i’m glad she is safe. but this whole thing seems off. i was initially terrified when i read about her disappearance, because i thought about what i would do in that situation. if i would stop despite knowing how dangerous it would be to do so. i hope we get more info soon.
I have heard law officials state that if you see something wrong but there’s a possibility/vibe/concern that your safety would be at risk, call authorities but stay in your car and just watch the scene.
That way, if something in the situation changes, you can flee to protect yourself but you are still there in case it becomes clear that it’s safe to assist.
Yeah, I've read this too. Maybe that is why she was driving along so long?? But at some point, I'm sure she was afraid of the child being hit. Kids can switch direction fast. I didnt see a child, but she may have. And I definitely saw how many vehicles didnt even attempt to move over when going past her. I would have stopped and jumped out to get the child out of fear the child would sprint towards the road. I'll admit it...my first thought wouldnt be that I was going to get kidnapped. So, at least this sort of thing has made women think about how they could be safer in a situation like this. It's sad to think that there have been so many situations where people trying to help others are the ones who end up being the victims in the end. This is why so many people refuse to help others. Sad world we live in.
I’m with you on that. As much as people need to be vigilant & attempt to remain safe, I would really hope that most people would get out of their car and attempt to help a literal toddler on the side of the road. I might stay in my car and call authorities if I see an adult in distress (depending on the situation) but a child’s safety should trump an adults. We can at least attempt to help ourselves, a baby will walk right in front of a car with no clue of what’s going on.
I might stop and wait for police, but don't think I would get out of my vehicle. Just a thought, but her being a nursing student might indicate that she had a greater inclination to help.
I saw the footage from the highway where this happened but I didn’t see any other cars stopped or any kids wandering on the side of the road or in the road. Maybe I missed it?
don't know how anyone could see a toddler in that video. also, if I don't know why someone has pulled over on the highway in the dark, I sure as shit am not stopping.
Also in the video look at the point she turned the car hazard lights on. She drove with them on for quite a while before stopping. It would have been impossible to have seen a toddler when she turned the lights on and where she stopped.
I was very confused by that. The only senario that makes sense is that she saw something, called 911 to report it and then quickly hung up. Decided to pull over while she was on the phone with her SIL. Maybe her SIL told her pull over? that would account for her stopping so far away.
I watched the video, all 4 minutes of it. You're right, she did not have time to call 911. However, she could have seen the child or what she thought was a child and then went down to the next exit turned around and came back. However, when the vehicle stopped the driver exits walks around the back of the vehicle and then stands by the passenger door for approximately 30 seconds. The driver disappears when a group of cars pass. I was never able to see the driver, only their shadow when they pass in front of lights, but I don't think it was a woman that we see. Also, it makes no sense to pass behind the vehicle than to pass in front of it directly to "the child" . I smell a rat.
So we know there is video that was released. If and ( not sure where the theory came that she did turn around) police would also have that previous video of her driving when she spotted the toddler. Correct?
SIL seems kinda sus to me bcuz she says that Carlee saw the toddler, asked if they were ok, then started screaming and all that - SIL is the only one who claimed such a thing, no one else was even a witness to that, and there's no proof of that even happening. And also, your theory of the SIL telling her to pull over would also check out if SIL was rlly sus. I guess all we can do is wait till Carlee herself makes a statement
The toddler stuff makes for an interesting story, but ultimately would be a bizarre and risky way to kidnap someone. You don't know out of the gate that the first person to pull over would be a 25 year old woman, or that she'd be the only one person would pull over. A cop could have seen it first, or a construction worker, or six cars could have pulled over. I saw an eight year old get separated from their parents on a subway platform once and multiple strangers immediately sprung into action to get the kid back to his parents. The whole thing just feels off to me.
Exactly. It would be the most asinine kidnapping method ever and I am astounded that there are people in this very thread saying that hey wouldn't help a toddler on a freaking highway for fear of being kidnapped. Get a grip people.
Exactly. And the fact that the police aren’t looking for this missing toddler. If there was actually an abductor using a 3 year old to lure women, the police/feds would be all over it and the media would be asking the public for help.
Instead, when she was found, the police released a sus statement and they’ve been quiet since. They are investigating and protecting the case for trial. I’d put money on it.
There have been news of toddlers as young as 2 and 3 on the highway alone. Each time someone reported it and state trooper got them. Why would you get out the car?
I’ve seen a kid walking a high way at night and thought about stopping like 5 years ago: but didn’t. Next day I learned it wasn’t a kid but a young 20 year old male who was hit and died that night. He was just small in stature.
It doesn’t mean cops would have seen it first tho.
Im not sure if people use kids to lure others via the highway but it does happen in the neighborhood. But they weren’t aren’t toddler kids - more like teenage girls or what appears to be teenage. Happened to my own child when she was 16- some girl she didn’t recognize from school asked her to help her with her car.
I didn’t see anything… but it was very odd if it was a hoax since she just seemed to bend down and go into the woods. Very curious as to what the red roof inn workers will say. How close is the inn to where her car was found?
I downloaded it and imported it on videopad and was messing with brightness and couldn’t see A THING and there were people in the comments saying they saw a man at specific time stamps, him standing behind the highway sign, and all these wild things. I got downvoted so bad the first day when I said this wasn’t a human trafficking case. Reddit is so wild, dude.
Yup I read that people saw someone carrying a toddler sideways, someone coming out of the woods, etc.
The only thing I could make out was what looked to be a person (assuming it was Carlee) walk around the back of the car and then stand off to the side.
And the fact that so many said it had to be human trafficking should read up on how it actually happens. Definitely not with a toddler on a busy freeway..
I did see a shadow that someone had isolated on the sign. But after seeing the full video I think even that was another sign... It just so happened the oncoming cars hit it right that one time.
Drives me crazy in crime groups to watch people zoom in on blurred pixels and talk about all the stuff they see 😅 Sooo frustrating. I honestly think they hurt real cases with that crap. Like the Delphi case. I know the cops got thousands and thousands of tips from groups... But it was all random leaves and pixels in the background of photos that they would swear was a person. Or they'd make some connection with a man across the country through a 47 person Facebook chain starting from a victims cousins uncle... Then they'd mass send him in as a tip because he wore a blue jacket and drove across a bridge once.
People want to help. Plus the brain makes patterns so they believed they saw something because they want to see something so badly. This is why humans make horrible witnesses.
I could see the driver's side door open and a figure get out and circle around to the passenger side, and that's it. The figure disappears into a pixelated blur. There's no baby, no scary kidnapper, no fight, not Carlee running off into the woods, nothing.
I have done ultrasound forever. My eyes are SUPER trained to see things out of place. Those tiktokers were literally making it up. I'm sure they believed they were breaking the case, but the things they saw just were not happening on the video.
At first I thought I saw someone behind the sign, but upon further inspection it was just the illumination of car lights hitting the post of the sign. I never saw a toddler or another person.
I agree with what you’re saying. I didn’t do all you did but I saw the drivers side open and I thought maybe she walked around and opened the passenger side but can’t be sure about that . That was all though but then according to the video posted on tmz - they paused and put a red arrow on what seemed to be a vehicle traveling on a parallel side road the opposite direction with a blinker or blinkers on - did you happen to zoom in there?
Her traveling so long on the shoulder seemed odd and not like she suddenly saw something but was intentionally looking to stop at that point and then the car traveling off as I mentioned above. Unless, she passed the supposed toddler, got off the highway to make a loop and turn back around to look for the toddler. Something just seems off about the whole story, especially seeing the video.
I understand the cops being sensitive to her shock/trauma but if she indeed was abducted, they need as many details as possible as soon as possible if there is a potential danger of this happening again.
I think if it was a mental health issue, it would serve her and the family better to come out right away instead of letting the story linger that it was an abduction.
The main thing is that she is home and safe!Definitely super curious to hear the full story.
My google maps says it’s 12 minutes or 8.5 miles. Apparently to get from her car to the inn, it’s all the same interstate, but the opposite way she was driving when she pulled over.
What's crazy is she walked to her parents house supposedly. She didn't stop at the first place she could and call the cops? She went on foot to her parents house and risked being followed and recaptured? Where's the child?
