Missing Alabama woman

[lovinmyboys]

I think the her being found alive is not the only reason people think it is a hoax.

The circumstances of her disappearance were odd for a kidnapping. I’m not saying it couldn’t have happened, but why would a kidnapper draw attention to the kidnapping? And the fact that no one else reported a toddler on the side of the road makes it more unlikely. I get it that people drive distracted, but there are passengers. With that busy of a road, someone else should have seen the toddler. 

Now the police aren’t giving any indication that they are looking for someone. It could be that she is unable to give them info to work with, but I would think at this point if she had been kidnapped we would see some investigative activity. (Maybe there is something I have missed here).

I don’t know that it is any more unkind to speculate on this case than on any true crime story. I am very glad she was found safe and I hope she is able to access the help she needs.

[Idalou]

 

 

[Ann.without.an.e]

Idk y’all … I have no clue what happened but I’ll stand by my original sentiment - I just don’t get a hoax vibe from this family at all. I may eat those words later but my gut is pretty accurate 95% of the time. I guess we’ll know when we know 🤷🏻‍♀️

[pinball]

Re: the parents’ video

1. Get the daughter a mental health eval & counseling bc even if she didn’t need it before, she’ll need it now.

2. Keep her off all social media and away from TVs, radios, etc. There is absolutely no reason for her to be looking at any of it

3. ~~We can’t talk about the case, but we’ll mention her kidnapper~~ 

[Ann.without.an.e]

3 minutes ago, pinball said:

 

3. ~~We can’t talk about the case, but we’ll mention her kidnapper~~ 

 

Mentioning that there was a kidnapper isn't giving any case details. If my daughter was kidnapped (or I truly believed she was kidnapped) and she didn't have any history leading me to believe she was making it up and others were blaming her for a hoax, you better d@mn well believe I would drop, in passing, the mention of a kidnapper. Just to get people to chill.

ETA: Nothing has been mentioned about this girl having a history of this sort of thing. She seems like a very together person. If it were one of my dd's I would be so angry at people for assuming this about them. 

Edited July 18, 2023 by Ann.without.an.e

[pinball]

1 minute ago, Ann.without.an.e said:

 

Mentioning that there was a kidnapper isn't giving any case details. If my daughter was kidnapped (or I truly believed she was kidnapped) and she didn't have any history leading me to believe she was making it up and others were blaming her for a hoax, you better d@mn well believe I would drop, in passing, the mention of a kidnapper. Just to get people to chill. 

If they wanted people to “chill” they never should have done the interview. They could have released a simple statement through a family friend thanking people for all the help and asking for privacy as their daughter heals.

They are prolonging the story being in the spotlight by doing the interview

[Ann.without.an.e]

2 minutes ago, pinball said:

If they wanted people to “chill” they never should have done the interview. They could have released a simple statement through a family friend thanking people for all the help and asking for privacy as their daughter heals.

They are prolonging the story being in the spotlight by doing the interview

 

OR, simply saying "we need privacy, our daughter needs to heal" just fuels the speculation. People and media are vicious and you know that they have been torturing them for comments, begging for just a small interview....maybe this is their way of getting some peace. I love that you are so confident about what should be done or what you would do in these sort of situations. I have not a clue what I would do! I know how I would hope to handle it. The emotional load alone is enough to leave you at a loss or confused. Sometimes, if you don't speak up, others create their own reality in your absence. 

[Meriwether]

On 7/17/2023 at 8:53 AM, Heartstrings said:

The same thing happens every year with kids left in hot cars.  A whole lot of  "I would never" and not nearly enough "There, but for the grace of God, go I".  

My youngest was left in the car, thankfully in the evening and thankfully someone found her before it got desparate. She was big enough to unbuckle but didn't know how to unlock the van. It is a long story, but my husband thought she went in with the other kids. The kid who knew she was sleeping saw my husband going around to that side of the vehicle and thought he was getting her. They were late to class and so they didn't walk in together, everyone just went as they grabbed stuff. She was too little for class; she just went along because she liked hanging out. She went sometimes but not others, so no one thought anything about her not being there.

