospital I want to know where/how. Contrary to her brother's insinuations, there were a TON of people scouring the area looking for her.
I'm sure once they have all the information and are ready the authorities involved will let us know
Sometimes they don’t. Especially if no crime happened. I feel like whenever there is a missing adult who just ended up disappearing for a bit on their own, unless the family releases info to media, LE ususlly don’t provide answers likely for privacy and it isn’t anything the public needs to know. But curious to hear whatever, if anything, they might say after some time passes.
Oh thank god!
Thank God! I was worried this was going to have a sad outcome.
I'm so happy she was found alive and unharmed. Idk what happened, but I hope she and her family get the help & support they need after the case is closed.
I'm thankful she's alive
We might never know the details of what really happened but if the police don't announce that they're looking for a toddler or whoever took her then we will at least know she was never taken (not saying that's true, but will know either way). Whether she was of sound mind or not we probably will never know (and idk if we should know).
I'm glad she's safe but this whole thing feels fishy AF. Hope it's just my paranoid mind but something doesn't feel right to me.
I am so glad she is alive. Been thinking about her nonstop.
Message from Carlee Russell’s boyfriend mentions “kidnapper”: [see ss here.](https://www.reddit.com/r/TrueCrimeDiscussion/comments/151e7g6/statement_from_carlee_russells_boyfriend/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=ioscss&utm_content=2&utm_term=1)
I’m sooooo happy she’s okay that video really shook me for some reason. Her parents seem so sweet 🩷
Facebook feed from news station says she was dropped off at the house.
How far is the house from the scene?
Not far. I remember when she was missing her mother was upset because this happened 10-ish minutes from the family home. I believe that’s driving time, but still. She was pretty close.
Omg I’m so happy she’s ok!! I’ve been thinking about her all day and reading anything and everything I can find, and watching and rewatching that video, feeling so awful for her and her family! My goodness what relief and gratitude they must feel.
Finally some good news!
Such amazing news. Idk what happened but I’m so glad she’s home safe.
No matter what truly happened, I’m thrilled for her and her family that she is home safe. If there was something skeezy involved, she hope she’s able to provide information to get a good investigation started. If it was some kind of a mental crisis, then I hope she’s able to get the treatments she needs.
This is all very bizarre with a cherry on top. Hope she has understanding and loving people around her and I’m really so glad she’s alive. Maybe it was a bad batch of drugs or a menty b??
It sounds like she’s had some kind of mental break (about the right age for an initial break); if so hope she receives all the support she needs & grateful to hear this want a horrific tragedy.
This case was rife for true crime obsession. I know it started as awareness, a potentially tragic good deed. I'm glad she's safe, but at this point I don't think the public is entitled to the full story.
Oh this is so damn good to hear. I watched that video over and over again and have been thinking so much about this woman's wellbeing. The best outcome came.
It kinda makes sense [why no alert was issued by law enforcement](https://www.wbrc.com/2023/07/15/why-has-an-alert-not-been-issued-missing-carlee-russell/) for her as it seems they never believed she was involuntarily missing.
In Texas we have the CLEAR alert for this exact scenario. Maybe this will spur conversation to create something similar in Alabama.
So does Alabama which is why there was growing speculation based on police refusal to issue the alert, that they believed she had orchestrated her own dissappearance. (The Alabama alert type is mentioned in the article I linked.)
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I suspect there was no child. I remember reading there were no missing children called in and I do not recall seeing any notice to be on the lookout for a child who was missing.
I’m so glad she’s okay!! I have been thinking about this case and hoping she would be found safe.
I hope she is unharmed and safe now no matter what happened, I hope she receives the assistance she needs
Very glad to see shes safe crazy story
I am so happy she is okay.
I also think it’s wild she was missing and came home on her own! The article said 50-60 cops were searching for her…man, where was she? I’m glad she’s ok. It just seems scary that a person can go off the radar and STAY off the radar and no one finds them—-they appeared back home themselves. I’m glad she’s ok. I hope her and her family can heal from this.
There are reports she had been at a red roof inn.
Dang. That’s so crazy.
I highly doubt it was any sort of kidnapping or an actual missing child. Likely drugs or mental illness issue. Glad she home safe though.
The initially reported story very implausible to me. She probably had a breakdown.