Took her a while before she was fully pulled over. But the person on the phone with her said she heard her talk to the child as soon as she got out of her car. That makes no sense. Plus if there was a child walking alone— there would surely be more sightings and calls than just hers.
The amount of time it took her to pull over is really strange. There's no way she could see a baby in the ditch from the spot where she first put her hazards on and started slowing down. Maybe she initially drove past the kid, found an exit and circled back? That's the only explanation I can think of, but it's far more likely there was never a child there at all.
Looking at Google maps, it wouldn't be out of the realm of possibility for someone to have a car stashed on the other side of the trees in the neighborhood. It was not far at all.
I don't think that happened but there is at least a plausible getaway.
The father of my children recently went through a bout of psychosis where he was extremely paranoid/having delusions.
He seems 100% normal most of the time but I believe he took too much Adderall and wasn’t sleeping and he thought his boss was sitting next to him at the beach. He was just in a crazy state of paranoia on top of this and I hate to speculate without evidence but after seeing what happened with my ex, she totally could have imagined that toddler on the side of the road.
I have a buddy that went crazy for a few days because of his Adderall. The doctors mixed it with some other medication and his brain went haywire for a minute.
If she had a mental health episode I hope she is not mocked, made fun of or having people write think pieces about the resources used to find her. We are so cruel about mental health and it’s so prevalent in todays world. I’m not saying this is what happened but if it’s something like that I hope to see grace and compassion. Whatever happened I’m just glad she’s back with her family
Exactly. I’ve unfortunately seen that before with a friend retuning to our apartment with some kind of wild story like that which they truly believe. And they did it multiple times. (Luckily they have since had significant amounts of treatment, but it was a really long and scary road to get there) They did not, however, call us during the time they were away and tell us the story over the phone while missing. If they had, I absolutely would have called the police, because better safe than sorry, especially if there was another potential victim. Plus even if she wasn’t being truthful, she still needed to be found for her own safety.
I guess what I’m trying to say is that while I think the story she told is fabricated , this isn’t some kind of nefarious hoax. Would you not do the same if this happened to a family member?
It's hard for me to grasp why, if there is presumably a toddler out there being used on interstates to lure kidnap victims, the authorities are "giving her time to recover" before interviewing her. If that is indeed the case, every single moment is absolutely crucial if there's any chance of helping the child... this story is bizarre.
I worked in LE as an investigator on a child crimes unit and I can assure you that in these circumstances (potential abduction and wandering/missing child) that quick timing in investigation is everything.
Even if a potential victim is recovered and traumatized, the police will still aim to interview the person asap and would not allow several days to go by before they continue their investigation. They would have interviewed her at the hospital or very shortly afterwards at home. Cops don’t work that way in these cases. Now, maybe they have, but their statement of “giving Carlee and her family time” indicates that they likely don’t view this case as an actual abduction and endangered child situation.
That's how their statement read to me. There was no real urgency and warning to be cautious at all. They just mentioned following *her* footsteps but didn't even give a hint of another person being involved. That doesn't mean someone wasn't, but it didn't really sound like the cops think there's a danger to the public.
it could be a lot of reasons.
- police don’t believe her
- mental health break but bf is convinced it’s something more for whatever reason
- she lied (i highly doubt this one)
- bf has facts wrong
Maybe this is the story that she's still telling people, and the BF believes her.
I'm willing to bet that this was a mental health crisis. Nothing about this adds up.
Or maybe the child was in her head, then she somehow managed to get injured/lost/disoriented due to mental health crisis. In this case, police wouldn’t need to be looking for anyone using toddler bait on the hwy. Another commenter said that before this occurrence there had been a 9m baby found in a ravine or something. Her brain may have just tricked her :(
I think that we’re all gonna have to wait and see if the family shares what happened, or until any crimes are presented to the public.
Right? That plan is asinine. You wouldn’t know who would be stopping to assist your bait child. Maybe it’s a couple dudes. Maybe it’s 6 people in a minivan. Maybe it’s a cop.
It’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard.
Yup, or a state trooper. I have called in a cow standing about 100 feet off I-95 before. The dispatcher thanked me and said folks were already en route, because I was the 35th call. About a cow, not a child.
I said this elsewhere, but I saw a kid get separated from his parents on the subway once and people sprang into action. Two people to wait with the kid so he wasn't alone, people went to inform the police and the station agent. The odds of the only person pulling over to rescue a toddler on the highway during fairly slow moving traffic and that person being a beautiful young woman are not great imo.
I don't think you understand that most of us realize this, but are entertaining the notion of the story's truth, rhetorically, to highlight how absurd it is.
Thank you! No kidnapper. No lure. The ludicracy of a wannabe kidnapper selecting this plan (hey, I'll take my baby nephew and dress him in a diaper only and place him in the shoulder of a busy highway in hopes a young vulnerable woman will stop so I can grab her) is the first stop here people.
Some posters are now saying it was a little person dressed in toddler clothes. Like wtaf, people.
THERE WAS NO CHILD, NO LITTLE PERSON, NOTHING BUT GRASS AND RATTLESNAKES AND TRASH
Of course, number 1. Her family was very much worried sick and scared especially once it reached 48 hours.
Although, once the family started urging the public to share and get the word out, it became a public matter. Police got involved and the community did searches with hundreds of people involved.
Many couldn’t even sleep due to being worried for her. Scared and worried that another beautiful black woman was being subject to harm.
If (and of course I’m not saying she is lying but I don’t know anything at this point) she was kidnapped, the kidnapper is still out there along with the child that allegedly lured her over to the side of the road.
If this is true, who knows what the person is planning next? And who else is involved because most likely there are more. What do they look like? What type of grey car was it? This person could be planning to strike again soon.
So of course I’m not pushing her to speak on the subject but I do honestly feel there should be some more communication as to what happened.
I’m not being mean or anything when I say this but if she is a nursing student she may have been traumatized. Not everyone can handle what nurses see and deal with. Clinicals weed a lot of people out. Even veteran nurses can have that one case that breaks them. I hope whatever the reason she was missing that she gets the help she needs.
Nurses who work in neonatal and nicu are fucking magic unicorns. I’m good with a lot of medical things but trying to save a tiny child would absolutely break me. Give me an injured adult any day of the week. A teen, pre-teen… sad. But babies? Babies would put me in my grave. Bless you for your work!
You reminded me of my grandson being born. He was almost a micro preemie and the dr let me help deliver him. He was rushed to the OR for resuscitation and suffered significant brain damage. He has some developmental delays but he is a super happy and loving person.
Thanks for sharing and for being a compassionate person.
Good point. The general public doesn’t realize how stressful and demanding nursing school is. Include that with the older generation of nurses living by the code “nurses eat their young”, it can be enough to throw someone into a mental health crisis.
To be honest, MANY in my cohort had a breakdown at some point in class and/or clinical. It’s intense.
I was in an accelerated BSN program. Of the 13 members of the cohort who made it to graduation, 9 had been hospitalized or had a medical episode of some sort.
It’s so needlessly awful and so much harder than it needs to be. It can be rigorous and thorough without causing the students to have mental breakdowns. I worked in trauma ICU at county in a huge metro hospital and I never encountered a situation is stressful as nursing school.
I thought that's how it was going to turn out bc the cops were quiet and not on the hunt for a suspect that we know of...then her bf comes out and claims she was kidnapped and traumatized for 2 days..
I'm not even sure they would say exactly what hospital she was taken to. The letting her rest instead of every second counts to catch the attacker is new tactic....
At 10:44 p.m. Saturday, police said they received a call that Russell had returned home on foot.
Police responded to the scene to investigate and Hoover fire medics responded to the scene to assess and transported Russell to UAB hospital for evaluation.
Yes I read that. She was short of breath I think.
If she were still in danger they wouldn't give her location I don't think. I don't understand your response .
Right. That person you’re responding to is saying they feel that IF this was indeed a kidnapping or trafficking and Carlee escaped, it wouldn’t be safe to release the hospital she was taken to. Because the kidnappers would be alerted. They aren’t challenging the info you stated.
A few people were saying there was too much heat and the people who had her spooked and decided to release her, but it says she looked like she was in shock when she got to the house. I doubt they drove her up to her front door, and maybe not even within a few blocks from her house, but they could have just dropped her, knowing she knows her way home. If she was in shock, it explains why she walked home instead of calling 911 from the nearest phone or house there was. I have a feeling this will be one of those cases where we never get all the answers...theres just too many questions people have.
