Woman missing after reporting seeing a toddler on the highway

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know a PP posted about the problem of abductions and attempted abductions of Black girls and young women, which is an incredibly underreported problem -- but is there any other case where someone disappears in 3-4 minutes, lured off the road by a toddler?

Is there any other case like this at all? Those stories seem to be about very different cases than this.

PS: I've found this one.

https://www.wlbt.com/story/38328400/charges-pending-for-woman-who-fabricated-story-about-natchez-trace-attack/

The woman who made claims about being attacked by two men on the Natchez Trace admitted to fabricating the entire event.

Kannaya Jackson of Lexington, contacted the Natchez Trace Parkway (Parkway) Communications Center, to report that she had been assaulted by two people when she stopped to check baby carrier in the road.
...
Charges are pending against Jackson for making a false report.

Not that a carseat is the same as a toddler, but I'm trying to figure out if this is actually type of lure in use for kidnapping, and I'm reading a lot of references to a debunked TikTok. This is from a Rolling Stone article:

Megan Cutter, director of the National Human Trafficking Hotline, which is operated by Polaris, says that the hotline has received “quite a few” tips based off Parker’s TikTok from just within the last 24 hours. “People are calling and repeating the same information from the TikTok, because thats what the post requested they do,” she says. “It can be challenging because we’re continuing to spend time and resources responding to that, rather than to survivors calling to get help.” Cutter says traffickers placing car seats to lure victims “isn’t a pattern we are aware of or have heard from survivors.”

https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/sex-traffickers-carseats-tiktok-rumor-1242263/

And then there is this:

Do Criminal Gangs Place Baby Seats On Road To Lure Victims? Fact Check

Such viral warnings about the latest or trending methods used by criminals to attack vulnerable females are a dime a dozen on social media. And while social media can be used to propagate useful safety themed information it can also be used to spread nonsensical scarelore, like this.

This particular claim has been spreading online since at least 2009 when, as if often the case, it was shared by an employee of the Tennessee Department of Corrections who apparently did not deduce that the warning was not based on any genuine threat.
...
We’ve not turned up a single real-life case of criminals using baby car seats to coax motorists into stopping. Despite the popularity of these warnings, there have been no incidents that we’re aware of that match this description.

https://www.thatsnonsense.com/do-criminals-place-baby-car-seats-on-the-road-to-lure-victims/

But that's from 2016. Might life be imitating fiction? Does anyone know of any real cases?

This is from 2021:

Social media baby car seat hoax triggers panic in parking lots

Maybe you’ve seen the Facebook posts or TikTok videos claiming empty baby car seats are being used to lure women into sex trafficking.

The claims are going viral and creating unnecessary concern for both women and law enforcement.
...
The group that runs the National Human Trafficking Hotline has debunked the claims calling them myths.

FGCU Professor Lyn Millner researches cult science and explained many of the people posting and making the claims about the car seats likely have ulterior motives.

https://www.newsbreak.com/news/2416369043235-social-media-baby-car-seat-hoax-triggers-panic-in-parking-lots

Is this really a popular story on TikTok and other social media? I'd never heard of it.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:https://www.al.com/news/2023/07/carlee-russell-what-we-know-today-about-woman-who-vanished-on-i-459-in-hoover.html

Russell is a Black female, 5-feet, 4-inches tall and weighs between 150 and 160 pounds. She was last seen wearing a black shirt, black pants, and white Nike shoes.

She's about average height for a woman and about 150-160 lbs. That's not someone easy to quickly pick up and just whisk away, especially if she were struggling. I mean, maybe? But that brush is thick, and there were police going through the area with K-9 units. If it was a wild animal that moved that fast, there would be signs of the struggle.

I could see it if she walked down into the woods, but it's pretty tight and dense brush down there. Still, if she were chasing a child? But she was on the phone when she screamed, and the traffic background noise remained loud, from the family's public statement. Like, really loud.

