218: The Kidnapping of Carrie Lawson

WEBVTT

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Southern for a true crime covers cases
that are not suitable for young listeners,

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and there may also be some explicit
language used. Listener discretion is advised.

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Jasper, Alabama, is a charming
little city nestled in the foothills of the

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Appalachian Mountains. Incorporated in eighteen eighty
seven, Jasper is the seat of Walker

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County, with a population that has
hovered around fourteen thousand. The town doesn't

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seem to have changed that much in
the last thirty or so years. It's

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a tight knit community where folks wave
at each other at stop signs, bring

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baked goods over to new neighbors,
and wrap their grieving friends in hugs,

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prayers, and casseroles. No small
town is complete without tree lined streets and

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a picturesque town square, and Jasper's
historic square almost looks frozen in time.

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Imagine store signs with loopy cursive writing
and red brick facades. There's even an

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old timmy rotary street clock. Jasper
still has a drive in restaurant that opened

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in nineteen fifty called the Frosty Mug, where you can get the best cheeseburger

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in town, as well as milkshakes
and banana splits. You may also have

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heard an urban legend that Walker County
is the place to go to hire a

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hitman in the South. And while
that is as silly as it sounds,

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there is undoubtedly real world problems caused
by the opioid epidemic in the foothills of

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Appalachia. And yeah, there might
be meth and trailer parks, but there

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are also many low key blue bloods
who have lived and prospered in Jasper for

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generations. Famed actress to Lula Bankhead
was from a rich political family with an

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a state called Sunset in Jasper in
nineteen ninety one. The Lawsons were a

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prominent family in Jasper, so even
though a kidnapping for ransom seemed like something

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straight out of a bad nineties thriller, the family was targeted. Fortunately,

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the mystery lingers to this day.
Where is Carrie Lawson? Welcome to episode

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two eighteen, The Kidnapping of Carrie
Lawson. Carolyn Elizabeth Smith Lawson was born

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on April twenty second, nineteen sixty
six, to David and Harriet Smith in

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Cleveland, Tennessee. She went by
Carrie. Her little sister, Margaret,

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was only eighteen months younger than her, So the girls grew up close,

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and, as Carrie later wrote in
a letter to her parents, they had

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the best time growing up. Carrie's
family was very rich. In nineteen fifty

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six, her father, David,
graduated from Auburn University with a bachelor's degree

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in textile engineering. In nineteen sixty
one, David Smith married Harriet Hill,

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and not long after he founded a
company called Permna Color Ink in Cleveland,

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Tennessee. While you may not have
heard of Permana Color, you've probably seen

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their work. They pioneered the process
for stone washing blue jeans, and that

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process is exactly what it sounds like. They put pumice, stones and blue

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jeans in an industrial washing machine and
voila. Genes that would normally be a

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bright, solid blue now look more
worn and faded. Insta vintage, and

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people loved them, especially in the
nineteen seventies. Carrie's father, David was

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instrumental in creating the process for stone
washing blue jeans, and as president of

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Permana Color, David became a wealthy
industrialist. While we don't know his exact

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net worth, reporters estimated that it
was in the millions. Keep in mind,

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even one million back in the seventies
and eighties would have been somewhere between

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two point five and eight million today, So the Smith family was well off

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to say the least, and they
were also well respected by the Cleveland community.

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Carrie's parents were known for their philanthropy
and volunteer work, and they were

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both active leaders at Saint Luke's Episcopal
Church. Carrie was also well respected and

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liked. Her sister, Margaret,
explained that everyone was drawn to Carrie.

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She had an innate kindness that people
were just drawn to. Carrie graduated from

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Cleveland High School in nineteen eighty four. Then she got her bachelor's degree in

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communications from Alabama's Auburn University before graduating
from the University of Alabama School of Law

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in the spring of nineteen ninety one. By that time, Carrie had been

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married for a year to another UA
law student named Earl Lawson. Earl Howard

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Lawson Junior was born in May nineteen
sixty five to Earl and Farah Lawson in

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Jasper, Alabama. Earle was a
only child. His family, much like

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Carrie's, was also well to do. His mother owned a real estate company

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and Earl Senior owned an auto parts
store. The Lawsons were described as fixtures

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of the Jasper community. They were
well off, though not ostentatious, and

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lived in a nice area of town, and they regularly attended the North Side

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Baptist Church. The mayor of Jasper, Penn Woods, told the Birmingham Post,

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Harold, everybody knows the family,
and everybody likes them. Earl Junior

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graduated from Walker High School now known
as Jasper High in nineteen eighty three,

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before attending college and law school.
Then, on March tenth, nineteen ninety,

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twenty four year old Earl married twenty
two year old Carrie Smith. After

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that, Earl began his law career
at an esteemed Jasper law firm. Senator

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Bob Wilson, who served fourteen terms
in the House of Representatives, held from

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that Jasper firm. Earl and Carey's
marriage looked like something out of a story

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book. They were bright, young
and in love, both embarking on successful

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careers in the law. Great families
to support them, not just in wealthy

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pedigrees, but loving, supportive parents
and siblings. It's no wonder Earl and

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Carrie counseled high school students at their
chosen church. First United Methodist. They

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probably seemed like they were living most
people's ideal future. Earl and Carrie built

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a two story brick home in North
Jasper. The house was located on a

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cul de sac in an exclusive subdivision
known as Heritage Hills. Two twenty somethings

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straight out of law school building their
own home is impressive, though I'm sure

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they could have had some help from
their folks. Carrie had taken the Bar

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exam in nineteen ninety one after graduation, and while she was awaiting her Bar

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exam results, she secured a job
at a Jasper law firm. This firm

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was located just a few blocks away
from Earl's practice, and later on in

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nineteen ninety one, Carrie's results from
the Bar exam arrived in the mail.