We are very purposeful parents. The common refrain was, "If it could happen to Family Name, it could happen to anyone." And it could. We were lucky that she didn't die that day. 

[pinball]

25 minutes ago, Ann.without.an.e said:

 

OR, simply saying "we need privacy, our daughter needs to heal" just fuels the speculation. People and media are vicious and you know that they have been torturing them for comments, begging for just a small interview....maybe this is their way of getting some peace. I love that you are so confident about what should be done or what you would do in these sort of situations. I have not a clue what I would do! I know how I would hope to handle it. The emotional load alone is enough to leave you at a loss or confused. Sometimes, if you don't speak up, others create their own reality in your absence. 

A simple rule is “when the ‘stuff’ hits the fan, turn off the fan.” 

People have already  “created their own realities”…check out this thread!…and doing an interview like that isn’t changing anything. It’s just keeping the situation in the public eye.

Someone linked it here, didn’t they?
 

 

[rebcoola]

31 minutes ago, Meriwether said:

My youngest was left in the car, thankfully in the evening and thankfully someone found her before it got desparate. She was big enough to unbuckle but didn't know how to unlock the van. It is a long story, but my husband thought she went in with the other kids. The kid who knew she was sleeping saw my husband going around to that side of the vehicle and thought he was getting her. They were late to class and so they didn't walk in together, everyone just went as they grabbed stuff. She was too little for class; she just went along because she liked hanging out. She went sometimes but not others, so no one thought anything about her not being there.

We are very purposeful parents. The common refrain was, "If it could happen to Family Name, it could happen to anyone." And it could. We were lucky that she didn't die that day. 

We still dont know what exactly happened but we were with our best friends and one of their kids just didn't get out of the car when we got to his house he was 3ish.  The kids all ran off to play. Luckily it was evening not summer and he wasnt in their long.  We started looking when he didn't come when called for dinner.

[busymama7]

2 hours ago, rebcoola said:

We still dont know what exactly happened but we were with our best friends and one of their kids just didn't get out of the car when we got to his house he was 3ish.  The kids all ran off to play. Luckily it was evening not summer and he wasnt in their long.  We started looking when he didn't come when called for dinner.

My 2 year old was left in the van once.  I arrived at the location separately with a teen and when everyone walked up without the child I immediately asked and went running for the car. It wasn't hot and wasn't long but but but.  My husband isn't used to the load all the kids and unload them and thought an older kid in the back was going to get him. They did get the one year old.   Things happen.  I wish they didn't and no one would ever make mistakes but the reality is that they do happen. 

[Tenaj]

I thought of this thread when I read our local news story today about a 15 month old who wandered away from a babysitter (17 years old) and was struck and killed on a busy road.  This happened yesterday in Ohio.  

I don't know what happened in Alabama, but in Ohio yesterday there was no good Samaritan to help this baby be safe when he needed somebody and it makes me cry to think about the parents, the siblings, the babysitter and the driver who hit this little guy.

[lovinmyboys]

I have absolutely had close calls with toddlers and cars. At my oldest son’s birthday party my neighbor rang the doorbell holding my youngest son. It was so scary- he said he was driving home and he saw him walking alone in the middle of the road. He was just a very young toddler. Thankfully we lived on a quiet street and people generally drove slowly, but I felt so awful. Dh was deployed and it was only me. I had done a great job making sure the gate to the backyard was closed the whole party, but then when parents started arriving I got distracted. In hindsight I should have asked another adult to stay and help. But thankfully, everything turned out fine.

And another time my then 3yr old decided to go play in our van and we looked for him for a long time (no clue how long- but it seemed long) before we found him. Thankfully it was not hot, but that also scared me. He had gotten himself into the van and then couldn’t get out. He was so upset when we found him. I felt awful.

[Mrs Tiggywinkle Again]

The kids and I went out to eat one night when my youngest was 3. So they would have been 8, 5 and 3.  DH was working and my five year old had to go to the bathroom, so I told my 8 year old to sit in the booth with his brother while I took her to the bathroom.