I just don't see how ~42 cars (in less than 4 minutes) with headlights on, passing feet away, could miss a struggling 150-160 lb woman, especially with the flashers drawing their attention to look that way. And even if they did miss it, there is only so far you could go in that dense brush. If she were pulled through to a car waiting in the next road over, that vehicle would be caught on someone's Ring camera or other traffic camera. It's a pretty well-to-do residential area.

Reddit is reporting that there is an 8 foot diameter drainage pipe that runs under the freeway at this exact point. She have been dragged through the tunnel to the other side of the highway (or run through by her own volition).

Meaning she fell???

Why would anyone abduct her I think fell is most likely.

If she fell, where is she now? They have combed that whole area with police, dogs, and volunteers.

Maybe she feel and passed out. Woke up later walked toward the highway and was hit. She wouldn’t be in the area they would have to expand the search area

The police arrived three minutes later. Wouldn’t they have seen her if she fell?

I thought they were implying that she fell into the drainage pipe or a deep hole near it. If she traversed the drainage pipe, looking for a way out or was knocked unconscious by a fall or drowned inside it, there wouldn’t have been anything to see or hear.

They have combed the area for miles around, including the length of the drainage pipe. There is no water in it and no recent rain. No holes in the ground found, either. So she happened to slip and fall into a hole that is neither visible nor can be scented by rescue dogs, or she lost her memory from the fall, traversed the pipe, and is wandering in a residential area without her memory but not being seen or noticed by anybody?

I'm trying to see any way this fits.

Yeah but I have seen plenty of stories of how they do searches with dogs and find nothing. Then months even years later the person is going literally steps from where they disappeared

Those cases are in extremely dense woods (like the missing Appalachian trail hiker) in the middle of nowhere, not an area like this.

[Anonymous]

Any new news????

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:https://www.al.com/news/2023/07/carlee-russell-what-we-know-today-about-woman-who-vanished-on-i-459-in-hoover.html

Russell is a Black female, 5-feet, 4-inches tall and weighs between 150 and 160 pounds. She was last seen wearing a black shirt, black pants, and white Nike shoes.

She's about average height for a woman and about 150-160 lbs. That's not someone easy to quickly pick up and just whisk away, especially if she were struggling. I mean, maybe? But that brush is thick, and there were police going through the area with K-9 units. If it was a wild animal that moved that fast, there would be signs of the struggle.

I could see it if she walked down into the woods, but it's pretty tight and dense brush down there. Still, if she were chasing a child? But she was on the phone when she screamed, and the traffic background noise remained loud, from the family's public statement. Like, really loud.

I just don't see how ~42 cars (in less than 4 minutes) with headlights on, passing feet away, could miss a struggling 150-160 lb woman, especially with the flashers drawing their attention to look that way. And even if they did miss it, there is only so far you could go in that dense brush. If she were pulled through to a car waiting in the next road over, that vehicle would be caught on someone's Ring camera or other traffic camera. It's a pretty well-to-do residential area.

150-160 pounds at 5’4” is not the whale you seem to think. 😒

Yes, she could have been easily pulled into the woods by a grown man.

I truly hope she faked this for her sake (to be alive), but this looks really grim. Based on what her family is saying and her history, that seems to far-fetched.

[Anonymous]

Reddit has good sleuthing

[Anonymous]

It just wouldn't be easy, PP. That doesn't mean she's a whale, just that we're not talking about a 35 pound child that someone can sling around more easily. There would be a struggle, or she would be drugged and dead weight. It is NOT easy to move someone who is totally unconscious at that weight.

(Does not mean it is whale weight. Means that it is 150-160 lbs of weight.)

Fingers crossed for a good outcome.

[Anonymous]

I wonder if what was heard on the phone happened earlier - she pulled over a first time, asked the child or person if they were okay, got hit over the head or whatever, and the perpetrator is the one driving further down the road with the flashers on and getting out of the car and going back into the woods to get away. Everyone might be looking to see what happened at this location, when the bad thing happened a bit behind.