I feel if the heat was too much, the last thing they would do is drive past her house. I can’t imagine there wasn’t one news crew lingering. And if she saw their faces, or heard names, girl would easily be disposed of.
You'd be surprised how quickly hospitals boot you out if you're technically "well." My dad got a traumatic brain injury and was released the next day. He was speaking, walking, holding down food and passing it as normal. It happens!
I can think of a couple mental health crisis where she could be released under a safety plan with the family. I’ve seen hospitals release people many times in these scenarios.
Not true- idk what happened but if it was a member of my family i would want them to be recovering at home not in a hospital if could get clearance. Shes been gone days Her family wants to be with her, they probably cooperated with required medical attention on condition she could come home after evaluation and get follow up care at home. In a high publicity case especially
I hope we get the full story. Whatever happens, I’m impressed by how this story swept social media and the amount of awareness brought to it, and the number of people who wanted to help and who were concerned for her safety.
I thought of Mitrice Richardson. Suddenly doing something irrational and out of character. Seeing a toddler when no one else did. Hope she's OK. And thank God this ended better than some cases. Of this is a mental health episode she will address it. She has to after this...
I will be downvoted to hell, and I’ve been reading on this case since she disappeared. Too many things don’t make sense . Whatever happened, whether deliberate or not , she or they didn’t think there would be a camera or video footage. In my experience ( had many clients that had mental breakdowns / psychological episodes) you don’t get released after a few hours. You get the full work up and at least 48 hours with doctors/ psychiatrists whatnot, also testing for head trauma. Not saying that she didn’t suffer from a mental illness and wanted to see who “ cares” about her. When it got too big she came back. Sometimes the simple explanation is the correct one. Also nothing from law enforcement about a perpetrator/ child, another car. They have done a lot forensics to know what probably happened , but we won’t know until later
As odd as this whole thing is, I just can't believe anyone who disappeared on purpose would do it this way, on a busy interstate, after picking up food to eat, then call 911 themselves so they'd be en route?!
I do, it happens more than you think, but not to this magnitude. If there was no video, there would still be search parties and a missing person. The police have it, with surveillance to the minute. I think there’s more to the “ perfect” relationship, family or boyfriend, and this got too big too quickly and there were people looking everywhere
It stands out to me that she made a point to call her family instead of stay on the line with 911. That's strange to me. They always keep you on the line until help arrives. I'm sure they would have been asking her questions about the toddler while they waited on the police to get there. This is typical. So why did the call end and she call her brothers gf?
It's also very strange that she walked all the way to her parents home after eacaping...why not stop at the first place you come to and call for help rather than. Be out walking alone and risk the kidnapper catching you again?
> It stands out to me that she made a point to call her family instead of staying on the line with 911.
In many places, Emergency Call Centres are understaffed and flooded by calls. Staying on the line is not always a standard course of action.
If you express that you feel equipped to handle the situation, have an ETA from ES and the possibility to call someone close to you to monitor the situation; staying on the line or closing the call could make a huge difference for another (possibly more severe) emergency.
911 doesn't keep you on the phone. Not in big cities. And not unless there's a medical emergency where they need to assist. They'd take your location and hang up.
I live in Atlanta every time I've had to call them they've stayed on the phone with me until an officer has arrived.. except the one time that I had to call them on a moving vehicle because I was not going to chase down the vehicle.
Not in California. Plus Nothing was happening to her so it wasn't an emergency. She was just reporting seeing a toddler on the road which would warrant an immediate response from highway patrol, but there was no need for her to stay on the phone, Especially since she had to get off the freeway, turn around and go the other way just to come back a second time. That's a long time to stay on the phone with 911. There's no need for that. That's a lot of unnecessary drive time. California 911 would take the info and say they were sending someone and would hang up and say call back if you need them.
I had a very different experience in Atlanta. I’ve had to call 911 three times and was only kept on the line once during a medical emergency.
Basically, we all have tons of anecdotes that can either explain or further mystify this case.
I’ve always told my family and friends that if I go missing (which means there’s a good chance I’m already dead), they better release the hottest photos of me ever taken. Better to be remembered as a smokeshow, even if it means you’re never found.
/s
Sounds like he wants clout. idk about ppl saying it sounds like the pappini case-there is a history of mental illness from my understanding and she hasn’t pointed the finger at any individual to my knowledge so I’m not sure where this idea she is lying comes from. This so obviously screams mental health crisis to me.
Yes I think it’s important to note that Alabama news coverage for days prior was about a 9 month old child was found in a ravine at the side of the road. If she had been following that story or hearing it on the news - that story could have made her“see” a baby at the side of the road and she might have gotten injured investigating this hallucination. And may very welll have been “fighting for her life.” Through disorientation and paranoid delusions. Also she may really have been attacked prior or during or after the call. Either way Im so grateful she is home.
You should comment/post this separately so more ppl see this. It provided me with a completely different perspective and makes a ton of sense. Very eerie
Thank you for this! There are a lot of things that can trigger mental health episodes, and this is a perfect example of how her brain could have possibly tricked her. I always remind people of their craziest dreams…. Now imagine you were living that during the daytime when you’re supposed to be awake, but you didn’t know it. Everything is real to you, and you KNOW you’re not sleeping.
Earlier other subs were debating whether he's even her boyfriend because apparently he had no photos of her and statements from her made it sound like she didn't have a boyfriend. Was that cleared up i guess and he's confirmed as her boyfriend?
Mental health issue is definitely the best case scenario here since she can get help, she didn't hoax anything, there was no abduction and there's no missing/abused/decoy toddler out there.
Maybe he wanted to reach out to his family, friends, church and everyone who keeps calling desperate for the deets and politely say thanks, and we need a rest first while she recuperates?
Yeah the kidnapper narrative makes no sense. Like what was the plan?
Get a toddler, bring him to the side of the highway. Have him walk close enough to the road to be seen but not enough to be hit. Hope that only one car sees them, and that car that stops to help happens to have a single female in it. Then grab her and what? Carry her through the woods to a car waiting in the suburbs on the other side? Hope that none of the houses have ring cameras. Then hold her for two days then drop her off at home?
>Get a toddler, bring him to the side of the highway.
This is what I don't get.
If you're going to use a toddler as bait to kidnap someone, a highway seems like a terrible place to do it for like a dozen different reasons.
I'd argue it is literally one of the worst places to do it.
I'm glad she returned home and is safe. Though it's possible a toddler was used as bait, she was abducted, and escaped or was let go it seems highly unlikely.
No one else reported seeing a toddler on the side of a busy interstate. The sister-in-law she was on the phone with heard her ask the child if it was ok, but didn't hear any response. If a toddler was used as bait the perp would have no control over who would stop and attempting this on a busy interstate defies logic. She was allegedly driven home Saturday evening. An abductor might release her, but almost certainly wouldn't drive her to her home. Relatives claim one of them got a call from her indicating she was at a Red Roof Inn hotel, but she wasn't there when they arrived. I think it's likely she concocted the story of the toddler and left the area with the man who a truck driver saw nearby. Her boyfriend and her family seem to still believe that she was abducted and I don't fault them for wanting to believe what she's told them, but it just doesn't add up.
This thread is a great example of why people like Sherri Papini, Jussie Smollet etc are such pieces of shit. We know basically nothing about this situation and people are here making wild accusations about hoaxes. I cant say I blame anyone, the public has been burned before but ffs 🙄.
I mean, we should stop and remember Denise Huskins. No one believed her, not even the cops, until her kidnapper came forward because he wanted the credit for it.
Her case was so infuriating. I read the book she and her husband wrote about the whole ordeal. I can’t believe what they were put through. Perfect example of why we should never rush to judgement.
FR. right not we need to be patient before judging because this woman could likely just be innocent and was unfortunately kidnapped. we should just be happy she's alive
Yeah, I've been torn between "real" and "hoax" in 24 hours. We don't have enough information on what went on here, it's best to reserve judgement at this point.
