Carlee Russell latest update: Boyfriend deletes social media post on ...

Before Carlee Russell went ‘missing’, she called 911 to inform the police that she spotted a three-to-four-year-old child walking alone, barefoot, in only a diaper and t-shirt along the interstate.

According to Ms Russell, she got out of her car to assist the small toddler and was kidnapped by a man.

Police raised eyebrows saying that no other people driving along the busy interstate noticed the toddler or called the police and no children had been reported missing in the area.

Then during a press conference on Wednesday, Hoover police chief Nick Derzis said that in Ms Russell’s brief phone call to police, she travelled approximately 600 yards (the size of six football fields) while claiming she was pulled off on the side of the road.

Authorities used location-tracking information via her cell phone to see she had not pulled off on the interstate and was likely not following a small child.

The mother of slain teen Aniah Blanchard has sent a dire message in the wake of an exhaustive investigation by Alabama authorities into the mysterious circumstances in which Carlee Russell allegedly went missing.

Ms Russell’s disappearance has stumped law enforcement and the public alike after the 25-year-old’s vehicle was found in the stretch of a highway following a 911 call she made reporting a stranded toddler. Ms Russell inexplicably reappeared at her parents’ home in Hoover 49 hours later, claiming she had been kidnapped and barely managed to escape her captors.

Hoover police and the FBI are leading the investigation, with detectives noting that no evidence of a toddler walking along the highway has been found. Ms Russell’s online searches prior to going missing — including the 2008 film Taken, Amber alerts, and “how to take money from a register without being caught” — have also cast doubt on her claims, police said during a press conference earlier this week.

The circumstances in which the alleged kidnapping unfolded initially prompted speculation that a new ruse involving children was being used by kidnappers to lure in victims, but authorities have emphasized there is currently no evidence of such a threat. Angela Harris, who created a nonprofit organization to promote safety education after her 19-year-old daughter Aniah was murdered in 2019, helped in the search for Ms Russell and has now called for the public to remain patient — and cautious — as an investigation is underway.

“People want to know the truth, they need to know if there’s a predator out there ... Y’all, there are predators out there that you need to beware of. Were’ not [just] talking about the Carlee situation ... just in general, in life,” Ms Russell said in a TikTok video posted on Tuesday. “There are predators out there, everywhere, it doesn’t matter. Please get that into your head. It can happen to anybody, anywhere, anytime.”

The Hoover Police Department said they received a 911 call from the home Carlee Russell shares with her parents at 10.44pm on Saturday to say she had returned home on foot.

Ms Russell was “unresponsive but breathing”, according to police dispatch audio obtained by Mail Online.

Emergency services responded and took Ms Russell to UAB Hospital for treatment before she was released.

Detectives conducted a preliminary interview with Ms Russell at the hospital, but later contradicted the 25-year-old’s claims that she had been kidnapped and held captive.

Carlee Russell vanished after calling 911 to report seeing a young boy in diapers on the side of a busy interstate. Police say they have serious doubts about her story, Bevan Hurley reports

Carlee Russell vanished after calling 911 to report seeing a young boy in diapers on the side of a busy interstate. Police say they have serious doubts about her story, Bevan Hurley reports

Carlee Russell's mom speaks up

Police in Hoover, Alabama have said they were unable to verify most of Carlee Russell’s claims that she was kidnapped after pulling off to the side of the road while reporting a toddler was walking alone, leading to questions about whether she may face charges.

While police have not made any official allegations against Ms Russell, should they find that she made a false report, law enforcement could choose to charge her.

Section 13A-10-9 of the Alabama criminal code states that making a false report to law enforcement, knowingly, is a Class A misdemeanour.

When asked if law enforcement was planning on charging Ms Russell on Wednesday, Hoover police chief Nick Derzis replied: “To be perfectly honest with you, that hasn’t even entered our mind or been discussed.”

Mr Derzis said the priority of their investigation was to return Ms Russell home safely and find out where she was in the two days she was missing.

Police in Hoover, Alabama have said they were unable to verify most of Carlee Russell’s claims that she was kidnapped after pulling off to the side of the road while reporting a toddler was walking alone, leading to questions about whether she may face charges.

Ariana Baio reports:

Investigators in the Hoover Police Department will focus the remainder of their investigation on Carlee Russell’s whereabouts in the two days she was missing.

At first, investigators were prioritising Ms Russell’s safe return home.

But after she walked home on 15 July, the focus switched to what happened to her.

Ms Russell told police she was kidnapped after pulling her car off the side of the road to assist a child. But later, police refuted this saying they were unable to verify most of her statements.

The parents of Carlee Russell, the 25-year-old Alabama woman who disappeared for 48 hours after reporting that she spotted a child on the side of a highway, have spoken out for the first time since their daughter returned.

“We tried to hug as best we could, but I had to stand back because she was not in a good state,” Talitha Russell told The Daily Beast about seeing her daughter return home. “So we had to stand back and let medical professionals work with her.”

Kelly Rissman reports:

The parents of Carlee Russell, told the media that their daughter had been kidnapped when she first returned home.

“We tried to hug as best we could, but I had to stand back because she was not in a good state,” Talitha Russell told The Daily Beast about seeing her daughter return home. “So we had to stand back and let medical professionals work with her.”

While Ms Russell has been reported safe, mystery still swirls around what happened in the two days in which she vanished. Her parents and the police haven’t shared what transpired in that period.

Her parents have maintained that she was “absolutely” abducted. “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,” the mother told the outlet.

“She’s having to deal with the trauma of people just making completely false allegations about her,” she added. “Carlee has given detectives her statement so that they can continue to pursue her abductor.”

Since police have come out and refuted some of those claims, the Russells have not made any public comments.