Rotten Mango - #279: Woman Vanished After Spotting Toddler On The Side Of The Highway - LATEST UPDATES!

Episode Date: July 20, 2023

What would you do if you saw a child on the side of the highway at night? What if the child was in distress, alone, and in a diaper? July 13, 2023, Carlee Russell saw a small toddler on the side of the highway. She stopped her car, called 911, and while on the phone with her friend, she got out to check on the child. She would go missing, and the whole nation believed she was human trafficked by evil people who used a child to lure her out of her car. 49 hours later, she showed up at her parent’s doorstep - barefoot and dazed. Her reappearance only promoted more questions. Where is the child now? Why won’t Carlee answer the questions? Is she even telling the truth? Full Source Notes: rottenmangopodcast.com To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Bramble. It is exhausting to exist in this world, especially if you're an empathetic person. It's like a fight within yourself, right? Your person only tells you, hey, go over there and help that stranger. That poor old man looks like he's struggling to load his groceries into his car. But then you have the voice in the back of your head. And maybe my videos did this to you, but it's like, no, the minute you go over there, you're going to turn around, grab another bag of groceries,

he's gonna bonk you on the head, throw you into his trunk, and you're gonna end up dead on a pig farm. I get it, it's a lot. And social media doesn't help. There's always a new thing on social media that everyone is like, be on the lookout for this. Zip ties on your car door. You walk out of target, there's a zip tie on your car door,

human trafficking. Dollar bills, lace with drugs. Paper bags on your car door. You walk out of target. There's a zip tie on your car door, human trafficking. Dollar bills, laced with drugs, paper bags on your windshields, baby seats in the parking lot, and the one that I think of most is the baby on the side of the road, or the baby crying outside your door at night. What would you do if you saw a child on the side of a busy interstate, a loan distraught You got a help right you would have to stop you would have to stop and help there's no other option Yeah, that was a huge question that was lingering in the air this past week not just on social media But really on mainstream media every news outlet was asking this question would you stop on the highway if you saw a small child

That was just standing there. There was no other car there, nobody else was there. Would you stop? Yeah, July 13th, 2023. So a week ago, if you're listening to the audio, the day it comes out. 25 year old Carly Russell stopped. She said that she had spotted a small, small toddler on the side of the highway of a busy highway on her way home from work. It was about um, 9.30pm, so it's not super late. It's not like 3.30 in the morning. There's nobody else around. It's not a time that makes you go, ooo, that's weird. Maybe this is a setup. 9.30, it's still pretty early. She called 911 to alert them of this unattended child. There was no car parked on the shoulder, so it's not like a family had stopped on the side to get out and the child got out of the car.

The child was alone. She called 911. They said, okay, can you stay right there and we'll be there in like a few minutes. She hangs up, then she calls her brother's girlfriend. She stays on the phone with her, waiting for the police to arrive. But maybe Carly is afraid that the kid is going to run off into the woods. So most highways are stationed in there as usually like wooded areas nearby, right? Maybe she's worried about that or maybe she's concerned that the kid is gonna run into

Uncoming traffic. So she pulls over so she gets out of her car and her brother's girlfriend could hear her asking this child If the child was okay She asked about three times Before she started screaming. All her brothers' girlfriend could do was listen helplessly on the phone. She heard Carly scream, she heard rustling noises, she kept screaming Carly's name,

but there was no audible response other than what sounded like a struggle. She didn't hear any other voices or people talking, but it definitely sounded like something very, very bad had happened. Her brother's girlfriend happened to be at the Russell family home so she rushed into Carly's parent's room and motioned for Carly's mom to rush over and she's quickly trying to explain what's going on and her mom starts screaming into the phone. Carly, are you okay? Are you there? She tries using her phone to call Carly, no response. The police would arrive at that scene in the

highway about five minutes later, less than five minutes, like four minutes later. Carly's car was left unattended, her driver's side door was left wide open, her purse with her apple watch inside where in the front seat of her car and in the grass near the wooded area off the highway was Carly's wig and her phone in the grass on the ground. And Carly was gone. And the kid? Yeah, gone.

No one was there. She had gone missing. And all initial signs pointed to an abduction, or at least that's what netizens thought. The stories, the urban legends that merged with real life reports started to kind of mush together, and a lot of netizens were concerned, and they asked, what if it was human traffickers? What if they used a little toddler to lure in helpful woman to come out of their cars and then snatch them? What if that's what happened to Carly?

If that's the case, would they even find her? Would they ever even find the human traffickers? The only person that would know for sure what happened on that highway that night would be Carly Russell, and she was gone until she wasn't. Just two days later, exactly 49 hours later, Carly showed up to her parents' home barefoot. She was back. And the world had so many questions.

What happened during the past 49 hours? How did you escape? How did you find your way back home? Where is the child? All of these are very reasonable questions, but because of the intrigue, because of the mystery, because of the almost evasiveness that Carly had, and a lot to do with the internet's obsession for conspiracy theories and a lot of inconsistencies in the case. The question slowly comes to, is Carly Russell even telling the truth? And unfortunately, I think some of the answers coming out right now are a lot worse than what we thought could be. As always, full show notes are available at rottonminglepodcast.com. This case

along with the arrest of the Gilgo Beach murder suspect has been filling up my inbox and DMs. We are currently working super hard to get the Gilgoee case to you guys ASAP, but with that being said, something to note about this case. It is an ongoing case. It is a viral case. There have not been any arrests or warrants that have been made known to the public. I'm sure that there's a lot that law enforcement is privy to that maybe we are not still. And since we don't have the case files or trial or anything like that That means that this is the information we have as of now It could very likely change or there could be new information that comes out that changes the perspective of what we think we know now

So this episode is coming to you a day late because of a press conference that I wanted to include in all of this Hopefully I'm giving you guys the newest most up-to-date recap of everything that's happened so far. And with that being said, let's get into it. Let me walk you through July 13th first. Carly Russell was a nursing student at Jefferson State Community College, but she also worked part-time at like a local days' ball. So she had just finished work around 8.20pm. She left work, ran a few quick errands.