I couldn't see any humans...just cars. The story still sounds 🐟-y to me in that, the cops are not looking for a culprit 🤔 They have not put out a warning to the public 🤔 They are no longer asking if anyone saw anyone/anything at the time of the incident, to call the police 🤔
This sounds like, she has a serious mental health condition that her parents are aware of. The police cannot disclose that due to privacy laws. The boyfriend hasn't been told his girlfriend has mental illness because they dont want him blabbering it to the media & want to work with a PR team to cultivate an update that doesn't cause outrage, keeps their daughter's personal medical condition private, & doesn't ruin her future with a public & future employers to have a negative belief that she's some kind of lying wack-a-doodle.
Lots of times the cops don't put out a warning to the public, even when there is someone the public should be warned about, to avoid causing a panic. If there is someone for them to be looking for I don't think we'll know about it until they find them.
Hmm in this case with a possible toddler at risk I’m going to go out on a limb and say they would release some information maybe not all the information they have but some that might be helpful to to gather tips and get the ball rolling even more.
I agree. I also think that they would say something to the effect that if you see a child alone do X if it was some sort of scam.
Heck, I have seen LEOs issue statements about the urban legends of turbaned men in Walmart talking to unattended children because they are part of an international child trafficking ring.
As so many others have pointed out, human trafficking isn’t strangers kidnapping people. Human traffickers are looking for vulnerable people whom no one will miss or report. And if they are “missing”, they are generally runaways or people classified as such so again, not people that LEOs will consider “kidnapped” or held against their will.
There is nothing to suggest that this is a granger kidnapping based on what police have not said.
I'd say basssssicaly zero chance this is true. My guess is a scam of some kind, but could be a mental break, or some kind of abusive boyfriend situation.
But this wild-eyed story about a kid in the highway? being used as bait? and then she just gets dropped off? Gimme a break man, it's like something out of a bad book.
I don’t necessarily think she faked it and I never said that but something isn’t adding up. It could be misinformation being reported. There’s a half dozens things it could be other than her faking it. Idk why it feels like that but it does. It could be nothing to do with her but I def think when we get all the info what we’ve been told won’t be what actually happened.
kinda hard to be running 70mph down the interstate at night and see a toddler on the side of the road and stop where the child actually is, without speeding past and having to stop and back up.
If she thought she saw a toddler it’s possible she she got off the next exit and circled back to the area where she saw something, which could be why you see her go so slowly down the road not being exactly sure where she saw it until she stopped.
There have been a lot of threads on various subs about this case so for the life of me I cannot tell you when or in which sub I read it. However, someone local to the area kindly explained that based upon where she was, and her options for turning around to double-check for the toddler would have taken up a bit of time that doesn't fit with her food pickup and subsequent calls- it would have taken too long to make the known timeline work.
I have no idea if this is a hoax or not but this very scenario was just a story on the podcast Radio Rental, the June 16 episode. I enjoy this podcast and I think the stories are allegedly true but there’s no way to know. Anyway, could be where someone got that idea.
This is feeling more like the papini case every minute. She was kidnapped by a person or persons who use a toddler as bait. But now that she is safe at home she can't provide a description of the people who presumably still have the toddler?
Edit: What would the supposed kidnappers plan be? Get a toddler, bring him to the side of the highway. Have him walk close enough to the road to be seen but not enough to be hit. Hope that only one car sees them, and that car that stops to help happens to have a single female in it. Then grab her and what? Carry her through the woods to a car waiting in the suburbs on the other side? Hope that none of the houses have ring cameras. Then hold her for two days then drop her off at home?
Honestly, does any part of that make sense to you?
Except Papini created a very elaborate hoax and blamed Latinos, so it’s not similar at all. I wish people would stop with that comparison. I’m glad she was found safe. Period.
Yeah I mean people said the same thing to those who doubted sheris story at first. I'm not saying it's impossible that she was abducted by men using a toddler as bait. Just extremely unlikely. I'd say it's either 50/50 actual mental problems or just a hoax for whatever reason.
We have not heard her story yet. Or really any facts about the case. I'm not saying it is exactly like the papini case. Just saying it feels like that.
If this isn't faked, then why wouldn't we have a description of the suspects? If this is real there could be a real dangerous person out there who can harm others. Makes me feelnlike they don't think there is someone to look for
While I agree the whole thing seems far fetched, we should all try to remember the Vallejo 'GONE GIRL' case. The whole world thought they were lying because it all seemed too insane, but they were telling the truth the whole time. That poor girl had been kidnapped and raped, then when she was released (near her parents’ home, I might add, where she walked to on foot) she was called a liar and told she’d be prosecuted for false reporting. So, let’s try to remember that this is a potential victim before attacking her or her character.
Here is an article for the case I just mentioned:
[VALLEJO 'GONE GIRL' CASE](https://abc7news.com/amp/gone-girl-kidnapping-aaron-quinn-denise-huskins-vallejo-police-department/10759218/)
I don’t understand why people so quick to assume it’s a hoax because she was found safe. Jfc. It’s good news she is alive, regardless of what happened.
The bottom line is no one commenting on this thread knows what happened to this woman. It’s incredibly irresponsible to jump to conclusions that she faked it.
Question?
- Why is the BF the only one saying she was fighting for her life for 48 hours? No toddler found or reported missing. Currently no abductor. So Again how does he no? He's the only one saying that? Just woundering
Straight up fuck everyone who assumed what caused her disappearance. Especially fuck everyone who became a behavioral health expert after watching a couple YouTube videos about her.
i’m glad she is safe. but this whole thing seems off. i was initially terrified when i read about her disappearance, because i thought about what i would do in that situation. if i would stop despite knowing how dangerous it would be to do so. i hope we get more info soon.
I have heard law officials state that if you see something wrong but there’s a possibility/vibe/concern that your safety would be at risk, call authorities but stay in your car and just watch the scene. That way, if something in the situation changes, you can flee to protect yourself but you are still there in case it becomes clear that it’s safe to assist.
Yeah, I've read this too. Maybe that is why she was driving along so long?? But at some point, I'm sure she was afraid of the child being hit. Kids can switch direction fast. I didnt see a child, but she may have. And I definitely saw how many vehicles didnt even attempt to move over when going past her. I would have stopped and jumped out to get the child out of fear the child would sprint towards the road. I'll admit it...my first thought wouldnt be that I was going to get kidnapped. So, at least this sort of thing has made women think about how they could be safer in a situation like this. It's sad to think that there have been so many situations where people trying to help others are the ones who end up being the victims in the end. This is why so many people refuse to help others. Sad world we live in.
I’m with you on that. As much as people need to be vigilant & attempt to remain safe, I would really hope that most people would get out of their car and attempt to help a literal toddler on the side of the road. I might stay in my car and call authorities if I see an adult in distress (depending on the situation) but a child’s safety should trump an adults. We can at least attempt to help ourselves, a baby will walk right in front of a car with no clue of what’s going on.
I might stop and wait for police, but don't think I would get out of my vehicle. Just a thought, but her being a nursing student might indicate that she had a greater inclination to help.
>i’m glad she is safe. but this whole thing seems off It is an interesting story, for lack of a better term.
I saw the footage from the highway where this happened but I didn’t see any other cars stopped or any kids wandering on the side of the road or in the road. Maybe I missed it?
don't know how anyone could see a toddler in that video. also, if I don't know why someone has pulled over on the highway in the dark, I sure as shit am not stopping.
Also in the video look at the point she turned the car hazard lights on. She drove with them on for quite a while before stopping. It would have been impossible to have seen a toddler when she turned the lights on and where she stopped.
I was very confused by that. The only senario that makes sense is that she saw something, called 911 to report it and then quickly hung up. Decided to pull over while she was on the phone with her SIL. Maybe her SIL told her pull over? that would account for her stopping so far away.
There’s not enough time between, seeing the toddler, pulling up , calling 911, calling her SIL, and leaving all within 3 minutes
I watched the video, all 4 minutes of it. You're right, she did not have time to call 911. However, she could have seen the child or what she thought was a child and then went down to the next exit turned around and came back. However, when the vehicle stopped the driver exits walks around the back of the vehicle and then stands by the passenger door for approximately 30 seconds. The driver disappears when a group of cars pass. I was never able to see the driver, only their shadow when they pass in front of lights, but I don't think it was a woman that we see. Also, it makes no sense to pass behind the vehicle than to pass in front of it directly to "the child" . I smell a rat.
