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

[Quill]

And do we know the bachelor degree is real?

Yes. Auburn put out a release while she was still "missing".

 

[Cubby]

lol one of my first questions was “why didn’t she just by toilet paper at target?”

For the same reason her search included - if an Amber Alert cost money, how to steal from a cash register without getting caught, and why a 25 year old with a newer Mercedes-Benz would be wandering around with 107 dollars in her sock.

She didn't want to use her own money.

When was the last time, better said, at what age does a person stop using their socks to carry cash? When one doesn't want to carry a purse, or use a wallet, doesn't one usually slip cash into a front pocket?

 

[Heaven Leigh]

I can't imagine at 25 yrs old needing attention so badly you would put your Parents through this. That is pitiful, immature, selfish and cruel.

She should be made to put some community hours in helping real parents of a missing child.

 

[Cubby]

There has to be an accomplice.

I don't think there is any accomplice. Once police release more of their investigation, I won't be surprised to learn she helped herself to more than a roll of toilet paper and a robe that didn't belong to her. We'll see as more unfolds.....

 

[neesaki]

Oh wow, I bet this is 100% what she did. Her mother is a realtor <modsnip>. I used to dabble in this industry years ago. Nowadays they use lockboxes on the property so the agent can just show up and punch in a passcode to get into the property.

How Do Real Estate Lockboxes Work?

Real estate lockboxes are an important part of buying or selling a home. In this article, we’ll tell you everything you need to know about how lockboxes work.

www.upnest.com

And it is very possible that Carlee helped her mother out with an open house in the past and knows the lockbox pass code for the property. This would totally jibe with her taking toilet paper. And it would be a clever move. An empty house in the summer is a perfect hide out. People showing up are not usually people just walking in with the agent. They come ahead of time and air out the place. It wouldn't be hard to slip out a back door.

I wonder if her mother had any properties scheduled for an open house the following week and so she knew it would be empty. They should look into any properties in close proximity to the 459 mile marker.

Perhaps in that neighborhood beyond the trees?

 

[Chewy]

I can't imagine at 25 yrs old needing attention so badly you would put your Parents through this. That is pitiful, immature, selfish and cruel.

She should be made to put some community hours in helping real parents of a missing child.

I don't think it was attention as much as wanting to drop out of school. Nursing, much like teaching, is really a calling. I have a family member who had started a nursing program about 20 years ago and stopped because she had kids. Once they got older she decided to go back to school for Nursing. She's identified herself online with "Nurse" for decades. She goes back to college and lasted less than a semester. She was shocked how it wasn't glamorous like it was on TV it was gross, ugly, she often had to deal with trashy drug addicts. She couldn't believe it.

When you are studying Nursing in college it can seem very different in an academic environment as opposed to the actual work. Even Nursing Home type work requires the soul of an angel.

I've seen many people get halfway through a career job only to realize they do not want to do it. But by now they have invested so much time and money that they can't just quit. It seems like her parents were successful but required their kids to earn their way. Ex they might have bought her the Mercedes but that's why she's working in a spa, she has to pay for her own gas. Etc. That type of situation.

 

[Van Helsing]

Me too. Wonder if she knows anyone in real estate? Or has been looking at properties anywhere? Didn’t I hear something about her house poss being put on the market? You gotta have somewhere to move if you sell your house.

Since the mother is an agent, she might have found a place by looking through her mom's work documents. For example, a house under probate can be vacant for a while, might still have furniture, and might not have TP.

 

[Chewy]

Perhaps in that neighborhood beyond the trees?

That's what I'm thinking. The area between 459 and the Red Roof Inn has a lot of cul de sacs and housing. If her mother has any properties listed in that area it would be very easy to track.

 

[Cubby]

A buck for the roll of toilet paper she pilfered

More than that, Dollar Tree has raised their prices to a buck and a quarter. And that's not for the kind likely used by her former employer.

 

[MistyWaters]

I can't imagine at 25 yrs old needing attention so badly you would put your Parents through this. That is pitiful, immature, selfish and cruel.

She should be made to put some community hours in helping real parents of a missing child.