I mean, everything sounds like a normal day. By all accounts, it's nothing spectacular happened. Law enforcement stated that as she drove away from work to run her first errand and her second errand, she was constantly on the phone with people that she knew. So talking to friends, family, right? She goes to pick up Mediterranean food for herself and her mother, then she does a quick target run

to pick up a few quick snacks. And then she starts heading back home on interstate 459. Now, side note, Carly lived with her parents. I'm not sure if her brother and her brother's girlfriend all lived in the house too, but it seems like her brother's girlfriend was at the house that night. Keep this in mind.

So this is about an hour after she gets off work. She calls her brother's girlfriend and tells her that she sees a small child on the side of the highway. The child is in a white shirt at a diaper. She turns on her hazard lights and starts slowly pulling over, like slowing down and then pulling over safely on the shoulder of the highway. Her brother's girlfriend, I'm so sorry. She was just pulling over while she was on the phone with the girlfriend. Mm-hmm.

But you say she called the police already. Oh, no, this is when her brother's girlfriend is like, oh, you need to call the cops. Oh, go. So she's like, oh, okay, let me call the cops right now. So as she's slowing down, she's calling the cops. And then she gets on the call with dispatch. And the 911 call was recently released

in the press conference yesterday, July 19th. And it starts with Carly stating that she is on I-459 and there's just a kid that's walking by themselves. Now a lot of the conversation initially is about if she's going southbound or northbound and where exactly what's the mile marker and then the dispatch asks, how do they look? Where they walking north our town is about to bounce. They're walking towards Tuscaloosa, walking southbound.

Or how old do they look? Like a toddler? Like maybe like three or four? Did you pull over with them or you saw with them? Yes. Okay, are you with the child right now? No, I'm not. I didn't get out of the car. I can see them though. Can you do your mind staying and keep an eye on them until we get there?

Yeah, sure, yeah. What is he wearing? It's a white t-shirt and it doesn't look like he has any pants on. It looks like a diaper. You don't see any cars anywhere? No, no cars anywhere. And the whole thing about Carly's voice is it sounds so normal. It sounds like if I were to call 911 about a missing child or like a child that I see on the side of the road. It's just concerned but not stressed out.

It's more like a toddler, maybe three or four. Did you pull over with them or are you still with them? Yes. Okay, you're with the child right now? No, I'm not them or are you still with them? Yes. Okay, you're with the child right now? No, I'm not. I didn't get out of the car. I can see them though.

Do you mind staying with the child until we get there? Yeah, yeah, sure. Dispatch asked questions about the kind of car that Carly is in. And then they go, did you talk to the child at all or did you say anything to them? No.

Do they look like they're injured? No, they don't. Are they white, black, Hispanic, or Asian? They're white, male or female. I think it's a boy, a little boy, white male. Okay, so is he wearing clothes? Yes, it's a white shirt, and it doesn't look like he has pants on.

It looks like a diaper. And you don't see any cars anywhere. No, no cars anywhere. Okay, try to keep an eye on him as best as you can. I don't want you to lose track of him. Does he have shoes on? No, not that I can see, but I can't see him that well. It's really dark.

Officers are on the way. Keep an eye on him, okay? Thank you. Okay, thanks, bye. And once she's done, she hops back on the phone with her brother's girlfriend. I will say it is important to note that the dispatch initiated the hang-up. So I saw some discourse about it online, like, why did she hang up? Usually dispatch tries to stay on the phone with you, but it's pretty indicative in the call that dispatch was like, okay, thanks. It was like a very natural

end. So now she's on the phone with the brother's girlfriend, and I think the brother's girlfriend most likely thought that she was just gonna stay on the phone with her until the police arrived. But before she could even do much, she can hear Carly talking to someone. I mean, it's pretty clear Carly got out of the car,

and it sounded like she was trying to ask the child if the child was okay. Like, are you okay? Are you alright? It said that Carly asked maybe two to three times and the brother's girlfriend could not hear a response. So she never heard the toddler respond or maybe he was too scared to speak. And then there was a scream.

Some sort of shuffling. A lot of background noise. Carly's brother's girlfriend didn't even dare hang up. She starts running around the house trying to get all the Carly's family gathered and she's screaming Carly's name into the phone. When Carly's mom found out what was going on, she picked up her own phone and starts calling Carly because yeah, I mean, she knows that her son's girlfriend has an open line, but still, she has to at least try.

She doesn't know what else she can do. Right now, all they hear is background noise and Carly hasn't said anything after she screamed. Thankfully the family all used life 360 and app to share locations with family and friends and they threw on their clothes and they start racing to the location that shows up on their phones. It was a residential street. Wait it wasn't highway? No so not where Carly was. Her phone wasn't there either. The family would later find out that her phone was on the other side So it's the highway and in the middle a wooded area and then on the other side of that was a residential street So I guess life 360 is not like that precise. Oh, okay. Okay. So they went to the residential area

Yeah, and the phone and Everything is across the fence almost. Yeah, basically. Yeah, there is a fence. Yeah. And so they're like, oh my god, she's not here. Her phone's not here. Like what's going on? Now side note, Carly's mom also called 911. After she found out, Carly wasn't responding to the phone anymore. There were technically two 911 calls that made that night about this incident. The first being Carly calling about the toddler on the side of the road, the second being Carly's mom to report the strange incident with her daughter.

