The 25-year-old student who disappeared after she reported a sighting of a toddler walking barefoot in Hoover, Alabama, has admitted that the ‘abduction’ was a hoax.
Carlee Russell called 911 on the night of July 13 and told officers that there was a child walking down I-459.
She said she would stay at the scene but ended the call to call her brother’s girlfriend while helping the youngster.
Speaking to AL, Carlee’s mother, Talitha Robinson-Russell, said: “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.”
Police arrived and found the student’s wig, purse, and cell phone along the roadway. An Apple watch was also found inside her bag.
Officers searched for the 25-year-old but two days later, she suddenly turned up at the residence she shares with her parents.
According to reports, Russell turned up at the home ‘on foot’ just over 49 hours after she vanished. She was taken to a hospital and was later released but questions had been raised over her alleged abduction.
In a press release, police said that they found no evidence to back up the claim of a toddler walking barefoot along I-459 before the student suddenly disappeared.
“The Hoover Police Department has not located any evidence of a toddler walking down the interstate, nor did we receive any additional calls about a toddler walking down the interstate, despite numerous vehicles passing through that area as depicted by the traffic camera surveillance video,” the police said.
But Russell’s attorney, Emory Anthony, has now revealed that “there was no kidnapping,” and that the nursing student “did not see a baby.”
“My client did not have any help in this incident,” the lawyer’s statement was read by Hoover Police Chief Nicholas Derzis. “This was a single act done by herself. My client was not with anyone or any hotel with anyone from the time she was missing.
“My client apologizes for her actions to this community, the volunteers who were searching for her, to the Hoover Police Department and other agencies as well, and to her friends and family.”
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