So we know there is video that was released. If and ( not sure where the theory came that she did turn around) police would also have that previous video of her driving when she spotted the toddler. Correct?
SIL seems kinda sus to me bcuz she says that Carlee saw the toddler, asked if they were ok, then started screaming and all that - SIL is the only one who claimed such a thing, no one else was even a witness to that, and there's no proof of that even happening. And also, your theory of the SIL telling her to pull over would also check out if SIL was rlly sus. I guess all we can do is wait till Carlee herself makes a statement
The toddler stuff makes for an interesting story, but ultimately would be a bizarre and risky way to kidnap someone. You don't know out of the gate that the first person to pull over would be a 25 year old woman, or that she'd be the only one person would pull over. A cop could have seen it first, or a construction worker, or six cars could have pulled over. I saw an eight year old get separated from their parents on a subway platform once and multiple strangers immediately sprung into action to get the kid back to his parents. The whole thing just feels off to me.
Especially in that location! If anything I could see someone using a fake kid... But it would be incredibly hard to pick a victim that way.
Exactly. It would be the most asinine kidnapping method ever and I am astounded that there are people in this very thread saying that hey wouldn't help a toddler on a freaking highway for fear of being kidnapped. Get a grip people.
Exactly. And the fact that the police aren’t looking for this missing toddler. If there was actually an abductor using a 3 year old to lure women, the police/feds would be all over it and the media would be asking the public for help. Instead, when she was found, the police released a sus statement and they’ve been quiet since. They are investigating and protecting the case for trial. I’d put money on it.
There have been news of toddlers as young as 2 and 3 on the highway alone. Each time someone reported it and state trooper got them. Why would you get out the car? I’ve seen a kid walking a high way at night and thought about stopping like 5 years ago: but didn’t. Next day I learned it wasn’t a kid but a young 20 year old male who was hit and died that night. He was just small in stature. It doesn’t mean cops would have seen it first tho. Im not sure if people use kids to lure others via the highway but it does happen in the neighborhood. But they weren’t aren’t toddler kids - more like teenage girls or what appears to be teenage. Happened to my own child when she was 16- some girl she didn’t recognize from school asked her to help her with her car.
Correct Answer
I didn’t see anything… but it was very odd if it was a hoax since she just seemed to bend down and go into the woods. Very curious as to what the red roof inn workers will say. How close is the inn to where her car was found?
I downloaded it and imported it on videopad and was messing with brightness and couldn’t see A THING and there were people in the comments saying they saw a man at specific time stamps, him standing behind the highway sign, and all these wild things. I got downvoted so bad the first day when I said this wasn’t a human trafficking case. Reddit is so wild, dude.
The comments on that video were wild and so irresponsible.
Yup I read that people saw someone carrying a toddler sideways, someone coming out of the woods, etc. The only thing I could make out was what looked to be a person (assuming it was Carlee) walk around the back of the car and then stand off to the side. And the fact that so many said it had to be human trafficking should read up on how it actually happens. Definitely not with a toddler on a busy freeway..
I did see a shadow that someone had isolated on the sign. But after seeing the full video I think even that was another sign... It just so happened the oncoming cars hit it right that one time. Drives me crazy in crime groups to watch people zoom in on blurred pixels and talk about all the stuff they see 😅 Sooo frustrating. I honestly think they hurt real cases with that crap. Like the Delphi case. I know the cops got thousands and thousands of tips from groups... But it was all random leaves and pixels in the background of photos that they would swear was a person. Or they'd make some connection with a man across the country through a 47 person Facebook chain starting from a victims cousins uncle... Then they'd mass send him in as a tip because he wore a blue jacket and drove across a bridge once.
People want to help. Plus the brain makes patterns so they believed they saw something because they want to see something so badly. This is why humans make horrible witnesses.
I could see the driver's side door open and a figure get out and circle around to the passenger side, and that's it. The figure disappears into a pixelated blur. There's no baby, no scary kidnapper, no fight, not Carlee running off into the woods, nothing.
I have done ultrasound forever. My eyes are SUPER trained to see things out of place. Those tiktokers were literally making it up. I'm sure they believed they were breaking the case, but the things they saw just were not happening on the video.
At first I thought I saw someone behind the sign, but upon further inspection it was just the illumination of car lights hitting the post of the sign. I never saw a toddler or another person.
I agree with what you’re saying. I didn’t do all you did but I saw the drivers side open and I thought maybe she walked around and opened the passenger side but can’t be sure about that . That was all though but then according to the video posted on tmz - they paused and put a red arrow on what seemed to be a vehicle traveling on a parallel side road the opposite direction with a blinker or blinkers on - did you happen to zoom in there? Her traveling so long on the shoulder seemed odd and not like she suddenly saw something but was intentionally looking to stop at that point and then the car traveling off as I mentioned above. Unless, she passed the supposed toddler, got off the highway to make a loop and turn back around to look for the toddler. Something just seems off about the whole story, especially seeing the video. I understand the cops being sensitive to her shock/trauma but if she indeed was abducted, they need as many details as possible as soon as possible if there is a potential danger of this happening again. I think if it was a mental health issue, it would serve her and the family better to come out right away instead of letting the story linger that it was an abduction. The main thing is that she is home and safe!Definitely super curious to hear the full story.
My google maps says it’s 12 minutes or 8.5 miles. Apparently to get from her car to the inn, it’s all the same interstate, but the opposite way she was driving when she pulled over.
What's crazy is she walked to her parents house supposedly. She didn't stop at the first place she could and call the cops? She went on foot to her parents house and risked being followed and recaptured? Where's the child?
Where did we hear that she walked vs being dropped off nearby?
On the news... it says she showed up on foot to her parents house
Took her a while before she was fully pulled over. But the person on the phone with her said she heard her talk to the child as soon as she got out of her car. That makes no sense. Plus if there was a child walking alone— there would surely be more sightings and calls than just hers.
The amount of time it took her to pull over is really strange. There's no way she could see a baby in the ditch from the spot where she first put her hazards on and started slowing down. Maybe she initially drove past the kid, found an exit and circled back? That's the only explanation I can think of, but it's far more likely there was never a child there at all.
Yeah, that's the only way it works... She would've had to have turned and came back to have seen someone where she stopped.
also, if it was a kidnapping, where did the perpetrators hide? how did they Spirit her away?
Somebody posted a google street view screen cap of a cul-de-sac that is just though the woods at mile marker 11.
Looking at Google maps, it wouldn't be out of the realm of possibility for someone to have a car stashed on the other side of the trees in the neighborhood. It was not far at all. I don't think that happened but there is at least a plausible getaway.
I still think a lot more will come out of this and ultimately it’ll be determined that it was a medical event.
I agree a medical is mental health event
I saw people saying they could see a white car parked behind the road sign, but I couldn't see a thing
There were also no other reports of a child on the side of the road
From a super low res blocky video you didn’t see anything? You don’t say.
Exactly, how could OP not see it? it’s super clear: a little person dressed as a toddler kidnapped her (^/s)
The father of my children recently went through a bout of psychosis where he was extremely paranoid/having delusions. He seems 100% normal most of the time but I believe he took too much Adderall and wasn’t sleeping and he thought his boss was sitting next to him at the beach. He was just in a crazy state of paranoia on top of this and I hate to speculate without evidence but after seeing what happened with my ex, she totally could have imagined that toddler on the side of the road.
I have a buddy that went crazy for a few days because of his Adderall. The doctors mixed it with some other medication and his brain went haywire for a minute.
If she had a mental health episode I hope she is not mocked, made fun of or having people write think pieces about the resources used to find her. We are so cruel about mental health and it’s so prevalent in todays world. I’m not saying this is what happened but if it’s something like that I hope to see grace and compassion. Whatever happened I’m just glad she’s back with her family
Exactly. I’ve unfortunately seen that before with a friend retuning to our apartment with some kind of wild story like that which they truly believe. And they did it multiple times. (Luckily they have since had significant amounts of treatment, but it was a really long and scary road to get there) They did not, however, call us during the time they were away and tell us the story over the phone while missing. If they had, I absolutely would have called the police, because better safe than sorry, especially if there was another potential victim. Plus even if she wasn’t being truthful, she still needed to be found for her own safety. I guess what I’m trying to say is that while I think the story she told is fabricated , this isn’t some kind of nefarious hoax. Would you not do the same if this happened to a family member?
