An attorney for Carlee Russell announced that the Alabama woman confessed she did not see a child walking on the side of the highway and lied about being kidnapped.
The hoax that set off a national effort to locate Russell was exposed during a
press conference on Monday.
Nicholas C. Derzis, the police chief of Hoover, read the statement provided by Russell's attorney. The 25-year-old nursing student admitted that she was not kidnapped on July 13 and had not even left the Hoover area and apologized in the statement "...for her actions to this community, to the volunteers who were searching for her, to the Hoover Police Department and other agencies as well."
According to Derzis, potential criminal charges are being considered by the district attorney's office in consultation with the police department. Russell's attorney said she acted alone and was not assisted by anyone.On Monday, instead of appearing with her attorney for a scheduled interview with police, Russell provided a statement.
According to police, Russell was said to have disappeared on July 13 after calling 911 at approximately 9:30 pm to report having seen a child on Interstate 459 South. Russel also called a relative and told them she was going to help the toddler before the phone connection was lost. Responding officers found Russell's cell phone and wig in her red Mercedes but didn't find her or the toddler.
That day, she posted a series of what her friends and relatives described as strange tweets including one that said, "yeah, I want a family now."
Law enforcement said Russell claimed she was forced into an 18-wheeler truck and then taken to a house where a man and a woman forced her to undress so they could take pictures of her.Russell reappeared at her home 49 hours later and law enforcement was unable to verify her claims.
NBC reported that law enforcement agencies, including the Secret Service, discovered that before she disappeared, Russell searched the web to learn about how to pay for Amber Alerts and how to take money from a register without getting caught.Russell also searched the internet for the movie "Taken" in which Liam Neeson's on-screen daughter is kidnapped.The case drew national attention and massive traction on social media as people attempted to locate her.
Carlee's parents Talitha and Carlos Russell told "TODAY" show that their daughter wasn't in a "good state" when she came back and her ex-boyfriend, Thomar Latrell Simmons, said in a Facebook post that he was "blindsided" by the events.
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In the days after her disappearance, Russell went viral on TikTok and other social media platforms, and received national media attention as law enforcement agencies searched for her. The chilling details surrounding her disappearance — and the prospect that a child was used to lure her into danger — likely contributed to it going viral: Fears about human trafficking and abduction have become a bigger part of the national conversation in recent years.
But then, 49 hours after she went missing, Russell showed up at the doorstep of her family home. Everyone who'd been following the case had a lot of questions. So, apparently, did the police.
In a news conference on July 19, Hoover Police Chief Nick Derzis revealed that detectives had been unable to verify many of the things that Russell had told investigators in the brief interview she gave them following her return.
According to Derzis, Russell said that after calling 911, a man emerged from the trees near the highway to say he was checking on the child. She then said the man forced her into a car, and "the next thing she remembers is being in the trailer of an 18-wheeler," said Derzis. Russell said that the man who kidnapped her had orange hair with a bald spot, and that she heard the voice of a woman who was with him but never saw her face.
At one point, she said, she managed to escape from the trailer, but was recaptured and taken to a house where she was forced to undress and be photographed. After being put in another vehicle, Russell said she escaped again, and was able to make it to her home by running through the woods.
Derzis shared some other details that seemed to cast doubt on Russell's story. Video footage showed Russell leaving the spa she worked at the day of her disappearance reportedly concealing a bathrobe, toilet paper, and other items. Those items, as well as the snacks she purchased from Target shortly before her disappearance, were missing, despite her purse and other belongings being left with the vehicle.
Derzis also noted that Russell drove 600 yards while on the phone with 911 saying she was watching the child, and police said they received no other reports of a toddler walking alone. (Video footage on the highway appears to show only one figure, Russell, on the side of the road.) "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, it's very hard for me to understand," Derzis said.
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