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

[T4Tide]

The investigator did call me back regarding my tip. He specifically wanted to know if I got a tag # but wasn’t super interested in the car details. I described what I saw and he said he’d be in touch if he could think of anything else and for sure for me to call him back if I thought of anything else. Super nice guy. Harding was the name, I think.

 

[BeginnerSleuther]

Yes and I think we should not be entertaining the idea of seeing something that is most likely not there.
Goes down a road that distracts from facts that are present IMO.

But if mental health crisis is fair game (for which there's no real evidence and it, too, distracts from the facts), then alternative speculation should be fair game too, IMO.

 

[meg1620]

Did police have dogs search the area her car was found in? I'm curious if there was any sort of "trail" that led to the residential area or a water area.

Would LE have some sort of high tech way to scan license plates in this area for the 15 minutes prior to see if she had indeed passed the "toddler" but driven around and re-entered the freeway (hence her driving on the shoulder so long prior to stopping). Obviously the quality posted isn't enough but is there a way to check the next exit for her car leaving/getting back on?

I'm sorry for probably repeating the question - I am having problems maneuvering the search option.

 

[gitana1]

It’s an odd scenario but I’m not seeing a mental health issue imo.

From a tip, we know there was supposedly another car near her, which supports the foul play theory.

Of course, we never know until we know.

Or a third option.

 

[cuffem]

But if mental health crisis is fair game (for which there's no real evidence and it, too, distracts from the facts), then alternative speculation should be fair game too, IMO.

I was trying to be nice and not say Hoax.

 

[ArmchairDefective]

I would be very willing to entertain the idea of being hit but that would have been seen on the traffic camera.

So it would seem. Do cameras cover every stretch of the road, though? Could she have walked down the road some distance and been struck in an area not seen on camera?

 

[Soulmagent]

The investigator did call me back regarding my tip. He specifically wanted to know if I got a tag # but wasn’t super interested in the car details. I described what I saw and he said he’d be in touch if he could think of anything else and for sure for me to call him back if I thought of anything else. Super nice guy. Harding was the name, I think.

I thought I saw a police officer but you did not have him circled ,might not be a policeman but definitly looks like a man and he is only visible on photos 4 and 5 . <modsnip>

 

[beforedawn]

And there is a great chance that there was not a child on the side of the road but either an allusion or some type of hallucination.

What information do you have to indicate there is "a great chance" (and not a slim chance) this was a hallucination?

 

[duckcat]

<modsnip: quoted post was removed> Truth proves to be stranger than fiction sometimes, and a lot of terrible things happen quite randomly. Especially when incorporating mentally unsound individuals into the equation.

However, she spent the day at work, spoke on the phone with her mom, and was likely shooting the *advertiser censored* on her drive home, speaking to brother’s gf on the phone as she approached the situation. Multiple witnesses to her character. So far we haven’t heard that she seemed strange or on the verge of a psychotic break that day.

Many things can explain some of the very reasonable concerns that you bring. OTOH, it appears she vanished and according to her family it is out of character. I think it’s healthy for LE and the public to take it seriously in the critical hours until we know otherwise. Too many unfortunate cases have occurred when doubting the character or motives of victims.

Already, I’ve seen someone here commenting that they saw an individual standing by a pulled over vehicle in the same area on that same night and reported it.

 

[cuffem]

So it would seem. Do cameras cover every stretch of the road, though? Could she have walked down the road some distance and been struck in an area not seen on camera?

She is only seen walking into woods at the car but I guess she could have walked through the woods on down. Depends how thick the woods are.
But in the dark would be difficult.IMO

 

[PixieStix]

Did police have dogs search the area her car was found in? I'm curious if there was any sort of "trail" that led to the residential area or a water area.

Would LE have some sort of high tech way to scan license plates in this area for the 15 minutes prior to see if she had indeed passed the "toddler" but driven around and re-entered the freeway (hence her driving on the shoulder so long prior to stopping). Obviously the quality posted isn't enough but is there a way to check the next exit for her car leaving/getting back on?

I'm sorry for probably repeating the question - I am having problems maneuvering the search option.

There were pictures of the search showing police dogs. I was hoping for an update on if the dogs tracked any sort of scent and to where. I thought maybe we would get a PC today but it's not looking likely.

