AL AL - Carrie Smith Lawson, 25, Jasper, 11 Sept 1991

[Kat]

The Doe Network:
Case File 1091DFAL

http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/1091dfal.html

Carrie Smith Lawson
Missing since September 11, 1991 from Jasper, Walker County, Alabama.
Classification: Endangered Missing


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Vital Statistics

•Age at Time of Disappearance: 25 years old
•Distinguishing Characteristics: White female. Dark brown hair. Eyeglasses.
•Clothing: A red T-shirt; green khaki shorts, white socks and white Reebok tennis shoes, size 9.
•Fingerprints: Available


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Circumstances of Disappearance
Lawson was abducted from her Jasper, Alabama home while responding to a telephone call from a woman who told Lawson she was a nurse and someone in Lawson's family was seriously ill in the hospital. A masked assailant managed to subdue and tie up her husband.
Karen McPherson pleaded guilty to the kidnapping. McPherson said she and her cousin, Jerry Bland, planned the kidnapping for $300,000 ransom. Bland killed himself at his home three weeks after Lawson disappeared. Lawson's family payed the ransom and authorities found most of what they believe is the ransom money in the home of Bland.
Despite numerous tips and a private investigator hired by Lawson's family, her body has never been found.
A court declared Lawson dead in 1993. Lawson is originally from Cleveland, Tennessee. She's a graduate of the Alabama School of Law.


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Investigators
If you have any information concerning this case, please contact:

Walker County Sheriff Department
205-302-6464

Source Information:
NBC13 News
The Atlanta Journal and The Atlanta Constitution
clevelandbanner.com
Birmingham.fbi.gov
timesfreepress.com

http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/l/lawson_carrie.html
More details at Charley Project

Carrie is not listed in NamUs at this time.

http://news.google.com/newspapers?i...&pg=2560,2848778&dq=carrie-smith-lawson&hl=en
SEP 1991

http://news.google.com/newspapers?i...J&pg=4814,748044&dq=carrie-smith-lawson&hl=en
OCT 1991

http://news.google.com/newspapers?i...&pg=5373,2714618&dq=carrie-smith-lawson&hl=en
OCT 1991

http://news.google.com/newspapers?i...&pg=6650,1240720&dq=carrie-smith-lawson&hl=en
NOV 1991

http://news.google.com/newspapers?i...&pg=4152,2607463&dq=carrie-smith-lawson&hl=en
SEP 1994

http://news.google.com/newspapers?i...&pg=6496,1764404&dq=carrie-smith-lawson&hl=en
SEP 1997

http://news.google.com/newspapers?i...&pg=6009,1182863&dq=carrie-smith-lawson&hl=en
SEP 1998

http://books.google.com/books?id=I9...wBA#v=onepage&q="Carrie Smith Lawson"&f=false
Book covering Carrie.

Carrie has been missing almost 19 years. She is deeply missed by her family. Come home soon.

 

[OkieGranny]

Blog post with lots of interesting comments, including the possible location of Carrie's body:

http://lbratina.blogspot.com/2008/01/where-is-carrie-lawson.html

 

[mikkismom]

Alabama kidnapper jailed for life for helping cousin abduct woman in 1991 could be released tomorrow - even though woman's body has never been found

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...sons-parole-opposed-family.html#ixzz2gQDJ2fUq
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

 

[Tulessa]

Blog post with lots of interesting comments, including the possible location of Carrie's body:

http://lbratina.blogspot.com/2008/01/where-is-carrie-lawson.html

There's some good possible tips there. I wonder why LE hasn't checked this out more thoroughly?

 

[Tulessa]

Carrie

 

[JWD]

Here's two links to the same Associated Press (AP) article published by the Gadsden Times & the Tuscaloosa Times in 1993. They're not listed above.
http://news.google.com/newspapers?n...MIfAAAAIBAJ&sjid=P9gEAAAAIBAJ&pg=1373,2448089http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1891&dat=19930917&id=tMIfAAAAIBAJ&sjid=P9gEAAAAIBAJ&pg=1373,2448089
http://news.google.com/newspapers?n...4IfAAAAIBAJ&sjid=hqUEAAAAIBAJ&pg=4444,5166873

Due to the possible tie-in to the Sept. 16, 1988 disappearance of Rebecca "Becky" Files Ferguson, I posted this on Becky's page also. Becky's car was found near Jasper with "two gun blasts" through the window.
http://www.websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?p=9994026&posted=1#post9994026http://www.websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?p=9994026&posted=1#post9994026

 

[JWD]

September 2013 Articles about the co-kidnapper of Carrie, Karen McPherson (cousin of Jerry Bland who committed suicide to avoid prison). Carrie's family continues to fight McPherson's possible parole.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2439557/Carrie-Lawson-kidnapper-Karen-McPhersons-parole-opposed-family.html

http://www.coloradonewsday.com/national/19911-carrie-lawson-kidnapper-karen-mcpherson-s-parole-opposed-by-family.html

I can't get this October 2, 2013 article to open but the headline sounds great: Board Denies Parole in Carrie Lawson Kidnapping Case from 1991.

http://news.silobreaker.com/board-denies-parole-in-carrie-lawson-kidnapping-case-from-1991-5_2267144952297291806

 

[JWD]

A lengthy September 8, 2013 article giving an in-depth look at the case:
http://www.clevelandbanner.com/view/full_story/23561001/article-McPherson-hearing--set-Oct--1-

 

[AmyinTheHam]

McPherson is up for parole again in Alabama. This is a link to the article.
http://www.al.com/news/birmingham/i...awson_kidnapper_up_for.html#incart_river_home

 

[Archangel85]

So, What's keeping Karen McPherson from disclosing the location of the body?

