09/12/2026
She was abducted 35 years ago today and she has remained missing ever since. Please remember her and say a prayer that one day she will be found.
Carolyn Elizabeth Lawson was a Tennessee Native who became the victim of a notorious Alabama kidnapping. She remains missing, and many believe that at least one suspect was never caught.
Carolyn was mostly known as Carrie. She was the daughter of millionaire David Smith and Harriett Hill Smith. She was raised in Cleveland, TN, and she later graduated from the University of Alabama Law School, where she met her husband, Earl Lawson, who also came from a wealthy family.
Carrie and Earl were married 18 months prior to her kidnapping. They resided in an upscale Heritage Hills home in Jasper, Alabama, and Earl was an Attorney at a local Law Firm. Carrie has taken her bar exam and is only days away from finding out she has passed.
At approximately 3:00 am on September 11th, 1991, their phone rang. The caller on the other end of the line claimed to be a nurse at Walker Regional Medical Center. She said that Earl's father was very ill and urged them to come to the hospital right away.
Earl's father had recently suffered from health-related issues, making the call believable, so Earl and Carrie hurried out the door to get in their Ford Explorer.
As they got into the vehicle, they were approached by a masked man who was armed. The man ordered Carrie to tie Earl up. He then took Carrie and left in the Explorer.
Earl was able to free himself, but because the house keys were in the Explorer, he had to kick down the door to their house to call 911 and Carrie's parents.
Later that night, Earl received a call from a man demanding money in exchange for Carrie's release. The demands were agreed to, but the first drop-off failed due to police being nearby for unrelated reasons.
On September 12th, 1991, Earl got to hear Carrie briefly on the phone and confirm she was still alive. The kidnapper was angry about the initial attempt and made accusations, leading to the fact that he believed it was a setup. This call is believed to have been placed from a payphone at a service station in Northport in Tuscaloosa County.
At 3:00 am on September 13th, 1991, the man reached out again, this time he instructed Earl to leave money in a Culvert near a service station in the Western Section of Jasper. The money Earl's parents paid was recovered, but Carrie was never heard from again.
The FBI was heavily involved, and a tracker was placed in the bag, but it proved unhelpful. Some resources claim a technical error occurred, while others state that the agents working the case accidentally followed the tracker they had placed with Earl rather than the one placed with the money.
On September 14th, 1991 Feminine hygiene products were found in an abandoned home near Jasper. This home is believed to be where Carrie was held hostage.
On September 15th, 1991, David and Harriett Smith offered a $100,000 reward for Carrie's safe return. This amount increased over time, and other rewards were also offered.
On September 20th, 1991, Carrie and Earl's 1991 Explorer was found in the Black Pond Area of southeast Winston County, just a few miles from Smith Lake.
The FBI released recordings of the kidnapper's voice on September 27th, 1991 an estimated 100 calls came in from individuals who thought they recognized the voice.
On September 28th, 1991, a man named Jerry Bland was questioned, and his voice matched the recorded one.
By September 30th, 1991, the searches for Carrie resulted in the finding the bodies of four other missing people.
On October 1st, 1991, Jerry Bland took his own life inside his home at 800 Haston Drive, leaving behind a note saying the money in the home came from other illegal activities and that his wife's cousin, Karen McPherson, was innocent.
An estimated $200,000 to $250,000 was recovered from Bland's home and truck, and several thousand dollars were recovered from Karen McPherson's home; a large portion of the money matched the serial numbers associated with the reward.
Karen had already admitted to being the person who called pretending to be a nurse, to dropping Bland off at the Lawson residence, and even to being left alone with Carrie to watch her in Winston County after the kidnapping. She claimed that the kidnapping was random and that she did not know Carrie's location, and said that Bland had told her that he had left Carrie alone in an isolated location and that she had escaped.
The Smiths hired a Private Investigator and funded numerous searches over several years in hopes of finding Carrie. It is believed that before his death, David Smith spent hundreds of thousands of dollars trying to find his beloved daughter.
On October 9th, 1991, at the request of the Smiths and Lawsons, the District Attorney offered complete immunity to any person or persons holding Carrie in exchange for her safe return.
The Lawsons and Smiths even attempted to work out a deal with Karen McPherson; they asked her to tell David Smith the whole truth about Carrie's case and fate, and in exchange, they said they would not do anything to hinder the possibility of her getting parole after 10 years. Karen agreed, and Mr. Smith spent about 5 hours speaking with her, but, much to the dismay of all who loved Carrie, the FBI analysts determined that Karen had lied during the conversation, and her lawyer later called to break the agreement, stating that she had lied about everything they said.
In 1993, Carrie was declared deceased.
The Smiths remained adamant that they believed a third person was involved. The person they had in mind was not named in any source I could find, but I was able to find that one of the reasons they believe another individual was involved was based on the fact that Jerry Bland had been recovering from heart surgery, and couldn't raise his arms enough to brush his own hair making it questionable as to whether he would have been able to pull the initial kidnapping off himself.
No direct connection between Carrie Lawson and Jerry Bland was ever found. The closest connection found was that the Law Firm Earl Worked for represented the other side in a court case involving a company connected to Jerry Bland, but this connection was believed to have played no role.
Tapes of conversations between Jerry Bland and Karen McPherson attempting to plan the abduction of a different person were allegedly found, but who would have taped those conversations?
Earl eventually remarried, had kids, and quit discussing Carrie's case, which made many likely to point the finger at him. However, Carrie's sister claims that her father actually gave his consent to have Carrie claimed as deceased and that Carrie's life insurance policy had both Earl's and David's names listed as beneficiaries.
As for David Smith, he remained completely dedicated to finding Carrie and to ensuring that Karen McPherson remained imprisoned until his death in 2017.
One of the main questions that lingers in my mind is, "Was the fact that they used the health of Earl's dad to get Carrie out of the house a coincidence, or did they somehow know he had been sick?"
This is an intriguing case, but even more than that is the fact that Carrie still deserves to be found.
If you know anything that could help find Carrie, please contact the authorites, for everyone else.
