Found Alive AL - Carlethia “Carlee” Russell, 25, 911 call reported toddler walking on side of interstate, car found, she & toddler gone, Birmingham, 13 Jul ‘23 #3

[hparker36]

People keep bringing up the phrase "throwing it all away" in regards to her nursing career. Does anyone really think she actually wanted to be a nurse? I mean beyond the white coat photo ops.. Nursing is hard work..long hours, super stressful working conditions, responsibility for people's lives, dealing with infection, wounds, disease, trauma and pain..Is there anything in her personality that suggests she would even have a desire to work in that environment? Maybe she somehow had a more glamorous idea of the nursing field, until she started clinicals..moo.

 

[hparker36]

I don't see her being a nursing school student.

 

[LaborDayRN]

It can be a number of things, including stupidity. It can also be a desire for attention, a desire to get someone back for something they did, a desire to hide something (such as a trip they don't want people to know about), a desire to distract from something else, a desire to start her life over without her loved ones, etc, etc. There are endless motivations that could make someone do this, but most people think about the consequences (committing a crime, stirring people into a frenzy, heartbreak for family, wasting resources to name a few) and don't do it for those reasons. Carlee, unfortunately, didn't think or care about the consequences, IMO.

@BeginnerSleuther
I couldn't help but wonder if there was something along the lines of histrionic Personallity Disorder going on here. What are your thoughts?
ETA: not trying to excuse her behavior.

 

[StarryStarryNight]

Oh yes. Forrest Gump, who happened to get a full scholarship at Alabama after Bear Bryant saw how fast he could run. Keep an eye out for this baby. I only wish that he would be recruited by Clemson!

JMO.

CU’79

 

[Stunned]

Carlee ain'
t no Kardashian.

Like the world needs anymore? IMO

 

[gitana1]

It can be a number of things, including stupidity. It can also be a desire for attention, a desire to get someone back for something they did, a desire to hide something (such as a trip they don't want people to know about), a desire to distract from something else, a desire to start her life over without her loved ones, etc, etc. There are endless motivations that could make someone do this, but most people think about the consequences (committing a crime, stirring people into a frenzy, heartbreak for family, wasting resources to name a few) and don't do it for those reasons. Carlee, unfortunately, didn't think or care about the consequences, IMO.

My question is more narrow. Yes. We know there are various motivations behind things like this. It’s the decisions as to how to put the plans into place that I’m questioning. That’s what I guess makes some of suggest “disordered thinking” whether or not we fully understand the term.

What stands out to me is the sheer lack of logic. The improbability of getting away with what she tried to do. The risk of making up a story while on the phone to cops on the highway, pretending she’s looking at a child, when LE could pull up behind her at any moment. All of those things aren’t about what motivated her to create a story. It’s about the weirdness of her decision-making regarding that story. It’s so weird that it seems pathological to many of us non-professional folks.

 

[hparker36]

I'm pretty sure that's the entire point of instagram.

jmo

I don't see how someone in Nursing school has the time to work at a SPA as well as spend soooooooo much time on social media. Or have much of a social life. I have a family member in Nursing school and she is slammed with the study requirements and stress to keep the grades that are required. She has zero time for anything else.

 

[Ontario Mom]

Have you seen her page?

Yep, I have.

 

[gitana1]

People keep bringing up the phrase "throwing it all away" in regards to her nursing career. Does anyone really think she actually wanted to be a nurse? I mean beyond the white coat photo ops.. Nursing is hard work..long hours, super stressful working conditions, responsibility for people's lives, dealing with infection, wounds, disease, death, trauma and pain..Is there anything in her personality that suggests she would even have a desire to work in that environment? Maybe she somehow had a more glamorous/unrealistic idea of the nursing field, until she started clinicals..moo.

Excellent point!

 

[kittythehare]

My question is more narrow. Yes. We know there are various motivations behind things like this. It’s the decisions as to how to put the plans into place that I’m questioning. That’s what I guess makes some of suggest “disordered thinking” whether or not we fully understand the term.

What stands out to me is the sheer lack of logic. The improbability of getting away with what she tried to do. The risk of making up a story while on the phone to cops on the highway, pretending she’s looking at a child, when LE could pull up behind her at any moment. All of those things aren’t about what motivated her to create a story. It’s about the weirdness of her decision-making regarding that story. It’s so weird that it seems pathological to many of us non-professional folks.

Exactly.
All reason was abandoned in a woman who was deemed fit to hold down a job dealing with people, had gained admission in a highly competitive environment to a nursing college, was considered fit capable and with a good personality and suddenly abandons all reason and goes <modsni>

 

[Ruby12345]

I don't see how someone in Nursing school has the time to work at a SPA as well as spend soooooooo much time on social media. Or have much of a social life. I have a family member in Nursing school and she is slammed with the study requirements and stress to keep the grades that are required. She has zero time for anything else.