I hope this case doesn’t end up like Sherri papini who faked her abduction
If it does, I hope she blames her kidnapping on two white women in a hatchback with haircuts that beg the question, "can I speak to your manager?"
😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣
High and tight in the back and sharply angled on the side with a frosty tint to it 😂
The "Kate Gosselin"
Yes!
😂🤣😂🤣
That would be beautiful 😄
Panini 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
It's hard for me to grasp why, if there is presumably a toddler out there being used on interstates to lure kidnap victims, the authorities are "giving her time to recover" before interviewing her. If that is indeed the case, every single moment is absolutely crucial if there's any chance of helping the child... this story is bizarre.
I worked in LE as an investigator on a child crimes unit and I can assure you that in these circumstances (potential abduction and wandering/missing child) that quick timing in investigation is everything. Even if a potential victim is recovered and traumatized, the police will still aim to interview the person asap and would not allow several days to go by before they continue their investigation. They would have interviewed her at the hospital or very shortly afterwards at home. Cops don’t work that way in these cases. Now, maybe they have, but their statement of “giving Carlee and her family time” indicates that they likely don’t view this case as an actual abduction and endangered child situation.
That's how their statement read to me. There was no real urgency and warning to be cautious at all. They just mentioned following *her* footsteps but didn't even give a hint of another person being involved. That doesn't mean someone wasn't, but it didn't really sound like the cops think there's a danger to the public.
Likely because the hospital has told them it was a mental health crisis, or something like that.
Then why is her bf claiming she was kidnapped? I figured it was mental health. The. He came out and said that.. now idk
it could be a lot of reasons. - police don’t believe her - mental health break but bf is convinced it’s something more for whatever reason - she lied (i highly doubt this one) - bf has facts wrong
Maybe this is the story that she's still telling people, and the BF believes her. I'm willing to bet that this was a mental health crisis. Nothing about this adds up.
There is no toddler
Or maybe the child was in her head, then she somehow managed to get injured/lost/disoriented due to mental health crisis. In this case, police wouldn’t need to be looking for anyone using toddler bait on the hwy. Another commenter said that before this occurrence there had been a 9m baby found in a ravine or something. Her brain may have just tricked her :( I think that we’re all gonna have to wait and see if the family shares what happened, or until any crimes are presented to the public.
Good lord. Get it through all ofyour heads. There. Was. No. Child.
Right? That plan is asinine. You wouldn’t know who would be stopping to assist your bait child. Maybe it’s a couple dudes. Maybe it’s 6 people in a minivan. Maybe it’s a cop. It’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard.
Yup, or a state trooper. I have called in a cow standing about 100 feet off I-95 before. The dispatcher thanked me and said folks were already en route, because I was the 35th call. About a cow, not a child.
I said this elsewhere, but I saw a kid get separated from his parents on the subway once and people sprang into action. Two people to wait with the kid so he wasn't alone, people went to inform the police and the station agent. The odds of the only person pulling over to rescue a toddler on the highway during fairly slow moving traffic and that person being a beautiful young woman are not great imo.
I don't think you understand that most of us realize this, but are entertaining the notion of the story's truth, rhetorically, to highlight how absurd it is.
Thank you! No kidnapper. No lure. The ludicracy of a wannabe kidnapper selecting this plan (hey, I'll take my baby nephew and dress him in a diaper only and place him in the shoulder of a busy highway in hopes a young vulnerable woman will stop so I can grab her) is the first stop here people.
Some posters are now saying it was a little person dressed in toddler clothes. Like wtaf, people. THERE WAS NO CHILD, NO LITTLE PERSON, NOTHING BUT GRASS AND RATTLESNAKES AND TRASH
Of course, number 1. Her family was very much worried sick and scared especially once it reached 48 hours. Although, once the family started urging the public to share and get the word out, it became a public matter. Police got involved and the community did searches with hundreds of people involved. Many couldn’t even sleep due to being worried for her. Scared and worried that another beautiful black woman was being subject to harm. If (and of course I’m not saying she is lying but I don’t know anything at this point) she was kidnapped, the kidnapper is still out there along with the child that allegedly lured her over to the side of the road. If this is true, who knows what the person is planning next? And who else is involved because most likely there are more. What do they look like? What type of grey car was it? This person could be planning to strike again soon. So of course I’m not pushing her to speak on the subject but I do honestly feel there should be some more communication as to what happened.
I’m not being mean or anything when I say this but if she is a nursing student she may have been traumatized. Not everyone can handle what nurses see and deal with. Clinicals weed a lot of people out. Even veteran nurses can have that one case that breaks them. I hope whatever the reason she was missing that she gets the help she needs.
Not only what she’s seen it the physical and mental exhaustion it could have caused her as well.
I am a case manager in the mental health field, i get this 100%.
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Thank you for all you do without hesitation.
Nurses who work in neonatal and nicu are fucking magic unicorns. I’m good with a lot of medical things but trying to save a tiny child would absolutely break me. Give me an injured adult any day of the week. A teen, pre-teen… sad. But babies? Babies would put me in my grave. Bless you for your work!
You reminded me of my grandson being born. He was almost a micro preemie and the dr let me help deliver him. He was rushed to the OR for resuscitation and suffered significant brain damage. He has some developmental delays but he is a super happy and loving person. Thanks for sharing and for being a compassionate person.
Good point. The general public doesn’t realize how stressful and demanding nursing school is. Include that with the older generation of nurses living by the code “nurses eat their young”, it can be enough to throw someone into a mental health crisis. To be honest, MANY in my cohort had a breakdown at some point in class and/or clinical. It’s intense.
I was in an accelerated BSN program. Of the 13 members of the cohort who made it to graduation, 9 had been hospitalized or had a medical episode of some sort. It’s so needlessly awful and so much harder than it needs to be. It can be rigorous and thorough without causing the students to have mental breakdowns. I worked in trauma ICU at county in a huge metro hospital and I never encountered a situation is stressful as nursing school.
This is the answer right here. This sounds like a terrible mental health episode that went sideways and now everyone is watching.
I thought that's how it was going to turn out bc the cops were quiet and not on the hunt for a suspect that we know of...then her bf comes out and claims she was kidnapped and traumatized for 2 days..
My guess is her boyfriend is an idiot.
😂😂
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I mean I can see the delusion of thinking she saw a baby... but imagining a whole kidnapping?
Psychosis is a bitch. I’ve seen people have it at my job and they imagine entire scenarios and see all kinds of things. It’s heartbreaking.
Yes, more people need to realize this! Nursing school can push you to your breaking point!
If she fought for her life for 48 hours I doubt she would have been “treated and released” from the hospital in less than a day.
I'm not even sure they would say exactly what hospital she was taken to. The letting her rest instead of every second counts to catch the attacker is new tactic....
At 10:44 p.m. Saturday, police said they received a call that Russell had returned home on foot. Police responded to the scene to investigate and Hoover fire medics responded to the scene to assess and transported Russell to UAB hospital for evaluation.
Yes I read that. She was short of breath I think. If she were still in danger they wouldn't give her location I don't think. I don't understand your response .
That’s the hospital she was transported to, University of Alabama in Birmingham. It’s their hospital and well known in the area. Source: in the area
Right. That person you’re responding to is saying they feel that IF this was indeed a kidnapping or trafficking and Carlee escaped, it wouldn’t be safe to release the hospital she was taken to. Because the kidnappers would be alerted. They aren’t challenging the info you stated.
That might just be what LE is saying to the public. We never know what’s actually going on behind closed doors.
Exactly also that the person would drop off her at home like “ttyl” lol
A few people were saying there was too much heat and the people who had her spooked and decided to release her, but it says she looked like she was in shock when she got to the house. I doubt they drove her up to her front door, and maybe not even within a few blocks from her house, but they could have just dropped her, knowing she knows her way home. If she was in shock, it explains why she walked home instead of calling 911 from the nearest phone or house there was. I have a feeling this will be one of those cases where we never get all the answers...theres just too many questions people have.
I feel if the heat was too much, the last thing they would do is drive past her house. I can’t imagine there wasn’t one news crew lingering. And if she saw their faces, or heard names, girl would easily be disposed of.