 

[Knox]

I think it could be a sign of a struggle or still possibly a sign of being staged.

I have no real thought or theory on what happened here, I just think that could go either way

Agree it could be either. Some of the abduction details would be one hell of a coinky dink. But we live in a ever increasingly dangerous world.

 

[T4Tide]

I obtained the screenshots by screen recording the video. Then, I zoomed in on my recording and carefully moved the slide back and forth to find the best pictures BETWEEN the flashing of the blinkers. As I slide, I can detect motion. Objects don’t just disappear, though, so while I occasionally saw something white manifest in the ditch, it didn’t follow a pattern. In reviewing my video, I did NOT see another vehicle, anything with headlights or a flashlight, a small child, etc. I can absolutely see her and it seems as if she’s standing, facing the rear passenger seat of the car and then she slides down and I can no longer make out her frame. She either slides out of view into the ditch or is drug. The only way I think she went into the woods in either on her own accord or at gunpoint.
I’m not a video expert but I am an RN so maybe I’m used to finding images out of other images such as X-rays and ultrasounds. And those things are never proof but anomalies to be followed up with other diagnostic tests.

 

[gitana1]

I don't see the mental health angle here... even if you ignore the child story, there were at least two other people she'd have to "involve" for this to be some sort of hoax? The guy who called in her empty car and mentioned the man with the gray car... and that man with the gray car. Given that sighting it's not likely that she just walked off.

I sadly think of the Eliza Fletcher case - think she was just grabbed completely at random. This story is crazy, sounds like one of those "beware of robbers using crying babies as bait!" email chains that went around 20 years ago.

But hoax and psychosis can be two different things. Or rather, sometimes people disappear purposefully and sometimes they want others to think they were kidnapped. The Papini case is one in which a friend came and picked her up when she went for a jog, leaving her phone and earbuds neatly behind.

I won’t say that happened here. But did anyone else see a child? The risk involved that a man or LE or anyone would stop for a real child who is used as bait, and then get the perp in trouble, would be high.

Unless of course the child was a mannequin. But mannequins don’t walk.

I’m starting with the assumption of foul play. But there is another possible scenario.

 

[cuffem]

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.

 

[T4Tide]

I did not report Jesus, toast, avocados, or aliens to the investigator. Although that’s quite the “Last Breakfast” painting I have in my mind now lol

 

[gitana1]

A situation where there is some domestic indecent on the highway, bystander stops to help and they panic in fear she will be the reason they are reported for child abuse and injury/grab her?

That was my immediate first thought. That someone didn’t want her to report neglect and harmed her. But I feel like they would have left her there and taken off.

 

[thefragile7393]

But if mental health crisis is fair game (for which there's no real evidence and it, too, distracts from the facts), then alternative speculation should be fair game too, IMO.

At this point it could be anything but there's no evidence too much either way except she is missing. I'm not directing this at you, Beginner Sleuther, but at others insisting this is a first break or something...which it could be...but honestly right now the only evidence of something wrong is that she's missing. How and why remain to be seen.

 

[gitana1]

TIMELINE

8:20 PM
Police say Carlee got off work last night at around 8:20 p.m. from a business at The Summit and is believed to have stopped to pick up food from a restaurant at The Colonnade before traveling toward Hoover on I-459 where she stopped near mile marker 11 between the Galleria flyover and Exit 10.

9:18 PM
Talitha Russell said the last time she spoke with her daughter Carlee was around 9:18 Thursday night when she left Taziki’s after picking up food and was headed home.

9:30 PM
Hoover Police say around 9:30 p.m., the Hoover 911 Center received a call from a 25-year-old woman on I-459 South near mile marker 11 who reported she saw a toddler walking on the side of the interstate.

9:36 PM
After calling 911, Russell stopped to check on the child and called her sister-in-law around 9:36 p.m. to report the same details. The family member lost contact with her, but the line remained open.

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

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?

 

[BeginnerSleuther]

At this point it could be anything but there's no evidence too much either way except she is missing. I'm not directing this at you, Beginner Sleuther, but at others insisting this is a first break or something...which it could be...but honestly right now the only evidence of something wrong is that she's missing. How and why remain to be seen.

Agree. IMO, a first break is significantly unlikely.