[Anonymous]

This reminds me of Nicola Bulley in England. Sadly she was found about 3 weeks later deceased in the nearby river. But they still haven’t released cause of death. The timeline for her disappearance was really tight too and no obvious theories have emerged.

The fact that Carlee was on her way home with takeout for her and her mom to me just really negates any chance she left willingly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wonder if what was heard on the phone happened earlier - she pulled over a first time, asked the child or person if they were okay, got hit over the head or whatever, and the perpetrator is the one driving further down the road with the flashers on and getting out of the car and going back into the woods to get away. Everyone might be looking to see what happened at this location, when the bad thing happened a bit behind.

Oh interesting! That would explain the extended hazard lights. The perp was maybe looking for the “right” place to stop to escape?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:People don’t just vanish without a trace. You all act like this woman pulled a Jason Bourne or something. Someone took her.

I’m the early PP saying it’s a runaway. Still think it is.

She didn’t vanish without a trace. She left a car full of stuff and was on the phone.

The toddler wasn’t heard on the phone, but she was making a big stink to say “are you ok?” And then screamed but the other side of the line didn’t hear anything else.

75% chance runaway.

She goes and turns around and no one else on the Highway spots this kid? No other witnesses see a kid? Come on.

[Anonymous]

This video (that a PP posted earlier) is the best one to watch because it shows the entire event from when she stops to when the police arrive.

https://www.wsfa.com/video/2023/07/15/video-traffic-camera-video-i-459-time-carlee-nichole-russells-disappearance/

You can see her stop, open the car door, and walk behind the car to the passenger side. This makes me wonder if she said, “Are you OK” before she got out of the car or once she got to the other side of the car (assuming she rolled the passenger-side window down enabling the person on the phone to hear).

It’s sooo grainy, but you can see something going on at the passenger side of the car. Man, whatever happened was damn fast.

Also, there was no freaking second car anywhere. This was an animal or a person (or persons) doing something nefarious on the side of the highway.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wonder if what was heard on the phone happened earlier - she pulled over a first time, asked the child or person if they were okay, got hit over the head or whatever, and the perpetrator is the one driving further down the road with the flashers on and getting out of the car and going back into the woods to get away. Everyone might be looking to see what happened at this location, when the bad thing happened a bit behind.

Oh interesting! That would explain the extended hazard lights. The perp was maybe looking for the “right” place to stop to escape?

Not buying it. Using flashers while in the process of committing a crime—having likely just committed a murder. No way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People don’t just vanish without a trace. You all act like this woman pulled a Jason Bourne or something. Someone took her.

I’m the early PP saying it’s a runaway. Still think it is.

She didn’t vanish without a trace. She left a car full of stuff and was on the phone.

The toddler wasn’t heard on the phone, but she was making a big stink to say “are you ok?” And then screamed but the other side of the line didn’t hear anything else.

75% chance runaway.

She goes and turns around and no one else on the Highway spots this kid? No other witnesses see a kid? Come on.

So why pick up the takeout?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This reminds me of Nicola Bulley in England. Sadly she was found about 3 weeks later deceased in the nearby river. But they still haven’t released cause of death. The timeline for her disappearance was really tight too and no obvious theories have emerged.

The fact that Carlee was on her way home with takeout for her and her mom to me just really negates any chance she left willingly.

They have said it was an accidental fall/drowning in cold water. This kind of situation is how most of these situations end up, not a random kidnapping but the fire that is fueled during these investigations lead us to think it is far more common than it is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People don’t just vanish without a trace. You all act like this woman pulled a Jason Bourne or something. Someone took her.

I’m the early PP saying it’s a runaway. Still think it is.

She didn’t vanish without a trace. She left a car full of stuff and was on the phone.

The toddler wasn’t heard on the phone, but she was making a big stink to say “are you ok?” And then screamed but the other side of the line didn’t hear anything else.

75% chance runaway.

She goes and turns around and no one else on the Highway spots this kid? No other witnesses see a kid? Come on.

So why pick up the takeout?

What was your assumption when you read that she picked up takeout?