Woman missing after reporting seeing a toddler on the highway

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think the brother's gf made up the story about talking with Carlee and her allegedly saying she say a kid wandering at the time of the incident. I bet cell phone records verified there was no call ever made.

If Carlee wanted to hookup and meet this online dude or make a drug deal with him or whatever, why not drive to the Red Roof Inn directly instad of doing a meet & greet on the shoulder of a highway?

But didn’t Carlee report that to 911? That was why the cops showed up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Theory from Reddit

"Carlee planned to party with some friends over the weekend which included a new guy she met online. Carlee would eventually meet him on the side of the express way, ditched her vehicle as well as her belongings, got into a grey sedan with this mystery guy and ended up at the Red Roof partying with a group of people.

The Red Roof manager noticed Carlee as one of the people in the group and alerted the police. Carlee and the mystery man left the Red Roof soon after and a nearby doorbell camera spotted Carlee getting dropped off around the block from her home shortly before arriving back home. (Allegedly)

An alleged person who was with her posted a comment on a video stating that Carlee is going to state she had a mental breakdown and that she was wandering around for 2 days.

This is just what the streets are saying. Y’all think it’s true?"

This seems plausible. Obviously, there was no toddler, so she either hallucinated that or just made it up. Which is pretty messed up, so I hope she was having some kind of lapse in judgement.

It’s not “obvious” there was “no toddler”.

Uh yeah it is. Otherwise the police would still be looking for this wandering toddler. They obviously don’t believe there was a toddler wandering down the highway.

Unless you work for the Hoover police department, you’re guessing. It’s ok to admit you don’t know everything.

NP. This happens on ALL of these threads. People create these crazy narratives as if they have some special insight - mostly just to trash people. It's disgusting.

[Anonymous]

I’m glad they found her.

[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 don't know. I also don't want to speculate about why the person making the police statement refused to comment on her mental and physical health status, not even a passing comment that she was "perfectly healthy" or something.

But a lot of this doesn't make sense. The tight timeline with police arrival just 3 minutes later but with the wig off, the watch in the purse, no visible signs of her present, etc., doesn't make sense. The timeline but with the trucker eyewitness story doesn't make sense. It's all extraordinarily shocking to hear about at first, but the details don't add up in any parsable way.

I don't know. People will have to wait and see. I hope she's okay, apart from how it happened. Whatever happened, if she is safe somewhere, then the rest can be sorted out with whatever justice to anyone that harmed her.

I don’t understand you people who think she staged this. How in the hell would she have gotten away? On foot? No one’s seen her since?

This was not staged, FFS.

Still so sure, PP?

I’m not sure of anything at this point. Even if staged (which I hope not), I’m glad she’s alive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

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 don't know. I also don't want to speculate about why the person making the police statement refused to comment on her mental and physical health status, not even a passing comment that she was "perfectly healthy" or something.

But a lot of this doesn't make sense. The tight timeline with police arrival just 3 minutes later but with the wig off, the watch in the purse, no visible signs of her present, etc., doesn't make sense. The timeline but with the trucker eyewitness story doesn't make sense. It's all extraordinarily shocking to hear about at first, but the details don't add up in any parsable way.

I don't know. People will have to wait and see. I hope she's okay, apart from how it happened. Whatever happened, if she is safe somewhere, then the rest can be sorted out with whatever justice to anyone that harmed her.

I don’t understand you people who think she staged this. How in the hell would she have gotten away? On foot? No one’s seen her since?

This was not staged, FFS.

Still so sure, PP?

I’m not sure of anything at this point. Even if staged (which I hope not), I’m glad she’s alive.

Me, too. And this is a really rough time for her and her family, whatever the actual cause turns out to be.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think the brother's gf made up the story about talking with Carlee and her allegedly saying she say a kid wandering at the time of the incident. I bet cell phone records verified there was no call ever made.

If Carlee wanted to hookup and meet this online dude or make a drug deal with him or whatever, why not drive to the Red Roof Inn directly instad of doing a meet & greet on the shoulder of a highway?

But didn’t Carlee report that to 911? That was why the cops showed up.

I thought the brother's girlfriend was the one who called 911 on behalf on Carlee since their alleged conversation ended with Carlee screaming.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Theory from Reddit

"Carlee planned to party with some friends over the weekend which included a new guy she met online. Carlee would eventually meet him on the side of the express way, ditched her vehicle as well as her belongings, got into a grey sedan with this mystery guy and ended up at the Red Roof partying with a group of people.

The Red Roof manager noticed Carlee as one of the people in the group and alerted the police. Carlee and the mystery man left the Red Roof soon after and a nearby doorbell camera spotted Carlee getting dropped off around the block from her home shortly before arriving back home. (Allegedly)

An alleged person who was with her posted a comment on a video stating that Carlee is going to state she had a mental breakdown and that she was wandering around for 2 days.

