An Alabama woman who went missing Thursday after informing police that she saw a child walking alone on the highway and decided to help has been found safe Saturday evening, authorities have confirmed.
Carlee Russell, 25, was found after she appeared at her family’s house. According to Nicholas Derzis, the police chief of the Hoover Police Department, her family was stunned to see her and it is unclear how she arrived there. She has since been taken to the hospital for a medical evaluation.
Her reappearance marks the end of a search that made national headlines after she called a dispatcher shortly before 10 PM Thursday evening to report that she had pulled over on I-459 South to check on the toddler, police say. When officers arrived at the scene, she was gone but her vehicle was still there, the police said in a statement.
Shortly after Russell went missing, her mother, Talitha Russell, told the New York Times that her daughter was a “kindhearted” soul and was “the life of the party.” She was working part-time at the Woodhouse Spa in Birmingham while enrolled in nursing courses at Jefferson State Community College.
By Saturday, Russell’s mother said that several tipsters provided what they knew about her daughter’s whereabouts.
“We want everyone to do what they can to be relentless in searching for her, leaving no stones unturned and just getting the word out there,” she said. “Not just in Alabama or in Birmingham, but in every state.”
Russell, who recently graduated with a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Auburn University at Montgomery had just finished her shift at the spa and was headed to a Mediterranean restaurant to grab chicken wraps for her mother when she said she saw a toddler on the side of the interstate, her mother said. She says she advised Russell stay with the child until police arrived. Russell then called her brother’s girlfriend and told her about the situation when the girlfriend said she heard her scream, then heard the phone drop.
The girlfriend – whose name has been withheld – said that she immediately called her family, leading them to track Russell’s whereabouts using a phone feature. When they got to the scene, they found her hat and wig on the ground. Her car door was open and the engine was running. But she was gone.
Her disappearance sparked statewide concern as officers combed through the area to find her.
Authorities say they are puzzled about the case because no one else had seen or called the police to report about a child walking alone on the highway.
“That is a little unusual,” Chief Derzis told the New York Times, adding, “The thing that we do know is that her car was on the interstate, and she was not when we got there, and that’s what we’re trying to figure out.”
Russell’s mother says while her daughter went missing, she would pray for the day to see her daughter, who has a Bible scripture tattooed on her arm that says “God is within her. She will not fail.”