There would be no other calls to report a child missing or a child spotted on the highway, just these two calls. And there would be no sign of Carly Russell anywhere. The police in this case, I will give it to them. They were on it. I mean, the same cannot be said for a lot of missing persons cases, especially missing black woman's cases,

but they were on the scene within four minutes-ish. Yeah, and they started pulling CCTV cameras from the highway. We do have footage of her vanishing, but the footage is so grainy, so unclear, we can barely make out human figures in it. The footage is almost like an aerial view of the highway. It's nighttime, all the lights are like reflecting off of each other.

It shows Carly Russell's red Mercedes though, starting to slow down with her hazard lights on. She safely pulls over to the side of the highway, and I will note one thing. As she starts slowing down, she's driving for a while. We're gonna later find out exactly how long she drove for. But that was like the first thing everyone noticed is like, wow, she's driving for a long time.

So did she see the kid that far ahead? Because if she did, then more people should have seen the kid. Or was the kid like running away from her? Like what's going on? So we're gonna find out the distance that she's yeah driving slowly for and the distance is Well, I guess I can tell you right now. It's six football fields long 600 yards if you want to use metrics. Oh wow. That's yeah wow Yeah, okay, so she's driving for a while.

Maybe she has really good eyesight. Because something else to notice, again, there were no other 911 calls made that night, nor any witnesses that came for it that stated that they also saw a child on the side of the highway. She starts slowing down. She makes it to the mile marker, like a giant sign on the highway, right?

She stops the car. And from the footage, it's hard to see any child. Like look, some people say they can make out a few figures, other people say that they can't. I personally don't see anything, and I'm very aware that humans are more prone to see human faces and human figures and shadows. So I can't say for sure, it is like way too dark,

way too grainy in the footage. We do see Carly's car stop, and what appears to be her driver's side door opening and like a blob of a figure, because this is how bad the cameras are. Leaving the driver's side area, going through the back of her car and opening the passenger side door. So she's like walking around the back of her car, going to the passenger side, opening it, and then she seems to walk off into the wooded area. And that was the last she was seen.

Yeah. To tell you how grainy the footage is, you can't even make out which direction she went in after she leaves the passenger side door. Like you don't know she's going northbound or southbound or at least I can't with the footage that we have publicly available right now. She just vanished. The highway is still busy. You can see there's cars non-stop.

It's 9.40 pm and she was gone. She's vanished into thin air. And the next 48 hours would be excruciating for the family. Her parents pleaded with the public to help find their beloved daughter. Carly Russell had so much ahead of her. She had graduated Auburn University with a degree in psychology. She was a nursing student.

She worked hard. Her mom described her as being so kind and compassionate. She was a joy to be around. She had this like deep love for God. And neighbor said, this could have happened to any one of our kids. That's what got the world so passionate. I mean, it could have been my daughter that I'd seen the child on the side of the road.

What kind of person wouldn't stop? How could you not, right? Of course you would stop. You would do that because you're a good person. A lot of Carly's neighbors had kids that Carly wants baby sat for. So they were all holding prayer circles. It's Alabama, so it's pretty religious there. The prayer circles, they were holding vigils, they were looking and spending their entire weekend

turning the entire town upside down. The nonprofit crime stoppers of central Alabama raised money from the community, donations from people who wanted to help from afar. They were able to secure a $63,000 reward for anyone who knows anything about Carly's whereabouts. That's a lot. Yeah, and then it happened so quickly, right?

Yeah, like within maybe 24 hours. I mean, I don't know if there's a national average that I could find that seemed accurate, but many cases we've talked about. I mean, we've seen rewards of $5,000, $10,000 and that's usually after they've been missing for a period of time. This is a big deal. I think it just goes to show the whole nation wanted Carly home. Law enforcement this time they quickly get to work and it is not just

the Hoover Police Department. I am talking local state federal agents were involved. The FBI Secret Service and the US Marshall's Office were involved. So when did it, when did it start going viral? The same day, she went missing, like the next day. Really? Volunteer search parties made up of civilians, they hit the ground running. And at first, there were a lot of alarming rumors and whispers going around.

At one point, there was a rumor that a witness claimed to see a gray car pull up and a man get out to approach Carly. Now, I will say there is no evidence of that on the CCTV footage, but the problem is that every single tip, anonymous, reasonable or not, every tip has to be investigated. That's what the FBI mainly worked on. The case went viral and they were getting hundreds of tips. The Russell family would get tips and they would be sent over to the police to look over as well and it was just a lot of manpower being poured into this case.

It was said at one point in time there were about 50 or 60 police officers working on this case. And that's not including federal agents. But like Carly's parents, the agents had hope. Carly's mom told the media, my daughter is a fighter. We believe that if there is any opportunity for her to make it home to us, she's going to seize that opportunity. She continued, we want people to do everything in their power no matter how big or how small to make a joint effort. Carly's dad said, we're going to scour the earth, there is no stopping us. And Carly had a lot of people on her side,

a lot of family members who had dealt with their own loss of their own family member being a victim of a crime or having gone missing. They came out in show of solidarity and support. Anaya Blanchard's mom being one of them. Anaya Blanchard went missing in 2019 in Auburn, Alabama. She was a 19 year old college student. She texted her roommate that she was gonna be home soon.

CCTV cameras showed Anaya stopping by a gas station before heading home, college student. She texted her roommate that she was going to be home soon. CCTV cameras showed an eye as stopping by a gas station before heading home and her phone activity stopped around midnight. She wasn't seen alive again. About a month later, her body was found in a wooded area. She was shot to death. A man named Ibrahim Yazid had been arrested and charged with her murder. This is really not that long ago. 2019, these are some fresh wounds, but Anaya Blanchard's mother showed up to help look for Carly, and she said very emotionally, my heart is breaking for the rest of the cells, but I'm gonna help them. I'm gonna be right there beside

them. When Anaya went missing for the whole 32 days, I mean, your body is in a constant, find my child state. There's nothing you can say, there's nothing you can do to make that go away. Time is of the essence to bring Carly home. Share Carly's information with everybody. Tell your friends, just share it.