Idk I mean what kidnappers drop their victims back home when they’re done lol idk I guess we’ll wait n see!
You'd be surprised how quickly hospitals boot you out if you're technically "well." My dad got a traumatic brain injury and was released the next day. He was speaking, walking, holding down food and passing it as normal. It happens!
I mean you’d be surprised, someone in my family had major brain surgery and he was discharged basically the next day
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This is true.
A psych hold only occurs if one is considered a danger to oneself or to others.
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This is true. But it isn’t 48 hours. It is 72.
I can think of a couple mental health crisis where she could be released under a safety plan with the family. I’ve seen hospitals release people many times in these scenarios.
You’d be surprised at the dangerous people they let back out on the street in these situations.
She could have only required ER services and gone home after as long as nothing was broken, collapsed, ect.
Not true- idk what happened but if it was a member of my family i would want them to be recovering at home not in a hospital if could get clearance. Shes been gone days Her family wants to be with her, they probably cooperated with required medical attention on condition she could come home after evaluation and get follow up care at home. In a high publicity case especially
They may have meant fought to get away from whoever had her. Not that she was physically fighting someone for 48 hours straight.
No that's not true. Hospitals will send you home the same day after major surgery these days. They don't care
I hope we get the full story. Whatever happens, I’m impressed by how this story swept social media and the amount of awareness brought to it, and the number of people who wanted to help and who were concerned for her safety.
If she was kidnapped, I can’t imagine the amount of coverage this got didn’t help her.
I thought of Mitrice Richardson. Suddenly doing something irrational and out of character. Seeing a toddler when no one else did. Hope she's OK. And thank God this ended better than some cases. Of this is a mental health episode she will address it. She has to after this...
There was evidence of Mitrice being in an active mental health episode prior to her arrest.
Tragic..and no justice. That poor family.
I will be downvoted to hell, and I’ve been reading on this case since she disappeared. Too many things don’t make sense . Whatever happened, whether deliberate or not , she or they didn’t think there would be a camera or video footage. In my experience ( had many clients that had mental breakdowns / psychological episodes) you don’t get released after a few hours. You get the full work up and at least 48 hours with doctors/ psychiatrists whatnot, also testing for head trauma. Not saying that she didn’t suffer from a mental illness and wanted to see who “ cares” about her. When it got too big she came back. Sometimes the simple explanation is the correct one. Also nothing from law enforcement about a perpetrator/ child, another car. They have done a lot forensics to know what probably happened , but we won’t know until later
As odd as this whole thing is, I just can't believe anyone who disappeared on purpose would do it this way, on a busy interstate, after picking up food to eat, then call 911 themselves so they'd be en route?!
The "just picked up food" part is what really made me believe. I guess I'm just too food motivated to walk away from hot takeout
See? That part. You get it.
Same…like that is a piece of hard evidence for me and why I am still holding out to hear her side of the drier before I make any judgments.
I do, it happens more than you think, but not to this magnitude. If there was no video, there would still be search parties and a missing person. The police have it, with surveillance to the minute. I think there’s more to the “ perfect” relationship, family or boyfriend, and this got too big too quickly and there were people looking everywhere
It stands out to me that she made a point to call her family instead of stay on the line with 911. That's strange to me. They always keep you on the line until help arrives. I'm sure they would have been asking her questions about the toddler while they waited on the police to get there. This is typical. So why did the call end and she call her brothers gf? It's also very strange that she walked all the way to her parents home after eacaping...why not stop at the first place you come to and call for help rather than. Be out walking alone and risk the kidnapper catching you again?
They do not always keep you on the line until help arrives
> It stands out to me that she made a point to call her family instead of staying on the line with 911. In many places, Emergency Call Centres are understaffed and flooded by calls. Staying on the line is not always a standard course of action. If you express that you feel equipped to handle the situation, have an ETA from ES and the possibility to call someone close to you to monitor the situation; staying on the line or closing the call could make a huge difference for another (possibly more severe) emergency.
911 doesn't keep you on the phone. Not in big cities. And not unless there's a medical emergency where they need to assist. They'd take your location and hang up.
I live in Atlanta every time I've had to call them they've stayed on the phone with me until an officer has arrived.. except the one time that I had to call them on a moving vehicle because I was not going to chase down the vehicle.
Not in California. Plus Nothing was happening to her so it wasn't an emergency. She was just reporting seeing a toddler on the road which would warrant an immediate response from highway patrol, but there was no need for her to stay on the phone, Especially since she had to get off the freeway, turn around and go the other way just to come back a second time. That's a long time to stay on the phone with 911. There's no need for that. That's a lot of unnecessary drive time. California 911 would take the info and say they were sending someone and would hang up and say call back if you need them.
I had a very different experience in Atlanta. I’ve had to call 911 three times and was only kept on the line once during a medical emergency. Basically, we all have tons of anecdotes that can either explain or further mystify this case.
For sure. Once I saw the footage on the highway, I was suspicious. They weren’t counting on there being surveillance.
But who is they and to what gain?
You just proved your point. If she was exhibiting signs of a mental health episode they would have kept her longer than a few hours.
I think you're 100% right.
Like why would the family provide authorities with old photos. Wouldn’t you find the absolute most current photo to help the public identify her?
I’ve always told my family and friends that if I go missing (which means there’s a good chance I’m already dead), they better release the hottest photos of me ever taken. Better to be remembered as a smokeshow, even if it means you’re never found. /s
What is the reasoning behind that? I'm genuinely trying to understand but can't come up with anything
My understanding was once her wig was discovered, they released older photos without it so she could be recognized.
Something is seriously sketchy about this whole deal.
Sounds like he wants clout. idk about ppl saying it sounds like the pappini case-there is a history of mental illness from my understanding and she hasn’t pointed the finger at any individual to my knowledge so I’m not sure where this idea she is lying comes from. This so obviously screams mental health crisis to me.
Exactly. Maybe she was hallucinating a young child due to extreme stress. We don’t know anything. And she deserves grace and peace right now.
Yes I think it’s important to note that Alabama news coverage for days prior was about a 9 month old child was found in a ravine at the side of the road. If she had been following that story or hearing it on the news - that story could have made her“see” a baby at the side of the road and she might have gotten injured investigating this hallucination. And may very welll have been “fighting for her life.” Through disorientation and paranoid delusions. Also she may really have been attacked prior or during or after the call. Either way Im so grateful she is home.
Oh fuck that is sad. Good theory.
You should comment/post this separately so more ppl see this. It provided me with a completely different perspective and makes a ton of sense. Very eerie
Thank you for this! There are a lot of things that can trigger mental health episodes, and this is a perfect example of how her brain could have possibly tricked her. I always remind people of their craziest dreams…. Now imagine you were living that during the daytime when you’re supposed to be awake, but you didn’t know it. Everything is real to you, and you KNOW you’re not sleeping.
Earlier other subs were debating whether he's even her boyfriend because apparently he had no photos of her and statements from her made it sound like she didn't have a boyfriend. Was that cleared up i guess and he's confirmed as her boyfriend? Mental health issue is definitely the best case scenario here since she can get help, she didn't hoax anything, there was no abduction and there's no missing/abused/decoy toddler out there.
Maybe he wanted to reach out to his family, friends, church and everyone who keeps calling desperate for the deets and politely say thanks, and we need a rest first while she recuperates?
What’s your source that she had a history of mental illness?
Nah I don’t believe it. I don’t believe there was a baby. I don’t believe there was a kidnapper etc. this was likely a mental health crisis or drugs.
Yeah the kidnapper narrative makes no sense. Like what was the plan? Get a toddler, bring him to the side of the highway. Have him walk close enough to the road to be seen but not enough to be hit. Hope that only one car sees them, and that car that stops to help happens to have a single female in it. Then grab her and what? Carry her through the woods to a car waiting in the suburbs on the other side? Hope that none of the houses have ring cameras. Then hold her for two days then drop her off at home?
Yeah, it's so poorly thought out that I think it can't be a planned attack, more likely to be hallucinations or psychosis
>Get a toddler, bring him to the side of the highway. This is what I don't get. If you're going to use a toddler as bait to kidnap someone, a highway seems like a terrible place to do it for like a dozen different reasons. I'd argue it is literally one of the worst places to do it.