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She had passed after years of hard
work. She would have been ready to

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become an accredited lawyer in her firm, but by the time that exciting letter

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arrived in the mail, Carrie was
long gone. I'm going to pause now

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for a short commercial break. On
Tuesday, September tenth, nineteen ninety one,

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Carrie and Earle got ready for bed
and drifted off to sleep as usual,

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but in the wee hours of the
morning. The phone rang Aman was

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on the line. She said she
was a nurse at the Walker Regional Medical

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Center. Her tone was urgent.
According to her, Earle's dad was really

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sick, so sick that he might
not make it through the night. She

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said Carrie and Earle needed to get
to the Walker hospital right away. Earle's

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father had had a few medical scares
recently. While the phone call was a

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surprise, it wasn't exactly shocking that
something serious had happened to Earle Senior.

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Frantic, Carrie and Earle leapt out
of bed and made themselves decent. Carrie

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threw on her glasses, a red
T shirt, khaki shorts, white socks,

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and rebuck sneakers. Earl and Carrie
drove a nineteen ninety one Beijian blue

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Eddie Bauer Addition Ford Explorer. It
was parked in their carport. They climbed

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inside the suv to head to the
hospital, but before Earle could turn the

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key in the ignition, a man
suddenly appeared next to the vehicle. He

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was white and was five foot eleven
inches tall with a medium build. He

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was wearing a mask, He had
a gun, and he ordered the couple

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out of the explorer. Earle immediately
realized that his father wasn't sick. It

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had been a ruse to lure him
and carry out of the house. In

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the moment, Earle was beside himself. It felt surreal, he later told

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al dot com. I couldn't believe
we felt for this. Earle explained that

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he initially thought he and his wife
were getting robbed and nothing more. The

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assailant forced Earle to the ground,
and then he made Carrie bind Earl with

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duct tape. Then he forced Carrie
back into the suv, and the masked

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man drove the Ford Exploer off into
the night, with twenty five year old

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Carrie Lawson in the passenger seat.
Now it was clear this wasn't a robbery.

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Carrie had been kidnapped. This shook
Earle to his core. Jasper just

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wasn't the kind of town where you
had to worry about kidnapping or any violent

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crime for that matter. Earle later
told Ale dot com back in nineteen ninety

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one, nobody got kidnapped. I'd
never heard of a car jacking. There

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weren't a lot of murders in Jasper. Having somebody kidnapped was the last thing

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you could ever think of. After
Carrie was abducted, Earle managed to escape

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his duct tape bindings, but of
course his keys were in the ignition of

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the explorer, so Earle had to
kick in his back door and called his

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dad and then called nine one one. Then he called Carrie's parents. I

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can't imagine what it was like to
have to tell them what happened. They

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had just seen Carrie a little over
a week before on Labor Day, and

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now she was missing. Earle would
recall that this phone call to Harriet and

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David Smith was one of the hardest
things he'd had to do in his life.

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After hearing the news, Carrie's parents
visited their priest before making the three

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hour journey from Cleveland, Tennessee,
to Jasper, Alabama. Carrie's father and

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other Smith family members notified Carrie's sister, Margaret, of her sister's abduction.

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At the time, Margaret was in
Cincinnati on a business trip. Upon hearing

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the news, she felt like this
didn't make any sense, like she was

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in a movie, not real life. Her uncle, who lived in Nebraska,

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flew his plane to Cincinnati. From
there, he took Margaret to Jasper.

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Margaret told a journalist, I fully
expected when we got down there they

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would have found her and it would
be over. But sadly she was wrong.

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From the jump, the FBI took
control of Carrie's case. I imagine

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local cops called them in quickly because
of the ransom. It was just so

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unusual. Nobody had heard about kidnapping
for ransom in Jasper, Alabama, or

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even in Walker County. The federal
agents set up their headquarters at Earl and

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Carey's home, and they waited for
the inevitable, the kidnapper's phone call demanding

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a ransom for Carrie's safe return.
According to the Birmingham Post Harold's interviews with

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Carrie's family, a man telephoned Earl
at around eight pm on the same day

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Carrey was abducted. They assumed it
had to be the same masked man who

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had kidnapped Carrie. The caller demanded
that Earl have his father deliver three hundred

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thousand dollars to a drop off location. That's almost seven hundred thousand and today's

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money. The abductor wanted the money
left in Coleman, Alabama. It's about

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forty five miles northeast of Jasper.
The FBI said it would be best to

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comply with the kidnappers demands, and
Earl agreed. He later said to reporters,

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I was convinced as soon as we
got him the money, we were

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going to get carried back and nail
this bastard. I had every hope in

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the world there was going to be
a good ending to this. So his

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father, Earl Senior, brought three
hundred thousand dollars in cash to Coleman.

