Carlee Russell found: Missing Hoover, Alabama woman turns up 48 hours after abruptly disappearing following her calling 911 to say she found a stranded toddler along highway.
Is it all part of an elaborate hoax or something more sinister? An Alabama motorist who seemingly vanished after telling family she had stopped to help a ‘stranded toddler’ on a busy highway was found alive Saturday night.
Carlethia ‘Carlee’ Nichole Russell, 25, returned to her home in Hoover, Ala. before 10:45 p.m., the Hoover Police Department confirmed to WBRC.
Russell, a nursing student, was dropped off at the residence and ‘appeared to be in shock.’
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Unanswered questions
She was transported to a local hospital for evaluation, according to police. Police declined to say how the missing woman came to return to her home in Hoover.
Hoover is located roughly 10 miles south of Birmingham, the state’s third-largest city.
To date it continued to remain a mystery as to the missing woman’s whereabouts during the 48 hours she had gone missing after calling 911 to report coming across a stranded child along the road.
Police said details would be forthcoming as they continued to investigate.
Russell went missing on Thursday night moments after calling emergency services to say she had spotted a wandering toddler along I-459.
sad sight. search parties in full force looking for carlee russell right before the hoover/bessemer exit. pic.twitter.com/98Zc9Q3GR0
— Logan Adams (@loganwadams) July 14, 2023
Where was missing nurse for 48 hours?
She was reported on the phone with 911 at around 9:30 p.m. before speaking with her sister-in-law 6 minutes later when a ‘scream’ was heard on Russell’s end of the line before going silent.
Officers arrived just minutes later and found Russell’s running car, cell phone, and purse.
Police were unable to find any sign of her or the child she reported.
‘In the process at some point she got out of the car and my daughter-in-law could hear her asking the child if they were OK,’ Talitha Russell, Carlee’s mother, told the outlet.
‘The child did not respond, or at least she did not hear her respond, he or she respond. And then she heard our daughter Carlee scream and from there on all we could hear was noise… background noise in her phone which we later found out was noise from the interstate.’
Mystery and speculation
‘Hoover police had not received any additional calls of someone missing a small child,’ Lt. Daniel Lowe previously said at a press conference.
A traffic camera video obtained by WBRC from Interstate 459 at mile marker 11.7 is believed to show Russell’s car pulling over before she vanished.
It remained unclear how Russell came to be the only motorist along the busy road to come across an alleged stranded child, despite no other reports of wandering children in the area.
Russell had just finished her shift at The Woodhouse Day Spa in Birmingham and stopped to pick up food for herself and her mother when she called 911 to say she had spotted a child.
Russell estimated the toddler being around 3 or 4 years old, Talitha said.
One witness told police they saw a gray vehicle parked near the scene and saw a ‘light-complexioned male’ standing outside Russell’s car, according to Lt Lowe.
Social media responds
Then there were these comments on the web that caught this author’s attention. See what you think?
‘I think she was abducted and was able to escape, or was released for some reason.’
‘If you haven’t figured out it’s a hoax by now you’re a little slow…’
‘She could’ve been on some sort of drugs.’
‘I’m not being insensitive, but I’ve never heard of kidnappers dropping you back off at your residence.’
‘Sounds like a Jussie Smollett-like scenario.’
‘The world now knows her name and has seen her pictures – mission accomplished.’
