Carlee Russell, Hoover, Alabama, woman found guilty of faking her own disappearance and lying about a toddler on the highway as she now faces 1 year potential jail and $18K restitution for wasted police resources. Set to appeal verdict.
Fame at any cost… An Alabama who captivated national attention and vast police resources has been found guilty of faking her own kidnapping after admitting she had orchestrated her own disappearance earlier this year.
Carlee Russell, 25 of Hoover, was on Wednesday convicted of two misdemeanor charges after lying to cops about seeing a child on a highway and lying about being abducted. Each charge is classified as a class A misdemeanor and carries a potential of up to a year in jail.
The nursing student, captured national headlines after she went missing while on a 911 call on July 13, during which she reported finding a toddler by the side of the road.
Kidnapping story began to fall apart
She then called her brother’s girlfriend, claiming the same sight, and screamed down the phone.
After turning up two days later at her parents house, the woman claimed that a man with ‘orange hair’ abducted her, insisting to police that she had been kidnapped and concocting an elaborate tale about escaping to her freedom.
At the time of Russell’s purported disappearance, police unleashed a vast search effort for the missing woman, heard screaming on the 911 call. During the two days she was gone, (where it continues to remain unclear), Russell’s now ex boyfriend, Thomar Latrell Simmons described his ‘nonstop’ hunt for her – with the duped man saying he was not giving up ‘until I saw her face again.’
But not all was what it seemed.
Hoover Police then revealed the spa therapist’s incriminating Google search history that included the terms ‘do you have to pay for an Amber alert’ along with her research on the movie Taken.
Admits to fantastic hoax
Russell later admitted she’d made the whole episode up, confessing in a written statement that the kidnapping never occurred and it was ‘a mistake.’
Leading up to her abrupt disappearance, Russell who worked at a local spa was observed taking toilet paper and a bathrobe from the Woodhouse Spa Birmingham, her employer. She later picked up food for takeout and was later seen getting snacks at Target.
On July 28, Hoover Police Chief Nick Derzis announced criminal charges against her.
A judge has ordered Russell to pay nearly $18,000 in restitution after finding her guilty for filing a false police report and falsely reporting an alleged abduction of a toddler by the side of the highway. The presiding judge suggested Russell now serve up to a year in jail, WDHN reported.
Russell plans to appeal the ruling in circuit court despite having previously admitted to falsifying the story.
Hoaxer insists she should not have to spend jail time
‘We stipulated and appealed the case and the reason behind it was that they’re trying to ask for jail time, which we totally disagree with,’ Russell’s attorney Emory Anthony explained.
‘So, in fairness, there’s no need of having a trial here, knowing their position. So we have stipulated and appealed the case and we’ll start anew in the Bessemer circuit court.’
‘My client apologizes for her actions to the community, the volunteers who were searching for her, to the Hoover Police Department and other agencies, as well as to her friends and family.
Why the spa therapist made up her story remains unclear.
There were rumors she was trying to win back the attention of her boyfriend, from whom she’d recently split, when she staged the hoax. While others wondered if it was an attempt to inject herself in a national tabloid headline, a forum in which ordinary Americans suddenly find themselves hoisted to public and exulted fame. No matter how tarnished or diminished it is later revealed.
