New details have emerged in the missing case of Carlethia “Carlee” Nichole Russell, the missing Alabama woman who made national headlines after she went missing Thursday evening and reappeared several days later at her family’s home.
Russell, 25, was driving home from work Thursday evening when she called police to report that she had spotted a child on the highway and then called a family member to inform them that she would stop to help the child, according to the Hoover Police Department.
But when police arrived at the scene, they say the only traces of Russell were her wig, cell phone and purse. Neither she nor the child were found.
Two days later, shortly before midnight, authorities say she returned home and was taken to a local hospital for a medical evaluation. She was released shortly thereafter.
Investigators spoke with Russell following her reappearance but are still waiting to “obtain a more detailed statement about the sequence of events,” police said.
An investigation is still underway as detectives are attempting to find out what exactly happened. According to her mother, her daughter was abducted.
“Carlee has given detectives her statement and hopefully they are pursuing her abductor,” Talitha Robinson-Russell said in a statement to WBRC.
Robinson-Russell then told NBC that her daughter “definitely fought for her life. 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.”
As police try to piece together the events that led to her disappearance, they have not yet been able to determine whether foul play is involved, although they have confirmed that there was no evidence of a child walking alone on the interstate and did not receive any calls about it “despite numerous vehicles passing through that area as depicted by the traffic camera surveillance video.”
Russell’s call to police remains the “only timely report of a child on the interstate,” police added.
Background
Russell 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.”