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But when he arrived at the drop
off site, five police cars were nearby.

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That was completely unplanned. Local law
enforcement just happened to be in the

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area. The FBI had failed to
warn them to stay away. The Coleman

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officers didn't know anything about the kidnapping. I hate to go ahead and start

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criticizing the FBI, but you might
as well get used to it. Their

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involvement in this case will be very
controversial. But notifying local law enforcement of

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a ransom drop seems like it would
be in the ABC's of the Kidnapping Handbook,

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But in fact, very few parties
officially knew about the kidnapping. Newspapers

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and TV stations had been asked to
keep any mention of it under wraps,

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though why or how they would have
learned of it is beyond me. Unless

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the cops leaked it, the FBI
was concerned it would compromise the investigation.

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So it makes sense why these Coleman
officers were in the wrong place at the

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wrong time. They didn't know any
better, but the kidnapper didn't know that.

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All he saw were police cruisers flooding
his drop off location, and upon

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seeing the authorities everywhere, the kidnapper
called the whole thing off. This is

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the first of several unfortunate events surrounding
Carrie's kidnapping, events that many believed the

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FBI could have taken steps to avoid. Later, when there were so many

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what ifs in this case, you
had to wonder how might one phone call

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from the FBI to the Coleman authorities
saying, Hey, make sure y'all aren't

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in this area might have changed the
outcome of this case. I'm going to

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00:17:45.680 --> 00:17:51.359
eleventh and the early morning hours of
Thursday the twelfth, Earl and Carrie's family

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demanded that the kidnapper let them talk
to Carrie. They wanted to confirm that

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she was still alive and the kidnapper
he did allow Carrie to speak briefly with

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her husband on the phone, and
she also spoke with her mother in law.

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During these phone calls, Carrie expressed
that she feared for her life.

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She told Earle that he needed to
go to the home of one of his

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law partners to await the kidnapper's next
phone call. Before letting Earle go to

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his law partner's house, federal agents
insisted that he wear a wire. It

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00:18:26.400 --> 00:18:32.359
then took the FBI thirty minutes to
prepare Earl with that wire. In those

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thirty minutes, Earle missed six calls
from Carrie. Thirty minutes might not sound

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like a big deal, but it
is when a kidnapper tells you to get

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to a certain place right away to
expect a call. That was strike two

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00:18:45.960 --> 00:18:52.640
for the Feds. Later on Thursday, the kidnapper called Earl once more he

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wanted to attempt the ransom drop again. This time it was set for three

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thirty am on Friday, September thirteenth. Earl was to leave the cash at

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a payphone near a gas station on
the western edge of Jasper. To prepare,

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the FBI put a directional beeper on
Earl. They put a second directional

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beeper in the bag containing the three
hundred thousand. The idea here was that

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00:19:18.680 --> 00:19:23.039
federal agents could track the beepers to
follow both Earl and the bag of money.

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That way, if Earl was abducted
to they could find him. Unfortunately,

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both beepers were transmitting on the same
radio frequency, which means that when

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Earle delivered the cash and left the
scene, the federal agents were only able

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to track Earle, not the bag
of money, and consequently not the kidnapper.

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This would be mistake number three for
the FBI. Okay, well,

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you might be thinking that surely the
FBI planted a few agents to watch the

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kidnapper pick up the money. Right
THEBI I knew exactly where the kidnapper was

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00:20:00.720 --> 00:20:06.240
going to be and approximately when he
would be there. Surely they could do

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00:20:06.319 --> 00:20:11.160
something with that information. Well,
heard the Birmingham Post Harold. The FBI

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00:20:11.279 --> 00:20:15.799
did assign several agents to watch the
ransom money get picked up, but these

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00:20:15.839 --> 00:20:19.799
agents were actually late to the drop, and the money was already gone when

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00:20:19.839 --> 00:20:26.200
they arrived. Late to a mother
truck and ransom drop. The Feds are

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00:20:26.240 --> 00:20:30.759
now zero to four and we're not
done yet. Despite these blunders, Earle

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00:20:30.880 --> 00:20:37.759
was optimistic that Carrie would be home
safe and sound soon enough. He told

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00:20:37.839 --> 00:20:41.599
al dot Com. I guess that
I was overly hopeful that the minute I

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00:20:41.640 --> 00:20:45.720
got back to my house, the
word was going to be that he released

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00:20:45.759 --> 00:20:51.039
her and we'd find her. But
that call just never came. Earle,

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00:20:51.160 --> 00:20:56.480
his family, and Carrie's family waited
patiently at Earl's kitchen table, but the

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00:20:56.480 --> 00:21:03.160
phone never rang, and Carrie's family
wasn't able to listen to Carrie's previous phone

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00:21:03.160 --> 00:21:07.319
calls she had made to Earle and
her mother in law. The SBI was

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00:21:07.359 --> 00:21:14.440
supposed to be recording them, but
there was an unexpected malfunction. Somehow the

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00:21:14.480 --> 00:21:21.759
audio tapes were corrupted. The Smiths
would never hear Carrie's last words, which

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00:21:21.960 --> 00:21:25.640
seemed to be the last straw for
the family. Because the morning after the

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00:21:25.640 --> 00:21:30.359
money drop off, at about nine
thirty am, Carrie's family held a news