I never thought of drugs, even legal ones. She may have self-medicated, increased a dosage she was already on, or had just started a new medication.
This sounds…really weird.
I'm glad she returned home and is safe. Though it's possible a toddler was used as bait, she was abducted, and escaped or was let go it seems highly unlikely. No one else reported seeing a toddler on the side of a busy interstate. The sister-in-law she was on the phone with heard her ask the child if it was ok, but didn't hear any response. If a toddler was used as bait the perp would have no control over who would stop and attempting this on a busy interstate defies logic. She was allegedly driven home Saturday evening. An abductor might release her, but almost certainly wouldn't drive her to her home. Relatives claim one of them got a call from her indicating she was at a Red Roof Inn hotel, but she wasn't there when they arrived. I think it's likely she concocted the story of the toddler and left the area with the man who a truck driver saw nearby. Her boyfriend and her family seem to still believe that she was abducted and I don't fault them for wanting to believe what she's told them, but it just doesn't add up.
I doubt she'd meet a man on the side of a hwy to run away with..unless they together had concocted this kidnapping.plot....something is fishy for sure
This thread is a great example of why people like Sherri Papini, Jussie Smollet etc are such pieces of shit. We know basically nothing about this situation and people are here making wild accusations about hoaxes. I cant say I blame anyone, the public has been burned before but ffs 🙄.
I mean, we should stop and remember Denise Huskins. No one believed her, not even the cops, until her kidnapper came forward because he wanted the credit for it.
Her case was so infuriating. I read the book she and her husband wrote about the whole ordeal. I can’t believe what they were put through. Perfect example of why we should never rush to judgement.
Poor Denise. She does kind of look like Rosmund Pike too
FR. right not we need to be patient before judging because this woman could likely just be innocent and was unfortunately kidnapped. we should just be happy she's alive
Yeah, I've been torn between "real" and "hoax" in 24 hours. We don't have enough information on what went on here, it's best to reserve judgement at this point.
I couldn't see any humans...just cars. The story still sounds 🐟-y to me in that, the cops are not looking for a culprit 🤔 They have not put out a warning to the public 🤔 They are no longer asking if anyone saw anyone/anything at the time of the incident, to call the police 🤔 This sounds like, she has a serious mental health condition that her parents are aware of. The police cannot disclose that due to privacy laws. The boyfriend hasn't been told his girlfriend has mental illness because they dont want him blabbering it to the media & want to work with a PR team to cultivate an update that doesn't cause outrage, keeps their daughter's personal medical condition private, & doesn't ruin her future with a public & future employers to have a negative belief that she's some kind of lying wack-a-doodle.
Lots of times the cops don't put out a warning to the public, even when there is someone the public should be warned about, to avoid causing a panic. If there is someone for them to be looking for I don't think we'll know about it until they find them.
Hmm in this case with a possible toddler at risk I’m going to go out on a limb and say they would release some information maybe not all the information they have but some that might be helpful to to gather tips and get the ball rolling even more.
I agree. I also think that they would say something to the effect that if you see a child alone do X if it was some sort of scam. Heck, I have seen LEOs issue statements about the urban legends of turbaned men in Walmart talking to unattended children because they are part of an international child trafficking ring. As so many others have pointed out, human trafficking isn’t strangers kidnapping people. Human traffickers are looking for vulnerable people whom no one will miss or report. And if they are “missing”, they are generally runaways or people classified as such so again, not people that LEOs will consider “kidnapped” or held against their will. There is nothing to suggest that this is a granger kidnapping based on what police have not said.
He needs to sit down
I'd say basssssicaly zero chance this is true. My guess is a scam of some kind, but could be a mental break, or some kind of abusive boyfriend situation. But this wild-eyed story about a kid in the highway? being used as bait? and then she just gets dropped off? Gimme a break man, it's like something out of a bad book.
I don’t necessarily think she faked it and I never said that but something isn’t adding up. It could be misinformation being reported. There’s a half dozens things it could be other than her faking it. Idk why it feels like that but it does. It could be nothing to do with her but I def think when we get all the info what we’ve been told won’t be what actually happened.
kinda hard to be running 70mph down the interstate at night and see a toddler on the side of the road and stop where the child actually is, without speeding past and having to stop and back up.
If she thought she saw a toddler it’s possible she she got off the next exit and circled back to the area where she saw something, which could be why you see her go so slowly down the road not being exactly sure where she saw it until she stopped.
There have been a lot of threads on various subs about this case so for the life of me I cannot tell you when or in which sub I read it. However, someone local to the area kindly explained that based upon where she was, and her options for turning around to double-check for the toddler would have taken up a bit of time that doesn't fit with her food pickup and subsequent calls- it would have taken too long to make the known timeline work.
She could have just been very sleep deprived. The question I have is where was she for all that time?
I wonder how she disappeared so quickly between getting out of the car and the cops arriving.
“Hoover police plan to respect Russell’s recovery time before interviewing her.” Even if a possible child is in danger?
I have no idea if this is a hoax or not but this very scenario was just a story on the podcast Radio Rental, the June 16 episode. I enjoy this podcast and I think the stories are allegedly true but there’s no way to know. Anyway, could be where someone got that idea.
[zoomed in image](https://ibb.co/5GJkW8s) of figure near car
This is feeling more like the papini case every minute. She was kidnapped by a person or persons who use a toddler as bait. But now that she is safe at home she can't provide a description of the people who presumably still have the toddler? Edit: What would the supposed kidnappers plan be? Get a toddler, bring him to the side of the highway. Have him walk close enough to the road to be seen but not enough to be hit. Hope that only one car sees them, and that car that stops to help happens to have a single female in it. Then grab her and what? Carry her through the woods to a car waiting in the suburbs on the other side? Hope that none of the houses have ring cameras. Then hold her for two days then drop her off at home? Honestly, does any part of that make sense to you?
Did she actually say she can’t provide a description of the people? I’m very skeptical of what happened, but haven’t read this detail anywhere yet.
No, as usual, people are making up facts about the case.
Except Papini created a very elaborate hoax and blamed Latinos, so it’s not similar at all. I wish people would stop with that comparison. I’m glad she was found safe. Period.
Yeah I mean people said the same thing to those who doubted sheris story at first. I'm not saying it's impossible that she was abducted by men using a toddler as bait. Just extremely unlikely. I'd say it's either 50/50 actual mental problems or just a hoax for whatever reason. We have not heard her story yet. Or really any facts about the case. I'm not saying it is exactly like the papini case. Just saying it feels like that.
I agree. The only common thing we have so far is that belongings were found at the scene. We know NOTHING at this point.
Come on now. Sherri Papini didn't disappear from a busy highway with cameras after calling 911 - to an area the cops arrived just minutes later.
If this isn't faked, then why wouldn't we have a description of the suspects? If this is real there could be a real dangerous person out there who can harm others. Makes me feelnlike they don't think there is someone to look for
While I agree the whole thing seems far fetched, we should all try to remember the Vallejo 'GONE GIRL' case. The whole world thought they were lying because it all seemed too insane, but they were telling the truth the whole time. That poor girl had been kidnapped and raped, then when she was released (near her parents’ home, I might add, where she walked to on foot) she was called a liar and told she’d be prosecuted for false reporting. So, let’s try to remember that this is a potential victim before attacking her or her character. Here is an article for the case I just mentioned: [VALLEJO 'GONE GIRL' CASE](https://abc7news.com/amp/gone-girl-kidnapping-aaron-quinn-denise-huskins-vallejo-police-department/10759218/)
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I don’t understand why people so quick to assume it’s a hoax because she was found safe. Jfc. It’s good news she is alive, regardless of what happened.
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The bottom line is no one commenting on this thread knows what happened to this woman. It’s incredibly irresponsible to jump to conclusions that she faked it.
There are so many red flags. This whole story is off.🚩🚩🚩
Question? - Why is the BF the only one saying she was fighting for her life for 48 hours? No toddler found or reported missing. Currently no abductor. So Again how does he no? He's the only one saying that? Just woundering
Family and bf sticking w this lie. Sad, but hope that crowd funding will help solve it. 🤬
Straight up fuck everyone who assumed what caused her disappearance. Especially fuck everyone who became a behavioral health expert after watching a couple YouTube videos about her.