Be on the lookout, everyone, and be safe. I think most people were really worried that Carly Russell was already being human trafficked. There was some social media posts not too long ago that really stuck with a lot of women. So one famous one reads, ladies, please read this. Ryan, my husband and I were at the mall. We walked out to our cars by seers and Ryan noticed that there was a baby crying in a car with no adult. So we pulled over to that mysterious car, Ryan got out and found out that the window was rolled down a tiny bit and there was no baby

in the car. There was like a tape recorder. It was a recording. Then I noticed that there was another shady car parked several spots down with blacked out windows and I think that this is a setup. These are the kind of setups psychopath killers do to abduct you. Please be careful everyone don't walk to the car or just call security or 911 if you hear a baby crying. Please share this turn for mothers. Wow. Another post read, this was forwarded to me by a friend. They don't know if it's true or not but I'm passing it along. We might see this on the news as like the latest internet hoax, but Joan, my friend, just told me that her friend heard a baby crying on her porch the night before last. She called the police because it was late and she thought it was weird, and the police told her whatever you do do not open the door. The lady said that

the baby had a crawled near a window now, and she could hear the baby through the window, and she was so worried that the baby was going crawl out onto the street and get run over. And the police said, we already have a unit on the way, do not, whatever you do, do not open the door. Then the officer told her that they think there's a killer who uses baby's cries recorded and uses it to lure women out of their homes, thinking that someone dropped off a baby.

He said that it wasn't verified, but several women had called saying that they heard a baby crying outside their door when they're home alone. So these took over the internet by storm, along with the human traffickers that will zip tie your door handle at target parking lots, because that's how they mark you. Many of these have been, I don't know, I don't want to say proven false, because that makes it seem like that's never happened at all, I I don't have the knowledge of that but just they haven't been connected with human trafficking So major advocacy groups to end human trafficking said this is not really a concern

What is not a concern baby crying outside your door? This isn't it seems more of like an urban myth. What is a zip-tight supposed to do? Oh, okay, apparently that's an urban myth too, but it's supposed to make you distracted and try to unzip tie your door handle. And it marks if you're like a single woman. Got it. Cause they work in teams, right?

But because all of this is constantly online and like don't get me wrong, I fall for these all the time. I'm like, honey, honey, I can't go to the target parking lot because they can zip tie my car and put a paper bag on my windshield and jump out from the back and slice my Achilles heel. And he's like, okay. But I think that this case really just resonated with a lot of women because, I mean, these are the messages that we've been hearing. These are the messages online that have been going around for so long and it's like, it's so frustrating, it's wow, really another thing we can't even be kind to people anymore. And then it happened. It didn't happen to some random friend on Reddit, but to someone with a name. It happened to someone with a

face who was so relatable, a young woman who was studying and working, it felt like Carly Russell could have been any one of us. So everyone rallied together to look for her. And then she was found. Almost exactly 49 hours later. July 15th, 2023, Hoover Police received a call from the Russell residents. Carly is home. We don't have that many details at right now about how she got home, but here's what we know so far.

She came home on foot. She didn't drive, nobody dropped her off. she walked home somehow. She was barefoot. She was seen on neighbor's home security cameras walking through the neighborhood alone before arriving home. At first, the fire department, and I'm not sure where exactly the miscommunication came from, but the fire department initially thought Carly was unconscious and unresponsive. But when paramedics arrived at the scene to take care of her, she was responsive and speaking. She was rushed to the hospital to be evaluated. She was briefly questioned by the police, treated, and released.

Now, I am going to go over what the police uncovered in their brief conversation with Carly once she's home and other key pieces of evidence that they found, but before that, let me walk you through the public's perception. Long before yesterday's press conference, there seemed to be a rabbit hole of inconsistencies about this case according to the internet. For one, nobody else reported seeing a child on the side of the highway. And if you just look at the people of Hoover who came together to look for Carly, I feel like this is not a community that would just see a child and go, I'm sure someone

else will deal with it. There were no reported sightings of that said child, but also there were no reports of a missing child that fit the description. But that doesn't mean that the child doesn't exist. It could have been a child that had gone missing long, long ago, or that nobody knew to be missing. But the biggest thing that everyone came back to was, if there was an abductor,

if there was a child on the side of the highway, the police would absolutely announce that they were looking for this victim or they suspect after Carly got home, right? Because for like a week, the police were silent. Okay, for like four days actually, the police were silent. After Carly came home. They released like little tidbits here and there, but they never said,

hey, this is the composite sketch of the guy that we're looking for. Or this is what the baby looks out. Everyone don't go out at night. If you hear a baby on the highway, don't stop. They didn't put out any of these. And so the community is like, are we in danger? Are we not someone let us know? So one side of people believe that Carly was lying and they said, well, they would warn

the public. They would ask the public who's already looking for answers. It's a national case. They would ask the public to be on the lookout. They didn't release any sort of schedule or anything. I mean, allegations that a child was being used to human traffic woman or kidnap someone that's a very big deal. Maybe they're not doing that because there's no abductor.

There's no missing child. Others who were a bit more hesitant to believe someone would lie about something like this, they said, yeah, what the public is already freaking out and creating all these conspiracies, why would the police want the public involved? It would just cause more harm than good. Now, there were other things that the netizens had a hard time wrapping their heads around. There was a whole saga with the Red Roof Inn. So apparently the day after Carly Russell went missing,

there was a Red Roof Inn about 12 minutes away, like five miles away from where Carly went missing on the highway, and a 911 call was made from what appeared to be a worker at the Red Roof Inn. And they stated to authorities that about six cars of family members came in, claiming to be Carly Russell's family members, and they're like pulling up, looking for Carly. The family member stated that Carly personally told them that she was here. What?