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00:21:30.359 --> 00:21:37.119
conference. They held nothing back explaining
their daughter's abduction. They insisted that they

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followed all the kidnappers' demands, and
they made a public plea for the kidnapper

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00:21:41.920 --> 00:21:48.440
to release Carrie. This press conference
was the catalyst that allowed newspapers and other

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00:21:48.480 --> 00:21:52.119
media outlets to begin reporting on Carrie's
case. The cat was out of the

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00:21:52.160 --> 00:21:57.440
bag, but Jasper, being a
small town, news travel fast. The

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00:21:57.480 --> 00:22:03.279
news about Carrie Lawson had spread like
wildfire. By the time the papers hit

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00:22:03.359 --> 00:22:08.599
the printers, nearly every Jasper resident
was aware that Carrie Lawson had been kidnapped

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00:22:08.599 --> 00:22:14.599
for ransom. Folks even knew that
the ransom amount was between three hundred and

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00:22:14.640 --> 00:22:21.200
four hundred thousand dollars. A pharmacist
named Sharon at since Discount Pharmacy, with

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00:22:21.319 --> 00:22:25.640
no known connection to the Lawsons or
Smith's or reason to have insider knowledge on

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00:22:25.680 --> 00:22:30.480
this case, told the Birmingham Post
Harold when it was finally reported in the

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00:22:30.519 --> 00:22:34.359
news, they didn't tell me anything
I didn't already know. It's not much

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00:22:34.400 --> 00:22:40.519
of an exaggeration to say that every
single person in Jasper was following Carrie's kidnapping.

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00:22:41.359 --> 00:22:45.119
The mayor of Jasper pen Woods told
the Birmingham Post Harold, I don't

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00:22:45.119 --> 00:22:49.920
go anywhere now, the store or
restaurant anywhere that this isn't the first thing

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00:22:49.960 --> 00:22:56.720
that people mention, and al dot
com described Carrie Lawson as the most talked

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00:22:56.720 --> 00:23:03.079
about missing person in Alabama history.
Sharon at the pharmacy also said they had

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00:23:03.079 --> 00:23:07.359
a television set on the counter.
She told the Birmingham Post Harold that all

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00:23:07.400 --> 00:23:12.000
the customers would gather around the TV
when anything about Carrie came on. Even

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00:23:12.039 --> 00:23:19.400
local broadcasts were interrupted for live updates
and press conferences. Anything and everything about

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00:23:19.440 --> 00:23:26.400
Carrie was breaking news, but no
media outlet would report the one sentence that

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00:23:26.519 --> 00:23:32.440
everyone wanted to hear that Carrie Lawson
had been found. Instead, the kidnapper

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00:23:32.440 --> 00:23:38.039
had the money he had Carrie,
and there were no more communications, nothing

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00:23:38.079 --> 00:23:42.200
to say that she would be released. So the search for Carrie and her

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00:23:42.279 --> 00:23:49.000
kidnapper continued. Carrie's family and friends
flocked to Jasper to help look for her.

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Her parents set up shop and a
local Best Western motel. Her sister,

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00:23:55.960 --> 00:23:59.519
Margaret, stayed in the guest room
at Earl and Carey's home for a

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00:23:59.559 --> 00:24:03.839
while. Margaret told a reporter that
she would watch Carrie's driveway from her bedroom

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00:24:03.880 --> 00:24:11.240
window. She expected that eventually Carrie
would walk up that driveway, but days

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00:24:11.279 --> 00:24:15.799
passed and Carrie never came home.
I'm going to pause now to hear a

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five day returns Quins dot com slash
sftc. Carrie's kidnapping was a top priority

305
00:26:44.359 --> 00:26:49.440
for the FBI and other investigating authorities. Detectives worked around the clock trying to

306
00:26:49.480 --> 00:26:56.880
find her. A local police chief
told the Birmingham Post Herald that officers were

307
00:26:56.880 --> 00:27:00.279
on the phones twenty four hours a
day to collect leads from the public.

308
00:27:02.119 --> 00:27:06.599
Meanwhile, the FBI was in close
contact with Earl and the rest of Carrey's

309
00:27:06.599 --> 00:27:14.759
family. Federal agents made sure that
Carrie's family had realistic expectations. Earle later

310
00:27:14.839 --> 00:27:18.680
told al dot com, They're pretty
direct on what you can expect. On

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00:27:18.799 --> 00:27:25.519
day one, they told us the
statistical probabilities of someone being found alive and

312
00:27:25.599 --> 00:27:30.880
well, and then on day two
they told you again. You didn't want

313
00:27:30.920 --> 00:27:36.279
to hear it, but you appreciated
it. A few days after Carrie's kidnapping,

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00:27:36.680 --> 00:27:41.640
investigators searched an abandoned house. It
was near the location where Earle had

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00:27:41.720 --> 00:27:48.119
dropped off the ransom money. Inside
this house, authorities found feminine hygiene products.