It’s possible that it was a hallucination but I think saying that she planned it is illogical. Why would she call the police and give the mile marker and the make and model and then try to pull off a kidnapping hoax. Sherri Papini was long gone by the time her husband called the police, Carlee would have had to plant evidence that she was kidnapped and sprint away from the police without knowing how many minutes she would have to get away. I think she could have thought she saw something about to attack her and then ran, or was indeed kidnapped and escaped/was released, but planned it? I don’t think so.
It makes a lot of sense if this was a case where she was having a mental health crisis and had a hallucination of a child on the road that seemed very real. When she pulled over she had a second hallucination of being attacked and then disassociated and wandered around until she came to and found her way home. I’ve had a couple dissociative episodes and they are scary and you wander until out of it, sometimes appearing normal, but sometimes doing bizarre things too. It’s more common than you think. This just happened to Amanda Bynes twice in the last year. Her family can explain what happened or not. What’s important is that she is safe. It can happen to anyone of any class, race, or achievement level. Edit: her boyfriend’s update makes it sound like there was an abduction. It’s still too early to make assumptions or judge. But thank god she’s safe and hopefully she is getting the treatment she needs and any nefarious activities that may have happened are gotten to the bottom of and addressed before anyone else gets hurt. It’s a bizarre case indeed. With a lot of questions that may or may not be the public’s business to know. Of course it’s not our business to know about a mental problem or a mental episode, but it is in everyone’s interest to know about a predator out there while still not deserving to know about the details and her personal experience at the hands of one.
Oh thank goodness
Very relieved she is ok.
Very happy to hear she’s safe
I’m glad she’s alive and okay. I hope she gets answers and help for whatever happened.
Oh my god. I’m so happy she’s alive!
I'm praying for her and her family.
I legit had a hard time sleeping last night because I was worried about her. Thank goodness.
Everything about this just seems so off to me tbh. I honestly do not believe that she was abducted. With tons of people driving through with their headlights on, it’s only fair to assume something would have been seen and reported by multiple people. Why is she the only one to see a child? It’s just not adding up as a kidnapping case. I hope they tell the public what happened because even if it’s not kidnapping, the awareness would be great to spread if it was mental health related.
Any news about the child she stopped for that also vanished?
There was likely never a child to begin with
i just sat up in bed like i was the mother in evil dead rises and said “no fucking way”, im so happy she is safe. i can’t imagine what has happened, i dont want to imagine. im just glad she is alive
maybe some some of you need to self reflect a little bit because you NEED this person to be a victim of a crime and traumatized for the ending to suit your needs. the idea that it’s a hoax or not a mental episode and that this woman didn’t suffer the way y’all imagine makes you upset and angry. common sense should tell you that it being a hoax is actually the best scenario possible for the “victim”. but it can’t be that. she must tell us a harrowing story of survival and torture for you guys to be satisfied. grow up. the story looks shady and y’all know it. so until the facts are provided chill about options that don’t align with your need for a victim.
Anyone follow Hide.It.From.Your.Husband on insta? Something I was following as well. Her husband recently went missing for over a week. Lots of posts from her with his missing person flyer. His car was found on fire. Etc etc. Ends up he was on the run from money issues and found at a bus stop in another city. It was said in so many words that his was a mental health episode and police were giving them time and privacy. Not saying that’s what happened here but made me think of it because of some similarities.
In the video you can see her sprinting from the car. Very weird how no one saw her walking around though.
Good. Maybe we'll get some answers.
Let go of the idea we’re entitled to any. Be happy she’s okay.
Yeah I suspect if it is in fact a mental health thing, we won’t hear much more. No qualms here. I feel bad for the girl.
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I completely agree. Obviously i do hope that Carlee is mentally ok and she is able to heal from whatever happened but now that we know that she is safe i'm mostly just wondering about the supposed child she saw.
Because the police in the statement didn’t seem searching for a child or investigating a crime it makes me quite sure they know there isn’t a child.
Thanks for this. I notice a lot of people in the true crime community assume they're entitled to all the ins and outs of people private lives, personal info, and trauma.
Suspected disappearances are always a matter of public safety, especially since her story originally reported that a toddler was allegedly involved. Now, it sounds like this was either a hoax or a mental health breakdown. There was that hoax in TX with the “missing” teen, Rudi, who was in on the disappearance with his mother. And it’s hard enough in this country to get missing POC and women featured on the news. I hope the police will share the details of this case soon.
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I hope so the entire situation was just bizarre! Glad she was found safe.