Woman missing after reporting seeing a toddler on the highway

[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.

The inquest was a week or two ago and her cause of death was drowning. The coroner said she became incapacitated almost immediately after falling into very cold water which caused a gasp response and drowning.

The coroner said there was no indication of suicide. However, as everyone knows Nicola was struggling with perimenopausal depression and anxiety and had become dependent on alcohol. Testimony at the inquest was that she had also made a number of ‘throw away’ remarks about suicide just a few weeks before during a bad spell. Her partner and others testified that she had gotten better before her death, but that is very common of suicides to seem better just before taking their lives - the relief of having the end in sight.

My feeling is that the coroner ruled as he did for the sake of her family. I get that feeling based on my own experience working on death determinations with the coroner when I was a county attorney. If there was any uncertainty as to whether a death was suicide we left it as accidental, so basically anything without a note even if there was other strong evidence of depression and suicidal ideation near to the time of the death.

[Anonymous]

You fools are dreaming this was straight up human trafficking

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

At 1:49/1:50 you can see a person a few steps ahead of the passenger side of the car. They might be disposing of something or walking from the woods. It’s difficult to tell, but it looks like they are walking toward the car.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Reddit has good sleuthing

The Reddit Bureau of Investigation identifies a lot of things for celebs.

[Anonymous]

The police need to just heavily focus on a 5 mile radius around the crime scene.

It seems like the majority of heinous crimes, missing women, and dead bodies are almost always discovered nearby.

[Anonymous]

I wonder if she stumbled upon another crime in progress, and they killed her to keep her quiet. I hope she's alive.😞

[Anonymous]

Maybe she’s taking her to summer camp?

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:it really makes no sense that a bad person would use a child to trap a random female passerbye. The odds are overwhelming that a man or even an police officer would have been the one to stop help the kid. What would the bad person do then? Ah, "nothing going on here officer. Just lost my toddler in the woods adjacent to a freeway"

I've read elsewhere that maybe she just unfortunately stumbled upon a trafficked child or some other criminal activity and thus had to be "removed" because she was a witness.

This is such a freaky case.

I was buying the trap theory, but you’re right, PP. It doesn’t seem logical.

I guess she ran into something bad and was attacked as a result. I still think she saw a child, so was a child being abused or something?

I agree this makes more sense.

Eh but no other motorists reported a child. No traffic cams picked up movement other than cars and, allegedly, her car on the shoulder. (and not the perpetrators car either).

So no perpetrator's car? Are there houses nearby? A deep culvert or drainage area for someone creepy to hide/live in?

No other motorists reported a child, but her family member on the phone said they heard Carlee ask “are you okay?” Assuming she wasn’t on drugs/hallucinating, it seems like there really was a child she was talking to.

It’s possible a child escaped a trafficking endeavor and she came across it. That would be my best guess. It’s not completely unbelievable that no one else saw the child since it was a highway at night. I know I’m not always paying attention to the side of the roadway. Other drivers could have been paying attention to all the cars around them, their passengers, the radio, etc. and at night a small child on the side of the road isn’t necessarily going to be super easy to spot. Ugh my stomach is in knots over this, I cannot imagine what her friends and family are going through. She looks like a sweet girl. Nursing student willing to stop for a child, so she’s likely a caring person. This is so unfair.

I can’t figure drugs into the timeline she’s leaving work, getting dinner, doing hallucinatory drugs and driving home one exit away from her own? It wouldn’t make sense to do the drugs before getting home. Are people thinking she was doing hallucinogenic drugs at work? It was in her food?

Her being one exit away, with her exit visible makes me think she was that close to home.

Not PP, but when I first heard the details I thought one possible explanation could be that she was having a mental break and imagined/hallucinated that she saw a child, then went off into the woods on her own. I think the only other possibilities are that she stumbled onto a dangerous situation and was abducted, or that this is staged. Of those three possibilities it seems most likely she was abducted.

