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

[Regal Beagle]

In a day and age when everything people say and do is live streamed or recorded for social media entertainment, I am really surprised this whole incident wasn't recorded....had it really have happened.

 

[hparker36]

Do Red Roof Inns ask for ID? I have not stayed in one in probably over 20 years. Other hotels I've stayed in have asked for ID, in addition to credit card, of course.

I don't think RRI would want people just knocking on all the guest's doors. God only knows what they would see.

 

[Deleted member 326769]

The billion dollar question many of us are still scratching our heads over. She's 25, not 15. She can move around the cabin as she pleases. What was her goal with this attention? Did she even consider that even if she was just missing for 12 hours and didn't obtain international notoriety that she'd hurt friends and family with extreme worry?

I do believe she planned this, but o don’t think it was well thought out. IE people’s reactions, the fact that she was missing going nationwide etc. or maybe she truly thought her parents and boyfriend didn’t care enough to push this far? Or maybe it was payback for someone telling her no? Maybe she figured with a psychology degree she was smart enough to pull it off and figured why not try? We will probably never get the actual truth about why she did this.

 

[geevee]

I thought the implication has always been strong (at least... insofar as anything that Carlee told the world can now be said to be relied upon), that the nonexistent toddler was wading through all that grass I think I saw on the admittedly dark security camera; not on the shoulder of the road itself...?

Not that it really matters, insofar as it's all theoretical and doesn't represent anything in reality; but even Carlee didn't attempt to say the kid was trudging barefoot down the literal highway (I don't think).

It also seems to me she was intimating the child was walking in the grass and not on the shoulder, but, I saw a picture of that area with the dogs searching, the grass was at least 2 feet high, you could barely see the search dog, no way was she going to see a small child, in a diaper, at night, in that stretch of high grass. Had there ever been one.

She also said <modsnip> made her climb the fence - how in the world would a baby gotten over the fence? Did he just fling it over? Seems like she was planning this story for at least a couple days, plenty of time to work out some logical details.

 

[lonetraveler]

And strange that she didn't get out of her car, after seeing a toddler walking alongside a 6 lane interstate. The first thing I'd do after pulling over would be to go to the child and bring them into my car. I think most people would do that, as opposed to just 'watching' them from afar. JMO

That hit me too. I was surprised that the 911 operator told her to keep an eye on the child. Why in heck didn't the operator tell her to get the child so he wouldn't go out into the highway?

 

[Cubby]

This sort of reminds me of Casey Anthony too. Because I had a brother with these same “character traits”, it would not surprise me if Carlee came up with more ridiculous lies about the reason why she told this story. It will be along the lines of “I am protecting my family and LE misconstrued my statements and everything I said was the truth, no one is listening to the meaning behind my words.” Then her poor parents will believe her and blame everyone else and pretend that everything is ok. If she is anything like my brother or Casey, her parents are doomed.

Yep, spoiler alert!

 

[hparker36]

RSBM. And she made sure her boyfriends sister heard the scream and then nothing but highway traffic.

Did she mean the man literally picked her up as in slinging her over his shoulder?

 

[Deleted member 326769]

This sort of reminds me of Casey Anthony too. Because I had a brother with these same “character traits”, it would not surprise me if Carlee came up with more ridiculous lies about the reason why she told this story. It will be along the lines of “I am protecting my family and LE misconstrued my statements and everything I said was the truth, no one is listening to the meaning behind my words.” Then her poor parents will believe her and blame everyone else and pretend that everything is ok. If she is anything like my brother or Casey, her parents are doomed.

I feel awful for her parents. I think they’re in denial at this point. But that’s their child. So I really can’t blame them. Seems that they gave her every opportunity they could. Along with love and support. Or at least that’s how I see it. I’ve been wrong before IMO

 

[Seattle1]

I don't think RRI would want people just knocking on all the guest's doors. God only knows what they would see.

I agree and IMO, this actually resulted in a call to 911 from RRI Management. Details posted in prior thread.

 

[Ontario Mom]

We finally see a national response for a woman of color and we get this nonsense. What a shame.

Watching the presser earlier, one of the reporters actually asked a question about this. I'll paraphrase but she said something to the affect of, "how does this impact the next time an African American woman goes missing?" and they responded and said (paraphrasing again) that it doesn't change anything, that for them (LE) they will do their jobs exactly the same and fully investigate any missing person.

Classy, professional answer.

jmo

 

[Seattle1]

Did she mean the man literally picked her up as in slinging her over his shoulder?

Seems like it -- allegedly picked her up over a fence and took her to the 18-wheeler trailer.

 

[Lewie]

So many people missing, so many cases needing coverage, and we have this circus monopolizing headlines for 6 days. How frustrating.

Yet, here I am.

 

[alwaystroublin]

I think Dan Abrams makes excellent points here about the responsibility of the police and the family now that public resources were wasted.

 

[hparker36]

My guess is, whoever she was with, paid for the hotel, whether it was the RRI or not.
Because it's a pretty solid bet, she was not alone the whole time, and she wasn't hiding in the bushes.
Someone picked her up from where she was "kidnapped" from.
That was also part of the plan, to have someone there to pick her up.

All of that of course, entirely jmo.

I'm thinking that is the case also. Just trying to figure why the T paper, etc.

 

[caradana]

I agree and IMO, this actually resulted in a call to 911 from RRI Management. Details posted in prior thread.

The PD officers who had to conduct the door to door search at the Red Roof … those poor guys probably wanted to boil their eyeballs when they were finished.

MOO: future updates will reveal that she was indeed at the Red Roof with the Cheez-Its.

 

[alwaystroublin]

Does " She's not ready to talk yet," equate to she's not ready to come clean with the full unaltered facts?

I thought it meant she was still making up her next false response.

 

[hparker36]

I do believe she planned this, but o don’t think it was well thought out. IE people’s reactions, the fact that she was missing going nationwide etc. or maybe she truly thought her parents and boyfriend didn’t care enough to push this far? Or maybe it was payback for someone telling her no? Maybe she figured with a psychology degree she was smart enough to pull it off and figured why not try? We will probably never get the actual truth about why she did this.

Lot of good that degree was for her.

 

[lonetraveler]

I would have been out of my car grabbing the toddler to keep him safe before I even called 911............

ETA: about 10 years ago I turned the corner to come down the street I live on. The street I live on has a speed limit of 40 mph. There was a little one in a tshirt and diaper walking down the street a few houses from mine. I did get out of my car and pick up the little boy. I called 911 and LE arrived pretty quickly.
I never put him in my vehicle but instead was walking him towards my home.
By that time the mom realized he had gotten out of the house and was out calling for him. I was able to return him to his mom.
I guess that's why I was so confused that CR was "following" a toddler down a busy interstate. Who would do that "in the real world"?

Did she mean the man literally picked her up as in slinging her over his shoulder?

I've been trying to visualize that myself, it's not working.

 

[Cubby]

She has bad insomnia and she's up at all hours. I really hope her parents have eyes on her at all times because she has depression and has mentioned suicide. I'd post the suicide tweet, but there is someone else in it and I don't know how not to embed a tweet. You can find it if you scroll thru a few tweets using this search

https://twitter.com/search?q=%40carleeenichole%20forreal&src=typed_query

I think that was someone replying to her who mentioned suicide, not CR mentioning suicide.

 

[Mrspratcher]

https://twitter.com/x/status/345041107316535296