So it seems like the family had a personal conversation with Carly, is initially with netizens thought. Well, it was, I guess, kind of disproven depends if you want to take that word for it, but Carly's mother came out to state, there is a horrible and heartless hoax we want to address out of several. I received a text at some point from someone claiming to be Carly, and that she was at the red roof in.

However, when my family went there and knocked doors and looked for her, there was no indication that Carly was there nor had she ever been there. Either way, I'm mentioning this because a lot of netizens focused on it, you know, this part of the case, because it just seemed just peculiar, just strange. Now, Carly's parents were supporting her from the minute that she went missing and from the minute that she got back. They firmly believed that Carly has been kidnapped,

even when she got back. They still believed without a shadow of doubt that their daughters of doctor is still out there. They stated, Carly gave her kidnapped, even when she got back. They still believe without a shadow of doubt that their daughters of doctor is still out there. They stated, Carly gave her a statement to the police so that the police can continue to pursue the kidnappers. But a lot of people, for some reason, don't really like their media interviews. I've seen a lot of videos, maybe too many videos,

over analyzing the parent's body language. And again, while I do find body language experts to be fascinating and oftentimes insightful, I think especially with crime cases, it's way too speculative to be productive, but many netizens just didn't like how the parents were speaking of the case. So they didn't like their body language,

but they also didn't like what they were actually saying, like the words they were using. The parents kept mentioning that anything regarding the actual case, they weren't gonna talk about it. They said that they weren't allowed to discuss it. I guess Netizens felt as if everything sounded like they had lured up. Which again is pure speculation, and it doesn't really matter to the case. I think anyone that is having a conversation with law enforcement would do well to have a lawyer, but that's just me, okay? The Netizens did not like this. And Carly's parents said, it's been rough.

And that while Carly was missing, they had received countless malicious messages lying about where Carly was, that they knew something about Carly. Carly's mom stated that she didn't know how people could be so evil. She said, now Carly is having to deal with the trauma of people just making up completely false allegations about her.

When was this speech given? This was after Carly was found. She was like, now that she's home, she's with this trauma that she's already endured. Now people are making up conspiracies that maybe she hadn't been kidnapped, maybe the kid didn't exist. There were conspiracies of, maybe she was on drugs and hallucinating.

Nobody else saw the kid, right? The parents also were asked about the condition that Carly was returned home in. And that's something the whole world wanted to know. Was she injured? Did she have something to say? What did she go through? The parents were asked, what did you do when you saw her? And her mom said, she was not in a good state.

We tried to hug her as best we could, but we had to stand back and let medical professionals work with her. They stated that the past 49 hours that Carly was missing, and I quote, there were moments she had to physically fight for her life and mentally fight for her life. Aside detail that netizens were kind of picking apart was that a correspondent that spoke with Carly's parents that that Carly's parents had said, you know, we always warned Carly that something that that Carly's parents had said, you know, we always warned Carly that something like this could happen.

They warned her that someone might try to use a child to lure her in. What? Okay. So like one of those internet things. Yeah, that like, you know, we keep sending around. We share to the family. Group chats were like, hey guys, be careful.

Right? Maybe it was like that. But I think they were saying it just as like, hey, we're worried that something like this was gonna happen. But I think they were saying it just as like, hey, we're worried that something like this was going to happen. But a lot of doubting netizens felt like, I don't know, there's too many coincidences. And again, this does not me personally stating an opinion, just presenting what I could find during my research. And since this case is very difficult to cover without including a lot of the public discourse, a lot of netizens were like, it seems like she took inspiration from that

warning. Carly Russell's boyfriend also posted on social media when Carly was found safe, he wrote, Thank you to my lord and savior Jesus Christ for saving my girlfriend's life. I have been going non-stop since I received a call that she was missing on Thursday night. I know she would have done the same for me. So I wasn't going to give up until I saw her face again. I was straight tunnel vision, even though I would get on social media in my downtime and see some of the false allegations and assumptions about me having something to do with her abduction. She was literally fighting for her life for 48 hours so until she's physically

and mentally stable again she is not able to give updates or wearabouts on her kidnap at this very moment. Carly's parents have also released more statements on social media on one Facebook post from Carly's mother it reads, and this is shortened for clarity. Great morning, my husband and I want to make this statement again as we did last night. It's nothing more to add or take away from how we're feeling right now.

God is faithful and he has answered our prayers. We are so grateful to each one of you for all your acts of kindness, generosity, and compassion that you've shown. We do ask for privacy at this time to allow us to just love on our daughter and each other with our close friends and family. For everyone that has messaged or called to rejoice with us, we are so grateful for your concern. Just as we made a commitment to not entertain negative thoughts during the time our daughter was missing, we surely will not entertain negative thoughts and statements,

invalidated opinions or sheer ignorance at such a joyous time. We pray that those that doubt God's powers, miracles and the power of faith will be encouraged to draw closer to Him and learn the power of positive affirmations and unwavering faith. Be blessed, the wrestles. They also released another statement to address rumors about donations

that were made to assist in the search of Carly. So a lot of people started speculating because Carly came home and for days she was silent and for days the police didn't release like a be on the lookout for this serial killer or this subductor or this child. They started to question, did Carly do this for attention and money? Like the Crime Stoppers reward, who is that going to go to? Any donations for the search parties, Who's that going to go to? So the rest all stated that they gave the money back to crime stoppers who will return

the money to the rightful donors. The family denied any existence of any sort of girl fund me, and they also stated, when we initially asked for the help of the public in searching and praying for Carly's safe return, we asked for sincere prayers, not prayers or support that came with strings or entitlement. Please understand our mental state and the anguish we have experienced and that Carly is still dealing with and understand that no matter how many demands or false narratives that are produced, we will not be bullied into doing anything that will compromise our daughter's mental well-being or the investigation.