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00:27:48.319 --> 00:27:52.920
Those were sent to the FBI headquarters
in Washington, d C. For

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00:27:52.920 --> 00:27:59.799
forensic testing. FBI Agent in charge
Alan P. Whittaker told the Birmingham Post

318
00:28:00.160 --> 00:28:04.400
Old that determining if Carrie had been
in that house would be important to narrow

319
00:28:04.440 --> 00:28:10.240
down the investigation. He said that
gives us a point to focus some of

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00:28:10.240 --> 00:28:15.079
our energy and thought processes. Right
now. We have literally a million places

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00:28:15.119 --> 00:28:19.920
to go. By September fifteenth,
nineteen ninety one, five days after Carrie's

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00:28:19.960 --> 00:28:26.240
kidnapping, few clues had been found. It appears that the feminine hygiene products

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00:28:26.240 --> 00:28:30.000
from the abandoned house hadn't panned out. No one knew where Carrie was,

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00:28:30.559 --> 00:28:36.319
No one knew where her kidnapper was. Even carl and Carrey stolen Ford Explorer,

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00:28:36.640 --> 00:28:41.759
had seemingly vanished into thin air.
That Sunday, the Smith family gave

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00:28:41.759 --> 00:28:47.480
another press conference at Jasper City Hall. Carrie's father, David told the crowds,

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00:28:48.000 --> 00:28:52.160
pardon my appearance, I've kicked through
half of the buildings that are vacant

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00:28:52.200 --> 00:28:56.359
and Jasper. I'd like for all
of you to start kicking a few looking

329
00:28:56.400 --> 00:29:02.119
for Carrie. Also, David asked
anyone within information about Kerrie's location to call

330
00:29:02.160 --> 00:29:07.400
the Jasper Police or the FBI Birmingham
office to help incentivize the search for Carrie.

331
00:29:07.839 --> 00:29:14.160
The Smith family also announced a one
hundred thousand dollars reward that's about two

332
00:29:14.240 --> 00:29:18.319
hundred and twenty seven thousand today.
But even before David's call to action,

333
00:29:19.039 --> 00:29:26.200
hundreds of Jasper residents were already searching
for Carrie. They had scoured empty buildings,

334
00:29:26.279 --> 00:29:30.640
farms, and stripmonds. In fact, so many people had been looking

335
00:29:30.680 --> 00:29:34.519
for Carrie that the FBI had to
rein them in. At this press conference,

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00:29:36.039 --> 00:29:41.759
FBI agent Whittaker reminded the public that
they weren't allowed to trespass, even

337
00:29:41.799 --> 00:29:48.400
in the name of finding Carrie.
Following this, searchers began wearing yellow ribbons

338
00:29:48.440 --> 00:29:53.400
to help identify themselves for law enforcement. But the issues with over zealous searchers

339
00:29:53.799 --> 00:30:00.119
must have persisted, because within the
week, FBI agent Roy Long was but

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00:30:00.240 --> 00:30:03.920
in charge of advising the volunteers.
His job was to make sure that they

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00:30:03.960 --> 00:30:12.119
operated within the law Mayor Penwoods said
Jasper citizens prided themselves on their helping nature.

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00:30:12.960 --> 00:30:17.000
He told the Birmingham Post, Harold, I think it could be a

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00:30:17.039 --> 00:30:19.640
clerk in a store that nobody's heard
of, and folks around here would be

344
00:30:19.839 --> 00:30:23.759
just as concerned. Were just used
to doing for ourselves, and when folks

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00:30:23.759 --> 00:30:27.079
are in trouble, we all help. That's just the way we were brought

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00:30:27.160 --> 00:30:33.359
up. Many Jasper residents held on
to the hope that Carrie would be found

347
00:30:33.599 --> 00:30:37.799
safe and well. Some told the
papers that they thought she was tied up

348
00:30:37.839 --> 00:30:44.200
somewhere, that the kidnapper had merely
abandoned her After the successful money exchange,

349
00:30:45.039 --> 00:30:49.519
it was simply a matter of finding
her. But Monday passed with no notable

350
00:30:49.559 --> 00:30:56.920
progress in the investigation, then Tuesday
still nothing. At this point, Agent

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00:30:56.960 --> 00:31:02.799
Whittaker told the Birmingham Post Harold realistic. Time is not our ally. Whittaker

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00:31:02.880 --> 00:31:07.480
knew that with every passing day the
chances of finding Carrie alive were dwindling quickly.

353
00:31:08.839 --> 00:31:14.359
As you know from any given TV
crime show or podcast, the first

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00:31:14.440 --> 00:31:18.839
forty eight hours are crucial. The
odds of finding someone alive dropped seriously each

355
00:31:18.960 --> 00:31:25.480
passing day. On Wednesday, September
eighteenth. It was one week after Carrie

356
00:31:25.480 --> 00:31:30.400
had been taken. On that day, Alabama Governor Guy Hunt offered the National

357
00:31:30.400 --> 00:31:36.400
Guard services to help search for Carrie. His office said that they could furnish

358
00:31:36.480 --> 00:31:42.720
the FBI with needed resources, but
FBI agent Whittaker turned them down. Whittaker

359
00:31:42.720 --> 00:31:48.640
told the Birmingham Post Harold that he
hadn't identified a mission for the National Guard,

360
00:31:48.759 --> 00:31:55.319
but he would consider the offer as
the investigation continued. In my head,

361
00:31:55.640 --> 00:32:00.759
find Carrie Lawson is a pretty damn
good mission. I understand in that

362
00:32:00.880 --> 00:32:06.799
coordinating multiple agencies is probably complicated,
but once you're a week in and have