Of course when I came back out the 3 year old was missing. My 8 year old said he had followed us back towards the bathrooms, but since my 3 year old was nonverbal at the time the older one assumed he just needed to go potty and couldn’t tell anyone.  
We were just about ready to call the police after the restaurant workers and other patrons helped search for him.  Then someone came in asking for a phone to call 911 because there was a toddler left alone in a car.  My kid had apparently decided it was time to leave and gone out to the unlocked car, where he was sitting in the drivers seat happily sticking his tongue out at anyone who passed by.

Literally the only reason I haven’t made the news due to parenting disasters is pure luck.

[AnotherNewName]

5 hours ago, Ann.without.an.e said:

Idk y’all … I have no clue what happened but I’ll stand by my original sentiment - I just don’t get a hoax vibe from this family at all. I may eat those words later but my gut is pretty accurate 95% of the time. I guess we’ll know when we know 🤷🏻‍♀️

Why would there be a hoax vibe from the family?  There is no reason to believe they are involved. 

I am not sure this is even a hoax as much as someone having some kind of mental breakdown, in which case I can see the family continuing to believe the story she is telling.  However, the information we have starting from the unlikely abduction scenario to the mysterious return on foot (and the lack of police comment afterwards regarding information about the alleged abductor) certainly provides enough clues to reasonably conclude that something is amiss. 

 

[teachermom2834]

I’ve had close calls. I left my now 20 yo alone in a car while I ran into a grocery store. It was the classic change of plans scenario. All day I had planned to run this errand to grab an item for dinner and he wasn’t supposed to be with me. Then at the last minute he had fussed about me leaving him so I took him with me. I was walking out of the store thinking to myself how crazy it was that I actually got in and out without running into someone to chat my ear off or getting stuck behind someone slow in line. I get in my van and hear whimpering in the back and that was the first time I even thought about the baby. He was too little to tell anyone about it but he brought it up a year later when he could talk. 
 

I lost track of my dd when she was a toddler. My 10 yo found her- in the deep end of a pool. He jumped in fully clothed and rescued her. 
 

I am only telling these stories now that they are grown and I won’t lose custody. But I’m really an awesome attentive parent! So I put away my judgy pants a long time ago on this stuff. 

[lauraw4321]

My kids' daycare was conveniently close by to my office. I was in the middle of a very big transaction and thinking of all of the things I had to do that day. I drove straight to the office. When I parked the car, my oldest said "Mommy, why are we here?" She was 3, sister was 1. I'm fairly certain they would have died. She was still in the harness style buckles and didn't have the hand strength to undo them. 

I still feel sick thinking about it. My husband spent some time developing some ideas to prevent hot car deaths. He decided it wasn't patentable, but I bet if I brought it up he'd start working on it again. We both knew that it was a "there but for the grace of God.." situation.

Edited July 18, 2023 by lauraw4321
Spelling

[mommyoffive]

31 minutes ago, lauraw4321 said:

My kids' daycare was conveniently close by to my office. I was in the middle of a very big transaction and thinking of all of the things I had to do that day. I drove straight to the office. When I parked the car, my oldest said "Mommy, why are we here?" She was 3, sister was 1. I'm fairly certain they would have died. She was still in the harness style buckles and didn't have the hand strength to undo them. 

I still feel sick thinking about it. My husband spent some time developing some ideas to prevent hot car deaths. He decided it wasn't patentable, but I bet if I brought it up he'd start working on it again. We both knew that it was a "there but for the grave of God.." situation.

I am not sure what is going on with baby/infant carseats these day, but I thought years ago things were starting to come along on that with sensors or something.  Maybe hard to do with a sensor in the carseat to go off when a car is parked.  My car after I turn it off always beeps and then on the display says to check the backseat or something along those lines.

[Heartstrings]

7 minutes ago, mommyoffive said:

y car after I turn it off always beeps and then on the display says to check the backseat or something along those lines.

Those get ignored though.  Your brain gets used to not paying attention to it and ignores it the 999 out of 1000 that you did take the kid to school and that 1 time your brain also thinks it took the kids to school so you ignore it as usual.  I do it all the time with my cell phone timers.  
 