I didn't see that anyone else has been this blunt, but I've wondered this, too. The items she usually wore being neatly tucked away in her purse, even moreso than the happenstance of being on the phone. I don't know. I actually hope it was staged, because that would mean she was safe.

Why would anyone stage this? Not saying it’s out of the question (and it would make sense as to how she was able to pull over vs. driving past and needing to turn around). But I don’t know why anyone would do this? Fake abduction to get money? Attention? Maybe. But it seems so out there. This whole thing is weird.

I mean it's happened before. Fake a crime to get money or to cover up a crime.
Not saying that is what happened here.
I think we don't have enough info to be sure one way or another.

Good point. People are motivated to do strange things. I actually hope it’s just some sort of mental break because that means she may be found safe and can get some help. The alternative is just so horrific to speculate on.

If it's a mental break, her coworkers and family would have noticed something that day. And maybe they did, but that info isn't being released. However, even if she was having a mental break, she would be somewhere. She couldn't have wandered far.

[Anonymous]

Did she know anyone in that neighborhood of homes? I think she ran away/staged a disappearance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is not adding up based on that video. She didn’t see a toddler at all or else she would not have slowly rolled down the shoulder so far. She is having some sort of mental issue. You guys are just too much with your fantastical scenarios about criminals using a toddler to lure a random woman. Get a grip. That is not a thing.

It makes sense if she had circled back around.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

At 1:49/1:50 you can see a person a few steps ahead of the passenger side of the car. They might be disposing of something or walking from the woods. It’s difficult to tell, but it looks like they are walking toward the car.

If you pause the video at 59 seconds when the hazards blink off, it looks like there are three people. Someone in front of car—presumably Carlee, a person near the rear of the passenger side, and someone a few steps to the right of vehicle.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The police need to just heavily focus on a 5 mile radius around the crime scene.

It seems like the majority of heinous crimes, missing women, and dead bodies are almost always discovered nearby.

This is the lineup of the LEO vehicles involved in the search parties at and around the disappearance site:

https://twitter.com/loganwadams/status/1679866623610462210?s=20

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

At 1:49/1:50 you can see a person a few steps ahead of the passenger side of the car. They might be disposing of something or walking from the woods. It’s difficult to tell, but it looks like they are walking toward the car.

If you pause the video at 59 seconds when the hazards blink off, it looks like there are three people. Someone in front of car—presumably Carlee, a person near the rear of the passenger side, and someone a few steps to the right of vehicle.

I don’t see it.

:59 is a second or two after she gets out and walks behind her car. To me, it looks like she’s standing at the passenger side of her car. That’s said, I could entertain that someone else opened her driver-side door to force her out.

The weird thing about this moment is that there are 5 cars approaching with headlights on whatever is happening. It’s hard to believe the drivers saw nothing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

At 1:49/1:50 you can see a person a few steps ahead of the passenger side of the car. They might be disposing of something or walking from the woods. It’s difficult to tell, but it looks like they are walking toward the car.

If you pause the video at 59 seconds when the hazards blink off, it looks like there are three people. Someone in front of car—presumably Carlee, a person near the rear of the passenger side, and someone a few steps to the right of vehicle.

I don’t see it.

:59 is a second or two after she gets out and walks behind her car. To me, it looks like she’s standing at the passenger side of her car. That’s said, I could entertain that someone else opened her driver-side door to force her out.

The weird thing about this moment is that there are 5 cars approaching with headlights on whatever is happening. It’s hard to believe the drivers saw nothing.

Looked again and it’s only two people. The person at the back of the car is not Carlee. She gets out of the driver side and walks to to the front (assuming she was the person driving). There is something to the right of the vehicle that looks like it could be a person but it’s still there past the three minute mark so it’s a stationary object.

[Anonymous]

I think she put her phone and watch in the car after going to passenger side. There’s nobody else in that video but her. Sadly, I think she had a mental break. Hoping she’s found alive. Feel bad for her poor mother.