363
00:32:06.920 --> 00:32:13.359
had a failed ransom drop, why
not use every resource? And to be

364
00:32:13.440 --> 00:32:16.200
blunt, it's not like the National
Guard, or for that matter, so

365
00:32:16.319 --> 00:32:24.119
many local agencies usually jump to help
with missing persons. There are thousands of

366
00:32:24.200 --> 00:32:30.519
missing persons in this country with only
one sheriff's department or police agency looking for

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00:32:30.559 --> 00:32:35.480
them, while their families are begging
for help. And don't get me started

368
00:32:35.519 --> 00:32:38.799
on the media. To be fair, a kidnapping for ransom is much more

369
00:32:38.880 --> 00:32:45.880
dramatic than usual missing persons cases.
But to be blunt, again, the

370
00:32:45.920 --> 00:32:52.000
carry loss and investigation benefited from missing
white woman syndrome. It's why newspapers,

371
00:32:52.079 --> 00:32:58.000
radio stations in the local TV news
were breathlessly reporting every move. It's why

372
00:32:58.039 --> 00:33:05.279
the governor was publicly pledged assistance.
Don't get me wrong, it is wonderful

373
00:33:05.400 --> 00:33:09.960
so many people outside of her small
community cared, and a radio station wound

374
00:33:10.000 --> 00:33:15.720
up being very crucial in this case. I just feel sad for the families

375
00:33:15.720 --> 00:33:21.359
of missing people who beg for attention
from the media and don't get it anyway.

376
00:33:22.000 --> 00:33:27.200
In Carrie's case, the authorities were
obviously fairly certain that she had only

377
00:33:27.240 --> 00:33:31.200
been kidnapped for financial reasons. She
came from money, married into money,

378
00:33:31.519 --> 00:33:36.559
and was on her way to being
wealthy herself, so she had been targeted.

379
00:33:37.200 --> 00:33:40.279
According to Earle, the kidnapper basically
said as much in one of their

380
00:33:40.279 --> 00:33:47.440
conversations. However, investigators covered their
bases by checking out people who may have

381
00:33:47.480 --> 00:33:54.680
wanted revenge on Carrie or her family, namely business people who had disputes with

382
00:33:54.839 --> 00:34:00.680
Carrie's textile tycoon father, or anyone
who may have had an issue with her

383
00:34:00.720 --> 00:34:06.920
lawyer husband. It was generally accepted
that Carrie didn't have any enemies herself.

384
00:34:07.440 --> 00:34:10.000
Her father told the papers. I
don't suppose she ever met a soul she

385
00:34:10.039 --> 00:34:16.079
didn't like or have compassion for.
I'm going to pause now for a final

386
00:34:16.079 --> 00:34:28.920
commercial break. On Thursday, September
nineteenth, the Birmingham Post Harold reported that

387
00:34:29.000 --> 00:34:35.280
officers found evidence pertinent to Carrie's investigation. However, the FBI would not disclose

388
00:34:35.320 --> 00:34:38.840
what the evidence was. They just
said it was valuable and located near a

389
00:34:38.960 --> 00:34:45.719
road in the vicinity of the ransom
drop off location. That same day,

390
00:34:45.960 --> 00:34:50.800
the FBI also announced a ten thousand
dollars reward for information leading to the location

391
00:34:51.280 --> 00:34:55.199
of Carrie and Darl's vehicle. They
told the public essentially, when you find

392
00:34:55.199 --> 00:35:00.400
it, don't touch it, because
they wanted to preserve as much evidence as

393
00:35:00.440 --> 00:35:05.239
possible. In the state of Alabama, there were nearly two hundred Beige and

394
00:35:05.360 --> 00:35:13.199
Blue nineteen ninety one Ford explorers with
University of Alabama tags, and honestly,

395
00:35:13.679 --> 00:35:16.880
the authorities might have received false leads
on nearly all of them, but they

396
00:35:16.960 --> 00:35:21.880
encouraged people to keep calling, even
though they might not have seen the correct

397
00:35:21.960 --> 00:35:28.719
SUV. Investigators were particularly interested in
tips from hunters. Dove hunting season had

398
00:35:28.800 --> 00:35:32.920
just begun, so hundreds of outdoorsmen
were coming to the area. The FBI

399
00:35:34.039 --> 00:35:37.519
knew that the dense Alabama woods where
all the hunters were headed, would be

400
00:35:37.559 --> 00:35:44.480
an ideal place to dump an unwanted
Ford Explorer. Within three days of the

401
00:35:44.519 --> 00:35:49.639
ten thousand dollars reward being announced,
Carrie and Earl's Fort Explorer was found.

402
00:35:50.119 --> 00:35:54.079
On Saturday, September twenty first.
Two people discovered it in the Bankhead National

403
00:35:54.119 --> 00:36:00.480
Forest. The suv was near the
Black Pond in Winston County. Authorities examined

404
00:36:00.519 --> 00:36:06.440
the vehicle thoroughly for evidence, but
there were no reports that anything significant was

405
00:36:06.480 --> 00:36:13.400
discovered. On Tuesday, the reward
for information leading to Carrie's whereabouts was raised

406
00:36:13.440 --> 00:36:17.760
from one hundred thousand to four hundred
thousand that's close to a million dollars today.

