Carolyn Carrie Lawson was 25 when she was abducted from her Jasper, Alabama, home in the early morning of September 11, 1991. A woman who later identified herself as Karen McPherson placed a deceptive call about a family emergency, drawing Carrie and her husband Earl outside. A masked gunman then forced Carrie to bind Earl with duct tape and drove off in Carrie’s Ford Explorer.

A $300,000 ransom demand followed; the family left the money at the instructed location and the kidnapper took it, but Carrie was never returned. McPherson later admitted making the call and guarding Carrie for a couple of days after the abduction, confirming Carrie was alive then. Distant cousin Jerry Bland was a prime suspect; he killed himself as police closed in and a large portion of the ransom was found in his attic. McPherson was convicted and received life imprisonment but has never revealed what happened to Carrie. Carrie was declared legally dead in 1993, and extensive searches including emptied mines have failed to locate remains. Many investigators and the family suspect a third person may have been involved; abandoned coal mines have been a focal point in the search.

If anyone knew Carrie, her movements around Jasper in September 1991, or has information about abandoned mine activity or contacts who may have been involved, please share what is known.