It’s not that there aren’t ways to offer some protection, it’s an issue of liability. If you ignore the sensor as per usual but a baby still dies, the company now has a law suit.  The company might win the lawsuit but now it has the bad press, on top of the lawyer fees and probably a decent settlement with the family to make the whole thing go away. Better to just stay out of it.  

Edited July 18, 2023 by Heartstrings

[mommyoffive]

2 minutes ago, Heartstrings said:

Those get ignored though.  Your brain gets used to not paying attention to it and ignores it the 999 out of 1000 that you did take the kid to school and that 1 time your brain also thinks it took the kids to school so you ignore it as usual.  I do it all the time with my cell phone timers.  
 

It’s not that there aren’t ways to offer some protection, it’s an issue of liability. If you ignore the sensor as per usual but a baby still dies, the company now has a law suit.  The company might win the lawsuit but now it has the bad press, on top of the lawyer fees and probably a decent settlement with the family to make the whole thing go away. Better to just stay out of it.  

I am sure they do by most people.  They don't for me though.  I have had this car for 1.5 years and every time it dings I always look to see why it is talking to me.  It is a pretty mouthy car that drives me nuts always telling me something.  

[lauraw4321]

https://www.al.com/news/2023/07/carlee-russell-bought-snacks-at-target-before-vanishing-was-talking-when-she-returned-home-police-say.html

[Junie]

So I haven't shared my thoughts on this case yet.

At the very beginning, a family member said something like "she would never leave".  And, yet, that is where my brain always goes first, especially if someone says that it would never happen.

We have all experienced overwhelm.  And we don't always know how to handle it.  

So when something like this happens, especially when there's no actual evidence of a kidnapping, I don't think that it's a hoax or any kind of elaborate plan.  I just think that it is probably someone who doesn't know how to face what they are currently experiencing and they are trying to take care of themselves and/or ask for help in the best way they can.

 

 

[Mrs Tiggywinkle Again]

The police are doing a press conference this afternoon.  From all evidence they’ve handled this very well, with both immediate attention and then with compassion.  Hopefully the press conference clears things up, all rumors can stop, and whatever happened, Carlee can begin to heal. 

[Idalou]

I saw on reddit a summary of a 2 hour video. She supposedly has faked stuff like this before, according to friends. They were conducting their own search for her. They claimed she was driving so slow with her lights flashing because she was looking for a path through the trees.They are assuming she was at the hotel most of these 2 days.

[KSera]

Obviously there are a lot of strange things about how this has gone down, but I just heard a detail I hadn't heard before from an interview with the parents where they said they had specifically warned Carlee in the past, before this, not to be lured by a child, no matter how young they look, because it might be a trap. That's very odd, and that's all I'll say about that.

[popmom]

Apparently she lied about all of it. Wow. I just got the news. 
 

Dd just relayed all the info from the press conference. I can’t share details because I’m still on the road. 
 

I hate this so much.

Edited July 19, 2023 by popmom

[Mrs Tiggywinkle Again]

I watched most of the press conference.  They didn’t come right out and say it as the investigation is ongoing but the facts they presented lead to a premeditated hoax.  They were clear that they do not believe there is any danger to the public. 
But if I ever go missing, that is the police department I want to come looking for me.  They had both the FBI and the Secret Service involved very quickly and worked tirelessly to track down every possible lead.

(also, it appears that if you want to just disappear for a few days and stage a kidnapping, multiple google searches on how to stage a kidnapping and steal money out of a register is not a good idea)

Edited July 19, 2023 by Mrs Tiggywinkle Again

[KSera]

7 minutes ago, Mrs Tiggywinkle Again said:

I watched most of the press conference.  They didn’t come right out and say it as the investigation is ongoing but the facts they presented lead to a premeditated hoax.  They were clear that they do not believe there is any danger to the public. 
But if I ever go missing, that is the police department I want to come looking for me.  They had both the FBI and the Secret Service involved very quickly and worked tirelessly to track down every possible lead.