407
00:36:20.199 --> 00:36:23.840
This massive reward was made possible due
to donations from Carrie's friends and family

408
00:36:24.199 --> 00:36:30.280
in Alabama and Tennessee. All the
while, thousands of missing persons flywers with

409
00:36:30.360 --> 00:36:37.119
Carrie's photo continued to be passed out. Carrie and Earl's church organized and fed

410
00:36:37.639 --> 00:36:44.159
countless search parties, as did both
Earl and Carrie's alma mater, the University

411
00:36:44.199 --> 00:36:50.880
of Alabama School of Law. Earl's
parents' Church North Side Baptists also contributed.

412
00:36:52.280 --> 00:36:57.639
So far, Carrie had been missing
for ten days, but many staunchly believed

413
00:36:57.800 --> 00:37:01.119
that she would be found. She
had to be somewhere, and it seemed

414
00:37:01.199 --> 00:37:07.440
like the entire state of Alabama was
on the lookout for her. On Wednesday,

415
00:37:07.519 --> 00:37:13.400
September twenty fifth, Carrie had been
missing for two weeks. It was

416
00:37:13.440 --> 00:37:17.679
at this point that a gas station
employee came forward. His name was Chris

417
00:37:17.719 --> 00:37:22.960
Weldon, and he spoke to the
Birmingham Post Herald. Chris explained to journalists

418
00:37:23.119 --> 00:37:29.639
that two FBI agents had recently visited
his workplace at the Northwood Lake Chevron near

419
00:37:29.679 --> 00:37:36.159
Tuscaloosa. It's approximately seventy five minutes
or about sixty miles south of Jasper.

420
00:37:37.280 --> 00:37:42.039
According to Chris, the officers were
looking into the paythone outside the chevron.

421
00:37:42.840 --> 00:37:47.159
Apparently, Carrie had used that paythone
to call someone at three fifteen am on

422
00:37:47.199 --> 00:37:53.480
September twelfth, That was almost twenty
four hours after her abduction. This was

423
00:37:53.519 --> 00:37:58.920
probably one of those calls where Carrie
was allowed to briefly speak to Earle and

424
00:37:59.000 --> 00:38:04.119
her mother in law. When the
FBI agents came to Chris's chevron, they

425
00:38:04.159 --> 00:38:08.800
wanted to know if Carrie had been
recorded on an outdoor surveillance camera. When

426
00:38:08.880 --> 00:38:14.519
Chris spoke to the paper, he
wasn't sure if she had been. In

427
00:38:14.599 --> 00:38:19.679
the same article detailing Chris's interview,
the paper reported that Carrie made a phone

428
00:38:19.679 --> 00:38:24.400
call from a payphone at the Northwood
Shopping Center on US Highway eighty two.

429
00:38:24.599 --> 00:38:30.239
She supposedly made a third phone call
somewhere near there as well. The FBI

430
00:38:30.480 --> 00:38:37.519
did not confirm any of this information
publicly, but I imagine the Birmingham Post

431
00:38:37.559 --> 00:38:43.519
Harold was pretty confident Chris and the
other sources were credible or else It's doubtful

432
00:38:43.559 --> 00:38:49.039
they would have published the information.
But considering the appetite for any news on

433
00:38:49.119 --> 00:38:54.679
Carrie Lawson, you never know.
Side note Andrea scoured the Internet and YouTube

434
00:38:54.840 --> 00:39:00.400
for the audio recordings but could not
find them. All descriptions of the we

435
00:39:00.519 --> 00:39:06.559
have end quote from came from the
Birmingham Post Herald. As a result of

436
00:39:06.599 --> 00:39:14.360
these payphone locations, volunteers began searching
the Newport area near Tuscaloosa extensively. These

437
00:39:14.400 --> 00:39:19.039
searches were not sanctioned by law enforcement, but law enforcement was still in the

438
00:39:19.119 --> 00:39:24.800
case. FBI Director William Sessions said
his agency was putting forth tremendous effort and

439
00:39:24.960 --> 00:39:31.960
using considerable resources to find Carrie.
Finally, on Saturday, September twenty eighth,

440
00:39:32.239 --> 00:39:37.159
there was a break in the investigation. Law enforcement had recovered three audio

441
00:39:37.239 --> 00:39:44.880
recordings. These recordings were of the
kidnapper using payphones to call Earl on September

442
00:39:44.920 --> 00:39:49.760
eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth.
In them, you can hear a man

443
00:39:49.800 --> 00:39:54.400
with the North Alabama accent speak.
According to the FBI dialect experts, this

444
00:39:54.559 --> 00:40:00.320
accident was common for the area near
Jasper. They believed the man and was

445
00:40:00.480 --> 00:40:05.679
likely a local. He had probably
been born and raised in Jasper's Walker County

446
00:40:06.119 --> 00:40:10.719
or an adjacent one. In the
first recorded phone call, the kidnapper said,

447
00:40:10.760 --> 00:40:15.320
Earle, you got the money,
all right? Go up to sixty

448
00:40:15.400 --> 00:40:19.559
nine Highway to Coleman. You listening. Go to exit three oho eight on

449
00:40:19.639 --> 00:40:23.239
the Interstate Highway, take the Interstate
North. Check into the Day's Inn and

450
00:40:23.280 --> 00:40:27.960
I'll call you there. You should
be there in an hour and fifteen minutes.