 

[JusticeWillBeServed]

Carrie Lawson kidnapper Karen McPherson denied parole in lawyer's 1991 disappearance

http://www.al.com/news/birmingham/index.ssf/2016/08/carrie_lawson_kidnapper_denied.html

A woman who has been in prison for 25 years in the kidnapping of a young Jasper lawyer, whose body has never been found, was denied parole today.

Carrie Lawson's sister, Margaret Smith Kubiszyn, and father, 82-year-old David Smith, were concerned about McPherson's early release and both spoke at this morning's hearing in Montgomery, as did Walker County District Attorney Bill Adair. "You can only imagine what she went through,'' Smith said of his daughter's ordeal.

"This case affected our community," the district attorney said, noting hundreds of people carried out searches and held prayer vigils. "Thousands of people sympathized, empathized with their family."

Smith said today McPherson deserves her life sentence. They were concerned about today's hearing. "We are afraid that, due to prison crowding concerns, this parole is being expedited,'' Kubiszyn said Monday.

Kubiszyn said McPherson's role in the disappearance has always been understated. "She was alone with Carrie for a long time when they were holding her and she got to know her and still didn't let her go,'' she said. "That's always been really hard for me to swallow, that anyone could get to know Carrie and then turn her over to her executioner."

Years ago, McPherson agreed to meet with David Smith and give details about the crime in return for the family not protesting parole. "She sat down with my dad for five hours and told all lies,'' Kubiszyn said. "He has lost so much financially, emotionally, everything. That's really what makes me saddest about the whole thing."

Kubiszyn said she doesn't hate McPherson, and actually feels sorry for McPherson's daughter who also has been devastated by the events 25 years ago.

 

[JusticeWillBeServed]

Carrie Lawson's kidnapping haunts family, friends and Alabama 25 years later

http://www.al.com/news/birmingham/index.ssf/2016/09/carrie_lawson_disappeared_25_y.html

Earl Lawson told himself one thing, even as it was happening: It will all be over soon.

He and his wife, Carrie, had received an urgent call after midnight claiming Lawson's father was gravely ill. They were to come to the hospital. Now.

But it was a ruse. They rushed to the car, and it began.

A masked gunman appeared out of the darkness and ordered them out of the car. He forced Lawson to the ground and instructed Carrie to bind her husband with duct tape. He drove away with Carrie as Lawson assured himself she would be OK. She had to be OK.

"Back in 1991, nobody got kidnapped. I'd never heard of a carjacking. There weren't a lot of murders in Jasper," Lawson said in a recent interview, his first about the case in more than 20 years. "Having somebody kidnapped was the last thing you could ever think of."

It has been 25 years since 25-year-old Carrie Smith Lawson disappeared in Walker County on Sept. 11, 1991. A quarter century since she vanished without a trace in a mystery that became one of the most talked-about missing person cases in Alabama history.

 

[kat_]

I'm not sure that Karen McPherson actually knows where the body is, or that Jerry Bland actually killed Lawson, or himself, for that matter. If you look closer at Walker County, there are several unsolved crimes in the area, with many of the victims having ties to the courthouse.

 

[lindamichelle1]

Read about this case today and was really drawn in. I felt so horrible for her. I wish the selfish p.o.s left her whereabouts in his suicide note. so cruel.

 

[joey88]

Not sure the validity of this but for what it's worth
carrie lawson

 

[raddpt]

This case needs to be reopened and looked at from someone outside of Walker County AL. Seems like Carrie knew too much in a small town. She knew things that would get men in power in trouble. Probably financial trouble too. People are scared to talk about this out loud. Noone wants to go missing too. There was another lady that went missing from the area Becky Files Ferguson. She was in the middle of a divorce. Maybe these disapearances were all set up by the husbands. Lots of rumors just all kept hush hush. In the last year more people have went missing from the area. Always goes back to Becky and Carrie and you wonder if it will be like that. There are alot of old strip pits in the area where it would be hard to find someone. Lots of old money and power. Many more people were involved but only 2 took the fall for Carries dissapearance. More than likely they were just easy to manipulate and bride with a little cash. Is there anyway to get the fbi to look these cases over again?

 

[Gardener1850]

Unidentified remains found in Walker County, AL: AL - Human skull found in wooded area of rural Alabama

 

[Cagle]

The host of a true crime podcast about missing persons in the South has taken up the case of Carrie Lawson, the Jasper woman whose remains were never recovered after she was kidnapped from her home in September 1991.

"I just don't accept that we're never going to know what happened to Carrie Lawson," said Kristi Bryant, who has devoted four episodes of "Southern Gone" to the Lawson case so far and plans to do more in the future.

Bryant has interviewed siblings of both Lawson and Karen McPherson, the woman serving a life sentence for her kidnapping. A listener from Alabama first suggested that she dedicate an episode to Lawson.

Podcaster devotes series to Lawson disappearance

 

[KayTea]

I lived in Jasper from January 1990 until May 1997. Carrie was truly one of the kindest people I have ever met. My family.and I went to church with both Carrie and Earl. She helped with the youth group (I was in high school) and Carrie was a leader on our weekend Occoee River white-water rafting trip in late August before she was taken. My mom told her the last time we saw her that she was so happy Carrie had finished with law school and taken the bar, as my mom had worried for Carrie's safety when she had been driving H'way 69 from Jasper to Tuscaloosa for school the past 18 months. That road is windy, mountainous and very remote.
We spent months searching down every dirt road in Walker and Tuscaloosa Counties, all for naught. The FBI set up headquarters in the First United Methodist Church basement, and we met there most afternoons to get new assignments for locations to search.
There have been rumors since the beginning that Earl and his law firm/bosses were up to no good and knew more than they said. Walker County is full of corruption, and I am so happy my family left there!

 

[CastlesBurning]

Bumping for Carrie - it's now been over 30 years.