We will not entertain the negative social media comments with the response, so you can find someone else to do it. Yeah, I mean see I can see both sides right. Yeah, but the problem is the less you speak the most speculation people is going to draw too. So a situation like this like people just want some kind of answer. So unless you give them some answer it's only going to get bigger right. Yeah, and I think when you're dealing with the general public, like I'm sure each one of us can sit here as an individual and say, well, I would never, right? But I think when you talk about a big, large, massive people,

it's gonna work in the most basic way of human psychology. If they felt they have poured time and effort into this, they're gonna feel entitled to answers, and that's just how it works. Yeah, I think some transparency goes a long way. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, or just, I think maybe even just the wording could have been a bit better.

Yeah, just like, hey guys, she's really not okay right now. Please, I'm so sorry. Like I know you guys deserve answers, but like give me a second, you know? But it was just, I guess people were very upset with this statement. Now, according to sources, Carly's dad said Carly had been struggling with quote, bad dreams and moments where some things would make her cringe slash afraid, like loud noises.

She had quote, different triggers since she got back. He said the whole family is traumatized. So it sounds like they're working closely with the police. They said, we don't want to do anything that would hinder the investigation. Things like that. So were the police on the same page? Not really. And we actually got that impression long before the press conference.

The police said a lot without saying a lot in the development of this case. They came out to say that they weren't looking for a child. They came out to say that no child has been reported missing. They came out to say that nobody else on this busy highway had seen that child. They also stated that after Carly was found, they were giving her time. A lot of people thought that was weird.

You wouldn't say that in an investigation when a dangerous kidnapping perpetrator is on the loose. You wouldn't say that if there's a serial killer on the loose, time is of the essence every law enforcement agency knows that. Finally, they gave a press conference July 19th on Wednesday and they kind of painted entirely different picture of what happened and I just want to make it very clear. We don't know for sure at all what happened in these 49 hours that she was missing, even law enforcement admit to that. Until we know there is really no way to say that

one person is definitively guilty or not guilty or did something or didn't do something or telling the truth or not. Police have gotten it wrong before but um it's not looking good. They had so many different levels of law enforcement on this case and so many damning things have come out in the press conference. Let's dissect everything. The police stated that they were still investigating and they wouldn't stop until they could account for all 49 hours that Carly was missing. And even though the investigation isn't over, they felt as if they owed it to the citizens

to give them the facts of the case. The police stated that after Carly came back home, they were able to briefly talk to her about what had happened, while she had been missing for the past 49 hours. She stated that while she was driving down the highway, she saw a little child on the side of the road unattended. Okay, we know that. She called 911. She got out of her car to check on the child.

She said that there was a man that was hiding in the shadows of the trees. He came out and started mumbling about how, oh, I'm just checking on the child too. But before Carly could do anything, the man picked her up and she screamed, dropped her phone, and she told the police he made her go over her fence, forced her into a car, and the next thing she remembers is being an 18-wheeler, in like the back of one of those big trucks. She said that there was a woman there too, but she only heard her voice and never saw the woman. She could also hear a baby crying. What did the man look like?

She said that he had orange hair and a bald spot in the back. She said that she was able to get out of the truck, start running, but they caught her again. She was thrown into a car this time. They blindfolded her, but they told her that they don't want to tire up because they don't want to leave any impressions or like marks on her wrists. They drove till they came to a house. They took her inside this house. They forced her to get naked and she thinks that they took nude photos of her, but she doesn't remember any physical contact. She remembers the next day the woman fed her cheese crackers and played with her hair. But Carly didn't remember anything else in the 49 hours.

At some point she was put back into a car and she managed to escape and she said that she was in the west Hoover area, so she just started running and running and running. She ran past through a lot of woods until she got home. So all of this is very vague. There's not actual descriptions of how she escaped and what the house looked like. Or 49 hours is a long lengthy period of time, especially if you've been kidnapped by criminals. These people don't just hang out for 49 hours.

I mean, most kidnapping cases, these people are doing things in 49 hours. Yeah. The day Carly came back home, investigators took note of visual wounds that they saw. So this is not to say that these are the only wounds that she has and I don't know if police, I'm sure that they've obtained her medical records, but from the press conference and from this initial interview with Carly when she got home, the officer said that she had a small, indrater lip and she stated that her head hurt.

Other things that were kind of odd is that she had $107 in cash that was stuffed in her right sock. Okay. So it sounds like what everyone else thought was going to happen, you know, she was abducted by human traffickers that lured her in with the toddler and maybe they were amateurs or maybe they didn't realize that this would cause such a national uproar so they freaked out and let her go or they let her escape somehow. Well, during the press conference, the chief of Hoover Police revealed they went through Carly's phone. Secret service was actually involved in the analysis of Carly's phone because it was left in the grass. Remember? Carly made... Yeah, that Secret service was involved. Yeah, and her phone was working and all that. Okay.

Carly made a lot of questionable internet searches. July 11th two days before she went missing, she searched. Do you have to pay for an amber alert? July 13th the day she went missing, she searched. How to take money from a register without being caught? What? Birmingham bus station. One way bus ticket from Birmingham to Nashville to part your date, July 13th. And lastly, the one that the internet has been up in arms about.

The movie taken. Yeah, okay. It's a classic, but maybe if you guys are international listeners, the movie taken, it's the, I'll find you that one. Yeah, it's about a 17 year old girl that gets kidnapped in Paris and her father is like an XCIA agent who does everything to find her. He does and he exposes a huge, like, human trafficking market for the elite in the process. So, there are other searches to computer searches that were made at

Carly's place of work. They said things like maximum age for an amber alert. Police said that there were other searches on Carly's phone that shed that quote shed light on her mindset. But because of respect for her privacy, the police have not released those statements are those statements. Are those searches? Wow. There's more. As for the night that she went missing, we get a few more details from law enforcement. So she left work like we mentioned. CCTV cameras show that she took a dark colored robe from her workplace. It's kind of insinuated that she stole it, so I don't know.