I'm impressed by this police department as well (though I also know nothing about them beyond this case, so if it turns out from other cases that they're actually awful, don't come for me!). But with this case, they've been really methodical and professional. I thought the press conference was handled really well in a "just the facts" way without them saying anything speculative beyond the facts (other than the police chief remarking at one point during the questions that he found it "very strange" that a 3-4 year old child could travel 6 football fields along the side of the highway in that space of time and without ever veering from his path).

One thing that surprised me is how many of the weird details that were shared on social media over the past few days that I ignored as people making stuff up turned out to be true (cheeze-its, stealing stuff from work, saying she had been kept in the back of an 18 wheeler by a man with orange hair).

I think this is the first one of these kinds of cases I have followed like this, as it had a personal connection that caused me to do so, so it's been weird. I'm not a true crime follower or fan at all.

Oh, a comment I was going to make much earlier in the thread, but didn't because it felt inappropriate until we knew what had happened, is that it seemed like all the trafficking focus in the US currently was a big part of why this got so much attention so quickly and why people were so quick to believe a story that was questionable from the start. A whole lot of people immediately jumped on the "she was obviously trafficked and this happens this way all the time" wagon.

Very strange case and I hope Carlee can get some good help to get back on a good trajectory. Something was clearly very off for her to have done this and I am concerned for her how difficult it's likely to be for awhile due to this having gotten so much attention. If I were her family, I would be looking into helping her get into a residential treatment program of some kind for awhile where she can get help away from media, including having access to social media.

[Catwoman]

Personally, I'm shocked that more people didn't even want to entertain the possibility that this was a hoax. The whole situation seemed so implausible to me all along, but I didn't want to post about it because a few people were getting upset at any post that appeared to be "victim blaming," and I didn't want to deal with being accused of being mean and unsympathetic. 

My personal theory all along has been that she did it to get publicity, so she would be able to grow her fame as a social media influencer. I didn't think it was a mental health breakdown or a real kidnapping. I thought she did it to try to become famous and to build her personal brand.

Whatever the case, I'm glad she wasn't actually kidnapped, because I would never wish that on anyone -- but I do hope she is punished for this in some way, and that she will also be required to pay for the monetary cost of all the law enforcement resources that were wasted on this hoax. I am also entirely disgusted with the fact that this mess diverted law enforcement from other true, real, actual crimes. 

 

[stephanier.1765]

A question about hoaxes - if someone does that, are they responsible for reimbursing the cost of the search and investigation?

[catz]

20 minutes ago, Catwoman said:

Personally, I'm shocked that more people didn't even want to entertain the possibility that this was a hoax.

I personally always thought it was a possibility.  Like I would have been surprised if there really was a "toddler" or "luring" involved with a child.   That is the stuff of conspiracy theories.  

I just don't like it when people gossip and dog pile and make assumptions before facts are out.  Now some facts are out..  I also feel for her family.  This must be super stressful for them to suddenly be in the public eye and I haven't seen any evidence that they were involved. 

I also don't think a mentally healthy person would do something like this.  I hope she gets the help she needs and people can stop with the speculation.  I assume authorities will follow up with charges if appropriate.  

Law enforcement deals with minor domestic stuff constantly that doesn't make the national news and is a waste of their time and resources.   Over 80-90% of missing people are run aways or missing for benign reasons.  I'm not saying there shouldn't be charges.  I fully trust there will be if it's appropriate.  I just don't think she should get extra lashings because everyone got sucked into this story and the media sensationalized and speculated and ran with it.

This law enforcement org seems to be dealing with this very professionally so kudos to them for that.  

 

[Catwoman]

12 minutes ago, catz said:

I personally always thought it was a possibility.  Like I would have been surprised if there really was a "toddler" or "luring" involved with a child.   That is the stuff of conspiracy theories.  

I just don't like it when people gossip and dog pile and make assumptions before facts are out.  Now some facts are out..  I also feel for her family.  This must be super stressful for them to suddenly be in the public eye and I haven't seen any evidence that they were involved. 

I also don't think a mentally healthy person would do something like this.  I hope she gets the help she needs and people can stop with the speculation.  I assume authorities will follow up with charges if appropriate.  

