Six days afterCarlee Russellmysteriously vanished alongside an Alabama interstate, only to reappear at her parent’s house two nights later, police say they’re “unable to verify” herclaim about being abducted.
The 25-year-old Alabama nursing student left work last Thursday night and called 911, saying she saw a toddler walking alone alongside I-495 on her way back home. She told the dispatcher she was going to check on the child. Then, she called her brother’s girlfriend before suddenly vanishing.
“My son’s girlfriend heard her asking the child, ‘Are you OK?' She never heard the child say anything but then she heard our daughter scream,’’ Talitha Russell-Robinson, her mother, toldAL.comlast week. “All you hear on her phone is background noise from the interstate.”
Two nights later, after a statewide search that involved local, state, and federal investigators, Russell reappeared at the doorstep of her parents’ house, where she lives. In the days since, police say they’ve been “unable to verify” Russell’s claims about a missing toddler and other key details of from the 911 call. Investigators say she has declined to speak with them further.
“There are many questions left to be answered,” Hoover police chief Nick Derzis said at a press conference Wednesday. “Only Carlee can provide those answers.”
Hoover Police Dept/Twitter
The Hoover Police Department held the press conference to shed light on the case, which has grabbed national attention and fueled online speculation.
Derzis filled in some of the gaps in Russell’s disappearance, including what she said about being abducted, what she searched online in the days leading up to her disappearance, as well as the facts detectives have uncovered in the days since she reappeared. But there are many facts, according to Derzis, that are still unknown.
Here’s what we know.
Carlee Russell.HOOVER (AL) POLICE DEPARTMENT
HOOVER (AL) POLICE DEPARTMENT
Russell Searched Online About Amber Alerts and the MovieTakenBefore Vanishing
Derzis alleged Russell made a handful of “very relevant” internet searches in the days leading up to her disappearance that investigators were looking into, including information about whether you have to pay for an Amber Alert and what the maximum age for an Amber Alert can be.
The police chief also said Russell searched for information about a one-way bus ticket from Birmingham, Ala., to Nashville, Tenn., scheduled to leave the night she disappeared, as well as the location of the bus stop in Birmingham. She also searched for the movieTaken— about the kidnapping of two girls — the same afternoon she vanished, he said.
“I do think it’s highly unusual that the day someone gets kidnapped, seven or eight hours before that they were searching the movieTakenabout an abduction,” Derzis said. “I find that very strange.”
She Allegedly Took Robe, Toilet Paper from Work, Then Bought Snacks
After Russell made her 911 call alongside the highway, officers arrived on scene and found the Mediterranean food, her cell phone, her purse and a wig near her vehicle — but not the robe, toilet paper, and snacks she gathered after work.
A key piece of evidence in the case is Russell’s 911 call, during which she said she saw a toddler-aged boy walking barefoot alongside I-495. Cell phone data shows Russell traveled about 600 yards while on the phone with the dispatcher. Russell said the boy was wearing nothing but a white t-shirt and a diaper, describing the toddler before she got out of her vehicle.
According to Derzis, Russell alleged the man and woman told her to get undressed and took nude photos of her. Derzis said Russell told authorities she was able to escape the next day, and walked home.
Detectives found no evidence of a missing child wandering the interstate, however, and police received no other reports of a missing child that matched the description Russell gave. Russell had a minor cut to her lip and complained of a headache, police say, and she was taken to UAB hospital overnight before returning home Sunday morning.
“I’m not saying it couldn’t happen,” Derzis, the police chief, told reporters. “To think that a toddler, barefoot, that could be 3 or 4 years old could travel six football fields without getting in the roadway, without crying, without anything, just moving down — it’s very hard for me to understand.”
Thomar Latrell Simmons and Carlee Russell.Thomar Latrell Simmons/Instagram
Thomar Latrell Simmons/Instagram
Russell’s Family Says She’s Been ‘Traumatized’ Since Disappearance
While police say they’ve yet to be granted another interview with Russell since she returned, her family has made several statements on social media and given an interview to NBC’s TODAY.
Russell’s mothertoldTODAYher daughter was “traumatized” from the incident and that she “absolutely, absolutely” believed her daughter’s “abductor” was still at large.
“She definitely fought for her life,” the mother said. “There were moments when she physically had to fight for her life, and there were moments when she had to mentally fight for her life.
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Russell’s mental state is also the reason her family has told police she can’t speak with them further. “She’s not ready to talk, is what we’ve been told,” Derzis told reporters Wednesday.
Russell’s Family Says Her Kidnapper Is Still at Large
In their public statements since Russell reappeared Saturday night, the Alabama family and her boyfriend say they believe her alleged abductor is still out there.
“She was literally fighting for her life for 48 hours, so until she’s physically & mentally stable again she is not able to give any updates or whereabouts on her kidnapper at this very moment,” Russell’s boyfriend Thomar Lattrel Simmons wrote in a now-deleted Instagram post.
Investigators, however, believe differently. “What I can say is we’ve been unable to verify most of Carlee’s initial statement made to investigators,” Derzis told reporters this week. “And we have no reason to believe there is a threat to public safety related to this case.”
source: people.com
