Boyfriend of Carlee Russell deletes social media post on her kidnap story – live

Hoover police chief told reporters on Wednesday that from an investigation into Carlee Russell’s disappearance and alleged kidnapping, they have no reason to believe there is a danger to the public’s safety.

“What we can say is that we’ve been unable to verify most of Carlee’s initial statement made to investigators,” chief Nick Derzis said.

“We’ve asked to interview Carlee a second time, but we have not been granted that request. As you can see there are many questions left to be answered, but only Carlee can provide those answers.”

Carlee Russell made a series of suspicious internet searches in the days before she claimed to have been abducted, Alabama authorities revealed at a press conference on Wednesday.

A forensic analysis of Ms Russell’s cell phone, work and home computers found she looked up information about the movie Taken, Amber Alerts, booking a bus ticket from Birmingham to Nashville and “how to take money from a register without being caught”, Hoover Police Department Nicholas Derzis told reporters.

The searches shed light on the 25-year-old’s mindset leading up to when she claimed to have been kidnapped after seeing a toddler walking along the side of Interstate 459 on 13 July, Mr Derzis said.

Police had been unable to verify Ms Russell’s allegations, and she has since refused to be interviewed, he added.

The parents of Carlee Russell, maintained that she was “absolutely” abducted in the 49 hours she was missing.

“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,” Ms Russell’s mother, Talitha Russell told The Daily Beast.

“She’s having to deal with the trauma of people just making completely false allegations about her,” she added. “Carlee has given detectives her statement so that they can continue to pursue her abductor.”

Ms Russell’s boyfriend, Thomar Latrell Simmons, echoed the parents’ theories on Facebook.

Mr Simmons wrote: “She was literally fighting for her life for 48 hours, so until she’s physically & mentally stable again she is not able to give any updates or whereabouts on her kidnapper at this very moment.”

Police said that traffic cameras caught Ms Russell stopping at the side of the road, but the footage did not show the child. There were also no reports of any missing child, according to the police. They also expressed doubt over the allegations of her kidnapping.

Nursing student Ms Russell, 25, vanished without a trace from the side of Interstate 459 in Hoover on the night of 13 July – just moments after she called 911 saying she had spotted a toddler alone on the road.

When officers arrived on the scene, they found Ms Russell’s car still running and her cellphone and wig close by, but no sign of the 25-year-old.

A huge search operation was launched to try to track down the missing woman, with her family begging the public to come forward with any information.

Then, two days later on the night of 15 July, Hoover Police received a 911 call saying that Ms Russell had suddenly returned home on foot.

Before Carlee Russell went ‘missing’, she called 911 to inform the police that she spotted a three-to-four-year-old child walking alone, barefoot, in only a diaper and t-shirt along the interstate.

According to Ms Russell, she got out of her car to assist the small toddler and was kidnapped by a man.

Police raised eyebrows saying that no other people driving along the busy interstate noticed the toddler or called the police and no children had been reported missing in the area.

Then during a press conference on Wednesday, Hoover police chief Nick Derzis said that in Ms Russell’s brief phone call to police, she travelled approximately 600 yards (the size of six football fields) while claiming she was pulled off on the side of the road.

Authorities used location-tracking information via her cell phone to see she had not pulled off on the interstate and was likely not following a small child.

The mother of slain teen Aniah Blanchard has sent a dire message in the wake of an exhaustive investigation by Alabama authorities into the mysterious circumstances in which Carlee Russell allegedly went missing.

Ms Russell’s disappearance has stumped law enforcement and the public alike after the 25-year-old’s vehicle was found in the stretch of a highway following a 911 call she made reporting a stranded toddler. Ms Russell inexplicably reappeared at her parents’ home in Hoover 49 hours later, claiming she had been kidnapped and barely managed to escape her captors.

Hoover police and the FBI are leading the investigation, with detectives noting that no evidence of a toddler walking along the highway has been found. Ms Russell’s online searches prior to going missing — including the 2008 film Taken, Amber alerts, and “how to take money from a register without being caught” — have also cast doubt on her claims, police said during a press conference earlier this week.

The circumstances in which the alleged kidnapping unfolded initially prompted speculation that a new ruse involving children was being used by kidnappers to lure in victims, but authorities have emphasized there is currently no evidence of such a threat. Angela Harris, who created a nonprofit organization to promote safety education after her 19-year-old daughter Aniah was murdered in 2019, helped in the search for Ms Russell and has now called for the public to remain patient — and cautious — as an investigation is underway.

“People want to know the truth, they need to know if there’s a predator out there … Y’all, there are predators out there that you need to beware of. Were’ not [just] talking about the Carlee situation … just in general, in life,” Ms Russell said in a TikTok video posted on Tuesday. “There are predators out there, everywhere, it doesn’t matter. Please get that into your head. It can happen to anybody, anywhere, anytime.”

The Hoover Police Department said they received a 911 call from the home Carlee Russell shares with her parents at 10.44pm on Saturday to say she had returned home on foot.

Ms Russell was “unresponsive but breathing”, according to police dispatch audio obtained by Mail Online.

Emergency services responded and took Ms Russell to UAB Hospital for treatment before she was released.

Detectives conducted a preliminary interview with Ms Russell at the hospital, but later contradicted the 25-year-old’s claims that she had been kidnapped and held captive.

Carlee Russell vanished after calling 911 to report seeing a young boy in diapers on the side of a busy interstate. Police say they have serious doubts about her story, Bevan Hurley reports

Police in Hoover, Alabama have said they were unable to verify most of Carlee Russell’s claims that she was kidnapped after pulling off to the side of the road while reporting a toddler was walking alone, leading to questions about whether she may face charges.

While police have not made any official allegations against Ms Russell, should they find that she made a false report, law enforcement could choose to charge her.

Section 13A-10-9 of the Alabama criminal code states that making a false report to law enforcement, knowingly, is a Class A misdemeanour.

When asked if law enforcement was planning on charging Ms Russell on Wednesday, Hoover police chief Nick Derzis replied: “To be perfectly honest with you, that hasn’t even entered our mind or been discussed.”

Mr Derzis said the priority of their investigation was to return Ms Russell home safely and find out where she was in the two days she was missing.