She took toilet paper and other items belonging to the business when she left. She ordered them at a train and food, picked it up. And then she went to Target like we said, and we get a more precise description of what she bought. She bought granola bars and cheesets. She stayed in the parking lot for a minute before heading back to drive home. She was on the phone with people she knew until she hung up to call the police about the child. Now, most of this we already knew, but the alarming thing that comes out is her purse and the Mediterranean food was found in her car.

Her wig and her phone were found in the grass outside of the car, but the robe, the toilet paper roll that she took from work amongst other things and the granola bars and cheesets from Target were not in her car. What if she ate it? No wrappers were in her car. So it's okay she never trashed had the opportunity to trash those things. Exactly. So she still had it on her is what?

Okay. And if you're being kidnapped I don't know if your kidnappers like hold on grab your cheesets. What kind of rope are you talking about? And she works at a day spot like a medical spa. So I'm thinking maybe it's like one of those bath ropes that they put on before they like massage you. Okay, got it.

Yeah, they were not in the car, they were not anywhere near the car. So people thought that was really odd. Like if you're getting kidnapped, typically the kidnapper is not like, let me rifle through your car first. And if they would, why wouldn't they take your valuables, like your cash, your wallet, versus granola bars?

Right. It sounds... But why would someone do this, though, I guess? To a lot of people, their speculation is that she planned the kidnapping and she needed food. She needed toilet paper, maybe a change of clothes. But why, right? Okay, so there is why out there,

and I'm not actually gonna go into it because it's really crazy. I've seen some crazy wise out there that it's speculating that she wanted to make her boyfriend jealous, that she wanted her boyfriend to be concerned about her, that she was flunking out of nursing school, that her parents were too strict.

Like, I don't know, There's so many speculations. None of them have been verified because it's all people being like, oh, I know them, or I know a friend who knows them. And this is what they said, right? So we don't know if these people are making up lies for attention. We don't know.

But I can only imagine when it comes out, it'll just be weird. Yeah. Another thing is police released in the press conference. Like I said, that she drove 600 yards after she told 911 that she was going to follow the child until police got there. And they're saying, a barefoot kid, a three-year-old running the length of six football fields in the wooded area, not even flat terrain.

Skeptical. You know? Now, police also stated that they asked for a second interview and Carly has since declined. Her parents have stated that she is not in the right mental or physical space because of the trauma. Authorities stated that they have no reports of toxicology reports, whether they ordered one or not, I'm not sure. They also stated that they at least have no knowledge of any mental illness history.

And I think before this press conference, myself included, I was like, wait, okay, let's hold off on making any assumptions just because something is unlikely or crazy doesn't make it untrue. But the press conference so far has shed kind of a damning light on the situation. And add to that, even before the press conference, there were a lot of people that were already doubting what happened to her. Or at least doubting that this was a human trafficking scheme. A few huge names that have dedicated much of their time to ending human trafficking have come forward to talk about the case. Some more directly than others, but the end message was pretty much, it's not impossible, but it's highly unlikely.

Many activists stated that the idea that human traffickers would use a baby to lure unsuspecting helpful women to be trafficked just isn't practical. They said the sad part about human trafficking that most people don't want to come to terms with is it's done by people you know. That new person that you started dating your family member your friend. They will lure you to be human trafficked since they already have that established foundation of trust. It would cause too much of a scene to kidnap someone for human trafficking, especially someone that unfortunately it's maybe the kidnappings for human trafficking are more common in different parts of the world or in different communities of potentially sex workers could be huge victims, runaway teens,

are huge victims, but when you're talking about a 25 year old established woman who is driving a red Mercedes, it's too much attention. At the end of the day, human traffickers have a business, quote, they're evil, they're evil business, right? And they like to protect their quote business. So they're not going to take that big of a risk unless they have to.

I mean, leaving her car there on the highway with her wig and phone left behind, that's a huge risk. It's not even, oh, she's 25. Maybe she didn't want to be home anymore. It's clear there was foul play. Nobody would look at that and say, she's an adult. She just wanted to do her thing. So a lot of these activists said it just isn't in tune with what we've been dealing with.

And the CEO of the National Children's Alliance stated, not about this case in particular, but in general, we want to believe that people trafficking children are unknown, nefarious, shadowy creatures. It makes us uncomfortable to think that some of these things could happen in our own communities, in our own schools, with people who you know. Sabrina Thurlander, communications director of Polaris, the nonprofit that runs the National Human Trafficking Hotline said, as far as we are aware, this is not a tactic that traffickers use. She said that if this is true, if the traffickers use a baby delura victim, it would be contrary

to how traffickers almost always operate in the United States. She continued, abduction is not completely unheard of, but it is very unlikely. So if it's not human trafficking, which with the new press conference, I don't know where you stand, but let's try to entertain something that did happen to her, right? Some people thought maybe it wasn't a random abduction by a stranger, maybe it was someone that she knew that followed her, or maybe someone at work that roofied her and she hallucinated into thinking that she saw child, they followed her home and thought this is the perfect opportunity.

The theory has a hiccup when CCTV cameras showed no other car pulling up and the police said that they tracked her from her workplace to the highway and there's no evidence that she was being followed by any vehicles. So again, I think with the Google searches, both theories are pretty hard to entertain right now. So the next two theories would be more on par, which is, did Carly have a psychological breakdown? Maybe there were things going on in her life or she had a mental condition condition that we and maybe even she herself was not aware of that led her to hallucinate, black out or go into a false date of psychosis. Maybe she fully believes her version of events. And again, legally clarifying, I'm not saying her version of events isn't true, but maybe

she believes everything to be true. We don't know, right? We don't know. There's we don't know and hope I think we'll find out but as of right now We don't know. There is a different variation of this theory though. Is this this just a hoax? Did she plan it? Is this another Sherry Papini? Her name has been coming up a lot and for context we've talked about her before in this pod. Sherry Papini was a mom of two She was a mom of two. She was a wife to Keith Pipini from Northern California. She went missing. She went for a run and vanished.