This is just what the streets are saying. Y’all think it’s true?"

This seems plausible. Obviously, there was no toddler, so she either hallucinated that or just made it up. Which is pretty messed up, so I hope she was having some kind of lapse in judgement.

It’s not “obvious” there was “no toddler”.

Uh yeah it is. Otherwise the police would still be looking for this wandering toddler. They obviously don’t believe there was a toddler wandering down the highway.

Unless you work for the Hoover police department, you’re guessing. It’s ok to admit you don’t know everything.

NP. This happens on ALL of these threads. People create these crazy narratives as if they have some special insight - mostly just to trash people. It's disgusting.

There’s no special insight being claimed. It’s just pretty obvious there was no toddler on the side of the road. Except apparently to you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think the brother's gf made up the story about talking with Carlee and her allegedly saying she say a kid wandering at the time of the incident. I bet cell phone records verified there was no call ever made.

If Carlee wanted to hookup and meet this online dude or make a drug deal with him or whatever, why not drive to the Red Roof Inn directly instad of doing a meet & greet on the shoulder of a highway?

But didn’t Carlee report that to 911? That was why the cops showed up.

I thought the brother's girlfriend was the one who called 911 on behalf on Carlee since their alleged conversation ended with Carlee screaming.

Just checked, news reports say she called 911 herself.

[Anonymous]

Why all the posts suddenly so sure this is a hoax? Was that confirmed? The Reddit red roof story was determined to be false.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why all the posts suddenly so sure this is a hoax? Was that confirmed? The Reddit red roof story was determined to be false.

Nope.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why all the posts suddenly so sure this is a hoax? Was that confirmed? The Reddit red roof story was determined to be false.

Because the toddler story doesn’t pass the sniff test. None of it does.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why all the posts suddenly so sure this is a hoax? Was that confirmed? The Reddit red roof story was determined to be false.

Because the toddler story doesn’t pass the sniff test. None of it does.

And because she got “dropped off” at home, and she’s completely fine.

[Anonymous]

I don’t think it was staged. I do think it’s possible she hallucinated a toddler (because law enforcement never found one and they were there minutes later), got out to check on it, saw SOMETHING that scared her and took off running and hid somewhere for a couple days. A paranoid schizophrenic having an episode could easily go through something like this. I wish her well but so relieved she is safe and alive.

[Anonymous]

No, we just have a woman who was released from the UAB ED two hours after being brought in for evaluation, and a police department that has put out a statement that “The first thing is to give Carlee and family a little time to get themselves back together ... I know it’s been a tough experience for them. When we think it’s time to sit down and have a conversation with Carlee and try to get some facts, we’ll do that.”

And you have no investigation ongoing for a missing toddler, nor do you have any direction from the police department to be on the lookout for suspicious activity / a reported description of her abductors / anything at all with any urgency ongoing at that point.

I guess you can take all of that and make of it what you will. I suppose some people are going to make things of it that don't seem supportable at this point to others, but such is life.

Most of all, Chief Derzis is happy that Russell is safe. “Just know that the police department is very happy,” he said. “We wanted her to come home safe and sound - and we’ll hope that’s what happened here. The investigation portion... we’ll get to, but to me the main deal is making sure that she got home safe with her family. And I couldn’t be more excited, and I hope the community feels the same way.”

[Anonymous]

(Sorry, reformatted for clarity)

Anonymous wrote:Why all the posts suddenly so sure this is a hoax? Was that confirmed? The Reddit red roof story was determined to be false.

Anonymous wrote:Nope.

Anonymous wrote:No, we just have a woman who was released from the UAB ED two hours after being brought in for evaluation, and a police department that has put out a statement that “The first thing is to give Carlee and family a little time to get themselves back together ... I know it’s been a tough experience for them. When we think it’s time to sit down and have a conversation with Carlee and try to get some facts, we’ll do that.”

And you have no investigation ongoing for a missing toddler, nor do you have any direction from the police department to be on the lookout for suspicious activity / a reported description of her abductors / anything at all with any urgency ongoing at that point.

I guess you can take all of that and make of it what you will. I suppose some people are going to make things of it that don't seem supportable at this point to others, but such is life.

And the rest from the Hoover police chief statement, which seems particularly appropriate:

Most of all, Chief Derzis is happy that Russell is safe. “Just know that the police department is very happy,” he said. “We wanted her to come home safe and sound - and we’ll hope that’s what happened here. The investigation portion... we’ll get to, but to me the main deal is making sure that she got home safe with her family. And I couldn’t be more excited, and I hope the community feels the same way.”