451
00:40:28.239 --> 00:40:32.280
I'll call you then bye. This
is when that critical mistake happened.

452
00:40:32.480 --> 00:40:37.880
When local Caleman police happened to be
in the area during the money drop off

453
00:40:37.760 --> 00:40:43.360
and the next audio snippet, the
kidnapper was clearly upset. He said,

454
00:40:44.000 --> 00:40:46.880
listen, Earle, you screwed me
around tonight. If you want to see

455
00:40:46.880 --> 00:40:52.079
this woman alive again, you're going
to get your acts straight. You jacked

456
00:40:52.079 --> 00:40:54.480
me around all night. I'm going
to jack you around for a while.

457
00:40:54.840 --> 00:40:59.800
Understand. You got the police with
you, and you got everybody else with

458
00:40:59.840 --> 00:41:04.000
you. Tomorrow today you get rid
of everybody. Your mother, the police,

459
00:41:04.079 --> 00:41:08.119
everybody. Your wife is about to
have a nervous breakdown. The kidnapper

460
00:41:08.199 --> 00:41:14.039
also up to the ransom amount by
one hundred thousand because he was so angry

461
00:41:14.159 --> 00:41:17.679
about being ran around all night long, as he put it. Then,

462
00:41:17.760 --> 00:41:22.960
early in the morning on September thirteenth, the kidnapper called Earl to give the

463
00:41:22.000 --> 00:41:27.559
directions to the final drop off location. He said, in clear terms,

464
00:41:27.960 --> 00:41:30.920
if there's any problems and I don't
show back up to get your wife released,

465
00:41:31.280 --> 00:41:37.840
they're going to leave her and she'll
die. While the kidnapper is clearly

466
00:41:37.920 --> 00:41:42.679
referring to one or more accomplices,
to this day, it is unclear who

467
00:41:42.960 --> 00:41:46.239
exactly he is talking about, or, of course, this could have just

468
00:41:46.320 --> 00:41:52.639
been a ruse to imply more people
were involved. He did have at least

469
00:41:52.639 --> 00:41:55.400
one accomplice that will get to in
just a bit, but they would prove

470
00:41:55.480 --> 00:42:01.599
to be no help in finding Carrie. That Saturday, law enforcement gave the

471
00:42:01.679 --> 00:42:07.599
general public access to all of these
audios. They were played on TV news

472
00:42:07.719 --> 00:42:13.920
channels and radio stations repeatedly. The
FBI was hoping someone, anyone, would

473
00:42:13.960 --> 00:42:19.760
be able to identify the kidnapper by
his voice. After the audios were released,

474
00:42:19.960 --> 00:42:23.000
more than one hundred people called authorities
with suggestions of who it might be,

475
00:42:24.519 --> 00:42:30.400
and someone called who was certain they
knew who it was. That's how

476
00:42:30.440 --> 00:42:35.800
the FBI began looking into a forty
nine year old man from right there in

477
00:42:35.880 --> 00:42:45.880
Jasper. A random caller to a
radio station recognized his voice. Southern Fried

478
00:42:45.960 --> 00:42:51.119
True Crime is hosted and produced by
me Erica Kelly Folks. The rest of

479
00:42:51.159 --> 00:42:53.880
Carrey's story will be out this weekend. I am sorry. I hadn't planned

480
00:42:53.880 --> 00:42:59.000
on making it a two parter,
but this episode was ballooning into well over

481
00:42:59.039 --> 00:43:02.199
an hour and a half, but
please tune into part two. Not only

482
00:43:02.320 --> 00:43:07.639
is the rest of Carrie's story unbelievable, but you know me, I've got

483
00:43:07.679 --> 00:43:12.159
so much to say about it.
This case was researched and written by me

484
00:43:12.320 --> 00:43:16.360
and Andrea Marshbank. As usual,
any editorial comments and opinions are my own.

485
00:43:16.679 --> 00:43:21.199
Southern Fred's original music is by Rob
Harrison of Gamma Radio and the original

486
00:43:21.199 --> 00:43:24.440
graphic art is by Cooley Horner.
Today's episode was edited and mixed by Brendan

487
00:43:24.480 --> 00:43:29.719
schock Snyder of Southern Gothic and Erica
Kelly. If you have any case suggestions,

488
00:43:29.719 --> 00:43:32.559
please go to my website, Southernfredruecrime
dot com and click on the listener

489
00:43:32.639 --> 00:43:38.400
suggestion tap, or email SFTC Research
at gmail dot com. This is the

490
00:43:38.440 --> 00:43:42.639
best way for me to get those
little known cases. Y'all always send me.

491
00:43:43.159 --> 00:43:45.920
Please remember that I do not accept
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492
00:43:46.280 --> 00:43:51.639
but please come join our Facebook group, Southern Friud True Crime Fans Discussion Group,

493
00:43:51.920 --> 00:43:54.760
where we swap recipes, worship Dolly
Parton, and share means. We

494
00:43:54.920 --> 00:43:58.599
do, of course discuss true crime, not just Southern Friud, but all

495
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kinds, but it is still very
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496
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497
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498
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it's how we run the group.
If you enjoyed today's show, don't

499
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500
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501
00:44:19.800 --> 00:44:22.639
Until next time, thanks so much
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