Authorities found her phone with the headphones wrapped around it, on her running trail, and like a big chunk of her hair on the ground. She went missing for weeks, and the whole nation was looking for her. They were like, oh my god, this poor mother, this poor wife, we were praying for her, we're grieving for her and her poor family. And then she makes it back alive. And people are like thanking the Lord, but they were also very surprised, you know?

She told the world that she was being held captive by two Hispanic women that were honestly racist stereotypes of Hispanic women. Turned out to be a lie. She was staying with an ex-boyfriend. She had planned her whole disappearance and, quote, reappeared on the side of the road wearing restraints. She was sentenced to 18 months in federal prison and required to pay more than $300,000

in restitution. I will say though, Sherry's story is, um, look whether it connects to this case or not, it was insane. Like balls to the walls, marbles gone out the door. She really actually branded herself literally with a hot brand of a Bible verse Like an exodus verse on her shoulder. She had bruises all over her body. Her nose was broken. She did it to herself Her hair was chopped off. She lost a big chunk of weight Her weight was like 87 pounds when she was released from her captors quote So she really really worked to sell the story that she had been kidnapped and abused. She was gone for 22 days. So if it's not psychosis or some other sort of somewhat explainable mental health condition, a lot of people

believe that Carly might have faked her disappearance for whatever reason, whether it's like Sherry in the sense that Sherry just really didn't want to deal with her problems anymore. She was like, okay, I'm kind of over my life. Or some people think that Carly wanted attention. Some people think that Carly wanted attention, not from the nation. She probably didn't think it was going to get this big. If that's the theory we're running with, entertaining right now. So when she was searching like about Amber Alert, she's trying like the Google search is I guess the speculation with those Google searches and this is pure speculation. We have truly no idea what she was thinking is she's trying to see if she would qualify

for an Amber Alert and people think that she doesn't want to qualify for an Amber Alert. So I think her idea if this is the theory we're entertaining, this is alleged. I mean, there's only two things, either she qualifies or she doesn't qualify when she searches. So either she wants the attention from as an Amber Alert or she doesn't want attention as an Amber Alert. Right? Either or. Yeah, I think both way Either way is weird see I don't want to say she faked it

I don't want to believe she faked it Well, okay, I don't know because any way that you go with this. It's bad if it was a mental breakdown I hope she gets the help that she needs and I hope that the public is is very Soft with their reception because mental health is a serious issue. But if she faked it for something that wasn't like a full-blown psychosis, it's really not well thought out at all. Like, if you're going to leave your door like that, if you're going to say that there's

a child on the side of the highway, and you're going to think to yourself that law enforcement isn't going to care, is kind of crazy. Yeah. But I will say that there are some people that have gone off the deep end on this theory. People were saying that they knew that she was lying about this whole thing because she said that the boy on the side of the road was like three or four years old, which I know what you're thinking. What does that even mean?

But people were referencing a man named McClish who is often interviewed as an expert of sorts for crime shows. And I just thought this was interesting. Again, I'm not trying to make this like a valid point, but he stated that the number three is the liar's number. He said he doesn't really know why, but after all of his investigative work, if anyone gives him the number three,

so three men attacked me. It was like 3 p.m. They stole $300. He said he always does a double take. He doesn't say that they're lying, but he just pays extra attention to the rest of their details. Which I just thought was kind of what? I didn't even know, right?

So I don't know. If it turns out she's lying, I think it would just really, really suck. I mean, not just the fact that she lied, but the fact that a lot of not-so-great-people will use this as some sort of argument to not care about missing women and particularly missing women of color. I also can imagine if it is proven that she lied, what a nia's mother would feel if this turned out to be fake. The police were asked during the press conference if they were

thinking of pressing charges against Carly Russell and they stated that they were focusing first on the 49 on accounted hours. They haven't even discussed pressing charges but the energy that is being given by news media and everyone it seems like if it turns out to be a hoax, charges will be pressed. A reporter asked the chief of police during the press conference. There has been a concern in the community that if this turns out not to be a true story, that the next woman, a young woman of color, goes missing, it wouldn't be taken seriously. How do you respond to that?

The chief of police said, I would say that we investigate every crime to the fullest, just like we have this one. And regardless of the results of this investigation, just like we have this one. And regardless of the results of this investigation, I say we hold them to that. And again, this is just the information we have right now. And yeah, it doesn't appear to be looking good for Carly. But even the police chief said, I'm the type of guy that says never say never. So again, legally, I'm not saying Carly lied, I'm not saying this is a hoax, but these are just the facts we have right now and how netizens have responded to said information.

So on that note, I'd like to end this part with a note. There is a website called our Black Girls run by journalists and activist Erica Marie Rivers. The website focuses on often untold stories of Black girls and women who have gone missing or were found dead under very suspicious mysterious circumstances. She writes about black girls and women who don't get space on the front pages, like Carly Russell did, or on social media when they disappeared, and she ends every single article the same way, which is she is our sister and her life matters.

So regardless of what this investigation will unravel with Carly Russell and whether it was faked or not and whether or not she will face charges, I hope this just... I hope this opens up a conversation of how little press coverage typically missing people of color get in the media. Because yes, Carly's case got national attention, but there's so many missing black women who get no attention. And yes, Carly's case is pretty shady and controversial right now, but she has absolutely nothing to do with the next black girl or woman that goes missing. And we should just be as passionate about finding the next one as we were about finding Carly Russell.

So with that being said, please stay safe, let me know your thoughts, and I will see you guys on Sunday for the mini-sode. Bye! stay safe, let me know your thoughts and I will see you guys on Sunday for the mini-sode. Bye!