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

[gitana1]

Like I previously said, I drove through this area roughly 20 minutes prior to the 911 call. 459 is a six laned bypass separated by a grassy median. The speed limit is 65/70 but most people go closer to 80mph. It is a relatively straight but deadly stretch of interstate. I have never, in 25+ years, driven along 459 where I was the only vehicle and especially not at the early time of night. There was a light rain off and on, as well. I would think that unless you were in the right lane, you’d at least take 75-100ft before you could slow and safely pull over on the side of the road. Then you’d have to walk back to whatever you saw. You cannot just slam on brakes and easily pull off.

I should really read ahead before posting! Of course everyone has already made the points I’m trying to make!

 

[CookieMonster21]

how about this?

she stops the car at a pre-determined location. gets out. leaves purse, with watch in it, in the car. walks around to the passenger side. opens the door and leaves it open. drops her wig on the ground. screams. drops her phone on the ground.

then, dressed in all black, just walks off into the woods behind the mile marker around 1:26.

i kind of hope that's what happened. best chance of a happy resolution. i also don't see any evidence that would contradict it... (but, doesn't make it true).

Disappearing - not an uneasonable theory, but would one call the cops when they planned that?

The situation definitely doesn’t make complete sense and my heart goes out to her loved ones. I hope somehow there is a happy resolution. From what we currently know now, I can only think of one scenario that makes sense. It’s just my opinion though, of course.

Don’t think there was ever a toddler; more likely an adult or even an item that looked like a toddler that got her attention. She pulls over, gets out, and gets attacked by someone. I don’t think this person was trying to lure her, but more like while doing this, she came across someone with severe mental health issues or violent tendencies who saw her as a threat. The only thing that I’m missing is why they haven’t found her yet, but it could be a result of the terrain and other factors. There was a case in my area where a 13/14 year old boy went missing while riding his bike. Happened in a nice, safe area of town on a relatively busy main road at sunset. They didn’t find his body until the next day, but it was just off the edge of the sidewalk and had been missed multiple times by search crews and LE. The boy was just riding along and happened to come across a violent homeless drifter from down south who stabbed him. Completely random, unexpected, unprovoked, and happened on the sidewalk of a busy street. In my opinion, a situation like that makes more sense than someone purposely luring people off the side of a busy highway.

I think the same. She saw something on the side of the road that looked like a child and when she pulled over, she stumbled on someone violent or something she wasn't suppose to see.

The wanting to disappear theory would make more sense to me if she hadn't called 911.

 

[Badgerette]

I presumed she doubled back after calling the police and went to the mile marker because thats the location she'd given the 911 operator. MOO.

I do find it interesting that this happened right at the sign marker and in front of traffic cam but not too close to see well.

 

[Arkay]

Re the screenshots that were posted, I believe it is pareidolia

par·ei·do·lia ˌper-ˌī-ˈdō-lē-ə -ˈdōl-yə : the tendency to perceive a specific, often meaningful image in a random or ambiguous visual pattern.

Definition of PAREIDOLIA

the tendency to perceive a specific, often meaningful image in a random or ambiguous visual pattern… See the full definition

www.merriam-webster.com

I agree, @Gardenista.

It‘s like a Rorschach test.

We all see different things, and even just for myself I see different things each time I look at the video.

IMO what does look like the shadow of someone going across the illuminated sign actually can’t be a person. Based on the cars going by, and our common experience, that sign is higher up than the height of a person walking at ground level.

I also am thinking that if Carlee saw a child, she would have just called 911 immediately, because I think an adult would know that by the time she exited and looped back, that child would likely not be in the same spot. It would be entirely too dangerous, for the child, to leave it up to chance.

I have no clue about what happened and my theories tilt throughout.

But I do think if one wanted to willingly disappear, there are a multitude of ways that are less conspicuous than on a highway, where she is literally spotlighted by headlight after headlight.

JMO

 

[eloquence]

[Snipped/bolded by me.] You can see this on the video? Is she walking (as I assume running wouldn't appear "calm")? In what direction? I hope this is true; it feels like our best hope for Carlee.

Sorry, no to seeing it on the video - just meant that in the video she wasn't violently snatched or thrown into another car.

You see her for the last time by the passenger side and then she just "calmly" disappears without a struggle or anyone else appearing to be around.. so I lean towards she went somewhere by her own doing but you cannot see it.

 

[Marzipan]

I guess I keep checking the Fb page at the wrong times. I just keep seeing posts from morons who think reflections are aliens and there’s a $2.5 billion trafficking team all lying in the ditch. People who legit think that she had time to circle the 3 miles back between the calls to 911 and family. People with one brain cell that’s off on Saturdays.

There’s a big difference though between thinking reflections are aliens and thinking almost 20 minutes is enough time to make a loop. You don’t need to explain to me why there aren’t aliens. The other though, someone with more than half a brain cell can consider.

