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

[eimehc]

I wonder if they can get the audio from the call she made with her brothers girlfriend. Being directly next to a roadway has to be very loud so I think hearing her tone would help to gain some sort of sense of the proximity of where this kid could’ve been. Given that though, even if a child did verbally respond it’s likely her phone wouldn’t have picked it up if she had to yell “Are you ok?” and for her scream to be the only other thing heard.

Also, given that her car was still running, her phone could’ve still been connected to it making the call go through it too. Maybe she asked “Are you ok?” when she was still in the car or just outside the driver side but when she went towards the back, the cars microphone couldn’t pick up anything else until a loud noise like her scream.

I don’t think this would really be characteristic of an animal attack either. It’s a busy highway and I’d imagine there’s roadkill close by for an easy meal. Even if there wasn’t, animals like coyotes don’t typically drag off healthy full grown humans. If this did happen though, I would hope dogs could atleast get a scent leading into the woods.

If she did have a mental health crisis what was the weather/temperature like that night? If she did wonder off into the woods for whatever reason how fast would exposure get to her?

 

[Knox]

That is the outfit. Nothing saying *that picture* was taken *the day she dissapeared*.

The point of the picture is- those were the clothes she was wearing that night, not sure what you need out of this?

 

[Van Helsing]

If LE pulled it, perhaps it's evidentiary and there's a vehicle and or person visible in that time-frame, which they're developing on the down-low and don't want to broadcast.

I hope there's a lead.

And it leads to her safe recovery.

Jmo

Probably. The local news has been surprisingly quite today. I'm thinking the resolution will be soon.

 

[duckcat]

I know accidents happen everyday, but perhaps just an interesting datapoint if nothing else. There was an accident about 6 months ago in the exact same spot. The driver passed away. He was trapped in his vehicle engulfed in flames. You can somewhat see evidence of the crash in Jan ‘23 google street view images. The police didn’t really seem to have full explanation of what happened, just that they believe he was driving at a high rate of speed and then crashed into a tree.

Could have been caused by many things of course, but a car suddenly veering off the road is sometimes related to getting spooked by something—an animal, person or car stopped in the road.

Why this exact spot for a potential bad actor? Unclear to me. It is notable though the spot is ~500ft from another road, right where there’s a clearing so theoretically could be a few minutes travel walking to another vehicle.

 

[CTPDMom]

I wonder if they can get the audio from the call she made with her brothers girlfriend.

I don’t see how they could, unless the brother’s girlfriend routinely records her phone conversations.

 

[dotr]

Complete speculation, imo.
Not that this is likely, but it is possible that if somebody really wanted to target C. or any person driving along that way.
They could position an inflatable life-size child image of some kind at the side of the road, then when close enough to spot the fake, they are snatched and the decoy ''toddler'' gets popped and tucked away.

https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/WCAAAOxyqOxRuhmz/s-l500.jpghttps://www.ebay.com/itm/374491774735

 

[Knox]

It may be that a homeless beggar or transient may have been camping there. That broad general area is a very affluent area of Birmingham. She disappeared very close to The Preserve and Trace Crossings in Hoover. She works at The Summit which is in Vestavia Hills, bordering Mountain Brook. The Colonade is also in Vestavia Hills. There are a lot of popular businesses at that exit and along 150. Maybe there is a lot of opportunity for begging and theft in the area. "Camping" at night on the interstate right-of-way, the person would be less likely to be harassed by Hoover police. Where did he take her? The person would be very familiar with ingress/egress to and from that location. JMO.

Here's an over head view of the area.

Google Maps

Find local businesses, view maps and get driving directions in Google Maps.

www.google.com

What are your thoughts on where she could have been taken?

 

[Fuhgetabouddit]

If LE pulled it, perhaps it's evidentiary and there's a vehicle and or person visible in that time-frame, which they're developing on the down-low and don't want to broadcast.

I hope there's a lead.

And it leads to her safe recovery.

Jmo

I think this is extremely likely!

 

[Dénouement]

I wonder if they can get the audio from the call she made with her brothers girlfriend. Being directly next to a roadway has to be very loud so I think hearing her tone would help to gain some sort of sense of the proximity of where this kid could’ve been. Given that though, even if a child did verbally respond it’s likely her phone wouldn’t have picked it up if she had to yell “Are you ok?” and for her scream to be the only other thing heard.

Also, given that her car was still running, her phone could’ve still been connected to it making the call go through it too. Maybe she asked “Are you ok?” when she was still in the car or just outside the driver side but when she went towards the back, the cars microphone couldn’t pick up anything else until a loud noise like her scream.

I don’t think this would really be characteristic of an animal attack either. It’s a busy highway and I’d imagine there’s roadkill close by for an easy meal. Even if there wasn’t, animals like coyotes don’t typically drag off healthy full grown humans. If this did happen though, I would hope dogs could atleast get a scent leading into the woods.

If she did have a mental health crisis what was the weather/temperature like that night? If she did wonder off into the woods for whatever reason how fast would exposure get to her?

I think they can get it but whether they release it is another story. I would like to hear the call. Why would her phone be on the ground if it was Bluetooth connected to the car?

 

[vls12345]

In the traffic cam video, does anyone see what looks like a car parked off the road toward the trees just ahead of Carlee's? The only time you see it is at 1:54 when a truck drives by. There are a lot of weird shadows, but it jumped out at me. I tried to take a screen shot.

Wow. Thank you. I really need to watch the footage on something better than my phone.

