Carrie Todd arrived in Springfield in March 1981. A new employee at Spaulding Enterprises, Carrie was a bright vivacious woman who immediately caught the eye of ambitious District Attorney Ross Marler. Carrie introduced Ross to jogging, health foods and spiritual well-being and after a whirlwind romance that humanized Ross, the pair became engaged. Unfortunately after the death of Diane Ballard, Ross would learn that Carrie was a lot more complicated than he thought.

During the course of 1981, Diane Ballard made a name for herself as a devious blackmailer. She ordered Ross to see to it that Phillip (the baby swapped for Elizabeth's stillborn son, who was actually the biological son of Ross' brother and sister-in-law, Justin and Jackie Marler) was cut out of Alan's will, or she would tell Carrie that Ross had manipulated Amanda Spaulding. Diane also had documents proving that Henry Chamberlain had an illegitimate son with a woman named Stephanie Ryan, named Sean. Diane used this information to blackmail Henry into cementing a business deal with his old pal, H.B. Lewis that was favorable to Spaulding Enterprise. Also, Diane learned that Joe Bradley was working for the Chamberlains, without Alan's knowledge, and she was about to use that information against him. When Diane was fired by Alan, she was so stung by Alan's disloyalty and rejection that she icily threatened to reveal his collusion with Roger Thorpe, Paul La Crosse, Ramon de Vilar and Gonzalo Moreno. Then she started threatening Jackie and Justin with the knowledge that they were the biological parents of Phillip, which no one had yet told Phillip about. Finally, in September, Diane was found dead! A few weeks later, Joe was also found dead in his hotel room on his stomach with a huge gunshot wound with the bullet ripped right threw his heart! The Clayton police department called Mike Bauer and Lt. Wyatt since Joe was one of the suspects in Diane's murder. A few weeks later, the gun used to kill Joe would be found in the Springfield River. Apparently this gun was registered to Joe and had been wiped clean of fingerprints. Finally, in November, several people involved in the case started to suspect that something was not right with Carrie, especially after Ross discovered the information regarding Sean Ryan (Quint Chamberlain) in her apartment--information that he knew came from Diane.

In the meantime, Carrie was covering up evidence that she murdered Joe and Diane! First, she burned her blood stained beige overcoat, then threw Joe's gun into the Springfield River, and finally hid Diane's briefcase under her bed. Not long after, Ross found a suicide note written by Carrie, in their apartment. At the same time, Carrie went missing. Meanwhile, Vanessa Chamberlain, Henry Chamberlain, Jackie Marler, Justin Marler, and Ed Bauer converged on Ross and Carrie's apartment when they all got duplicate suicide notes from Carrie. Ross was getting anxious and started rummaging all through their apartment, and discovered Diane's briefcase under their bed. As Lt. Wyatt came to arrest Carrie, Carrie finally showed up with a knife pointed at her right wrist! Instead of committing suicide, Carrie confessed to murdering Joe and Diane but didn't tell them why. Because of her suicide attempt, Carrie was placed in Cedar's psychiatric ward while Ross left the D.A.S office so he could handle her case. After some digging, Carrie's past would be revealed. Years earlier, Carrie and Diane had worked at the Milwaukee firm of Laird & Sogard. While working there she'd fallen in love with a junior accountant named, Todd MacKenzie. They eloped and were happy until Carrie overheard pieces of a conversation between Todd and Diane, which led Carrie to believe that they were having an affair. In truth, Diane had pressured Todd to cook the company books, and string-armed his mother into mortgaging her home to make up for the shortfall. Just as Carrie learned she was pregnant, Todd was driven to suicide over Diane's duplicitous scheme, and as a result, his mother had a stroke. Emotionally devastated, Carrie spent time in a mental institution, where she gave birth to a baby boy. Because of her unstable condition, she felt unfit to raise the child and unwillingly gave him up for adoption to a couple named Howard and Betty Long. Carrie related that she went to Diane's apartment that fateful night because her blackmailing of Ross, which triggered the memory of what happened in Milwaukee. Carrie and Diane argued and during a struggle, Carrie pushed Diane into the fireplace.

After finding evidence to corroborate Carrie's story, namely the briefcase full of blackmail material which was found under Ross's bed, everyone was shocked when Carrie suddenly disappeared! Finally, Ross found her in Milwaukee after she had stopped by Jackie's father, Emmet Scott's house and hitting him up for $5000. Ross found her partying at a nightclub in Milwaukee and brought her back to Springfield for her trial. At the trial, Carried revealed what happened the day of Joe Bradley's shooting. After she saw Joe leave Diane's cordoned off apartment, Carrie followed Joe to his hotel room in Clayton. Carrie was very afraid that Joe might still use the information he had in Diane's briefcase to blackmail not only Ross, but many of Carrie's friends. When Carrie entered Joe's room to talk to him, He started to reach for his gun, after threatening Carrie, and Carrie saw it and went after the gun herself. Carrie got the gun and then pointed it at Joe, telling him that she wanted him to go to the Springfield police department, now. When Joe, refused he tried to sweet talk his way to get Carrie to let him go and Carrie yelled, "No!" Joe lunged for the briefcase and tried and get out of the hotel room, but Carrie beat him to the briefcase. Then Joe lunged at her and during the struggle for the gun, Carrie fired point blank at his chest and shot and killed him! After relating all of these events, at her trial, in January 1982, Carrie was acquitted by the jury who concluded that both Diane Ballard's and Joe Bradley's murders were accidents.

Soon after, Carrie and Ross would marry in a beautiful ceremony. After the wedding, they honeymooned in Seattle, WA, which was where Carrie's son, Todd, was living with his adoptive parents. In Seattle, Ross was able to find out that the Longs would be dining at the Seattle space needle restaurant and took Carrie there at the same time so she could get a glimpse of her son. After seeing Todd Jr. Carrie broke down and cried to Ross and then told him she was just happy to see Todd and didn't need to actually meet him. Later, Carrie suddenly disappeared; she showed up a couple of days later, very confused and couldn't tell Ross where she'd been or what she had done. As they were getting ready to leave for Springfield, Carrie expressed her fear to Ross that she was being followed. Unbeknownst to everyone, there would soon be an explanation for Carrie's erratic behavior: she was suffering from split personality disorder. Carrie 1 was normal Carrie, Carrie 2 was Ross's worst nightmare-- a lying contemptuous slut, while Carrie 3 was a scared naive girl. Mere months after her wedding, Carrie 2 would have a one-night stand with not only Josh Lewis but also a teenage boy named Ron Kennedy who lived next door. These incidents would leave Carrie 1 totally shocked and Kennedy totally confused when a horrified Carrie rushed him out of the house. Later, Carrie 3 would make an appearance when both Ron and Ross got mad at her for unrelated reasons. Then one day, Justin saw Carrie putting her arms around Josh at Wired For Sound. When Josh stated that Justin will probably tell Ross, Carrie decided she had to stop him. So, when Justin came home one night, he found Carrie in his bedroom in a sexy nightgown. When Justin threw her out, Carrie, warned him that if he said anything, she would tell Ross that he came on to her. Days later, while Justin was arguing with Carrie, she saw Jackie about to enter and kissed him. Stunned, Jackie left town to visit her father for a while. Later, Carrie #2 let it "slip" to Ross that Justin had tried to seduce her.