 

[cuffem]

I presumed she doubled back after calling the police and went to the mile marker because thats the location she'd given the 911 operator. MOO.

That is possible but not sure about the phone info.

 

[azure]

I think the same. She saw something on the side of the road that looked like a child and when she pulled over, she stumbled on someone violent or something she wasn't suppose to see.

Who is going to put something they don't want people to see right next to a busy highway, though? If there was a real child next to the highway, you can almost guarantee multiple people would stop. It would be a terrible way to abduct someone, the average car might have 2 or even 3 people in it. A child along the highway could easily be enough to stop traffic.

A full grown man along the highway, standing or sitting, would be something most people would not be comfortable stopping for-and a woman traveling alone shouldn't stop for, IMO. So what could she have seen?

 

[JerseyWasHome2]

Disappearing - not an uneasonable theory, but would one call the cops when they planned that?

I think the same. She saw something on the side of the road that looked like a child and when she pulled over, she stumbled on someone violent or something she wasn't suppose to see.

The wanting to disappear theory would make more sense to me if she hadn't called 911.

Ah, but calling 911 would give more credibility to an abduction scenario, hypothetically speaking of course.

 

[gitana1]

I see the red shirted person! Clearly! Interesting because red shirts + B’ham AL very often = gang activity. Probably not but maybe. I have worked with many gang members from Birmingham and their crimes are almost always retaliatory OR an initiation. Retaliation requires planning and a targeted victim but initiations do not require a particular target. It wouldn’t matter if the victim was a young female or an elderly male.

There are many houses just through that wooded area. If there is gang activity in that neighborhood the LE certainly know it.

If that’s clear, I’m blind!

 

[megs1477]

I presumed she doubled back after calling the police and went to the mile marker because thats the location she'd given the 911 operator. MOO.

I am trying to catch up. Was reading on Twitter. Do we know if she doubled back? I saw the traffic cam footage and she took a long time to stop. Far from where she first braked. I saw a baby on the side of the rode alone, I would be stopping as quick as I could and possibly backing up on the shoulder to get to them...not rolling to a slow stop. Please tell me what I am missing?

 

[BCSleuth]

Agree. IMO, a first break is significantly unlikely.

I think so too. But still a possibility if she thought the government was after her or somesuch... or perhaps she doesn't want to own up to it.

But yeah, the more I learn the more this looks like a hoax. There's just no way there was an actual toddler. She could not have pulled over like that and somebody else would have seen the toddler. Yet we have zero reports that anyone else saw the toddler.

 

[T4Tide]

So if she saw a child walking, she would not be able to stop quickly enough. She’d probably have to get off the interstate, back track and come back around. No? I means when I’ve seen something odd or a person on the interstate it goes by FAST. You can’t just slam on your breaks and you’re there.

Was there time enough for that in between the two calls?

I presumed she doubled back after calling the police and went to the mile marker because thats the location she'd given the 911 operator. MOO.

There’s absolutely ZERO possibility that she doubled back between the calls. Possibly between talking to her mom and making the first 911 call but absolutely not between the 911 call and taking to her brother’s girlfriend or whomever.

 

[neesaki]

The following is all speculation and my own opinion. It is what I think COULD have happened.
She did not want to finish or flunked out of nursing school and was hiding it from her parents. I am assuming that her job would not afford her to pay for school, a Mercedes and take out food after work. Let alone if she had much of a social life that cost money.
So that tells me mom and pop are helping their daughter financially while she lives at home at 25. Which is a good thing to do for your daughter.
The daughter however has been leading them to believe nursing school is going well when the ecact opposite is true.
She feels trapped and embarrassed.
She ran away.
The toddler was a lie to add to her disappearance. She however did not expect the cop to show so quickly.
She got out of the car, dropped wig hat and phone to leave her old self behind.
Left purse but had cash and or unkown to parents bank accounts credit cards.
She is not circling back a second time looking for a child.
She is driving slow looking for the spot she knows she can cut thru the woods to a car or a ride waiting for her (maybe a love intrest?)
and start her new life.

Except she could have met them almost anywhere, minus the dark scary woods with snakes, coyotes, bobcats, ticks, etc. And At night? I know I wouldn’t do it. I’m just sayin’….

 

[gitana1]

An obvious possibility is that there was no child and that Carlee was having a delusional episode. Not say that's definitely what happened but it fits with the video and Carlee could still be alive, confused and vulnerable to danger even if she hasn't met with nefarious activity.

The question then is, where the heck is she? Do we know what searches have been done? Search dogs? Drones? Volunteers going through the area next to the highway?

I mean if she was not taken, she would have to be somewhere close by. At least at the time LE arrived. Of course it was night but wouldn’t there be a trail to follow?