Law enforcement deals with minor domestic stuff constantly that doesn't make the national news and is a waste of their time and resources.   Over 80-90% of missing people are run aways or missing for benign reasons.  I'm not saying there shouldn't be charges.  I fully trust there will be if it's appropriate.  I just don't think she should get extra lashings because everyone got sucked into this story and the media sensationalized and speculated and ran with it.

This law enforcement org seems to be dealing with this very professionally so kudos to them for that.  

 

I think she was an opportunist. I doubt think her mental health had anything to do with it.

She was trying to be an online influencer, and maybe her line of thinking was, what better way to gain international attention for herself if she had nothing else to offer? 

I mean, I have no idea why she did it, but this seems to have been planned in advance, so I'm not suspecting a mental breakdown. I really think she thought she would get away with it and become famous as a result.

[mommyoffive]

1 hour ago, Catwoman said:

Personally, I'm shocked that more people didn't even want to entertain the possibility that this was a hoax. The whole situation seemed so implausible to me all along, but I didn't want to post about it because a few people were getting upset at any post that appeared to be "victim blaming," and I didn't want to deal with being accused of being mean and unsympathetic. 

My personal theory all along has been that she did it to get publicity, so she would be able to grow her fame as a social media influencer. I didn't think it was a mental health breakdown or a real kidnapping. I thought she did it to try to become famous and to build her personal brand.

Whatever the case, I'm glad she wasn't actually kidnapped, because I would never wish that on anyone -- but I do hope she is punished for this in some way, and that she will also be required to pay for the monetary cost of all the law enforcement resources that were wasted on this hoax. I am also entirely disgusted with the fact that this mess diverted law enforcement from other true, real, actual crimes. 

 

I haven't watched the news in over a month so I was woefully behind on this case.  But after watching the video of her car that someone posted on here it didn't make a lot of sense.  However I do think that some criminals are dumb and I do think that some criminals lure people or children with different things.  

I hope her family gets her help.  However, if this is all pointing to a hoax then I think her parents are kind of wrong for the interview they gave the other day.  But maybe they just didn't have all the facts yet.  I am upset with her for doing this because of the amount of man hours and money that was devoted to her if it was all a hoax is incredibly wasteful and they could have been spent on people who really are victims of crime.

[Heartstrings]

1 hour ago, KSera said:

One thing that surprised me is how many of the weird details that were shared on social media over the past few days that I ignored as people making stuff up turned out to be true (cheeze-its, stealing stuff from work, saying she had been kept in the back of an 18 wheeler by a man with orange hair).

I know it sounds strange but tik tok as a whole usually gets a good sense of these things pretty quickly.  I think it’s because friends and family of victim already have an established “para social relationship” with different tik tokers.  That makes them feel more comfortable sharing screen shots of Twitter or text messages.  Either the friends wouldn’t feel comfortable going to a reporter or would be blown off by a reporter.   Also in this case there was a racial component in a good way where black tik tokers were really blowing up different parts of the story.  It’s possible that Carlee’s black friends were more comfortable going to black tik tokers than to stereotypically white reporters.  

[Catwoman]

39 minutes ago, stephanier.1765 said:

A question about hoaxes - if someone does that, are they responsible for reimbursing the cost of the search and investigation?

I don't know, but I certainly hope so!

[Heartstrings]

32 minutes ago, catz said:

Law enforcement deals with minor domestic stuff constantly that doesn't make the national news and is a waste of their time and resources.   Over 80-90% of missing people are run aways or missing for benign reasons.  I'm not saying there shouldn't be charges.  I fully trust there will be if it's appropriate.  I just don't think she should get extra lashings because everyone got sucked into this story and the media sensationalized and speculated and ran with it.

I would agree if she just disappeared quietly and was reported as missing while she sat on a beach.  Adults have the right to disappear as they see fit.   I feel like this case is different in that *she* involved law enforcement from the start.  She didn’t have to make a false report to 911 about a toddler, setting up a fake kidnapping.  She didn’t have to fake a scream on the phone to a family member, after fake talking to the fake child.  
The media attention isn’t why she should be punished, faking a kidnapping is.  She wasn’t innocently MIA with a worried family, she *faked* a kidnapping and involved law enforcement herself from the jump. 

