Carlethia "Carlee" Nichole Russell and Hoover Police Chief Nicholas Derzis
Law enforcement authorities in Alabama provided new details in the case of Carlethia "Carlee" Nichole Russell, the woman who mysteriously went missing moments after calling 911 and reporting that she saw an unsupervised toddler wandering along the side of the highway. Authorities have now obtained evidence that suggests Russell may not have been abducted.
According to Hoover Police Chief Nicholas Derzis, surveillance video from Russell's place of work showed her at approximately 8:20 p.m. on July 13 concealing a dark robe, a roll of toilet paper, and other items belonging to the business prior to her departure. She then picked up food from a restaurant and snacks from Target before getting on the highway and heading back in the direction of her home at around 9:20 p.m.
She made several calls to family and friends on the drive before calling 911 at about 9:34 p.m.
Police played the two-minute 46-second 911 call in its entirety during which Russell sounds calm and collected while telling the dispatcher she was following the child she spotted wandering on the busy stretch of road. According to Derzis, Russell was the only person to report a child on the road despite heavy traffic in the area.
The data from Russell's phone showed that she traveled about 600 yards while on the phone with the dispatcher and supposedly following the toddler, Derzis said, emphasizing that such a distance is equal to six football fields lined up consecutively.
Following the 911 call from Russell, her mother called 911 and reported that her daughter was speaking to a relative when she suddenly screamed and stopped responding. Officers already dispatched to the area were there in less than five minutes where they located Russell's personal belongings and the food she had just purchased from the restaurant. However, the snacks she purchased from Target and the items she took from her place of work were not found.
After several days of police and community-organized searches, Russell shockingly reappeared, showing up at her home at 10:45 p.m. on Saturday evening. She was seen walking down the sidewalk alone prior to arriving at her residence.
She was transported to a local hospital where she again told police that she saw the baby on the side of the road and was then taken by an unidentified man.
"She stated that when she got out of her vehicle to check on the child, a man came out of the trees and mumbled that he was checking on the baby," Derzis said. "She claimed that the man then picked her up, and she screamed. She stated he then made her go over a fence. She claimed he then forced her into a car, and the next thing she remembers is being in the trailer of an 18-wheeler."
Russell gave a specific description of the man as having orange hair with a big bald spot on the back and said she could hear him conversing with a female while a baby could be heard crying. She claimed she escaped the 18-wheeler but was caught, blindfolded, and put into a car. She claimed she was not tied up and heard the captors say it was because they didn't want to leave impressions on her wrist.
She claimed she was brought to a house and forced to strip naked. She believed her alleged captors took photographs of her but said she was not sexually assaulted. The following morning she was fed and the woman "played with her hair" before she was put back in a vehicle that she was able to escape. She then ran through the woods and claimed she came out near her home.
Detectives didn't press Russell for more answers immediately, but the data from her cellphone showed several suspicious internet searches performed in the days leading up to her alleged kidnapping that Derzis said were "very relevant" to the situation.
For example, on July 11, Derzis said she searched, "Do you have to pay for an Amber Alert or search." On the day of her disappearance she searched the terms, "how to take money from a register without being caught" and "Birmingham bus station." She also searched for a one-way ticket from Birmingham to Nashville, Tennessee, with a departure date of July 13.
Russell at about noon on the day of her disappearance searched for the movie, "Taken," which is about a young woman being abducted.
At her place of work, Russell also performed searches about Amber Alerts, including, "What is the maximum age for an Amber Alert," Derzis said.
Derzis noted that police have requested a second request to interview Russell, but said they "have not been granted that request."
"As you can see, there are many questions to be answered, but only Carlee can provide those answers," Derzis said. "What I can say is that we have been unable to verify most of Carlee's initial statement made to investigators and we have no reason to believe that there is a threat to the public safety related to this particular case."
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