What also stands out for me is how Carlee was presented as such a kind and considerate person. Bringing take out home to her mother, then being caring enough to risk her life by stopping for an endangered toddler on the side of the freeway. Almost a nominee for citizen of the day, an adult child any parent would be proud of, it all seemed at first. But the fact is it’s usually the kindness aspect that hooks people in scams, not wanting to believe that such a person could be deceptive and dishonest.

 

[Chewy]

Beyond the immaturity, what stands out for me is how Carlee was presented as such a kind and considerate person. Bringing take out home to her mother, then being caring enough to risk her life by stopping for an endangered toddler on the side of the freeway. Almost a nominee for citizen of the day, it seemed on the surface! But the fact is it’s usually the kindness aspect that hooks people in scams, not wanting to believe that such a person could be deceptive and dishonest.

Yes the "picking up dinner for mom" and knowing full well she was going to do this and then buying junk food at Target. So she's literally paying for food she knows is going to be thrown away just to look like the "good daughter" picking up food for her mother on the way home.

One other thing that caught my attention was her using her brother's girlfriend as the "witness" to her screaming and dropping the phone. It's next level manipulative. If she just wanted her mother and father to think she had been abducted and she was already heading home with her mother's dinner, wouldn't the LOGICAL person to call in the family be her mother? Ex "I'm running late with dinner, there's a kid on the side of the road, I'm waiting for the cops and I already called 911 ......scream"

Instead she calls her brother's girlfriend to ADD AN EXTRA WITNESS to build a lie to her parents. She's manipulating the woman into validating a total lie and then that woman is the one who is telling her parents a lie which adds credibility.

I'm not quite sure how to convey what I mean by this but it is INCREDIBLY manipulative IMO. She's forced another woman to be an accomplice in it, if you know what I mean.

 

[Van Helsing]

That's valuable information. I looked up something else as well in Alabama, it's illegal for a non licensed agent to even be present at an open house, let alone show it. So that scraps the idea that she was using a property she herself showed.

However, it IS ok for them to make keys and deal with keys. Not every single house is going to want to use the lockbox. I do think it would be very simple to eliminate this as a possibility. But if she snuck a set of keys from her mother's purse, they might not even have noticed they were missing. She hides in the house. Wipes her fingerprints off the keys and just drops them in the house in a kitchen drawer and leaves.

Here are some of the regulations for Alabama

State Statutes and Regulations for Unlicensed Assistants

A list of states that have rules and/or guidance about what an unlicensed assistant can and cannot do when helping out with a real estate transaction.

www.nar.realtor

She could have prepped the house in advance. As someone else mentioned, she may have helped the mother with real estate activities. CR's entire hoax plan may have started with knowledge of this opportunity. She could have unlatched a concealed but easily accessible window.
[When my parents' house was under probate, it was broken into through a concealed low window (they knew how to break the latches without breaking the glass).] JMO

 

[Chewy]

She could have prepped the house in advance. As someone else mentioned, she may have helped the mother with real estate activities. CR's entire hoax plan may have started with knowledge of this opportunity. She could have unlatched a concealed but easily accessible window.
[When my parents' house was under probate, it was broken into through a concealed low window (they knew how to break the latches without breaking the glass).] JMO

I didn't even think of the probate angle. Such a good point. And yes, she honestly wouldn't even need keys if she went to help her mom go through a house and realized she could leave a basement door unlocked and just get back in. I agree with you that the situation of the house may have been the impetus that started all this in the first place.

 

[Snail-Overlord]

I don't think there is any accomplice. Once police release more of their investigation, I won't be surprised to learn she helped herself to more than a roll of toilet paper and a robe that didn't belong to her. We'll see as more unfolds.....

I don’t think there’s an accomplice either. I also don’t think she had a burner phone; I feel like we would have seen searches or purchases by her relating to that too if she did. IMO her prior searches seemed to suggest she was trying to get to Nashville. I feel like she wasn’t able to get there and ultimately went home

JMO

 

[Snail-Overlord]

What also stands out for me is how Carlee was presented as such a kind and considerate person. Bringing take out home to her mother, then being caring enough to risk her life by stopping for an endangered toddler on the side of the freeway. Almost a nominee for citizen of the day, an adult child any parent would be proud of, it all seemed at first. But the fact is it’s usually the kindness aspect that hooks people in scams, not wanting to believe that such a person could be deceptive and dishonest.