[teachermom2834]

I am always so surprised what people think they can get away with. Everytime I search something unusual on my phone I think to myself “good golly if I go missing this is going to be embarrassing when they see this.” 

I always told my teens not to lie or cheat and think they would get away with it. I mean, I really want you not to lie or cheat because I raised you better and you are a good upstanding citizen but if you can’t be righteous for goodness sake know YOU WILL GET CAUGHT! Seriously with the technology out there I don’t know how people think they can make up these stories. 

Edited July 19, 2023 by teachermom2834

[Heartstrings]

I do think investigating and taking her disappearance at face value at the start was the right thing to do.  It’s better to treat one hoax as a real kidnapping until proven otherwise than to dismiss one kidnapping as a hoax and not bothering to investigate.  

Edited July 19, 2023 by Heartstrings

[mommyoffive]

6 minutes ago, Heartstrings said:

I would agree if she just disappeared quietly and was reported as missing while she sat on a beach.  Adults have the right to disappear as they see fit.   I feel like this case is different in that *she* involved law enforcement from the start.  She didn’t have to make a false report to 911 about a toddler, setting up a fake kidnapping.  She didn’t have to fake a scream on the phone to a family member, after fake talking to the fake child.  
The media attention isn’t why she should be punished, faking a kidnapping is.  She wasn’t innocently MIA with a worried family, she *faked* a kidnapping and involved law enforcement herself from the jump. 

This is what I don't understand.  I am not on any social media so maybe she is and wanted fame or followers and that was her motivation to do it.  If you just wanted to walk out of your life and get away from something why do that?  Makes no sense.

[AnotherNewName]

Based on the amount of planning she put into this I can't see how this can now be written off as some kind of mental breakdown.  

[SHP]

1 minute ago, AnotherNewName said:

Based on the amount of planning she put into this I can't see how this can now be written off as some kind of mental breakdown.  

I didn't get the vibe of putting a lot of planning into it. Or maybe that is just my obsessive level of planning from parenting teens in multiple activities. I wouldn't have had to stop at Target for food or steal a robe from work and I know that if I left my phone they would be pulling my search and location history from it and probably get my search history from any device I was associated with. It just seems like a large amount of oversight, if she really put a lot of energy into planning this. Or maybe I have the benefit of age and spending time in cars with hangry, bity teenagers to gain valuable planning skills.

I want to know how the police could respond so quickly and NOT find her since she was presumably on foot since they said she was alone. That was a short amount of time.

 

[Idalou]

47 minutes ago, AnotherNewName said:

Based on the amount of planning she put into this I can't see how this can now be written off as some kind of mental breakdown.  

I know reddit can be a hit or miss place, but the site about her seemed to have people who actually knew her, or links to people that did. They were discussing things days ago that were described today. It was said that she has done something like this more than once. It also involved arguments she had with people about an ex boyfriend or some such, and her being at the motel with another woman; there were stories I had trouble following, but possibly did happen. 

If this is true, then I have differing feelings about her parents. You always want to believe your child, you never want to even think about one going missing, but if she really has acted like this before, why would the mom speak of an abductor during her interview yesterday? I wonder if the police were keeping the parents updated on the info they saw in her computer searches. I wonder if her friends spoke candidly to her parents?

Edited July 19, 2023 by Idalou

[importswim]

1 hour ago, stephanier.1765 said:

A question about hoaxes - if someone does that, are they responsible for reimbursing the cost of the search and investigation?

I would hope there would be some sort of investigation and restitution. DH was a Coast Guard search and rescue pilot for many years. If they got launched for a search and rescue case and it turned out to be a hoax/prank call then I remember him saying that there were people that investigated that sort of thing and could be severe consequences. I would think this is something similar. Thankfully, in DH's case, those cases were few and far between.

[AnotherNewName]

39 minutes ago, SHP said:

I didn't get the vibe of putting a lot of planning into it. Or maybe that is just my obsessive level of planning from parenting teens in multiple activities. I wouldn't have had to stop at Target for food or steal a robe from work and I know that if I left my phone they would be pulling my search and location history from it and probably get my search history from any device I was associated with. It just seems like a large amount of oversight, if she really put a lot of energy into planning this. Or maybe I have the benefit of age and spending time in cars with hangry, bity teenagers to gain valuable planning skills.