Someone earlier in the thread mentioned a car with no lights on pulling back into traffic. And if that car wasn't there when LE arrived, it might explain her disappearance. In which case, she could be anywhere by now. (It might also explain why traffic cam footage from the few hours before her stop is not available to the public. LE may have seen the car pull over in earlier footage and are using it to potentially determine a suspect.)

This case has given me the creeps and a bad feeling since I first read about it.

Imo.

 

[Knox]

Someone asked about scent dogs upstream, looks like they did bring them in. So that's interesting, I wonder if they gained any leads? Watch the video, it has a lot of info. Carlee's parents are amazing people, I'm impressed every time I've seen them speak. I so want a good outcome for them!

The video at the very bottom of page is where Carlee's Mom talks about the food and last time she spoke with her.

Carlee Russell turns herself in to the Hoover City Jail, charged with 2 misdemeanors

The Hoover Police Department released new details in their investigation of what happened between Carlee Russell’s disappearance last Thursday night, July 13, and her return home on Saturday night, July 15.

www.wbrc.com

 

[Quill]

If we assume she saw something in a brief flash of light and circled back, what she saw may have been unique to her brain processor. Many passersby may have seen nothing or processed it very differently and discarded it.

What if there was someone there? An adult who, in that accidental moment of illumination sat down which Carlee's brain processed as human, as a small human, as movement (not up and down but side to side like walking because, at the time she saw it, she was  moving)? No ruse, not someone with a toddler or a doll or bait but someone who wasn't planning on being seen or anyone stopping but when siddenly there was an unaccompanied female right there, it became a crime of opportunity.

Any escapees on the loose? Any predators in the vicinity? Any regular hitchhikers?

I think Carlee did see something, I think she called to it, I think she screamed when suddenly it was full size and upon her and I think whoever took her took advantage of a passing semi to block them from view, pulling Carlee deeper into the shadows.

From there, I haven't got a theory...

Jmo

I just finished my workout and my brain was working in this direction the entire 45 minutes. Great minds think alike.

 

[gremlin444]

Probably. The local news has been surprisingly quite today. I'm thinking the resolution will be soon.

I notice on the live camera archive footage from today that all the search vehicles in that area seem to be there from 10 a.m. until 11:25 a.m. this morning. Then the camera view seems to pull much further back, and I can't really see that area. At 11:40 when the camera goes back to the standard view, all but one car have left.

 

[eimehc]

I think they can get it but whether they release it is another story. I would like to hear the call. Why would her phone be on the ground if it was Bluetooth connected to the car?

For my car, a phone call will still be connected via bluetooth if I unplug it and will stay connected even if I walk a bit aways. I have done this before thinking I could still talk to the person I’m on the phone with because my previous car didn’t have those features.

 

[ArmchairDefective]

I don't think there would have been any kind of stationary object involved, considering all of the news reports I've seen indicate that Carlee reported a child "walking" (not "standing") along the highway. That said, I don't think there was a child involved here at all -- my opinion is that Carlee either saw something that wasn't real (e.g. a hallucination) or mistook something else for a child (e.g. an adult or an animal).

(Edit: This was supposed to be in response to dotr's earlier post but I forgot to attach the quote)

 

[GoneGoldfishin']

Unfortunately I think you're probably right. With as much traffic as was on the road at the time, if no one else saw a child (or anything that resembled a child), I think we can reasonably conclude that there was not one.

Does anyone have a Google Earth aerial view of the area where the car was found? I'm curious what the landscape nearby looks like -- are there houses, ponds, etc?

Edit: link for traffic cam

TCA | Select Date

Select a date to view available video for the camera.

birmingham.trafficcamarchive.com

 

[justinkjones1993]

For those who are putting a lot of stock into the abduction theory, let's flesh that out. How would that work exactly?

Were they in a vehicle? If so, why don't we see it?

If there's no other vehicles present, would the abductors hide in the woods? If so, how did they know someone was gonna pull over in that exact spot on the interstate?

Did they know her or was this random? If they knew her, why did they target her on a busy interstate rather than at her home or near her place of employment? And as I asked above, how did they know she was gonna stop in that exact spot?

Nothing with the abduction theory makes any sense AT ALL.

 

[goofreak]

The video is nice to have, but we still don’t have confirmation that it is her vehicle, right?
What if: That car doesn’t belong to her. It belongs to another person who maybe thought they got a flat tire (passenger side, obviously) and pulled off to check it. The cops pulled up behind, like we see in the final frames of the video, either because they saw a person with hazards on and wanted to help, or because they were responding to Carlee’s call and expected that car to be hers.
Until we get solid confirmation, either from LE stating that the video is of Carlee, or we can see more of the video that proves itself to align with Carlee’s exact circumstances, take it with a grain of salt.

 

[lizziginne]

For those who are putting a lot of stock into the abduction theory, let's flesh that out. How would that work exactly?

Were they in a vehicle? If so, why don't we see it?

If there's no other vehicles present, would the abductors hide in the woods? If so, how did they know someone was gonna pull over in that exact spot on the interstate?

Did they know her or was this random? If they knew her, why did they target her on a busy interstate rather than at her home or near her place of employment? And as I asked above, how did they know she was gonna stop in that exact spot?

Nothing with the abduction theory makes any sense AT ALL.

I don't think much about any theory makes sense right now.
My most likely theory is she saw something that she thought was a child, pulled over, and stumbled across something nefarious happening, and got pulled in to the woods. I can't see how she disappeared in to thin air of her own accord with no clues left behind

 

[nikki80]

I don’t remember seeing this posted here but I just read that she has a tattoo above her left shoulder. I also just watched her bio brothers TikTok.

I could not sleep last night for thinking about this. SMH please find Carlee.