JMO but I think people are so complex that they can be both kind or incredibly deceptive at different times in different situations. Her parents probably have always thought she was kind; maybe they even thought, “she lies about things sometimes, but she has a good heart.” This has probably gone way beyond anything they ever expected her to lie about. They must be struggling to reconcile their image of her of what she’s done.

Speculation and JMO

 

[SMK777]

Yes the "picking up dinner for mom" and knowing full well she was going to do this and then buying junk food at Target. So she's literally paying for food she knows is going to be thrown away just to look like the "good daughter" picking up food for her mother on the way home.

One other thing that caught my attention was her using her brother's girlfriend as the "witness" to her screaming and dropping the phone. It's next level manipulative. If she just wanted her mother and father to think she had been abducted and she was already heading home with her mother's dinner, wouldn't the LOGICAL person to call in the family be her mother? Ex "I'm running late with dinner, there's a kid on the side of the road, I'm waiting for the cops and I already called 911 ......scream"

Instead she calls her brother's girlfriend to ADD AN EXTRA WITNESS to build a lie to her parents. She's manipulating the woman into validating a total lie and then that woman is the one who is telling her parents a lie which adds credibility.

I'm not quite sure how to convey what I mean by this but it is INCREDIBLY manipulative IMO. She's forced another woman to be an accomplice in it, if you know what I mean.

Yes, manipulation is usually like this: Adding people, different situations, etc. as backups to add credibility.

A lot of premeditation about all sorts of details that non-manipulative people wouldn’t think of.

From dealing with a manipulative family member, this is very familiar to me. Things are said to cover certain aspects, things are done to make an appearance of certain aspects…usually, nothing is done or said by accident. No detail is left unattended.

 

[Snail-Overlord]

I can't imagine at 25 yrs old needing attention so badly you would put your Parents through this. That is pitiful, immature, selfish and cruel.

She should be made to put some community hours in helping real parents of a missing child.

Agree and I would much rather see her be sentenced to a few hundred hours of community service than go to jail for an extended period. Being in jail won’t teach her why what she did was wrong.

 

[Chewy]

Agree and I would much rather see her be sentenced to a few hundred hours of community service than go to jail for an extended period. Being in jail won’t teach her why what she did was wrong.

I don't see how they can put her in jail. If she stops talking to the police and the family circles the wagons she might not be charged with anything except the 911 call. She never filed a false police report because she's not the one who told the police she had been abducted. I'd be curious to see if she's charged with anything.

 

[Cubby]

I am a realtor and locally we don't have key cards for MLS listings, we have an app on our phone that opens the lockboxes. Of course you can still use a private lockbox with a code, her mother could have something like that for a model home for a community but it is still risky. I have wondered if they owned rental property and one was vacant.

I used to be a realtor a long time ago when the lockbox first had an electronic key code. We used a 4 digit key code for the box holding the key to drop down. It updated overnight with the local MLS via a landline.

It wouldn't be hard for Carlee to obtain her mother's info, or phone ap.... And anyone can use realtor.com or a local agencies website to see which homes are available or under contract.

I'm wondering if she hasn't been charged because LE is still investigating the possibility she used her mother's credentials to access a vacant home.

 

[Inthedetails]

I don't think it was attention as much as wanting to drop out of school. Nursing, much like teaching, is really a calling. I have a family member who had started a nursing program about 20 years ago and stopped because she had kids. Once they got older she decided to go back to school for Nursing. She's identified herself online with "Nurse" for decades. She goes back to college and lasted less than a semester. She was shocked how it wasn't glamorous like it was on TV it was gross, ugly, she often had to deal with trashy drug addicts. She couldn't believe it.

When you are studying Nursing in college it can seem very different in an academic environment as opposed to the actual work. Even Nursing Home type work requires the soul of an angel.

I've seen many people get halfway through a career job only to realize they do not want to do it. But by now they have invested so much time and money that they can't just quit. It seems like her parents were successful but required their kids to earn their way. Ex they might have bought her the Mercedes but that's why she's working in a spa, she has to pay for her own gas. Etc. That type of situation.

So true! I have relatives in the medical field. Their advice to anyone wanting to go into health care professions - volunteer at a hospital for awhile to see if you like it. It's not easy work, the work environment is not like other places, and it is most definitely a calling.

Thank you, nurses!

jmo