I want to know how the police could respond so quickly and NOT find her since she was presumably on foot since they said she was alone. That was a short amount of time.

 

Poorly planned/executed doesn't mean there wasn't effort made in planning. It just means she isn't very good at it.

[kbutton]

23 minutes ago, Idalou said:

If this is true, then I have differing feelings about her parents. You always want to believe your child, you never want to even think about one going missing, but if she really has acted like this before, why would the mom speak of an abductor during her interview yesterday? I wonder if the police were keeping the parents updated on the info they saw in her computer searches. I wonder if her friends spoke candidly to her parents?

They could be saying what they were saying to preserve an ongoing relationship with her. You never know what kind of stuff she might be pulling to see what they will do for her.

My eyes were quite opened when a family member had a dating relationship with someone very young and unhealthy (beginning signs of a personality disorder or mental health diagnosis). I can easily see them needing to support her and feeling like saying that she was fighting for her life was absolutely true in a sense of that two days being a time when she was in danger of having a breakdown or cutting off relationships, etc.

[Carrie12345]

I don’t understand why some people act as though thorough investigation and entertaining doubts can’t go hand in hand. It’s not hard.

(She says after spending $176 to confirm her puppy did NOT eat command hooks. Trust but verify.)

[catz]

1 hour ago, Heartstrings said:

I would agree if she just disappeared quietly and was reported as missing while she sat on a beach.  Adults have the right to disappear as they see fit.   I feel like this case is different in that *she* involved law enforcement from the start.  She didn’t have to make a false report to 911 about a toddler, setting up a fake kidnapping.  She didn’t have to fake a scream on the phone to a family member, after fake talking to the fake child.  
The media attention isn’t why she should be punished, faking a kidnapping is.  She wasn’t innocently MIA with a worried family, she *faked* a kidnapping and involved law enforcement herself from the jump. 

Oh well I definitely think there may well be a case of charges and prosecution for the 911 call and the set up.  Just plenty of chatter on social media how people were "invested" in the story like that makes it worse.  If you got sucked in to this non event, thank the media. I think the media ran too hard and fast on this story.  As it does, I guess.  Good reminder why I'm on a limited news diet.  It's highly unlikely the police ever seriously thought she was abducted.  

Again, I do hope some mental health follow up is in the cards.

 

[Mrs Tiggywinkle Again]

I suspect that the police knew very early on that an abduction was unlikely but I am impressed that they kept diligently pursuing every possibility.

The ignoring by the media of black women disappearing(and Indigenious women) is an actual, real world problem. I had hoped this case was a turning point in the amount of media attention it garnered. Now I am concerned that it will backfire the next time someone who isn’t young/thin/blond/blue eyed disappears.

[Catwoman]

45 minutes ago, kbutton said:

They could be saying what they were saying to preserve an ongoing relationship with her. You never know what kind of stuff she might be pulling to see what they will do for her.

My eyes were quite opened when a family member had a dating relationship with someone very young and unhealthy (beginning signs of a personality disorder or mental health diagnosis). I can easily see them needing to support her and feeling like saying that she was fighting for her life was absolutely true in a sense of that two days being a time when she was in danger of having a breakdown or cutting off relationships, etc.

Maybe they believed her story… or maybe they were in on the hoax from the start… or maybe they were suspicious of the story but didn’t want her to get caught in a lie and be embarrassed and humiliated (or get into trouble for her hoax.)

We will probably never know. 

[Catwoman]

46 minutes ago, Carrie12345 said:

I don’t understand why some people act as though thorough investigation and entertaining doubts can’t go hand in hand. It’s not hard.

(She says after spending $176 to confirm her puppy did NOT eat command hooks. Trust but verify.)

Glad your puppy is ok!  🙂 

I agree — even if law enforcement suspected a hoax, I’m glad they investigated fully, because until she was home, there was always a chance that she truly had been abducted.