Carlee Russell, the Alabama woman who went missing and told a bizarre tale about seeing a toddler on the side of a freeway and being abducted, lied about the whole thing, authorities said Monday.
Russell’s attorney, Emery Anthony, emailed a statement to the Hoover Police Department stating Russell admitted to not seeing a baby on the road and was not a missing person, police Chief Nicholas Derzis told reporters.
“My client did not have any help in this incident. This was a single act done by herself,” the statement said. “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.”
Hoover, Alabama police are reviewing traffic camera video from I-459 that shows Carlee Russell’s car, seen driving slowly in the emergency lane with warning lights, pull over before she went missing July 13. (Courtesy: Hoover Police Department / TCA)
Derzis said authorities were talking with local prosecutors about the possible filing criminal charges against Russell. He said a meeting was scheduled between investigators and Anthony on Tuesday to discuss what happened to his client during the 49 hours she couldn’t be found.
“We still don’t know what happened in those 49 hours, where she was. Did she have any help? We have no idea,” Derzis said.
“We wanted the focus to be, bring her home. She got home. We’re very excited about that,” he said. “That facts that I (spoke about) last Wednesday pretty much showed that we knew it was a hoax.”
Russell, 25, initially went missing after placing a 911 call on July 13 at 9:34 p.m., telling the operator that she saw a 3- to 4-year-old toddler walking along the southbound side of Interstate 459 near Birmingham, Alabama, authorities said.
Police said Russell took a bathrobe and toilet paper from her employer, the Woodhouse Spa Birmingham, before getting food and shopping at a Target.
Carlee Russell Googled the movie “Taken” before disappearing on July 13 along with a slew of other searches leading up to the moment where she told a 911 operator that she saw a toddler walking along a busy interstate. On Monday, police said she admitted the whole thing was a hoax. (Dana Mixer for Fox News Digital and Hoover Police Department)
She then remained in the Target parking lot until driving off to Interstate 495 where she called 911.
She returned home on July 15. During a police interview, she said a man with orange hair came out of the woods to check on the toddler, but picked up Russell and made her go over a nearby fence.
He forced her into a car, she said, before recalled being inside an 18-wheel trailer. She said that she was able to escape from the truck and fled the area on foot, but was captured again and placed into a car.
She claimed she was blindfolded in a house and forced to get undressed, and believed pictures were taken of her.
A ribbon tied to a mailbox in Hoover Alabama, Thursday, July 20, 2023. The ribbon was once part of a series of similar such decorations placed on mailboxes along the street according to neighbors, which were placed there in honor of Carlee Russell, the woman who went missing in Alabama after calling 911 about a child on an interstate. (Dana Mixer for Fox News Digital)
She also allegedly told police that the individuals didn’t have any sexual contact with her. Surveillance video footage showed Russell walking along the sidewalk before she went to her house July 15, officials said. No evidence of a toddler on the side of a highway was ever found by police.
Data from Russell’s Life 360 application showed that the woman traveled 600 yards during the 911 call.
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Last week, Derzis said Russell made various online searches, including “do you have to pay for an Amber Alert” on July 11 at 7:30 a.m. On July 13 at 1:03 a.m., Russell searched “how to take money from a register without being caught.”
She searched for the movie “Taken” on July 13 at 12:10 p.m., he said. “Taken” is a movie about a retired CIA agent who travels around Europe to save his daughter who was kidnapped while on a trip to Paris, according to IMDB.
Fox News’ Adam Sabes contributed to this report.