It's the summer holidays. The mum mentioned her having to do some classes in the summer, that may because she failed something and had to repeat it.

 

[imstilla.grandma]

Surveillance footage Russell walking alone on the sidewalk toward her family’s house before returning home, police said

Carlee Russell’s boyfriend — who said she was ‘fighting for her life’ — deletes all trace of her from his social media

The change came hours after Hoover police revealed they had found internet searches where Carlee had looked up a movie about kidnaps, whether she was too old to be the subject of an amber alert and…

nypost.com

 

[Elliot_Alderson]

I don't see how someone in Nursing school has the time to work at a SPA as well as spend soooooooo much time on social media. Or have much of a social life. I have a family member in Nursing school and she is slammed with the study requirements and stress to keep the grades that are required. She has zero time for anything else.

I have a few friends who are in nursing school and they are on social media all the time. It's not like it's something that requires a lot of time or attention. You could be studying and pop into social media for 10 minutes no problem.

 

[LaborDayRN]

I don't see how someone in Nursing school has the time to work at a SPA as well as spend soooooooo much time on social media. Or have much of a social life. I have a family member in Nursing school and she is slammed with the study requirements and stress to keep the grades that are required. She has zero time for anything else.

Add to that the time spent workng in clinicals....

Editing to add: In nursing school, we never wore those crisp white coats to class or in clinicals. We wore a uniform approved by the facility we were working in that clearly identified us as "Student Nurse". In my case it was a white scrub top with blue scrub pants.

 

[Cubby]

I have to say I am getting more po'd because she won't talk to the police- this wonderful police department that pulled out all the stops because they initially believed her woeful BS story--- It is so obvious that if she was telling even a semblance of the truth she would want to tell the police everything so they COULD CATCH THOSE ABDUCTORS
(rolling eyes)- thankfully she will soon vanish from the headlines!

..... Other than reports of criminal charges.

 

[kittythehare]

I have a few friends who are in nursing school and they are on social media all the time. It's not like it's something that requires a lot of time or attention. You could be studying and pop into social media for 10

truth.
She tweeted intermittently, not every day.
fb intermittent too..
This is not an issue at all.

 

[BeginnerSleuther]

My question is more narrow. Yes. We know there are various motivations behind things like this. It’s the decisions as to how to put the plans into place that I’m questioning. That’s what I guess makes some of suggest “disordered thinking” whether or not we fully understand the term.

I mean, you can use disordered thinking to mean abnormal thinking/logic. But "disordered thinking" has a clinical meaning and it isn't this. What would you call a student who cheated on a math test? Or what would you call the parents involved in that college bribery scandal? Their thinking wasn't "normal" either, but there was no "disordered thinking" in a clinical sense that we'd think of with mental illness. Sometimes people are just plain selfish. We don't have to clinically pathologize every behavior. That's what leads and/or perpetuates stigma.

What stands out to me is the sheer lack of logic. The improbability of getting away with what she tried to do. The risk of making up a story while on the phone to cops on the highway, pretending she’s looking at a child, when LE could pull up behind her at any moment. All of those things aren’t about what motivated her to create a story. It’s about the weirdness of her decision-making regarding that story. It’s so weird that it seems pathological to many of us non-professional folks.

It is weird and maybe she's a weird person. Maybe she's selfish. Maybe she's self-centered. Maybe she's a drama queen. It doesn't mean she has an illness.

The drive to pathologize everything we don't understand about someone's behavior does more harm than good for people with legitimate mental illness.

 

[BeginnerSleuther]

@BeginnerSleuther
I couldn't help but wonder if there was something along the lines of histrionic Personallity Disorder going on here. What are your thoughts?
ETA: not trying to excuse her behavior.

It's a good thought, but like I said in one of my posts, I can't diagnose a personality disorder based on one action because that one action isn't the sum total of her personality. In fact, the diagnostic criteria for personality disorders specifically states that it must be "an enduring pattern," "pervasive across a range of personal and social situations," "the enduring pattern leads to clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning," and "the pattern is stable and of long duration..."

We don't know any of that in Carlee.

 

[arielilane]

I've stayed away from this thread since last night. Need updates, please!

1. Has any charges been filed yet?
2. Are LE waiting to speak with her (again) before filing charges?
3. If LE don't speak with her soon will warrant for arrest be filed?

MOO

 

[gliving]

It's the summer holidays. The mum mentioned her having to do some classes in the summer, that may because she failed something and had to repeat it.

She was attending Jefferson State for an associate degree in nursing. It's a 24 month course with continuous year round classes. If she failed her first year, she'd have to reapply (and be re-accepted) to attend when classes started again in the fall. I'm doubtful if she was even going this summer because you usually don't know you've totally flunked until the finals at the end of each semester. Unless it's a case of excessive unexcused absences and they told her never mind coming back. <moo>.

https://ssb-prod.ec.accs.edu/PROD/JSCC/bwckschd.p_get_crse_unsec