On Wednesday, the police chief in Hoover, Alabama, unveiled new details that Carlethia “Carlee” Russell, a 25-year-old Black nursing student, gave to detectives the day she was interviewed, as police continue to investigate what happened after she reportedly vanished for 48 hours.
Russell reportedly told police that she had seen a child walking along the side of the road, called 911 as she checked on the child, and screamed when a man allegedly forced her into a car.
The revelations, made at a press conference, came two days after Russell’s parents told NBC News in a written statement that they believed Russell had been taken the night of her disappearance and called on police to “pursue” her alleged abductor.
The Hoover police chief, Nicholas Derzis, cast doubt on the possibility of an abduction, telling reporters that “we have no reason to believe that there is a threat to public safety related to this particular case”. He emphasized that police were still investigating what happened during Russell’s disappearance.
At 9.34pm on 13 July, Russell called 911 dispatch to report that a child was wandering on the side of I-495, and called her sister-in-law to make a similar claim. During that call, it was later claimed, Russell disappeared.
Russell’s disappearance set off a frantic two-day search that captured international attention. Her boyfriend, Thomas Latrell Simmons, said on Facebook that Russell had been “fighting for her life for 48 hours” after she allegedly fended off at least one abductor.
In a statement, Russell’s mother, Talitha Robinson, said that a relative had heard Russell scream while on the phone with her, noting that all she heard after that was background noise from the interstate. Police later found Russell’s phone on the ground near her vehicle, and her purse with an Apple Watch inside the vehicle.
“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,” Talitha Russell told NBC News. “She made it back.”
Derzis, Hoover’s police chief, noted in Wednesday’s press conference that Russell’s 911 call was the “only report of a child on the interstate despite numerous vehicles passing through the area” at the time. Analysis of her cellphone showed that Russell traveled 600 yards, the equivalent of six football fields, when she was in her car following the child she said had been on the road.
“To think that a toddler barefoot that could be three or four years old could travel six football fields without getting in the roadway without crying … it’s very hard for me to understand,” Derzis said.
Derzis also relayed internet searches that Russell made on her cellphone leading up to her disappearance on 13 July. The searches, shown between the early morning of the day she disappeared and the afternoon, included “how to pay for an Amber Alert”, “how to take money from a register without being caught”, a one-way ticket from Birmingham to Nashville, and queries about the movie Taken, which details a CIA agent’s attempts to rescue his daughter from an abduction.
The mystery deepened when Russell returned to her home on Sunday night and someone called police to say she was “unresponsive but breathing”, per AL.com. But when emergency personnel arrived, Russell was up and talking. Neighborhood surveillance video reportedly captured Russell walking home. Derzis said that Russell told detectives she had escaped from her alleged captors, run through woods and emerged near her residence.
When police interviewed her, they noted that Russell, who had a tear in her shirt, had a “small injury to her lip” and claimed that “her head was hurting”, Derzis told reporters. He added that police had met with Russell’s parents “on several occasions” but that her parents told police that Russell has so far declined to do a second interview “because of the trauma of the incident”.
“Her parents are believing what their daughter is saying,” Derzis said. When asked by reporters whether Russell had a history of mental illness, Derzis said “not that I’m aware of”.
He noted that traffic footage showed Russell getting out of her vehicle on the interstate, but after that, only Russell knew what happened. “There are many questions left to be answered,” he said. “But only Carlee can provide those answers.”