 

[sng]

I no longer live in this area but I’m very familiar with it. I think a stranger abduction or hoax are remotely possible but I wanted to put out some possibilities I haven’t seen many people mention. Everything is MOO and I’m just suggesting possibilities, not arguing that any of these are definitely what happened.

1. There are homes on the other side of the treeline she disappeared into. She may have wandered into someone’s yard and been mistaken for an intruder by someone who harmed her (then hid her instead of calling the cops when they realized she wasn’t armed or a threat). If there was a child, they could have wandered away from one of those houses. Maybe she was found with the child by the parents and they thought she was a kidnapper, or the child was unrelated to what happened and is now safe at home, but the parents haven’t come forward because they’re afraid of CPS (if there were past incidents or drugs involved).

2. Animal attack. Maybe she screamed when she realized what she thought was a child was an animal? It would be a weird thing to happen there, but black bears and gators are occasionally seen around Birmingham. She was close to a subdivision that is literally built on a swamp that they turned into a “lake” (look for “LakeCrest” on Google maps) and a lot of the other subdivisions have their own manmade lakes, so my guess would be a gator, though a bear cub seems more possible to mistake for a child. Bobcats and coyotes are much more common but I don’t know if they’re big enough to drag off a whole adult human.

3. You can hallucinate without having a whole psychotic break, for example due to sleep deprivation. So the child could have not really been there even without her having other symptoms consistent with mental illness.

4. Someone asked about people in the woods. There are people living in the woods in the area but I don’t know if they were in that exact spot. They usually stay well-hidden and a narrow strip between a yard and a freeway doesn’t sound like a likely choice for an encampment.

5. This would be an incredibly bizarre choice for a location to set up an elaborate trap with a doll/child for bait. I can’t overstate how weird it would be. You would only have to go a few more miles down 459 to get to an area where there are a lot more woods and less traffic, cameras, and witnesses. Sometimes people do bizarre things so I won’t say it’s impossible but it’s unlikely.

 

[cuffem]

I no longer live in this area but I’m very familiar with it. I think a stranger abduction or hoax are remotely possible but I wanted to put out some possibilities I haven’t seen many people mention. Everything is MOO and I’m just suggesting possibilities, not arguing that any of these are definitely what happened.

1. There are homes on the other side of the treeline she disappeared into. She may have wandered into someone’s yard and been mistaken for an intruder by someone who harmed her (then hid her instead of calling the cops when they realized she wasn’t armed or a threat). If there was a child, they could have wandered away from one of those houses. Maybe she was found with the child by the parents and they thought she was a kidnapper, or the child was unrelated to what happened and is now safe at home, but the parents haven’t come forward because they’re afraid of CPS (if there were past incidents or drugs involved).

2. Animal attack. Maybe she screamed when she realized what she thought was a child was an animal? It would be a weird thing to happen there, but black bears and gators are occasionally seen around Birmingham. She was close to a subdivision that is literally built on a swamp that they turned into a “lake” (look for “LakeCrest” on Google maps) and a lot of the other subdivisions have their own manmade lakes, so my guess would be a gator, though a bear cub seems more possible to mistake for a child. Bobcats and coyotes are much more common but I don’t know if they’re big enough to drag off a whole adult human.

3. You can hallucinate without having a whole psychotic break, for example due to sleep deprivation. So the child could have not really been there even without her having other symptoms consistent with mental illness.

4. Someone asked about people in the woods. There are people living in the woods in the area but I don’t know if they were in that exact spot. They usually stay well-hidden and a narrow strip between a yard and a freeway doesn’t sound like a likely choice for an encampment.

5. This would be an incredibly bizarre choice for a location to set up an elaborate trap with a doll/child for bait. I can’t overstate how weird it would be. You would only have to go a few more miles down 459 to get to an area where there are a lot more woods and less traffic, cameras, and witnesses. Sometimes people do bizarre things so I won’t say it’s impossible but it’s unlikely.

Nice post sng and Welcome! to Websleuths.

 

[BeginnerSleuther]

I think so too. But still a possibility if she thought the government was after her or somesuch... or perhaps she doesn't want to own up to it.

But yeah, the more I learn the more this looks like a hoax. There's just no way there was an actual toddler. She could not have pulled over like that and somebody else would have seen the toddler. Yet we have zero reports that anyone else saw the toddler.

If she was psychotic, there would have been suggestions of that in the 911 call and the call to her sister. You can't fake not being psychotic. IMO, that would have been revealed to the public.

I also don't buy that it's a hoax. There's just no indication I've seen that she was trying to escape her life. I don't really know what she saw, but I'm leaning toward her seeing something that may have resembled a child and being attacked or hit.

 

[neesaki]

DBM.

 

[Webby45]

She had an expensive car and was in school and had a meager job. I’m wondering if she was having financial and school stress.

Was she known to be involved in drugs?

I remember awhile back a girl went missing but was found hiding in a friends home. She claimed she faked her disappearance for “research” for a book she was writing or something.